74] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



to be allowed to give testimony 

 against Catholics accused of he- 

 resy. Wives, children, relatioiisi, 

 and domestics, not to be admitted 

 as witnesses in the first instance; 

 the torture not to be applied in 

 any case; the charges to be so 

 specific, that slight or violent sus- 

 picions of heresy cannot suffice 

 for ordering the arrest of an indi- 

 vidual ; the property of the con- 

 demned in no case to fall to the 

 Inquisition ; the families of the 

 condemned, to be admitted to in- 

 heritance; the expenses of the 

 Supreme Council to be defrayed 

 out of the Royal Treasury. 



That great discontents were still 

 prevalent in Spain, by which the 

 government was kept in alarm, 

 appeared not only from various 

 accounts transmitted from the dif- 

 ferent provinces, but especially 

 from a general order and pro- 

 clamation, issued at Cadiz, in 

 August by the captain-general, 

 Villavicienzo. " My former pro- 

 clamations (he says) have pro- 

 duced no effect. Traitors and 

 disturbers of the public repose 

 continue to mislead the people, 

 who are always fickle and credu- 

 lous. These offences can no longer 

 remain unpunished. Justice shall 

 in future be executed with the 

 celerity which circumstances de- 

 mand. I declare, that considering 

 myself as in a state of war, a 

 Inilitary commission is about to be 

 immediately appointed, which shall 

 decide within the period of three 

 days at farthest according to mili- 

 tary forms ; and I will cause to 

 be brought before it every indivi- 

 dual accused of having, directly or 

 indirectly, spoken against the so- 

 vereignty of Ferdinand VII. or 

 tvbo is suspected of any other 



manoeuvre tending to mislead pub- 

 lic opinion." A measure so violent 

 and arbitrary as that here declared, 

 must have proceeded either from 

 some very urgent danger, or from 

 the despotic character of the man ; 

 and if it did not effectually inti- 

 midate, must certainly have aug- 

 mented the force of disaffection. 

 From some private accounts we 

 learn that it had been preceded by 

 party tumults, and that several 

 executions were the result. 



The policy of strengthening the 

 power of the crown by that of the 

 church, was in the mean time pur- 

 sued without intermission. By a 

 royal decree, the tribunal of the 

 Rota of the Apostolic Nuncio wa» 

 installed on August 22nd, on which 

 occasion its members, by the 

 mouth of the dean of the tribunal, 

 made a very loyal address to the 

 king. Enumerating the advan- 

 tages which will accrue from the 

 re-establishment of this court, 

 they observe, that " concord be- 

 tween the priesthood and the go- 

 vernment being thus secured, the 

 bases of the tranquillity and 

 safety of the state can no longer 

 be shaken ; for the philosophers 

 of the day have obstinately sought 

 to disturb that concord only the 

 better to succeed in overthrowing 

 successively the altar and th* 

 throne.*' 



It was to be expected, that the 

 state of war which bad so long 

 been subsisting in a great part of 

 Spain, and which had been car- 

 ried on for the most part by irre- 

 gular and nearly independent 

 bodies, under the name of Gue- 

 rillas, would terminate in the 

 formation of numerous bands of 

 robbei-s, by which the internal 

 quiet of the kingdom would he 



