been conducted by means of a council of regency,
the members of which were by no means nun
either of vigor or cajiacity, and wliich was f:ir
from commanding the respect, or having ac-
quired the afl'ections, of the countrj'. While
the weight and influence of Government had
been thus sensibly weakened, the political cir-
cumstances of Portugal, and the events of the
war, had in an extraordinary manner dift'used
liberal ideas and the sjiirit of independence
through a considerable part of the people.
Closely united, both by political treaties and
commercial intercourse, with Great
Britain, for above a century Portugal jj^ gp,',grai
had become, in its maritime districts adoption of
at least, almost an English colony. English
English influence was predominant j^fg'i'''' ""''
at Lisbon: English commerce had
enriched Oporto: the English market for port
had covered the slopes of Ti'as-os-lMontcs with
smiling vinej'ards. In addition to this, the
events of the late war had spread, in an extra-
ordinary degree, both adniiiation of the En-
glish institutions, and confidence in the En-
glish character, through the entire population.
Thirty thousand Portuguese troops liad been
taken into British pay: they had felt the in-
tegrity of British admini.'^t ration : they had
been led to victory by Brilisii oflicers. Unliko
the native nobles \vlio had held tlie same situ-
ations, they had seen them ever the first in the
enemy's fire — the last in acts of domestic cor-
ruption. Immense had been the influence of
this juxtaposition. Standing side by side with
him in battle, they had learned to respect the
English soldier in war, to admire the institu-
tions which had liaineil him in ]icace. liven
the hatred in wliich they had been bred of tho
heretic, yielded to the evidence of tlieir senses,
which iiad t.-iught them his virtues. In daily
intercourse with the British soldiers, tliey had
learned to api)reeiatc the liberty which had
nurtured them; they had come to envy their
inde])endence of thought, and imitate their free-
dom of language. The mercantile classes in
Jjisboii and Ojioito, almost entirely supported
by British capital, and fed by British coiiiiiiercc,
were still more strongly impressed with tho
merits of the political institutions, from inter-
course with a nation governed by whiih they
had derived such sii'nal benefits. Thus a free
206
lU^TuUY OF EUROPE.
[Cii.vr. VII.
spirit, nn«l tho thirst for liberal institutions,
wiis botli stroniier nnd more witle-sj^rciul in
Portugal tlian in the ailjoininc: provinces of
Spain; and it was easy tu foresee that, if any
cireunistanees impelled the latter country into
the eareer of revolution, the former would be
the tirst to follow tlie example.
Fi.umx.KXD Yll., -whom the battle of Leipsic
Q- and conquest of France had restored
Character to the tlirone of his ancestors, was
or Finlj- not by nature a bad, or by disposition
iiand vil. jj cruel man; and yet he did many
wicked and unjiardonable deeds, and has, be-
yond almost any other of his contemporar}^
princes, been the object of impassioned invec-
tive on the part of the liberal press in Europe.
Placed in the very front rank of the league of
princc-s ruling a countr}' in which the vast
majority were decidedly monarchical — a small
minority vehementh- democratic — brought, the
first of all the monarchs of Europe, in contact
with the revolutionary spirit by which they
were all destined to be so violently shaken, it
was scarcely possible it could be otherwise.
