Presidents being members of it when it is established. Upon
this the French are obliged themselves to father the act,
and a Decree issues, which, after naming the persons, declares
the Eegency consiiituted —

" In the name of His Majesty the King of Prtance,
:iY Sovereign and Uncle."

It is signed Louis Antoine, and countersigned De
^Maktignac, the Ambassador of France.

The Eegency speedily makes a declaration of principles, and
announces (Proclamation of the 4th June) that it Avill not
listen to the voice of passion, and " that it well knows how to
use the power confided to it to prevent persecution and excess.'*
But events soon gave the interpretation of these words, and
as their motives afi^orded nothing abstnise to public curiosity,
that curiosity transferred itself to Paris, where the contradic-
tion between Avords and deeds was at once interesting and
enigmatic. The coincidence with the Court of Ferdinand YII,
during the Conspiracy of the Isla de Leon, was not indeed
recalled, however deserving of recollection ; but as then, at
Madrid, everything was refeiTcd to a " secret influence," so
was now everything attributed to an " occtdt (jovernmenV^ at
Paris. In both cases the public instinct had been true, but
in neither was the public reason exerted.

3f



58 SPAIN.

As to the dispositions of tlie Due d'Angoulerae there Qould
he no doubt, and he commanded the army — by that army
alone could the Kegency exist for an hour : the provinces of
the East, West, and South, were still nominally under the
rule of the Cortes. If the Regency played false to its Com-
mander, it must have done so at its own peril — a peril too
grave to be incurred, — or by intelligence with Paris. In that
{;ase tlie agents of the secret Government would be acting in
opposition to the responsible Ministry in Prance and the
Commander of her armies in Spain. Let us look at their
acts : a couple will suffice.

Within a week of the Proclamation, a Decree issued for
arming the ultra faction, under the title of " corps of voluntary
royalists," a body that soon rivalled the Strelitz of Ivan the
Terrible.

On the 27th June a Decree appeared without a parallel,
even in revolutionary Prance, entitled "■For the xmrijication of
civil servatits,"" by which every person employed for the pre-
vious three years (it was soon afterwards extended to the
military also) was subjected to an examination, by a secret
tribunal, as to whether or not he had done or said anything
'* by which the servants of the King and the good cause may
have suffered." There was no method of procedure laid
down ; every method was good ; all information was available,
and all proceedings secret. The body thus affected is
numerous beyond the limits of English conception, and even
of Prench calculation : the multitude of clerks is, in fact, the
master grievance of Spain : there was not one of this body
not affected to one or other faction, because, in fact, they
constituted the factious class. But this decree struck not
alone antagonists ; every one of them from that hour was an
accused person, without knowledge of the accusation, without
opportunity of defence. Servility became the bread of the
public servant, the fear of delation his companion. The vices
of men, or even their weakness, the jealousies of vicinage, the
competitions of self-love, were worked into the tissue of civil
power, transmitted into patriotism, and gratified under the



INVASION OF 1S23. 59

form of public zeal. You will find the description of such
things in the psiges of Tacitus, but it was a native Despot who
enforced them on Home. Here ten times ten thousand
prizes were held out to invention, and who shall count the
solaces for pique ? But iu the novelty of circumstances, the
advantage was not possessed of professional informers, and
in town and city, in village and hamlet, they were separated
from the neighbour, the relative, the dependant, and the friend,
by an uncertain and meandering line.

But the Due d'Angouleme could not suppress his indigna-
tion, and he issued a Proclamation, in which he declared him-
self tlie arbiter of contending parties, and resolved not to
allow the triumph of France to become the triumph of faction.
The French Minister is furious ; he instantly writes to the
Ambassador, whom he had ordered to be " King of Spain,"
to nulbfy by every means the Proclamation of tlie Prince :
Lis words are — amortir le coup. The Prince had to submit
to the humiliation of an explanation, which was, in fact, a
retractation.

