226 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



ade, until the inhabitants should 

 recognize the Regency of Cadiz 

 as the true and legitimate repre- 

 sentatives of Ferdinand VII. An 

 amnesty, however, was held out 

 for what had passed, provided 

 that submission and obedience to 

 government should be paid in fu- 

 ture. Nothing could possibly ex- 

 ceed the weakness of this passion- 

 ate ebullition of impotent pride 

 and arrogance ! Even if the de- 

 nounced blockade could have been 

 enforced by a numerous fleet and 

 army, the policy of it might well 

 have been questioned. A war en- 

 sued — not of forces at sea and 

 land — but a paper war. A lawyer 

 of the name of Cortabarria, em- 

 ployed by the Regency, took post 

 in the island of Porto Rico, and 

 fulminated the manifestoes of the 

 Regency, with occasional pieces 

 of his own, against Caraccas. 

 Caraccas replied by the same kind 

 of artillery. Cortabarria was se- 

 conded by the marquis of Urijo, 

 minister plenipotentiary of Ferdi- 

 nand VII. at the court of Brazil, 

 whose address to the Spanish in- 

 habitants of South America, the 

 lawyer was at great pains to cir- 

 culate, together with the manifes- 

 toes of the Regency, and his 

 own reasonings and exhortation?, 

 throughout the provinces. In 

 justification of their conduct, the 

 Caraccas appealed to the laws of 

 Spain. The Central Junta, they 

 contended, had no right to appoint 

 a regency without assembling the 

 Cortes. " Though on a great and 

 alarming emergency the colonists, 

 out of fralernalsentiments towards 

 all Spaniards in Europe, had for a 

 time shown respect both to the 

 Junta of Seville and the supreme 

 Central Junta, they did not recog- 



nize the legitimacy of those differ- 

 ent administrations that had suc- 

 cessively seized the sovereign au- 

 thority without the consent of the 

 prince, and the acquiescence of 

 the Spanish nation of both conti- 

 nents. Such an arbitrar)' govern- 

 ment was illegitimate, null, vain, 

 and contrary to all the principles 

 recognized by the laws. The au- 

 thority of the Central Junta, out 

 of which the Regency of Cadiz 

 sprang, was derived only from the 

 tumultuary deliberations of a small 

 number of the capitals of pro- 

 vinces, while the inhabitants of 

 the New World had not any par- 

 ticipation in the authority which 

 of right belonged to them. The 

 true interests of the king, and the 

 general good of the nation, re- 

 quired a new representation of all 

 the provinces both of Old Spain 

 and those of America, which, as 

 was admitted by the Regency, as 

 well as the Central Junta, formed 

 an integral part of the monarchy. 

 But in the orders respecting the 

 election of members for complet- 

 ing the Central Junta, as well as 

 those for the convocation, there 

 was a culpable partiality in favour 

 of the degenerate remains of the 

 Spanish nation. What freedom of 

 suffrage ? what equality of repre- 

 sentation was to be expected from 

 the American Cabildos, destitute 

 of public confidence, and whom 

 the Spanish ministers sought al- 

 ways to oppress and reduce to the 

 ignominious state of being merely 

 their agents ? To allow to all the 

 inhabitants of the peninsula the 

 right of nominating their repre- 

 sentatives in the national Cortes ; 

 and to restrict the right of election 

 with regard to the Americans to 

 a simple and passive vote of the 



