154] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



the two depositaries of the autho- 

 rity of government might involve 

 the nation in the greatest calami- 

 ties, moved, that a Regency should 

 be nominated ad interim. This mo- 

 tion occasioned a considerable de- 

 bate, after which, being put to 

 the vote, it was carried by 87 

 against 48. The three counsellors 

 of state, upon whom, on account 

 of seniority, according to an arti- 

 cle of the constitution, the pro- 

 visional regency fell, were the 

 Cardinal Bourbon (Archbishop of 

 Toledo) Don P. Agar, and Don 

 Gabriel Ciscar. One deputation was 

 then appointed to dismiss the old 

 Regency, and another to wait on 

 the new. The latter then appeared 

 before the Cortes, and was installed 

 in office with a suitable discourse 

 from the president. 



It was soon discovered that the 

 resistance of the Spanish clergy 

 to the decree of the Cortes was 

 supported and fomented by the 

 powerful influence of the Pope's 

 nuncio, Peter Gravina, archbishop 

 of Nicea, then resident at Cadiz. 

 This was made public by a mani- 

 festo of the Regency, addressed 

 to the prelates and chapters of 

 Spain, and dated April 23rd. In 

 this important paper, the Presi- 

 dent of the Regency, Cardinal 

 Bourbon, after alluding to the 

 energetic measures which he had 

 been obliged to adopt in order to 

 extinguish a fiame which might 

 have consumed the kingdom, says, 

 that among the documents which 

 he had called for on the occasion 

 from different chapters, there had 

 appeared a letter from the P'ope's 

 nuncio to the dean and chapter of 

 Malaga, exhorting them to delay, 

 and even to oppose, the execution 

 of the decrees concerning the In- 



quisition. By so acting, the nun- 

 cio says, " They would do an im- 

 portant service to religion, to the 

 church, and to our most holy fa- 

 ther, whose authority and rights 

 he conceives to be wounded, with- 

 out thereby favouring the episcopal 

 power." Letters to the same pur- 

 pose had been forwarded to the 

 Regency, from the nuncio to the 

 bishop of Jaen and the chapter 

 of Grenada ; " from which it ap- 

 pears (says the manifesto) that the 

 said nuncio, trampling on the first 

 principles of international law, 

 overlooking the limits of his pub- 

 lic mission, and abusing the vene- 

 ration in which this pious people 

 hold the legates of the apostolic 

 see, has endeavoured to promote, 

 and actually has promoted, under 

 the cloak of religion, the disobe- 

 dience of some very respectable 

 prelates and ecclesiastical bodies, 

 to the decrees and orders of the 

 sovereign power." After a num- 

 ber of observations on the conduct 

 of the nuncio, and the necessity 

 of controlling it, the Cardinal Pre- 

 sident declares, that although he 

 conceives himself fully authorized 

 to exert his power by sending the 

 nuncio out of the kingdom, and 

 seizing his temporalities, yet he 

 has confined himself to ordering 

 that the following royal decree 

 should be transmitted to him. The 

 decree referred to expresses in 

 strong terms the sense of the Re- 

 gency of the nuncio's improper 

 conduct; and informs him, that 

 it expects, that he shall for the 

 future keep within the limits of 

 his mission, and that all his re- 

 monstrances to government should 

 be made through the medium of 

 the secretary of state ; assuring 

 him, that should he henceforward 



