summarily in prison; and bands were already
formed for this purpose, when Murillo appeared
with a body of troops and dispersed the assas-
sins. This prompt vindication of the law oc-
casioned the most violent ebullition of wratli
in the clubs, and it was resolved to act more
decidedly and with greater force on the next
occasion. Accordinglj', on the 20th
August an immense crowd assembled °' ''''
around the convent where the soldiers were
confined, singing the Trarja la Pcrro, and beat-
ing the hammers as usual ; and when the guard
interfered, and tried to make them disperse,
they were surrounded and overpowered. In-
formed of the danger, Murillo hastened to the
spot with a strong body of trooi)s, j g^^^ jjj^^j
and, drawing his sword, charged iv. 400, 461;
the mob, who immediately dis- Martignac,
persed.= '• ^^^'J. 3^"-
This fresh act of vigor completed the exas-
peration of the Liberals at the in- gg
irepid general who had coerced RcRignation
their excesses. Next morning the oftJcncrai
clubs resounded with declamations '^'"'â– '""â–
against the bloody tyrant who had dared to
insult the majesty of the sovereign people; the
journals were unanimous in their condemiuition
of his conduct; seditious crowds uttering men-
acing cries were formed, and every thing in-
dicated an apjjroaciiing convulsion. Conscious
of the rectitude ami integrity of his conduct,
and desirous of allaying a ferment which threat-
ened in its results to compromise the throne,
.Murillo anlici])aled the sentence of the clubs,
and resigned his cormnaiid. declaring, at the
same time, he would not resume it till he was
cleared of the charges brought against him.
This courageous act produced an inmiodiate
reaction in public opinion in lii.s favor; and
the accusation against him beinir im .•
proved, on exatmnalion, entindy i. 331, .â– ):):! ;
groun
with general approbation.^ '^- '^'''' '""''■^•
Meanwhile the secret societies, styled in
S[)fiin " (JiimmuiirroR," which had
gone so far to shake society to its •^'ho secret
centre in France, had spread ccjually soeiciics, df
to the south of the Pyrenees. Vio- f'onmmne-
lent a; the proceedings of the open '^'"''
ais
11 1ST(.)UY OF EU UUTK.
[CUAl-. XI.
l.ibcrnls in possession of the government at
.Miuh°ii.l ImJ been, tiiev were notliing compared
to the de*ii;iis formeJ by tliese secret nssoeiii-
tions, wliieli were, not merely tlic destruction
of the moimrehy and of the I'ortes, but tlie es-
tablishment of ft republic on the basis of an
etiual division or conununity of property, and
all the projects of the Socialists. The oath
taken by these political fanatics bound them,
as elsewhere, to obey all the mandates of the
chiefs of tlio association at the peril of their
lives, and to put at their disposal their swords,
jiroperty, and existence.* This tremendous as-
sociation had its chief ramifications in Madrid,
Barcelona, Saragossa, Corunna, Valencia, and
Carthagena; and it was by their agency that
the extraordinary measure of seizing and trans-
porting such a number of persons in these cities
had recently been effected. Murillo was well
aware of the secrets and designs of these con-
spirators, and was in possession of a number
of important papers establishing them. It was
mainly to get these papers out of his hands, as
well as on account of his known resolution of
character, that the public indignation was so
strongly directedagainsthim on ocea-
i 32o"327*^' ^^"° "' '*'* conduct in repressing the
recent disturbances in Madrid.'
