JOHN

23rights and lives of mankind. The Jews were nearlymasters of Spain, and between the high-bloodedCastilians and the degenerate sons of Israel no goodfeeling existed. Their hatred was mutual, and wasoften carried to excess. The Cortes cried aloud forthe latter.the adoption of severe measures againstAn insurrection broke out in the year 1391, and adreadful slaughter ensued. The danger daily increased,and Ferdinand, surnamed the Catholic, supposedthat, in order to save the country from utter ./ ruin, it was indispensably necessary to establish the \/ Inquisition, as best calculated to cure the politicalcancer which was rapidly corroding the heart of the /nation.Isabella was at firstopposed to the measure, butthe arguments and motives of her royal consortfinally prevailed, and Pope Sixtus IV., in 1478,despatched the bulls of institution.* Allow me,sir, before I proceed farther, to present to your considerationa most important remark, viz., great politicalevils, and especially violent attacks levelled atthe body of a state, can never be preventedor repelledbut by measures equally violent.It is a political axiom, which no sensible man everdenied.The rule of ancient Rome is the great standardby which every imaginable dangeris to be graduated," viz., Videant consules, ne respublica detrimentum* Ibid. p. 27.