- vents and monasteries, which had been suppressed,
and what measures had been adopted for their preservation. The members of the Commission were divided into three sections, one for libraries and archives, another for painting and sculpture, and a third for architecture and archæology.
The first annual report of the Central Commission to the Secretary of State for the Home Department is printed in pamphlet form, and embraces the proceedings of the Commission from July 1st, 1844, to July 1st, 1845.
"Nothing can be more melancholy than the picture
of Spain drawn by this Commission. They
tell us that the most valuable contents of the conventual
libraries had been thrown away or mutilated,
and that thousands of volumes had been sold
as waste paper for three or four reals the arroba,
and had been exported to enrich foreign libraries.
A hope had been entertained of forming collections
in each province, of pictures and other works of art;
the Commission was soon undeceived as to the possibility
of effecting this. Baron Taylor and a host of
foreign dealers had in some provinces carried off all
they could lay their hands upon; in others the Commissioners
tell us, 'Many of the most esteemed
works of art, the glory and ornament of the most
sumptuous churches, had perished in their application
to the vilest uses; in others scarcely any record
was preserved of what had been in existence at the
time of the dissolution of the monasteries, and no