Riego, who, as already mentioned, had been
reinstated in his command in Arra-
Riego's plot go° .^ftci" I'fiving been temporarily
at Saragos- deprived of it, was closely connected
sa, and his with the clubs in Saragossa, and
Seof' 18 ^''^ suspected by the government,
not without reason, of having lent
himself to their extravagant designs. His prin-
cipal associate was a French refugee named
ilontarlot) who employed himself at Saragossa
in writing proclamations which were sent across
the Pyrenees, inviting the French troops to re-
volt and establish a republic. Government
having received intelligence of the conspiracy,
took the bold step of ordering Moreda, the po-
litical chief at Saragossa, to arrest Eiego. He
was apprehended, accordingly, as he was re-
turning to that city from a tour in the pro-
•^inces, where he had been haranguing and ex-
citing the people, and conducted a prisoner to
Lerida. Immense was the excitement which
this event produced among the Liberals over all
Spain- His bust was carried at the head of a tri-
umphal procession through Madrid ; the clubs re-
sounded with declamations; the press was unan-
imous in denj'ing his ciiminality ; and to give
venttothepublictransports, a picture was paint-
* " Je jure de me soumettre sans reseri-e a tous les
dccrets que rendra la confederation, et d'aider en toute
circonstance, tous les chevaliers Communeros, de mes
liiens, de mes ressources, ct de mon epee. Et si quelque
homme puissant, ou quelque tyran, voulait, par la force
ou d'autres moyens, detruire en tout ou en partie la con-
federation, je jure en union avec les confederes de defen-
dre, les arrnes a la main, tout ce que j"ai jure, et comme
les illustres Communfrox de la bataille de ViUalar. de
mourir plutot que de ceder a la tyrannic ou a I'oppression.
Je jure si quelque chevalier Communcro manquait en tout
ou en partie a son serment, de le mettre a mort, des que
1 1 confederation I'aura declare iraitre ; et si je viens a man-
qujr a tout ou partie de mes serments sacres, je me de-
ctjrs moi-meme traiire, meritant que la confederation me
condamne a une mort infame ; que les portes et les grilles
d-js chateaux et des tours me soient ferrnees, et pour qu'il
nj reste rien de moi apres mon trepa.s, que Ton me briile,
ct que Ton jetle me.s cendres au vent." — Engagement des
Communrros. Sur la Revolution d'Espagne — .Mabtiq-
Kal, 1. 3JJ, 320.
ed, intended to be carried in procession tlirougb
the streets, representing Kiego. in the costume
wiiich he wore on occasion of the revolt in the
island of l^eon, liolding in one hand , ,,
the liook of the Constitution, and j. 339, -il^'
overturning with the other the fig- Ann. Hist.'
ures of Despotism and Ignorance.' '^' ^''^' '*''''â–
The moment was decisive. Anarchy or law
must triumph ; and the victory of 42
the former was the more to be apjire- Suppres-
hended, as it was known that the '*"'" "' "^^
military were undecided, and that S.'Jarig,
some regiments had ojienlv declared ingatiMad-
they would take part with' the insur- """>•
gents. But in this crisis Murillo was not want-
ing to himself or the cause with which he wa3
intrusted. Having assembled the civic guard,
he harangued thein on the necessity of crush-
ing the advance of the factions; and having
previously given orders to the militar}- to stop
the procession, he put himself at the head of
the national guard to support them. The revo-
lutionists, however, declared that they would
proceed with the procession carrying the pic-
ture ; and when they arrived at the Puerto del
Sol, the royal guard stationed there refused to
stop them; and the regiment of Saguntum,
stationed in another part of the city, broke out
of their barracks to advance to their support
All seemed lost; but then was seen what can
be done by the firmness of one man. Murillo
advanced at the liead of the national guard;
San Martin, his intrepid associate, seized the
picture with his own hands, which he threw
down on the ground ; and at the same time
Murillo charged the head of the procession
with the bayonet. Struck with consternation
at a resistance which they had not anticipated,
the mob fled and dispersed, and Madi-id was
for the time delivered from the efforts „,, .
of a faction, which threatened to in- i.' 341. '343";'
volve the country in anarchy and Ann. Hist,
devastation. 2 Jv. 463.
