SPAIN AND HER FACTIONS. 



their leaders have been implicated, of which projects, no less than three 

 were discovered in the autumn of 1830 ; one of these, it was ascertained, 

 had very extensive ramifications among their ranks, and the 1st of 

 October, the anniversary of the king's liberation from Cadiz, when the 

 Royalist Volunteers mount guard at the palace, by honourable pre- 

 scription, was fixed on for the development of the plot.* 



The two other parties are the moclerates and the liberals. From the 

 ban, under which liberalism now labours, it is difficult to obtain any 

 precise information respecting the numerical strength of the affied to its 

 principles. A partial approach to the truth may, however, be made, by 

 reference to the numbers who entered into the spirit of the revolution 

 of 1820; some of them have been purified,f and now proclaim their 

 loynlty l< aliquid plus quam satis est ;" this is one reason for the general 

 opinion, that the allegiance of the purificados, with its " sound and 

 fury" has "that within which passeth show." The indefinidos, who 

 have passed but a stage of the purifying process, and of whom the bare 

 toleration by the government, does not exempt from the most harassing 

 surveillance, are, whatever may have been the soundness of their former 

 liberalism, forced into it now by persecution and poverty. They are 

 mostly military men, who have distinguished themselves in the consti- 

 tutional armies. The great body of the merchants and tradesmen may 

 be classed among the liberals ; for though the extreme penalties which 



are attached to any expression of liberal principles,^ and the extensive 



.___ , . 



house near the palace, where were found several other documents, throwing light 

 on a very extensive conspiracy on the eve of striking a decisive blow in favour of 

 the infant Don Carlos. It was reported that the prince was, in consequence, placed 

 under arrest ; it is, however, certain that the discovery occasioned a personal alter- 

 cation between him and the king. 



* This affair occasioned the following extraordinary emanation from the 

 " Ministerio de Guerra," which we literally translate from the original. "-The 

 following royal order, dated the 7th inst. (October), has been circulated by the 

 Minister at War. The king, our master, being well aware of the macheavelian 

 system adopted by a small but crafty portion of his ill-disposed subjects, who, under 



of disturbing the 



; )y, commands 

 eir power and 



zeal, in upholding his sovereign and imprescriptable rights ; with the understanding 

 that any reform, which imperious circumstances produced by revolutionary means, 

 may oblige his majesty to adopt, and as a means of preserving the kingdom from 

 greater evils, shall be considered as forced upon him, and as consequently null and 

 void, and is to be looked upon in that light only : and any authority, which shall 

 conform to orders given in that sense under any other impression, will incur his majesty's 

 displeasure." The royal order, issued ostensibly against the Constitutionalists, 

 then on the frontier, was printed, but not published, as the corps diplomatique, on 

 hearing of it, proceeded to the palace, and persuaded M. Salmon, the minister for 

 foreign affairs, of its utter folly and mischievous tendency. 



-f- Purification is a species of political quarantine, through which every person 

 connected with the constitution must pass, ere they can again be freely admitted 

 among the " Amados Vasallos" of his majesty. The original material of a purifi- 

 cado is a '' sospechado," or a suspected person. The testimonials of a royalists, 

 stating that his liberalism had been effected by coercion, bodily fear, or some other 

 reason alien to conviction, or may be a little bribery to the alcade or the quaranters, 

 are the processes for obtaining the certificates of purification. The indefinidos 

 are those persons, who, having obtained testimonials, or gone through some other 

 stage, have not succeeded in obtaining the certificate. 



$ In April, 1831, a man, who was known to be half crazy, was hanged at Madrid 

 during the holy week, a thing unprecedented, from calling out in the streets when 

 intoxicated, " Viva la libertad," " mueran las realutas," to which he had been in- 



