— Tae hoa ua 
BM] 
a8 if it had continued its full time in its 
silken case. 
Jun. 1811. - J. M. Frrnpatn. 
——— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
JOURNAL Of a recent vVoYAGE lO CADIZ. 
(Continued from vol. 30, p. 501.) 
Fanuary. 25, 1809. 
SHALL never have donesaying some- 
thing about churches: besides the 
new cathedral, as it is called, which I 
described to you the other day, there is 
' another, wherein service is regularly per- 
formed. ‘The building is, very gloomy, 
rather small, and excepting the principal 
entrance, very little of the outside is to 
bescen. The door-way is loaded with 
a variety of sculptured marble, coats of 
arms, cherubs, &c. The high altar is, as 
usual, dazzling with gilded ornaments, 
_and the walls crowded with pictured saints, 
hanging in darkness. 
The occasion of my seeing it to-day, 
arose from the circumstance of paying 
funeral honours to the memory of the 
late president of the Junta, Count Flo- 
rida Blanea, The ceremony is called 
a function,a term applied by the Spaniards 
to almost every public entertainment, 
_and answers to the I'rench spectacle. 
This function was attended by the 
governor, the members of the Junta, the 
magistrates of the city, the heats of the 
various convents, foreign. ambassadors, 
consuls, &c. the officers of the army and 
marine, several British naval and mili- 
tary officers, merchants, &c. who met at: 
the town-hall, and paraded through the 
streets, which were. lined by the volun- 
. teers, who stood with their arms reversed. 
The crowd of people was immense, 
the windows and balconies were filled 
with beautiful females; but the greatest 
order and silence prevailed, and added 
to the solemnity of the occasion. 
On evtering the church, I was struck 
with the vast blaze of light caused by an 
innunrerable quantity of large wax flam- 
beaux in massy silverand gold candlesticks, 
sume of them being eight or more feet in 
height; which were burning at the altar, 
and around a temporary pyramidal mo- 
mument, the front of whicly bore an in- 
“seription descriptive of the character of 
the count. 
The service was chaunted, accom- 
panied by very sublime music on an or- 
gan, and a numerous orchestra of vocal 
aiid instrumental performers, which lasted 
price hours without the least intermis- 
sion: during this time, at intervals, the 
Wells were tolled amid the discharge of 
- 
- 
Journal of a recent Voyage to Cadiz. 
29 
artillery and musketry. There appeared 
to be a deal of piety mingled with the 
ceremony, and numberless were the times 3 
that the congregation fell on their knees, 
muttered prayers, and counted their 
string of beads. Nearly at the close of - 
the service I was surprised to chserve a 
man busily delivering to certain persons 
one of those large wax flambeaux, to.be 
held lighted in the hagd. He distributed 
perhaps a hundred or more to the con 
vivados or guests who were the most 
distinguished in the procession ; when he 
had done; the ministers advanced from 
the altar to the body of the church, and 
chaunted the requiem forthe dead. The 
flambeaux were then fetched, and the 
people retired, 1 believe heartily glad to 
be released from so tedious a ceremony. 
The death of the count had been tov 
maily noticed by: the firing of minutes 
guns for several’ days after his demise, 
which was on the 30th of the last month, 
He was a man universally esteemed, but 
his great age of eighty-two years had na- 
turally rendered him incapable of sup= 
porting the fatigues and troubles attend. 
ing the important office he had just held 
as president of the Supreme Junta; but 
as a name only has often great weight at 
the head of large assemblies, and the 
‘count being so highly. venerated by the 
court party, he was, at. the moment, 
considered to be a fit person for theiz. 
leader. 
The precipitate movement of the Sus 
preme Junta in the last month from Ma. 
drid to Aranjuez, thew subsequent res 
treat, and temporary dispersion, before 
the central Junta at Seville could resume 
its sitting, produced suchsan effect oa 
the count as to hasten his death. , 
The uncertainty of their movements 
was then'so great at this place, that the. 
governor published an address to the 
people, saying that he was without ins- 
telligence of their residence, and that ha 
did not, literally, know wihere to find 
them ; ‘and oar consul had nor for twelve 
days received any advices from the Eng= 
Jish ambassador, nor did he know where 
he was. Such was the seattered con- 
fusion among the protectors of this couns 
try! : he F 
I was informed that Spain has scarcely 
to boast of another man who applied him 
self so much for the good of his country 
as did Coant Florida Blanca: he seemed 
to wish to place it on a footing with the 
other nations of Europe, in respect to 
the happiness of the people, by the just 
administration of tiie laws, and by the ens 
cuouragement 