In the midst of these civil dissensions, a fi-esh
scourge broke out in Spain, which
threatened to involve the country in yenow fe-
the evils, not merely of political trou- ver at Bar
bles, but of physical destruction. The ctlona.
yellow fever appeared in the end of ^'^P'' ^'^'â–
July in Barcelona, and b}' the middle of August
it had made such progress that all the authori-
ties quitted the town, and a military cordon '^|
was established within two leagues of the walla ^B
around it. In spite of this precaution, or per-
haps in consequence of the greater intensity
which it occasioned to the malady in the in-
fected districts, the disease soon appeared in
various quarters in the rear of the cordon, par-
ticularly Tortosa, Mequinenza, and Lerida.
By the middle of October, when the fever waJ
at its height, 9000 persons had been cut off by
it in Barcelona alone, out of a population not
at that period exceeding 80,000 persons, and
.300 died every day. So terrible a mortality
struck terror through ever}' part of Spain ; and
the French government, under pretense of estab-
lishing a sanitary cordon, assembled an army
of 30,000 men on the eastern frontier of the
Pyrenees, but which was really intended chiefly
to prevent communication between the revolu-
tionary party in the Spanish towns and the se-
cret societies in France. In the midst of these
1821.]
ins TORY OF EUROPE.
3S9
alarms, plij'sical and moral, twu ciasM-s nt' the
IK'ojile aloue were insensible to the peril, and
lastened, at tlie ri^k of their lives, to the scene
of danger. The French physicians flocked over
of their own accord to the theatre of pestilence,
and brought to its alleviation the aid of their
science and the devotion of their courage ; and
the Sisters of Charity appeared in the scenes
of woe, and were to be seen, amidst the perils
of the epidemic, by the bedside of the sick, and
assisting at the supreme unction of the dying.
Their exertions were not unavailing in allevia-
ting individual distress; and the cool weather
having set in, the epidemic gradually abated,
and by December had entirely disappeared, but
, , „. , not before it liad cut off 20,000 per-
• Ann. Hist. . T-, 1 j_ r n -^ A^,-. 1
iv. 467, 469; sons in liarcelona, out ot 80,000; and
Martignac, in Tortosa six out of twelve tliou-
I. 347, 349. gjjjj^j inhabitants.^
The terrors of the epidemic did not allay for
44. any considerable time the political
Fresh agi- agitation of Spain. The club of the
tatiou. Fontana d'Oro resounded with dec-
lamations, of which the arrest of Kiego was
the principal subject; and its orators declared
" that the political atmosphere would never be
purified but by the blood of twelve or fifteen
thousand inhabitants of Madrid." The Govern-
ment felt itself unable to coerce these excesses;
and the extreme democrats in the provinces,
seeing the impotence of the executive, erected
themselves, with the aid of self-constituted jun-
tas, into separate powers, nearly as independent
of the central government at Madrid as they
had been during the war with Napoleon. Sar-
agossa continued the theatre of such violent
agitations that Moreda, the intrepid officer who
had arrested Riego, was obliged, on the sum-
mons of the municipality and clubs, to resign
his post and retire. At Cadiz, the Government
dismissed General Jauregui, and having ap-
pointed the Marquis de la Reunion, a nobleman
of moderate principles, to the command, the
Liberals refused to receive him. The Baron
d'Andilla having upon this been substituted in
his room, he too was rejected, and General Jau-
regui, a noted Liberal, who was entirely in
their interest, forcibly retained in his post. The
municipality and people of Seville, encouraged
by this example of successful resistance, revolt-
ed also against the central authorit}-; and ]\Ia-
nucl de Velasco, the captain-general, and Es-
covedo, the political chief of the province, ad-
dressed the king in the .same style as the Lib-
erals at Cadiz, and caused their names to be
inscribed in the national guard of the city, " in
order to die at their post, if necessary, in de-
fense of their country." Nor was Valencia in
a more tranquil condition, for (Jcncral Elio, a
gallant veteran of the war, flic former governor
of the province, iiad been condemned to death
by tlie revolutionary authorities in that city,
as having acted in 1H14 against the Constitution
J -, of 1812, and tlie sontenco having
iv. 45.i 470 "^*' "^^ y^^ been executed, tlic clubs
471 ; MartiK- resounded with incessant dcclama-
nac, i. 303, tions, detnanding his instant execu-
tion.'
