CORTBS. 



< "i:\ i B, 





They soon after sacrificed of their own 

 coord their elective freanhisfe. The eiueusss of the deputies to the 

 oorUs had been till then defrayed bv the town; but now, having lost 

 their influence at court by their oxcliuion from the royal council , the 

 towns twgan to complain of the burden. Juan 1 1. listened attentively 

 to their complaints, and, in the oortes of Ocafta, 1424, he proposed 

 that the future expenses of the deputies should be defrayed out of the 

 royal treasury, a proposal which was willingly accepted. Accordingly, 

 in the next cortes, twelve crtW. only (Burgos, Toledo, Leon, Zamora, 

 Seville, Csrdova, Murria, Jsen, Segovia, ArUa, Salamanca, and Cuenea) 

 samnsrmed to send their deputation. Some other towns were 

 id the* they might intrust their powers to any deputy from th- 

 The privilege was subsequently extended to six more cities 

 Valladond, Toro, Soria, Madrid, Guadalaxara, and Granada. Theae 

 places constituted henceforth the whole representation of the 

 i of Castile, Leon, Qalicia, and Andalusia. The other com- 

 , at last perceiving the advantage they had lost, petitioned to 

 be restored to their right, but found themselves strenuously opposed by 

 the privileged towns. The influence of the court was openly exercised 

 in the elections of these towns, and although the oortes of Valladolid in 

 1442, and those of Cordova in 1445, requested the king to abstain from 

 such i uter fsr sues, yet the practice became more barefaced than ever. 

 In 1457 Enrique IV. wrote to the municipal council of Seville, pointing 

 out two individuals fit to be deputies in the next session, and requesting 

 they might be elected. Thus long before Charles I. (the Emperor 

 ies V.), who has been generally accused of having destroyed the 

 '' i of Spain, the popular branch of the representation was already 

 I to a shadow ; for the deputies of the eighteen cities elected 

 by court influence, were mere registrars of the royal decrees, and ready 

 voters of the supplies demanded of them. Under Ferdinand and Isa- 

 bella the royal authority became more extended and firmly established 

 by the subjection of the privileged orders. Charles only finished the 

 work by excluding the privileged orders from the cortes altogether ; 

 he and his successors contenting themselves with convoking the 

 i of tile eighteen royal cities of the crown of Castile on certain 

 i occasion*, to register their decrees, to acknowledge the Prince of 

 i as heir apparent to the throne, to swear allegiance to a new 

 _n, Ac. 



In Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia, which formed the dominions of 

 the crown of Aragon, the cortes of each of these three states continued 

 to assemble under Charles I. and his successors of the Austrian dynasty, 

 who convoked them in their accustomed manner by brazos or orders, 

 and they maintained some show of independence, although in reality 

 much reduced in importance, after Philip II. had abolished the office 

 of the Justiza. [ARAGOS, in GEOO. Drv.] But after the War of the 

 Philip V. of Bourbon formally abolished the cortes of 

 i by right of conquest, as he expressed it, because they had 

 i part with his rival, the Archduke Charles. 

 When, in 1808, the Spanish people rose in every province against the 

 invasion of Napoleon, the king was a prisoner in France, after having 

 been obliged by threats to abdicate the crown, and the nation found 

 itself without a government. Municipal juntas were formed in every 

 province, consisting of deputies taken from the various orders or classes 

 of society, nobles, clergymen, proprietors, merchants, Ac. Theae 

 juntas sent deputies to form a central junta, with executive powers 

 for the general affairs of the country ; but a legislature was still 

 wanting. The central junta was called upon to assemble the cortes 

 for all Spain. They at first thought of reviving the ancient cortes by 

 nsUniiintiiis or brazos, but many difficulties presented themselves. The 

 difference of formation between the old cortes of Aragon and those of 

 Castile; the difficulty of applying those forms to the American pos- 

 sessions of Spain, which were now, for the first time, admitted to equal 

 rights with the mother country, but where the same elements of society 

 did not exist, at least not in the same proportion ; the difficulty even 

 in Spain of collecting a legitimate representation of the various orders, 

 while most of the provinces were occupied or overrun by French 

 armies, and while many of the nobility and the higher clergy hod 

 acknowledged the intrusive kin Joseph Bonajiarto ; all these, added to 

 the altered state of public opinion, to the long discontinuance of the 

 old cortes by orders or states, to the diminished influence of the old 

 nobility, and the creation of a new nobility during the latter reigns 

 merely through court favour, mode the original plan appear imprac- 

 tiiv-ihli?. The situation of the country was, in fact, without a parallel 

 in history. The central junta consulted the consejo (reuni.l .). or . ..in 

 nrisnon of magistrates, from the old higher courts of the monarch v 

 who proposed to assemble deputies of the various brazos or esta- 

 mentos, all to form one house, a proposal extremely vague ami 

 apparently impracticable, which looks as if made to elude the 

 question. Jovcllados and others then proposed two houses, consti- 

 tuted ss in England ; but this would also have been a new creation 

 without precedent in Spain, and surrounded by many difficulties, the 

 state of society being very different in the two countries. Meantime 

 the central junta being driven away by the French, first from Madrid 

 and afterwards from Seville, in January, 1810, took refuge at Cadiz 

 which became the capital of the Spanish patriots, whither a number 

 of persons from the various provinces and classes had flocked. 

