GENERAL HISTORY. 



[129 



CHAPTER XII. 



Spain. — Weakness and Fluctuations of the Government. — Character of 

 the King. — Change of Ministry. — Matrimonial Connections between 

 the Courts of Spain and Portugal. — Conspiracy at Madrid. — Decree 

 respecting Religious Orders. — Property of Jesuits restored. — Prisoners 

 at Ceuta removed. — Royal Nuptials. — General Pardon, with great 

 Exceptions. — Portugal : its Commerce flouriahing . — Brazil declared 

 a Kingdom. — Naples. — Treaty with the Piratical States. — Sicilia?i 

 Papers excluded from Naples. — Transactions with the United States 

 of America. — Decree respecting the Political Relations between the 

 Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. — Rome insulted by Pirates and 

 Banditti. — Torture forbidden in the Inquisition. — Security declared to 

 Purchasers of National Property. — Confiscation no longer permitted 

 to the Profit of the Inquisition. Negociations of the Church of Rome 

 with France. — Venice. 



I^HE beginning of the year 

 atforded a melancholy \'iew 

 of the state of the kingdom of 

 Spain, which seems tQ have been 

 freed from internal war and the 

 shackles of foreign dominion, only 

 to be re-delivered to that system 

 of weak and arbitrary govern- 

 ment, under which it has sn long 

 been declining in the scale of 

 Europe. In the capital and the 

 principal cities, the spirit of free- 

 dom was at this time so far sub- 

 jugated, that the discontents which 

 subsisted, were buried in secrecy : 

 but in the northern and frontier 

 provinces, parties of guerillas were 

 roaming uncontrolled, many of 

 them composed of the dispersed 

 insurgents under Porlier, and of 

 soldiers become deserters for want 

 of pay. I'he public finances were 

 in a wretched situation ; and the 

 measures of administration were 

 perpetually changing. This fluctu- 

 ation may in great part be ascribed 

 Vol. LVIH. 



to the personal character of the 

 monarch, distinguished by rest- 

 less activity, and impatience of all 

 opposition to his will. It is said 

 of him, that " He sees every 

 thing, decides every thing, and 

 watches over all the parts of the 

 administration. Supreme master, 

 his dispositions experience no 

 delay; his wishes are instantly 

 executed. This explains the ra- 

 pidity of events at court." One 

 of these, which excited much sur- 

 prize at Madrid on the 21st of 

 January, was a total change in 

 the ministry. The principal mi- 

 nister, Cevallos, was, however, 

 announced in a Gazette extraor- 

 dinary of the 26th, as restored to 

 all his functions, his Majesty 

 signing with his own hand the 

 following declaration : " Consi- 

 dering as unfounded, the motives 

 which induced me to order your 

 discharge from the office of my 

 first secretary of state, and of the 

 [K] cabinet ; 