Did the French Minister really believe that a republican
reaction and the destmction of the French would have been
the consequence of this step ? By no means. In his private
communications now published he describes it as having
produced the "best effects, even amongst the corps of
royalists, who complain that by punishing the constitutional
troops who had laid down their arms, new enemies are con-
stantly raised to them." This is no after-thought ; it is
written nine days after the Decree, namely, on the 17 th of
August. Again, ten days later he writes to the Ambassador
at INIadrid, who had been sending him all the absurd gossip
of the Puerta del Sole, as follows : —

"You have been listening to the cries of the Spanish
royalists and to the complaints of diplomatic agents, enemies
of France. You have not seen, as I have here, the answers
of the Commandants of the Fortresses, who all declare that
they are desirous of suiTendering themselves, but are pre-
vented, because in laying down theii* arms they would be



60 SPAIN.

imprisoned and massacred hy the orders of ine Tiegency. You.
have not seen tlie reports of the cruelties of Merino and the
other royalist chiefs, and, consequent!}'-, you have not been in
a state to judge of the effect."

Can it be believed that the sentence immediately following
is this : "line seule ordonance a tout gate? "

The only act of the Prince was that Proclamation : it
was directed against the only danger that Prance had to .fear —
the only husmess in which the Eegency was engaged.

I subjoin a Spanish statement of the case, from the intro-
duction to the Marquis of Miraflore's valuable collection of
State Papers : —

"In six short weeks this change has been effected, so
powerfid were the means and so instant the agents, the Due
d'Angouleme having, in the mean time, remained a passive
spectator, restrained by that same occult influence which
had already not only coerced his judgment, but compromised
him in its own measures. His patience was at last exhausted,
and he fulminated against the regency, on the 8th August,
the Decree of Andujar. On this a howl arose from the clubs
and journalists of Madrid, and, far more important, a whisper
came to him from Paris. He had dared to take at lengih
a step, according to his pledge, to arrest excesses and
vengeances. He had dared to take measures for the safety of
Ills army, thereby compromised. He had dared to endeavour
to keep faith v/ith those who had laid down their arms by
Compact with Prance, and on the condition of an Amnesty,
and he was consequently bearded to the face by the regency
and its minions, threatened with the resistance of the armies
of Spain, in case he attempted to withdraw from their lusts
the victims of their vengeance. He was told by the rabble of
the streets of Madrid that he had attacked Spanish indepen-
dence, and it was notified to him from Paris that ' vengeance
was a customary liahit of the Spanish nation;^ that he had
exceeded the powers with which he was invested, mistaking
the views of the King's government ; that his act would
seriously compromise it in face of the Northern Powers.'*



INVASION OF .1823. 61

The easy inarch of the French, so contraiy to all expect a-
tion, brought to the clearest demonstration two truths.
The first, that the party of the Cortes had no root : the
second, that the Eoyalist party had, if possible, still less, for
it had been expelled by that very Government which vanished
before the French. The Spaniards are the proudest of people,
and the - ablest to resist a foe ; but France was their
friend, or they expected her to be so. They looked to being
rescued by her out of the hands of 200,000 brawling
Philistines, who had got hold of them as a Dragoman does
of a traveller, or an Ambassador.

The grave and important part of the matter is, however,
the insight it affords into the causes of the present condition
of Europe, and into the working of its governing system.
The Minister of one power here appears acting for another,
who is kept out of view. To serve this foreign master,
he had accepted every consequence, and employed every
means, even to the last. What the urgency was that impelled
Mm, may be estimated from the obstacles against which,
apparently unaided, he had to contend — thei aversion of
his colleagues, the exasperation of England, the opposition
and disgust of the agent whom he employed, — no less a person
than the heir to the French Crown, in face of the anticipated
contingency of a general triumph of Kevolution, and a Musco-
vite occupation of France. The path was too intricate to
liave been hit by chance, — the difficulties too great to have
been conquered by accident, — the consequences too appalling
not to have been avoided, — the results too evident not to have
been foreseen.

That Minister was no longer M. de Yillele, but M. de
Chateaubriand, suddenly transferred to the Foreign Office at
Paris, and dismissed so soon as the Spanish operation was
completed.