But the character of Ferdinand was, perhaps,
the most unfortunate that could have been
found to tread the path environed with dangers
which lav' before him. lie had neither the
courage and energy requisite for a despotic,
nor the prudence and foresight essential in a
constitutional sovereign : he had neither the
courage which commands respect, the generos-
ity which wins affection, nor the wisdom which
averts catastrophe. Indolence was his great
characteristic ; a facility of being led, his chief
defect. Incapable of taking a decided line for
himself, he j-ielded easily and willingly to the
representations of those around him, and ex-
hibited in his conduct those vacillations of
policy which indicated the alternate ascendency'
of the opposite parties by which he was sur-
rounded. His inclination, without doubt, was
strongly in favor of despotic power; but he
had great powers of dissimulation, and suc-
ceeded in deceiving Talleyrand himself, as well
as the liberal ministers subsequently imposed
upon him by the Cortes, as to his real inten-
tions. Supple, accommodating, and irresolute,
he had learnt h^'pocrisy in the same school
' Marti-T- ^s the modern Greek has learned it
nac, lou, from the Turk — the school of suffer-
106. iiigi
The treaty of Yalengay, as narrated in a
28, former work,* restored Ferdinand
Ferdi-' VII. to liberty, and here-entered the
nand's ar- kingdom of his fathers on the 20th
Splin,'"and iiai"cl>. 1814, just ten days before the
ireatment Allies entered Paris. This treaty
** the had been concluded with Napoleon
Cortes. while the monarch was still in cap-
tivity, and it was a fundamental condition of it
that he should cause the English to evacuate
Spain. The subsequent fall of the Emperor,
however, rendered this stipulation of no effect :
and, after having been received with royal
honors by the garrisons, both French and
Spanish, in Catalonia, the monarch proceeded
by easy journeys to Valencia, where he resided
during the whole of April. The reason of this
long sojourn in a provincial town was soon ap-
parent. He was there joined by the Duke del
* History «f Europe, 17ty-lfcl3, chap. Ixxxvij. t) 71.
I Infantado, and the leading grandees of the
kingdom, as well as many of the chief prelates.
I Meanwhile the Cortes, who had testitied the
! greatest joy at the deliverance of the king, re-
fused to ratify the Treaty of Yalengay, as hav-
ing been concluded without their consent — con-
tinued resident at Madrid, without advancing
to meet their sovereign — and soon began to
evince their imperious disposition, and to show
in whom they imderstood the real sovereignty
to reside. At the moment when Ferdinand re-
entered his kingdom, they published of their
own autliority a decree, in which the}' enjoined
him to adopt, without delaj-, the Constitution
of 1812, and to take the oath of fidelity toward
it. Until he did so, he was enjoined not to
adopt the title, or exercise the power, of King
of Spain ; and they even went so far as to pre-
scribe the itinerary he was to follow
on his route to the capital, the towns l-l^^'lT'^'Lv
1 i ^1 1 1 .1 March 20,
he was to pass through, and tlie ex- 1^)4. ^ar-
pressions he was to use in answer to tignac, 107;
the addresses he was expected to re- ;^,""- Jl.^^-
ceive. It IS not surprising that he gg ' '
turned aside from such taskmasters.'
Scarcely had the monarch set his foot in Spain
when he received the most unequivo-
cal proofs of the detestation in which xjniversal
the constitution was generally held, unpopular-
and the universal hatred at the sub- ■'.> °' ""^
ordinate agents to whom the Cortes
had intrusted the practical administration of
government. From the frontier of Catalonia,
to Valencia — in the fortresses, the towns, the
villages, the fields — it was one continual clamor
against the Cortes: "Viva el Ty-ej •A$soluto,"
was the universal crj*. The King was literally
besieged with petitions, addresses, and memo-
rials, in which he was supplicated, in the most
earnest terms, to annul all that had been done
during his captivity, and to reign as his ances-
tors had done before him. Ihe constitution
was represented — and with truth — as the woik
of a mere revolutionary junta in Cadiz, in a
great measure self-elected, and never convoked
either f: om the whole country or according to
the ancient constitution of the kingdom. There
was not a municipality which did not hold this
language as bo passed through their walls ; i.ot
a village w-hich did not present to him a peti-
tion, signed by the most respectable inhabitants,
to the same ett'ect. The generals, the arm}-, the
garrisons, besieged him with addresses of the
same description. The minority of the Cortes,
consisting of sixty -nine members, presented a
supplication beseeching the king to annul the
whole proceedings of their body, and ^ ^lartjir-
to reign as his fathers had done, nac, l!?8,
From one end of the kingdom to the lu^; Ann.
other but one voice was heard, that g^^f'^^jfa.'"
of reprobation of the Cortes and the tea'ub. Con-
constitution, and prayers to the king grcs de
to resume the unfettered functions of ^J^"""?*^' '•
royalty.* ' . -'.