Matters had now come to such a pass that
the (jovernmcnt at Madrid saw tliey had no al-
ternative but to tjiko a decided line, or to al)di-
cate in favor of the provincial authorities. They
accordingly transmitted orders to Earon d'An-
dilla to proceed to Cadiz and take
the command. But they soon found Refusal of
that their real power was confined Cadiz and
to the walls of Madrid. The au- Seville to
thorities at Cadiz continued Jaure- ^Ing'sVo'^v.
gui in the command, refused to admit ernors, and
the baron within their gates, put the revolt at Co-
citj- in a posture of defense, and sent ''"""*•
orders to all the towns in Andalusia to stop and
arrest him wherever he might appear. The
same thing was done at Seville, where General
Moreno Davix, sent from Madrid to assume the
command, was stopped at Ecija, on his way to
that city, and sent back. Meanwhile Meria at Co-
runna, who had been replaced by General Latre,
sent from Madrid, revolted, and having secured
the garrison in his interest, expelled Latre, and
declared himself independent of the central
government. But Latre was not discouraged.
He raised the militia of the province of Galicia,
which was thoroughly loyal, and appearing
with an imposing force before the gates of Co-
runna, compelled Meria to surrender and depart
to Seguenza, the place assigned for his exile.
At the same time troubles broke out in Estre-
madura, Navarre, and Old Castile, where guer-
rilla bands appeared, ravaged the country, and
rendered all collection of the revenue impossible.
To such straits was the treasury in consequence
reduced, thattheMinisterofp'inance i Mcmoriasde
was obliged to open a fresh loan General Mina,
of 200,000,000 reals (£2,000,000) in i,'- 3*5, 3b9 ;
foreign states, which was only in 355 35; . ^'^„
part obtained, and that at a most Hist. iv.'470,
exorbitant rate of interest.' ^"l-
The distracted state of the country rendered
an early and extraordinary convo- .-
cation of the Cortes necessary, in Opening of an
the hope of obtaining that moral extraordinary
support from its votes which was t""^"^!',.
sought in vain in the affections of
the country. It met accordingly on the 25th
November, and the king, in his opening speech,
deeply deplored the events at Cadiz, and earn-
estly invoked the aid of the Cortes to snjiport
him in his endeavor to cause the royal author-
ity to be respected.* The Cortes, in re])ly, ap-
pointed two commissioners, one charged with
prci)aring an answer to the royal address, the
otiier, with considering what was to be done to
support the roj'al authority. The reports were
presented on tlie l)th December, and al- _
though drawn in the most cautious style,
and with theanxious wish to avoid givingoircnse
to the Liberals, they did so most cflectually,
for they bore tiiatthe authorities at Seville and
Cadiz should be brought tt> trial — a resolution
which was adopted by the Cortes by a nuijority
of DiO to 48. This
violent animosity in the clubs, the journals, and
tho cofTee-houses: cries of " ]>ong live Riego!
* " <7eHt danw la plUH profondc amertuinc do mon ca;ur,
que j'ai appriH Ioh dirnierK('>vriicincnlH de Oniliz, oil, sous
!(• pretexte d'ninour pour la roiiHljtutlon, on I'a foulec nux
pieiJH en mtconnainBant leH droilH ijuVllc ni'accorde. J'ai
ordoniio a ines HccrfclaireH d'etat do presenter aux Cortes,
la nouvclle d'un tvenement aussi I'acheux, dans la con-
fiance interne qirils eooptreront avee ciiergie, d'accord
aver mon gouvcrncinent, a fairo en sorto (|ue les preroga-
tives de la couronne. ainsi que les libertes publiques, qui
Hoiit urie de kch garanties. soient conservees intacles."— -
l)i.irnnr.i du Rni, 2.')lli Nov.. Ih'JI. Moiiitcur, 2d Decem-
ber, lb21. Ann. Hut., iv. 471, 472.