63



CHAPTEIl VIII,
Quadruple Treaty,

The Decade does not elapse witliout a new convulsion ;
Prencli troops are again crossing the Bidassoa, not as foes
but friends, and this time, according to the original scheme
of Chateaubriand, wearing the Spanish cockade. But in the
meantime the colours had changed. It is no longer in-
violable right to succession that had to be maintained, — it is
no longer to support a King against a Constitution, but to
maintain a Queen set up by one. Strange reflections might
be suggested by such events to the inhabitants of the other
planets, but in this earth they are not extraordinary. England,
who was so decidedly convinced in 1823 of the guilt and
foUy of interference in the affairs of neighbours, is now en-
gaged with Erance in this same scheme, and, indeed, has
seduced her into it. This is a matter which admits of no
discussion ; if not seen at a glance it cannot be seen at all.

Now what had we to expect ? Time had passed his baud
over the wounds of former strife, and covered even the cica-
trices : mutual jealousies had ceased between England and
Erance ; they admitted community of political interests, and
a new bond had arisen between them, — that of similarity of
opinions in regard to government, and of Institutions. Y\'as
it possible then to conceive that both should concur, or
that even one should undertake, any foreign operation not
unmistakeably just, profitable and necessary ; or that the
freedom of the people should suffer any measure to be under-
taken, except after the fullest exposition and the freest
consent ?

This union of the nations was not merely one of sympathy,
it also involved the profoundest political objects ; it Avas
at once an enjoyment and a security. It must have b(!en
their first care to preserve these bles.«ings, and therefore to



QUADRUPLE TREATY. 63

avoid the rock on which their amity had been formerly ship-
wrecked. That rock was Interference. Nothing could occur
directly between them to impair their good-will, and of all
foreign waters of which they had to steer clear, the chief
were those of Spain. In the East the positive encroachments
of a third Power might excuse in this respect rnisjudg-
ments, and even rectify the effects of errors; but in the
Peninsula there was no safety-valve, there was no liglitning
conductor ; and so sure as cither moved, and so doubly sure
when both combined, was the great alliance of the West
ruptured.

I speak not here of the general sense of a nation unapplied
to a particular case; I speak not of an abstract sense of
right, unadopted as a specific conclusion, by influential states-
men. Intervention as a Principle had been judged — Spain
as a field had been excluded. Not to multiply quotations,
I will refer for England to the declaration of the then
Minister for Foreign Afl:airs, that the "Principle of Non-
intervention was sound, and ought to be held sacred ;" and
for France to that of the Duke de Broglie, that " the Govern-
ment when sought to pursue a policy of influence (he referred
to Spain) played the part of a dupe, and prepared for itself a
harvest of difficulties.** Both declarations were received in
the respective Senates without a dissentient Avhisper, aud
with every sign that men can give of satisfaction.

My first knowledge of this transaction, although a year
subsequent to the signature of the Treaty, was derived from
the King of England himself.* AVhen pointing out the
absence of aU action on our part in face of Russia's activity

* I have no hesitation in mentioning the circumstajice, as it was
settled with his best friend, Sir Herbert Taylor, that the whole of
the transactions in which the King had taken part, in reference to the
East, should be made pubhc ; and shortly before liis death tliere was
transmitted to me a mass of letters for • that pm-pose, completing the
series with those already in my possession. The execution of tliis
plan has been delayed, partly in dehcacy to certain individuals still
alive, partly from the indifference prevailing in regard to sucli
matters.



64 SPAIN.

everywhere, his Majesty replied, " There is something now
preparing which will be a heavy blow to her." I remained
silent and stupified, apprehending some new Treaty like that
of the 6th of July. After a pause, he went on to say, " We
are going to hit her in Spain." " Into what hole have you
fallen!" The exclamation escaped me. Out of this con-
versation arose an article, afterwards published in the first
number of the 'British and Foreign Eeview,' pointing out
the necessary consequence of this Intervention, to be that
rupture of the alliance between England and France which it
afterwards produced, and further indicating Kussia as the
only possible soiu'ce whence the idea could have come.

It may appear at first sight unwarrantable to place on the
same line the diplomatic parclmient of 1834, and the warlike
sword of 1823. But in tmth the pen was the weightier
instrument of the two ; the object and effect were in both,
eases the same. The restoring of an expelled Faction, and the
re-invigorating of a struggle on the point of cessation, equally
prolonged confusion. Though an Army v/as employed in the
one case, and a Treaty in the other, that Treaty was an alliance
and an engagement ; it involved the employment of the re-
sources of the Allies. By it England and France concuiTed
to eff'ect wdiat, in 1823, France undertook to do alone, in
spite of England. If corresponding results did not follow,
it was not that powder was wanting. Mercenaries and
auxiliaries, supplies and arms,* w^ere indeed furnished, but
they w^ere administered with care and in moderate doses.