Impelled in this manner by the unanimous
voice of the nation, not less than his ,.
own secret inclination, to annul the Decree of
constitution, and grasp anew the seep- Valencia,
tre of his ancestors, Ferdinand ven- J'^J 4.
tured on the decisive act. On the 4th
May, 1814, appeared the famous decree of Valen-
cia, which at once annulled the whole acts of the
1814.]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
207
Cortes, and restored absolute government over
the whole of Spain. In it the king, after re-
capitulating briefly the principal events which
had occurred in the Peninsula since his treach-
erous seizure and captivity by Napoleon in
1808, declared that he had, by a decree of 5th
Jlay in that j"eai", convoked the Cortes ; but the
French invasion prevented it from being assem-
bled, and compelled the several provinces to
elect juntas, and severally provide for their
own defense. "An extraordinary Cortes," said
the monarch, "was subsequently convoked in
the island of Leon, when nearly the whole
country was in the hands of the French, con-
sisting of 57 jjroprietors, lO-i deputies, and 47
supplementary members,* without either the
nobles or the clergy being summoned to their
deliberations, and convoked in a manner wholly
illegal and without a precedent, even in the
most critical and stormy days of the monarchy.
The first step of this illegal assembly was to
usurp the whole powers of sovereignty on the
verj^ first day of their installation, and to strip
me of nearly my whole prerogatives; and their
next, to impose on Spain the most arbitrary
laws, and compel it to receive a new constitu-
tion, unsanctioned either by the provinces, the
provincial juntas, or the Indies. By this con-
stitution was established, not any thing resem-
bling the ancient constitution, but a republican
form of government, presided over by a chief
magistrate, deprived alike of consideration and
power, and framed entirely on the principle
and form of the democratic French constitution
of 1791. Force alone compelled the members
to swear to the constitution : the Bishop of
Orense refused to take the oath, and Spain knows
what was the fate of that respectable prelate.
"Nothing has consoled me amidst so many
„. calamities, but the innumerable proofs
King'sdec- ^f the loyalty of my faithful sub-
larationin jeets, who longed for my arrival, in
lVm[om *^° ^^°^^ ^^^^^ ^^ might terminate the
and proi'n- oppression under wliich they groan-
isc to con- ed, and restore the true happiness of
vokealegal the country. I promise — I swear to
"^ ^^' yo^> true and loyal Spaniards — that
your hopes shall not be deceived. Your sover-
eign places his chief glory in being the chief of
a heroic nation, which, by its immortal ex-
l>loits, has won the admiration of the whole
world, and at the same time preserved its own
liberty and liouor. I detent, / abhor despotism :
it can never be reconciled neither with civiliza-
tion, or tiic lights of the other nations in Eu-
rope. The kings never have been despots in
Spain ; neither the sovereign nor the constitu-
tion of th.jcoMMtrv liave ever authorized despot-
ism, aUliougli unhappily it has sometimes been
practiced, as it has been in all ages by fallible
mortals. Abuses have existed in Spain, not
because it had no constitution, but from the
fault of per.sons or circumstances. To guard
against such abuses in future, ko far as liuman
prudence can go, while preserving Die honor
and rights of royalty (for it has its own as well
as the people have theirs, which are cfpially
inviolable), I will (rent with the deputies of Spain
and the IndieH in a Cnrteit legally aHHemblcd, com-
posed of f lu! one and the other, as soon as I can
* Mciiihcrs (ho.scn in the IhIo of Leon, to represent the
oroviuccs in tlic hands of the rrench.
convoke them, after having re-established the
wise customs of the nation, established with the
consent of the kings our august predecessors.
