33S 



SPAIN. 



raised a new constitution, founded on liberal ;inn- 

 ciples, in place of that of the cortes, declared his 

 abhorrence of despotism, and promised security of 

 property and person, liberty of the press, &c., none 

 of these promises was fulfilled. The persecutions 

 for political offences produced disturbances and con- 

 spiracies in different parts of the country. A great 

 number of officers, who had aided in the restoration 

 of Ferdinand, were executed as conspirators, on 

 account of their opposition to the domineering pre- 

 tensions of the monks. The army was in the high- 

 est degree disaffected to these proceedings, and 

 guerillas, or bands of soldiers, infested the interior. 

 Even the lower classes, though averse from liberal 

 principles, were discontented with the severity of 

 the government, while the better classes were di- 

 vided into the hostile factions of the servilesand 

 the liberals. Those counsellors who ventured to 

 remonstrate with the king, as the Empecinado, 

 Ballesteros, &c., were banished or thrown into 

 prison. For six years, Ferdinand reigned with 

 absolute power (18141820.) 



The dispute with the court of Brazil, which had 

 occupied the Banda Oriental while Spain refused 

 to give up Olivenza to Portugal, would have re- 

 sulted in the invasion of Portugal, but for the in- 

 terference of the British. In 1820, Spain ceded 

 Florida to the United States, for the sum of 

 5,000,0000 dollars. Preparations were meanwhile 

 making against the American insurgents, who were 

 declared rebels by the king, and required to submit 

 themselves unconditionally. These preparations 

 served only to exhaust the resources of the state ; 

 and the insurgent privateers captured Spanish ves- 

 sels in sight of the coast, while the Spanish officers 

 were literally dying of hunger. Cadiz at length 

 obtained permission to fit out frigates, at its own 

 expense, for the protection of its trade. The 

 people were oppressed with extraordinary taxes, 

 and recourse was had to loans. The sentence of 

 the arrested members of the cortes was finally- 

 pronounced by the king, after repeated dissolu- 

 tions of the commissions named for that pur- 

 pose, on account of their mild proceedings. They 

 were condemned to imprisonment in the for- 

 tresses and African presidios, or banished to the 

 convents, or obliged to enter the army. From 1814 

 to 1819, there were twenty-five changes in the 

 ministry, mostly sudden, and attended with severi- 

 ties. They were produced by the influence of the 

 camarilla, or persons in the personal service of the 

 king. Every attempt to save the state was frus- 

 trated by such counsellors, and the overthrow of 

 this ancient monarchy was accelerated by the loss 

 of the American colonies. The army was the in- 

 strument of its fall ; several conspiracies had been 

 organized by the officers for the restoration of the 

 constitution of the cortes, and Porlier, Mina, Lacy 

 and Vidal, were successively the leaders of the con. 

 spirators. Mina had been obliged to save himself 

 by flight ; the others had been executed, and their 

 friends had suffered on the rack, or been thrown 

 into prison. The army was indisposed to the Ame- 

 rican service, for which it was destined, and the 

 officers favourable to the constitution of the cortes, 

 took advantage of the state of feeling to effect their 

 own purposes ; whole regiments had determined not 

 to embark, and the commander himself, O'Donnel, 

 count del Abisbal, was in the secret. But finding 

 his ambitious project of becoming dictator of the 

 monarchy frustrated by the civil authority, he 

 caused a division of troops which had given the sig- 



nal of insurrection to be disarmed (July 8, 1819) 

 and the officers, 123 in number, to be arrested. Th 

 embarkation of the troops was fixed for January ; 

 but, on the first day of the month, four battalions, 

 under Riego, proclaimed the constitution of 1812, 

 surrounded the head quarters of general Callejo, 

 who had succeeded O'Donntl in the command, took 

 possession of the town of Isla de Leon, and deli- 

 vered the officers arrested in July, among whom 

 was Quiroga. The insurgents were unsuccessful 

 in their attack on Cadiz, but occupied La Caracca, 

 where the naval arsenal, a ship of the line, and 

 other vessels of war, with some transports, fell into 

 their hands. Quiroga declared, in the name of the 

 army of the nation the title assumed by the insur- 

 gents that it was their purpose to obtain from the 

 king the acceptance of the constitution. All at- 

 tempts to engage the people of Cadiz in the cause, 

 were frustrated by the influence of the bishop of 

 Cienfuegos. Meanwhile the troops in Seville had 

 put general Freyre in command ; and the king had 

 confirmed him in the post on account of his popu- 

 larity among the soldiers. Freyre endeavoured, 

 without success, to detach the insurgents from their 

 leaders by promises of amnesty ; but he did not 

 venture to attack them, from fears of the fidelity of 

 his own soldiers. Riego, at the head of a troop of 

 2500 men, now occupied Algesiras, entered Malaga, 

 and, after some fighting with O'Donnel, advanced 

 through Eeija and Cordova to Antequera, while the 

 national army, under Quiroga, in addresses to the 

 king and to the nation declared their only object 

 was to save their country by the restoration of the 

 constitution, which had already been accepted by 

 the nation. Risings now took place in all quarters 

 in favour of the constitution of the cortes ; the 

 royal forces joined the insurgents ; Freyre himself 

 was obliged to proclaim-the constitution in Seville; 

 and Ferdinand, abandoned, by his own troops, was 

 obliged to yield to the general cry, and, by procla- 

 mation of March 8, declared himself ready to sum- 

 mon the cortes of 1812, and accept the constitution 

 of that year. On the same day, a general amnesty 

 was proclaimed. On the 9th, a provisory junta of 

 eleven members was named, to conduct the affairs 

 till the meeting of cortes ; and Ferdinand swore to 

 observe the constitution in presence of this body, 

 and of the municipal authorities of Madrid. The 

 inquisition was abolished on the 10th, as inconsis- 

 tent with the constitution, and obnoxious ministers, 

 &c., were succeeded by others favourable to con- 

 stitutional principles. In place of the Council of 

 Castile, and that of the Indies, a supreme judicial 

 tribunal, with appropriate subordinate courts, was 

 established, national guards were organized in the 

 provinces, the municipal authorities were made to 

 conform to the constitution, and the cortes finally 

 assembled, July 9. It was composed of 149 de- 

 puties for the peninsula, and, in place of regular 

 deputies from America, of thirty delegates of the 

 Americans in Spain. In a session of four months, 

 this body endeavoured to moderate the violence ot 

 the liberals, to restore the afrancesados to their 

 rights, to counteract the machinations of the serviles, 

 and to heal the wounds of the country. But the 

 abolition of many of the convents, and of the majo- 

 rates, the banishment of the non-juring clergy, and 

 some other of their measures, excited discontents. 

 An apostolical j unta established itself on the frontiers 

 of Portugal, and in several provinces, bands of pea- 

 sants, monks, and guerilla soldiers were formed, for 

 the purpose of restoring the privileges of the crown 