The Invasion had been prompted by no French interest,
and had originated in no decision of the French Government :
yet for the transaction there v/aS an explanation, and it
was accepted at the time. Whatever use a Cabinet placed
beyond the circle of Europe's habits and principles might
make of Eevolution, or of the fear of it, still it was not
the less true that such fears did exist, and that they
were very real and pressing. It having been stated (and

* A quarter of a million stand were sent, and scattered so as to
arm both parties.



QUADEUPLE TREATY. 65

believed) by M. Villele, that France had sent an army
to the Tagus to avoid having to send one to the Khine,
the value of the reason remained indeed open to dis-
cussion, but the fact was unquestionable. For the Treaty
of 1834, no such pretext as this is to be found. The Go-
vernment of Madrid was endeavouring to put down an
insurrection of a fortieth part of the population, inhabiting
provinces not integral parts of the kingdom, but an annexed
domain. They had taken up arras, as they possessed by Treaty
the right of doing, in consequence of the infringement of their
laws. There was here nothing to alarm any foreign Govern-
ment or faction ; there was indeed no association possible
between the parties in Spain and the opinions of Europe,
unless by changing the parts. Nothing could be more
republican than the followers of Don Carlos, nothing more
tyrannical than the Constitutionalists of Madrid.

Supposing that any neighbouring and benevolent Govern-
ment had desired to put an end to these troubles, nothing
was easier. The Madrid exchequer was empty, save of de-
bentures ; the arsenal was exhausted, except of the swords
of Eoland and the Cid, not available on the occasion ; their
armies were destitute when not defeated; there was no heart to
their cause ; the insurgents paraded the Peninsula, and once
might have entered Madrid. A friendly adviser would have
had every weapon on his side ; indeed, they could not get oi^
without aid, and the question was opened by their requesting
it. Tliey obtained it. Those who enabled them to go on
could not have wished them to desist, and, it is to be inferred,
had prompted them to begin. This is just what had
happened before: the only difference is, that the "occult
Government" is now in London.

The only way to deal with the case is to consider what in
a hmm fide transaction must have been the reply of the
British Cabinet to this demand for aid from that of Madrid.

" The embarrassments experienced, and the dangers appre-
hended by the Cabinet of Madrid," it must have said, " are the



66 SPAIN.

consequences of its own acts in violating tlie riglits of domains
of tiie Crown secured by Treaty. No just Government, and
no enlightened people, can look with favour upon such pro-
ceedings, and least of all the people and the Government of
Great Britain.

" The Government of Great Britain cannot accept, as
relevant to the matter, the arguments into which that of
Madrid has been pleased to enter. That Government may
be perfectly in the right respecting the value of a representa-
tive form of Government, and the inhabitants of Biscay may
be wholly in the wrong in rejecting the share in the general
representation that is offered them ; it may equally be true
that the usages and privileges of these provinces are not
in accordance with the spirit of this age, but neither were
they in accordance with that of Charles V, Philip II, or
Philip V, as estimated at Madrid.

" This appeal to the Government of His Majesty is more-
over singularly timed. The present Administration accepted
office for the purpose, amongst others of a similar nature, of
carrying into effect the maxims of free trade, long professed
by the liberal party. This Administration is actually engaged.
in restoring municipal freedom to the boroughs of England.
Both principles appear to be expressed and contained in the
form of rights in the ancient Spanish word ' Fuero,' which
the Biscayans are actually in arms to defend, and the troops
of Her Catholic Majesty engaged in putting down. The aid
of the English Government is thus sought for the purpose of
extinguishing in Biscay the very system which, by seeking
to establish at home, it evinces its desire to see extended to
the rest of Spain.