Thus shall be established, in a solid and legiti-
mate manner, all that can tend to the good of
my kingdoms, in order that my subjects may
live happy and tranquil under the protection
of our religion and our sovereign, the oidv
foundation for the happiness of a king and a
kingdom which are rightly styled Catholic.
No time shall be lost in taking the projjer jncan-
ures for the assembly of the Cortes, which I
trust will insure the happiness of my subjects
in both hemispheres." The decree concluded
with declaring the resolution of the king not to
accept the constitution ; to annul all the acts
of the Cortes; and declaring all persons guilty
of high treason, and punishable with , pg^rce
death, who should attempt by word, May 4,
deed, or incitement, to establish the lbM;Arch.
constitution, or resist the execution of R'^)?,'"' '"•
the present decree.'
JS'o words can describe the universal trans-
port with which this decree was re-
ceived, or the loyal enthusiasm which universal
the prospect of the re-establishment transpons
of the ancient constitution and cus- in Spain at
toms of the monarchy excited in the ""s decree,
nation. Ine joy was universal: it king'.s re-
resembled that of the English when turn to
they awoke from the tj-ranny of the .J^'^'^jo'
long Parliament and Cromwell to the ^^
bright morning of the Restoration. The journey
of Ferdinand from Valencia to Madrid was the
exact counterpart of that of Charles II. from
Dover to London, a hundred and fii'ty-thiee
years before. It was a continual triuujph. in
vain the Cortes assumed a menacing aspect,
and, in a tumultuous and stormy meeting,
adopted the most violent resolutions to rctiot
the royal authority, and to declare traitor.*,
and pnmish as such, all who should aid the king
in his criminal designs. Physical force was
awanting to su])port their resistance. 'I he
troops which they sent out to with.-tand the
royal cortege were the first to array themselves
in its ranks, amidst loud ciieers and cries of
"Viva el Rey A-ssolutol" Every where the
pillar of the constitution was overthrown and
broken: enthusiastic crowds, wherever he pass-
ed on the journey to Madrid, saluted the return-
ing monarch ; and the Cortes, deserted by all,
even their own ushers, in utter dismay fled
across New Castile toward Cadiz, h^ome re-
mained, and were thrown into prison. It was
on the 13th May that the king, su.. ■■" MartiR-
rounded by a loyal and enthusiastic "'""' "'•'•
1 r- 1 1 1 1 ii I'l ; Ann.
crowd, wiucli, as lie appi'oached the ]{,,,, j^j.j
capital, was swelled to above a liun- 7(1, 71 ;
dred thousand jiersons. and amidst the *'"iteau-
universal and heartfelt acclamations congrcsde
of his subjects, entered Madrid, atid Veronei i.
rcascended the throne of his fathers". 27. a«.
