SPAIN AND HER FACTIONS. 



The ostensible head of this party is the king, whose indolence is well 

 pleased, to find in this policy the authority of the crown unquestioned, 

 and its power maintained, without recurring to the continual activity of 

 persecution, which the apostolicals advocate.* This party support the 

 principle of the government, which we will here endeavour to explain. 



The capitulation of Cadiz transferred the king's person and his go- 

 vernment from one faction to another; and the king was not slow in 

 finding that, from Scylla, he had escaped into Charybdis. This was by 

 no means the intention of the French government, and their armed oc- 

 cupation gave time and opportunity for the formation of an intermediate 

 party, which should enable a government of moderate principles to 

 maintain itself, by holding the balance between the two hostile factions. 



The nation having undergone a bitter experience of the miseries inhe- 

 rent to rule by faction, saw with pleasure men of moderate principles 

 adopted into the government ; and it was not long before their salutary 

 influence was beneficially and successfully manifested, by their neutral- 

 ization of much of the tyrannical and vindictive spirit of their apostolical 

 colleagues. But the task was not an easy one, as their power was ex- 

 posed to the assaults of both the contending parties, ere any consoli- 

 dation of the national peace gave confidence and strength to that portion 

 of the community, who, as the friends of order, and of the public weal, 

 looked to the government for protection in the exercise of their peace- 

 able avocations. The last few years have, however, tended to give com- 

 parative stability to the moderaclos, and thereby to the government. 

 Their system of administration, approaching to common sense, if not to 

 wisdom, and pursued almost with firmness, though certainly not with 

 energy, has found supporters in the hopes they give of better days. "- l jft 

 has drawn recruits both from the apostolicals and the liberals, in the 

 persons of those who merely sought refuge under the wing of either 

 party, at a time when every Spaniard was forced, in self-defence, to be 

 a partisan. These desertions, however, render the ministry an object of 

 unquenchable odium to those who still steadfastly identify themselves 

 with the ultra tenets by which they have thriven or have suffered. 



This is likewise a reason why the moderate party necessarily bears 

 the imprints of all shades and colours ; and as a body on which the 

 ministry might, in case of need, rely for active support, they have not 

 yet acquired either adequate consistency, a knowledge of their strength, 

 or confidence among thems'elves. Indeed, the multifarious and discord- 

 ant ingredients of their composition, militate against their organization to 

 such an end, as well as the motives by which they lean to the govern- 

 ment, which are quiet and protection at any time, even to the abandon- 



* The king's connection with this party, and the actuating principles of his con- 

 duct, may perhaps be understood by a perusal of the following extract of a letter, 

 dated Madrid, 7th October, 1830. It is from a close observer of the court pro- 

 ceedings ' The Philippines are the avowed destination of the conspirators men- 

 tioned in my last. But the king has again given a proof of his vacillating charac- 

 ter, and the dread he entertains of the apostolicals, by listening to the petition 

 these persons have addressed to him, for a commutation of the sentence. Rofino 

 Gonzales has persuaded him to allow him to remain in IA Mancha ; and the Padre 

 Ceril has obtained permission to reside at Seville. This last person, who is a monk, 

 and the general of his order, is one of the most indefatigable enemies of the liberals, 

 and, possessing some talent and much influence, is justly looked upon as a leading 

 and a dangerous character. The secret of the favour extended to Gonzales, Js his 

 marriage with the sister of the king's mistress. 