S90
II 1ST OH Y OV V.V HO !'K
Down witli Iho Ministers! down with ttio Ser-
viK's!" were heard on all sides; and so com-
pU'telv were tlie majority of tlie fortes iiitinii-
dated by these proeeedings, tliat a few days
after an amendment was earried by a
majority of 104 to 59, wiiieli bore,
■• that as ihe Miiiialers did not possess the moral
force requisite to conduct the afl'airs of the
' Ann. Hist. "»t'on, they implored tlie king to
ii!47ti, 4T7; adopt the measures impcrativch'
iManigimc, called for by such a state of iniblic
'3^'-'. 307. „rt.^i,,.u ^
This vote of want of confidence in Ministers
.- coming so soon after a solemn con-
Contradictor>' demnation of their adversaiies, in-
resoluiioiis of dieated in the clearest manner the
ilie Cortes. prostration of the executive and
disastrous state of the monarchy, reeling like a
sinking ship alternately before one wind and
another. Immense was the general exultation
in the great cities at this direct vote of censure
on Ministers. The authorities at Cadiz and
Seville were so encouraged by it that they cai*-
ried their audacity so far as openly to bid de-
tiance to the Cortes and the king, and sent an
address to the latter, stating that they would
receive or execute no order or appointment
from the king till the present Ministers were
dismissed. On this occasion the Cortes re-
scinded virtually their last resolution: their
amour propre was wounded by this open defi-
^ j,„ anee of their authority ; and after a long
and stormy debate, in which the lead-
ing orators on the Liberal side took part with
2Marti<'nac *''^ Government, it was deterujined
i. 3GG, §70;' by a majority of 112 to 36 that all
Amu Hist, those who had signed this seditious
iv. 4i,, 4/9. ajjjress should be prosecuted.''
Being bow supported by the Cortes, and
4g sure of the protection of a part, at
Irresolute least, of the military, the king, had he
conduct of possessed firmness adequate to the un-
and'rm^- 'dertaking, had a fair opportunity for
ist insur- asserting the royal authority, and
rection in rousing the vast majority of the eoun-
i.'ie north, ^j.^ ^^ check the urban faction which
had turned the revolution into such a down-
ward channel. But he had no consistency in
his character, and was as vacillating in his
acts as the Cortes in their votes. Hardly was
his authority in some degree reinstated by this
last vote of the Cortes, than he gave the fac-
tions a triumph by dismissing four of his Minis-
ters, the most decided in the intrepid conduct
which had lately been pursued. Two others
resigned, so that one only remained and con-
tinued in the new administration, which was
composed entirely of the most moderate of the
patriots of 1812. This act of weakness renewed
the resistance of Cadiz and Seville at the very
time when the vote of the Cortes had disarmed
it. Meanwhile, insurrections of an opposite
character, in favor of religion and the monarchy,
broke out, and were daily gaining ground in
2>'avarre, Arragon, Galicia, and Biscay, and the
year closed with Spain torn in all quarters — it
3 ^„ jjigt ■was hard to say whether most by the
iv. 480,482; furious democrats of the cities in the
Martjgnac, south, or the hardy royalists of the
1. 367, 372. valleys in the north.^
The action of the secret societies styled Com-
muneros and Descamisados ("communists" and
[Chap. XL
"shin I s- ' ) In'tanie more violent and danger-
ous w h< n till' eieelior.s for the new
CtM-tes, whieli hail to take place in pmno d
tlie first nioiilh of LS22, drew near. lawsnpainBt
To counteract liieir inilueiice, which tlie prtsK and
was daily becoining more formi- P"""'"'''- »>"-
dable, Martinez de la Itosa, Toreno,
Calatravn, and some of the other moderate
Liberals, set up another society, styled "The
Society of the Friends of the Constitution,"
or of "the King." It at first met with some
success; but, as usual in times of vehement
excitement, it soon declined, and was no more
heard of. "When the ])assions are excited, mod-
eration is considered on all sides as a species
of common enemj-, and nothing has any chance
of influence but such associations as, by aliment-
ing, inflame them. The evils of a licentious
press, of the unrestrained ripht of presenting
petitions to the Cortes, and of the extreme vio-
lence in the clubs, at length became so flagrant
that the Government submitted three
laws for their repression to the legisla- j^."^ ' '
ture. As they proposed to impose very
eftectual checks on these evils, they were re-
sisted with the whole strength of the anarchists,
and gave rise to serious disturbances , .„ „:,,
HI Madrid, which still further im- v.4(i8,413;
paired the royal axithoritj', and pro- Martignac,
claimed its weakness.^ '■■^'^•3"-
These proposals came to be discussed in the
Cortes under very peculiar circum- 50.