Thus fell (he work of the Cortes — the Con-
stitution of 1812, (he victim of its
own violence, folly, and injustice, ncfllrtions
llnripy if it ha
and become, in consequence of that ''^<'"'. "'"'
very violence and injustice, the cou"^;;'""''
watchward of the revolutionary which Iny
party all over the world! Hitherto "P«" '" "w
the j)rocccding8 of Ihc king had been '^'"^''
203
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
[Cn.u-. VIL
oiitiivly ju#tijt.b,£ muJ i\.cli as must conimnnJ
the nssciit oi" nil t!u. l.-iwiuls, not only of order,
but ot" froinloni, tliroiijiliout the worKl. Tlio
const it 111 ion which hiul boi-u ovcrtlirowii ■vvns
not only an obioot of luirror to the va^t inajority
of the nation, but had bciu iaiposeJ upon it by
a small minority, wlioso ideas uud designs were
not less threatening to the interests than rejnig-
uant to the habits of the people. It was the
work of a self-eloetod knot of revolutionists at
Cadiz, whose objoet was to secure to ihcmselves
the real government of the country, strip the
(.'rowu of all its prerogatives, and divide the
whole oflices and patronage of the country
among themselves. The king had pledged his
roval word that he would without delay assem-
ble the Cortes, convoked according to the an-
cient laws and customs of the counti'y, and
with their aid commence the formation of
laws and the rcformntion of abuses, which
might secure the happiness of his subjects in
boili hemispheres. It was a matter of little
difficulty in Spain, whatever it might be else-
w here, to effect such a reformation ; for its an-
cient constitutions contained all the elements
'Chateaub. ^^ ^'^^^ freedom, and its inhabitants
Con^res de could tread the path of improvement
Veruiic, i. Jq the securest of all ways, without
' deviating into that of innovation.'*
But Ferdinand did not do this, and thence
34 have arisen boundless calamities to
Ferdinand's his country, lasting opprobrium to
despotic himself. He resumed the sceptre of
Re^siab^-' ^''^ ancestors and reigned as an abso-
lishment of lute monarch ; but he forgot all the
tlie inquisi- promises, so solemulj' made, to reign
tion. ^^.^^Yx the aid of a Cortes assembled
according to the ancient laws and customs of
the realm. He fell immediately under the direc-
tion of a camarilla composed of priests and
nobles, who incessantly represented to him that
there could in Spain be no constitutional gov-
ernment, and that the only way to secure either
the stability of the throne or the welfare of the
kingdom, was to restore every thing to the con-
dition in which it was before the Revolution.
He was not slow in following their advice, tis-
regarding a patriotic and moderate address from
the University of Salamanca, in which he was
prayed to follow up the gracious intentions pro-
fessed in the declaration" from Valencia, of con-
voking a Cortes, and establishing with their con-
currence the laws which were to govern the
kingdom, he re-established by a decree from
July "1 ^^^^rid the Inquisition, and as a natural
consequence recalled the Pope's nuncio,
who had left the country on its abolition b}' the
* U is a curious and instructive circumstance how it
was that the ancient elements of freedom were lost in
Spain; Chateaubriand thus explains it: "Les premieres
auxqucUes les deputes du Tiers assisterent, furent cellos
de Leon en 1188: cette date prouve que les Espagnols
marchaienl a la tete des peuples libres. Peu a peu les
bourgeois fatigues laissaient le souverain payer leurs
mandataires, el designer les villes aptes a la deputation.
Vouze cites seulement en obtinrent le droit. Charles V.
tj'ran, naturellement ligue avec son coUegue cet autre
tyran, le peuple, tleva les villes representees a vingt ;
mais en meme temps, dans la reunion de Tolede, en \525,
il retrancha pour toujours des Cortes le Clerge et la No-
blesse. Les rois, debarrasses du joug des Cortes, furent
contraints de s'en imposer d'autres. Des conseils ou des
conseillersdirigeaientlamonarchie." — Chateaubriand,
Congres de Vernne, torn, 19. Sec also Historia d' Espaha,
viii. 471. Madrul. 1851.
Cortes. The use of torture, however, in all the
civil tribunals, was i)rohibiled by a de- , „
.. \ ■ ' ■ , . Aug. J.
cree soon alter; ami in a memorial to
the l'ui)e by tln^ Spanish government it was pro-
posed to aboli>h It also in the dungeons ol the
Incjuisition, and various regulations were sub-
mitted for mitigating the severity of that terri-
ble tribunal. These proposals were carried into
eft'ect ; and thereafter its proceedings were con-
fined to a sp.ccics of police surveillance
over ojiinions, to check the progress of j),!""^)'^
heresy, but without the frightful tor- 73 ; yiou'i-
tures which had characterized its se- teur, Aug.
eret, or the A utos-da-fi which had for- J^^j']** ^^'
ever disgraced its public proceedings.'