 Soon after arriving at Cadiz it resigned its powers into the hands a 

 council of regency composed of five individuals, who issued letters o! 



convocation for the deputies of all the provinces to assemble in cortes 

 at the lala <U Leo* on the 24th September, 1810. 



The oortee, styled * extraordinary," eat at Cadiz from September, 

 II September, 1819. During this time, amidst numeroue 

 which the 



enactments which they passed, they framed a totally new constitution 

 tor Spain, which has become known by the name at * the coastitotien 

 f 1813,~ the year in which it was proclaimed. This constitution 

 established the representative system with a single popular chamber, 

 elected in a numerical proportion of one deputy for every 70,000 in- 

 dividuals. The extraordinary cortes of Cadiz were succeeded in 

 October, 1818, by the ordinary cortes, elected according to the pi in 

 iplc ..f the constitution. In March, 1814, King Ferdinand returned 

 t . Spain, and soon after dissolved the cortes, abrogated the constitu- 

 tion, and punished it< supporters. In 1830 the constitution was pro- 

 ilaimed again through a military insurrection ; the king accept 

 and the cortes assembled again. The king and the cortes, ho 

 did not remain long in harmony. In 1823 a French army, under the 

 duke of Angoi.l <uie, entered Spain ; the cortes left Madrid, taking the 

 ling with them to Seville, and thence transferred him l.y force to 

 Cadiz. Cadiz hiving surrendered to the French, the cortes were 

 again dispersed, and the constitution was again abolished. 



Ferdinand VII., In-fore his death, assembled the deputies of the 

 royal towns, according to the ancient form, not to deliberate, but to 

 acknowledge as his successor his infant daughter Isabella, <>M April 

 10, 1834, the queen regent proclaimed a charter for the Spa: 

 which was colled Bstatuto Real. It established the convocation of the 

 cortes and its division into two houses, the procuradores, or deputies 

 from the provinces, and the procures, or upper house, consisting of 

 certain nobles, prelates, and also of citizens distinguished by 

 merit. The power of the cortes, however, was very limited, the 

 initiative of all laws belonging exclusively to the crown. This charter 

 did not last above two years. In the summer of 1836 insurrections 

 broke out at Malaga and other places, where the constitution of 1 - : -J 

 was again proclaimed ; and at last the insurrection spread among the 

 troops which were doing duty at the queen's residence, at La Granja, 

 in consequence of which the queen accepted the constitution, " subject 

 to the revision of the cortes." The cortes were therefore con 

 according to the plan of 1812 ; and early in 1837 they commenced 

 their duties, forming a constitution which was decreed on June 16. By 

 this the cortes were to consist of a senate and congress of deputies ; each 

 province was to return three persons as senators, of whom the SOY 

 was to select one : and there was to be one deputy for every 50,000 souls 

 of the population. The deputies were to be elected for three years, 

 and the cortes were to meet every year. Laws relating to tax. 

 public credit were to be first submitted to the deputies, and if . 

 in the senate were to be returned to the deputies for tin ir ultimate 

 decision. This constitution was in force till Doc. 27, 1843, when the 

 sittings of the cortes were suddenly suxjiendod by a decree ; but in 

 1844 a new cortes was summoned, at which it was proposed that the 

 senators should be named by the crown for life ; that the cortes, in- 

 stead of meeting every year, should only be at the pleasure of the 

 crown ; and that the political offences of the press should not be sub- 

 mitted to a jury ; and in March, 1845, other regulations were n 

 relating to the qualifications of deputies and electors. On t'. 

 pression of the Carlist war the cort> tablishcd in 1848, with 



considerable power by Espartero, who became himself the victim .if 

 the party feeling prevailing among its members. Since that time tin y 

 have been accustomed to meet, and to debate, but have generally 

 been under some sinister influence, either tin- power of the an 

 the corruption of the ministry, anil have . ;i the whole] -I 

 insignificant part in the history of their country during the last twenty 

 years. 



The history of the cortes of Portugal is nearly the same as that of 

 those ef Spain, only that the towns which sen com- 



wer, seldom more than ten or twelve at a time. ;i- 

 iiittuoncc of the privileged orders greater in proportion. Tils nobles 

 .peea become courtiers, as in Spain, the kiiifp reigned in 

 fact absolute. In 1820, while King Jooo VI. was in Brazil, a military 

 insurrection broke out in Portugal, and a constitution was fran 

 imitation of the Spanish one of 181 'J 



an account of these transactions t" 'Portugal Illusr 



1828. After the death of King . I <n, Don Pedro, ;. 



charter to Portugal, establishing a system of 

 with two houses ; this charter was at'tcrw ; 



! l.y Don I'cdro; and has been maintained. \ 

 short interruption in 1836, by i; 'lie pn .-.eni 



The Aragonese, during their period of splendour, ext 

 representative system by brazos or estamentos to the i liuia, 



then subject to the crown of Ara;.; institution n 



till lately under the name of Stanienli. Thc\ 

 crown on particular occasions, chiefly to grant 



but have been now replaced by a r. ,.- ml.'y, meeting at 



Turin. [SARMM i - '>"] 



CORTICIS'. An inodorous, tasteless substance, said to exist 

 bark of the aspen-tree. 



CORVUS, the Crow, Bomen liocause On 



ntullation, in fact, contains a part of the body of Hydra, on which the 

 bird rests. In Aratua, Hydra, Crater, and Corvug form oiiu con- 



