SPAIN AND HRR FACTIONS. 659 



et totius Hispaniae/' The nobility, and deputations from the clergy, 

 and from the ayuntamientos, now met only to take their oaths of an- 

 ticipated fealty to the young heir to the monarchy. The affairs of 

 government were never deemed to be in a state to require the attention 

 of the cortes. 



The political wisdom of Charles the III. and the abilities of his 

 ministers, the Condes de Campomanes and Florida Blanca, went forth to 

 consecrate the despotism of the monarchy ; but the egregious follies and 

 vices of his successor, proved too strong an antidote to all the clever 

 speciousness of his reign. At the death of Charles the III. in 1788, the 

 treasury of the Spanish government was in the receipt of a larger revenue 

 than that of any other court in Europe ; the Colonies were well disposed, 

 the army in good organization, and the navy, besides being the most nu- 

 merous, was possessed of the finest ships in the world ; the nation was 

 contented, and well satisfied with themselves and their rulers. What 

 was the state of the country, twenty years afterwards, in 1808 ? An 

 army disorganized, and dishonoured. A navy, if so it could yet be called, 

 dismantled and unmanned, with all its appliances utterly ruined. The 

 Colonies dissatisfied and complaining, the government hated, and the 

 nation disgusted. This promising state of things, the work of the 

 Prince of the peace, invited the attention of the French Autocrat. The 

 game of treachery was played more skilfully by the imperial agents, than 

 by the minions of the favorite, and they who stipulated to sell, not only 

 their own country, but that of an ally, into the bargain, found themselves 

 the betrayed, as well as the betrayers. Five years of ruinous convulsion 

 followed the unhallowed compact of Bayonne, till the year 1813, restored 

 Ferdinand to the throne, from which he had formerly ejected his father, 

 and the present era of Spanish history commenced. nobiaoq laoriifoq 



Liberal opinions, infanted by the French revolution,had been success- 

 fully shut out of Spain, as long as the government held together ; but 

 the French invasion sowed the seeds of that harvest of liberalism, which 

 sprung up in every department of society, during the struggle for national 

 existence, and which then took too firm a root in the soil, ever to be ex- 

 tirpated; during that interregnum of regular government, the constitution 

 was engendered. It was adopted by the Junta of the government, and 

 their first official communication with Ferdinand, after the treaty of 

 Valen^ay had restored him to liberty, was accompanied by a requisition 

 on the part of the nation, that he should swear adherence to its provesions, 

 ere he crossed the frontiers. He took the oaths, and arrived at Valencia, 

 where he was immediately surrounded by the adherents of the old system : 

 the royal conspiracy commenced its operation, and the overthrow of the 

 constitution, and the banishment of the Cortes, was at once resolved on. 

 The cortes bore within itself the germs of corruption, which soon blos- 

 somed into treachery ; sixty-nine of its members petitioned the King to 

 decree a return to the absolute regime.* General Elio who was com- 

 missioned to escort the King to Madrid, offered him his troops for the con- 

 summation of the plot. Bribery, and the "innatus amor habendi" of 

 all true Spaniards in authority, were effectually brought to serve their 

 legitimate purposes : the abolition of the constitution was effected, and 

 with its downfall, a general restoration of all things to their ancient 

 srfr ifth.' 



- 



^* The address became afterwards famous, or rather infamous, under the appclla- 

 +'" of the "protest of the Persians." 



2X2 