" England is a commercial nation,^ her chief external object
is to lireak down the baniers that oppose the free circulation
of trade. The grounds of' her recent differences wdth Spain
have been the system of commercial restriction which the
influence of England has been exerted to remove, as an
injury to her own trade, and as also a drawback to the pros-
perity of Spain ; and you expect England's aid in extending



QUADEUPLE TREATY. 67

Custom House lines to provinces free hitherto by immemorial
usage and by solemn Treaty ! These liberties of the subjects
of Her Catliolic Majesty become thus rights of His Majesty's
subjects, and England can no more suffer them to be invaded
by the Crown of Spain than it could by the Crown of France.

" If the objects sought by the Spanish Government were as
legitimate as they are illegitimate ; if they were as conducive
to its repose as they are the reverse ; if they were as con-
genial as they are repugnant to the sympathies of thp British
nation and its present Government ; if they were beneficial as
they are injurious to British interests and rights — slill would
it be impossible for the British Government to take any
part in differences between the Crown of Spain and its suljjects.
England has no ground of war with the Basque Provinces if
their belligerent rights be recognised ; and if not, what the
Spanish Government requires would be legal only after a
Declaration of war against the Crown of Spain itself.

" But that Intervention which, in every case, would be a
crime, would further, in that of Spain, be a folly, and nothing
would more prejudice the parties in whose favour Interventicmi
was exercised, than that Intervention itself."

These latter sentences are not hypothetical, they are the
words of the Duke of Wellington addressed to the Allied
Sovereigns at Verona.

The first question is : why did the English Government not
adopt this, the natural course? We are left without any
answer. The second is : why did it select that whicli it
followed ? It gained nothing by the course it did adopt, and
it coidd gain nothing ; it lost much, and that loss could not
but have been anticipated: it sacrificed lives and money;
but it acquired no influence in Spain : it failed to obtain a
commercial Treaty, and the Colony of Gibraltar, up to this
period admitted to the coasting trade of the Peninsula, wag
excluded. But the signal loss incurred was that of the good-
will of France : dragged by England into mediation, and then



68 SPAm.

alarmed at tlie tmscrupulous measures proposed, tliougli not
consigned in the Treaty, Louis Philippe turned for support to
the Northern Alliance, called into existence by the " Constitu-
tional League of the West."

Where then are we to look for the origin of the Quadruple
Treaty, save in that Cabinet which alone has profited by it ?
the same which concerted the Conspiracy of the Isla de Leon,
and managed the Conference of Yerona.

The reader may, perhaps, be surprised to find no mention
of Don Carlos. The reason is, that he had nothing to do with
the transaction. The Insurrection was not raised by him ; it
merely availed itself of him. In any other portion of the
Peninsula, the title of the Prince might be a good ground
for Insurrection, only it was not used as such : in the Basque
Provinces it could be none. The " Lord of Biscay" is the
de facto king of Spain, fulfilling, of course, the conditions
attached to the lordship. There alone the question of
kingly title could not be entertained, and there only could
be entertained that of provincial right. The question of
succession, as regards the remaining provinces, was wholly
distinct from that of form of Government, The Constitution
had been established under Ferdinand. However, consti-
tution and succession, fueros and legitimacy were so mixed
together, that the whole field was covered with a mist,
which changed to a mirage, and presented to the eyes of
Europe the reflection of its Q\n\ lanes and alleys ;* but the
illusion was for the vulgar only. Those who directed affairs
knew in 1834, as well as in 1833, that "neither party had
any roots." The attempted subversion of the Basque Pro-

* I had at Bayonne a discussion with the chiefs of the Insurrec-
tion, in presence of some of theu' supporters. The chiefs had assumed
the false ground of hereditary right, not only in consequence of the
contaminating contact with Europeans, but also in the hope of
ribbons and decorations. On coming away, one of the members
of the municipality of Bilboa, who before had his mind closed to all
argument by respect for his chiefs, said to me, " I now see that we
have been rattled like dice, and sheared like sheep !'*



QUADRUPLE TREATY. 69

viiiccs was the sole cause of the disturbance, as afterwards
sliown when they sent off Don Carlos, nor would lay down
their arms till the Convention of Bergara recognised the fueros.

The complicity of M. de Chateaubriand with the Russian
Cabinet is established by direct evidence, furnished by him-