The open assumption of absolute power by
the Government, tlie delay in con- 35
voking the Cortes, and, above all, the Discontent
ro-establishment of the Inquisition, '" various
excited the utmost alarm in the liberal l"'^'"'^''^-
party throughout Spain, and spread great dis-
satisfaction even among the officers of the army,
by whose support alone they could be carried
into effect bymptoms of disturbance soon ap-
peared in various quarters; for in Spain the
habits of tne people are so independent, and
danger or life are so little regarded, that from dis-
satisfaction to bostilitj", as with the Bedouins, is
but a step. The roads in the whole of Estie-
madura, the Castiles, Andalusia, Aragon, and
Catalonia, weie so infested by bands of guer-
rillas, who, loi.g inured to violence and rapine,
had now becoi;je mere robbers and bandits, that
the captains-general of those provinces weie
enjoined to takd the most effectual measures for
their suppression; but they had no adequate
armed force at their disposal to effect that object.
A proclamation by ihe governor of An- . ,^ -
daiusia revealed the existence of more °'
serious disturbances, having a decided political
tendency, and threatened every person ^\ho
should be found either speaking or acting against
Ferdinand YII. with death, within three days,
by the sentence of a court-Uiartiul. A great
number of arrests took place soon ai'ter in Ma-
drid — ninety persons were apprehended in a
single night ; and so numerous aid the prisoners
soon become that the ordinary plates ^
of confinement would not contain ibi""";..""'
them, and the spacious convent of San 75; .Men'o-
Francisco Avas converted into a vast riasdeiEs-
state prison, to embrace the increas- [°j^6*'j||y'
ing multitude.^
These proceedings excited the greatest con-
sternation among the liberals, and ,g
great numbeisofpersons who deemed Revolt of
themselves compromised fled across Mma in
the Pyrenees into France. Among ^J'^'"'.!'^"'
the rest, the famous Esroz t Min a, who
had gained such great celebrity as a partisac
chief in Kavarre in the war with >.'apoleon, fell
under the suspicion of the Government, wlu
sent him an order, on the IGth September, to fix
his residence at Pampeluna, and place the troops
he had formerly commanded under the orders
of the Captain-general of Aragon. Regarding
this injunction, as it certainly was, as a decided
measure of hostility, this daring chief, at- the
head of the 1st Regiment of Volunteers, ap-
proached that fortress in the night of the llO'.h.
Thev were provided with scaling-ladders, and
acted in concert with the 4ih Reffimcr.t, then in
1814.]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
209
garrison in the city, by whom Mina was ad-
mitted into the fortress, and with the officers of
which he spent a part of the night on the ram-
parts, expecting a movement in his favor. Al-
tiiough the greater part of the officers, how-
ever, had been engaged in the conspiracy, the
private soldiers nearly all remained faithful;
and in Mina's own regiment of volunteers the\-
sent information to the governor of Aragon of
what was in agitation, and warned him to be
on his guard. The consequence was, that the
attempt proved abortive ; Mina himself with
J difficulty made his escape, liis troops
del "espoz^ nearl}' all deserted him, and he deem-
y Mina, ii. ed himself fortunate in being able to
168, 169; retire to France by Puente la Rej'na
q"""^"''' — thus seeking refuge among tlie ene-
1814 ; Ann. mies whom he had so strenuously com-
Rcg^_lril4, bated, from the king he had so power-
7J, "<• fu'dy aided in putting on the throne.'
This abortive insurrection, as is ever tiie ease
in such circumstances, strengthened
r-„»h ,, the hands and increased the rigor of
biirary de- the monarch. It soon appeared that
creeofFcr- the restoration of the absolute gov-
dinand._ ernment,and the chief privilegesof the
nobles, had been resolved on by the
camarilla which ruled the State. Already, on
loth September, a decree had been issued re-
storing the feudal and seignorial privileges of
the nobles, which had been abolished by a de-
cree of the Cortes on 6th August, 1811 ; and
thi.s was soon followed up by the still more
decisive step of reinvesting the council of the