stances. Ihe resignation of the for- Riots in
mer ministers had been acceiited, but â– ^'a^^'"''' "n
,, . 1 1 i 1 the passing
their successors liad not been ap- of a bill
pointed — the places "were vacant, against the
The leading orators on the Liberal press,
side then conceived hopes that they might be
selected as their successors, and to improve
their chances of success, they, for the most
part, joined in the debate in favor of the pro-
posed laws. Martinez de la Kosa and Toieiio
particularly distinguished themselves in this
manner, and a motion made by Calatrava, to
throw out at once the whole three proposed
laws, was rejected by the narrow majority of
90 to 84. This unexpected result inflamed the
clubs and the anarchists to the very greatest
degree: every means to excite the public mind
were instantly adopted without reserve; and
so successful were tliej- in rousing the passions
of the multitude, that a furious crowd sur-
rounded Toreno as he left the hall of the As-
sembly after the decisive vote, pursued him
with groans and hisses to his own house, which
they "broke into, and wounded some of the
domestics. Toreno escaped \yy a back door,
upon which the crowd proceeded with loud
shouts to the house of Martinez de la Rosa,
which they were piroceeding to attack, when
Murillo and San Martin arrived with a body
of cavalry, by whom the mob was dispersed,
amidst the most violent cries and imprecations.
The laws against the offenses of the press, and
against the seditious petitions, were adopted
by considerable majorities. It was observed
that the whole deputies from South America,
about thirty-eight in number, voted on all
these occasions with the Opposition, which
swelled their ranks to eighty, or nearly the
half of the Cortes. The extraordinary session
closed on the 12th February, having, durii:g
1822.]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
391
its long and momentous sittings, effected great
changes, exhibited many acts of courage, and,
on the whole, done less to pull down the entire
fabric of society than might have been cxpect-
1 An list ^^ from the excited state of the pub-
V. 4 15, 419; lie mind when it was elected, and
Martignac, the universal suffrage on which it
i. 379, 380. ^r^s founded.'
The new Cortes was elected under darker
5, auspices, and the incurable vices of
Composition the electoral system developed them-
of the new selves in stronger colors. Tlie king-
Cortes. Jqqj ^yjjg distracted in all its parts
when the elections took place ; in some by the
triumph of the Liberals, in others b}' the efforts
of the Royalists. The former had been everj -
where active, and in most places successful;
the latter had in great part abstained from
voting, to avoid all responsibility in the form-
ation of a legislature which they plainly fore-
saw would terminate only in disaster. In some
places, especially Granada, open violence was
einploj'ed at the elections ; the multitude broke
into the place of voting, and by force imposed
their favorites on the electors. But, in general,
open violence did not reqxiire to be resorted to ;
the clubs and universal suffrage rendered it
unnecessary. Tlie extreme Liberals got every
thing their own way. The result was soon ap-
parent. In the whole Cortes there was not
one single great proprietor or bishop. The
noblesse were represented only by a few nobles