416 
S P A I N. 
advanced as far as Vittoria, when he was left by Savary, 
and he found himself surrounded by French troops. He 
was compelled to remain at Vittoria, until Savary, who 
had proceeded to Bayonne, where Buonaparte then was, 
should return and intimate to him the pleasure of his master. 
When the general returned, he brought with him a letter from 
Napoleon to Ferdinand. In this letter, which is addressed 
to Ferdinand as prince of Asturias, and not as king of Spain, 
Buonaparte assured the prince, that the sole object of bis 
journey into Spain was to make such reforms in that kingdom 
as would be agreeable to the public feelings. Without pre¬ 
tending to judge respecting the late revolution, he cautions 
Ferdinand against the danger to be apprehended from sove¬ 
reigns permitting their subjects to take justice into their own 
hands. After insinuating his own power over the royal fa¬ 
mily of Spain, and adverting to the tumults that had taken 
place, in which some of his troops had fallen, he makes use 
of the following expression, “ A few of my soldiers may be 
murdered; but the subjugation of Spain shall be the con¬ 
sequence of it.” 
Ferdinand confounded at the conduct of the French em¬ 
peror, and alarmed for his own personal safety, was com¬ 
pelled to proceed on his journey. When he arrived at 
Bayonne he was received by the prince of Neufchatel and 
Duroc, and was conducted lo a place by no means suited to 
his rank or his character as ally of Buonaparte. He however 
dined with the emperor; but after he had retired, General 
Savary brought a message from his master, intimating his 
determination that the present royal family of Spain should 
give up to him all right and title to the crown of that king¬ 
dom, and that they should be succeeded by a branch of his 
own family. Astonished at this intimation, Ferdinand sent 
his prime minister Cevallos, to canvas the matter with M. 
Champagny, the confidential secretary of Napoleon. The 
conference was held in an apartment adjoining the cabinet 
of the emperor, and, as it appeared, within his hearing : for 
when Cevallos was arguing with great warmth and strength 
of reasoning on the injustice and even impolicy of the pro¬ 
posed measures, both he and Champagny were ordered into 
the emperor’s presence; and the former was reviled in the 
grossest terms, branded with the appellation of a traitor, ac¬ 
cused of having maintained that the recognition of Buona¬ 
parte was not necessary to the validity of his master’s title to 
the throne of Spain, and of having affirmed that if the French 
dared to attack the independence of the Spanish monarchy, 
three hundred thousand men would rise to defend it and 
repel the invaders. After Napoleon had thus indulged the 
violence of his temper, he entered in a harsh and arrogant 
style on a discussion of the points in dispute between his 
secretary and Cevallos: and finding that he could neither 
convince nor silence the Spanish minister, he abruptly con¬ 
cluded with the following peremptory declaration: “ I have a 
system of policy of my own; you ought to adopt more 
liberal ideas, to be less susceptible on the point of honour, 
and not sacrifice the prosperity of Spain to the interest of the 
House of Bourbon.” From this time the destiny of the 
Spanish royal family was fixed. Ferdinand, the monarch of 
the people’s choice, was already a captive, aud not many days 
elapsed before the rest of the royal family was in the same 
situation. On the first of May, Ferdinand had made a con¬ 
ditional renunciation of his crown in favour of his father, 
and on the fifth of the same month, Buonaparte had a long 
conversation with Charles the Fourth and his queen. Ferdi¬ 
nand was called in by his father, to hear, in the presence of 
him and the queen, the disgusting and humiliating expres¬ 
sions which were uttered by the French emperor; expressions 
of such a nature, that Cevallos says he dares not record them. 
All the parties were seated except Ferdinand; he was ordered 
by his father to make an absolute renunciation of the crown, 
on pain of being treated as an usurper and a conspirator 
against the right of his parents. With this requisition Fer¬ 
dinand complied, and thus completed the abdication of his 
family; for it appeared that on the preceding day, Charles 
had executed the deed of resignation, which transferred to the 
emperor of the French his title to the crown of Spain, on 
consideration of receiving during his life an annuity of 
eighty millions of reals, of a dowry to his queen of two mil¬ 
lions of reals, and to the infantas of Spain the annual sum of 
four hundred thousand livres. 
Thus had Buonaparte effected the transference of the 
Spanish nation from the Bourbon dynasty to his own family, 
so far at least as that transference could be effected by the 
formal renunciation in his favour of the royal family, and 
by a strong but suspicious recommendation from them to the 
Spanish nation to receive their new sovereign, whoever he 
should be, with submission and obedience. 
It was soon understood that Napoleon designed the crown 
of Spain for his brother Joseph, who had some time before 
been placed on the throne of Naples. In an address to the 
Spanish nation, which Buonaparte published immediately 
after the abdication of Charles and Ferdinand, he informed 
them that he did not mean to reign over them in person, but 
that he would give them a sovereign every way resembling 
himself. In the beginning of June, Joseph Buonaparte 
arrived in the neighbourhood of Bayonne, where he was re¬ 
ceived by a deputation of the grandees of Spain and from 
the council of Castile, and presented with a congratulatory 
address, written in the usual fulsome style of adulation. 
But though Ihe nomination of Joseph Buonaparte was 
easily effected, it was not so easy to place him on the throne 
in opposition to the almost unanimous will of the Spanish 
nation. Ferdinand the Seventh was the darling of the people, 
and his accession to the crown had been hailed by them, 
both as placing them under the dominion of a beloved 
monarch, and as releasing them from the tyranny of Godoy, 
who was an object of almost universal detestation. They 
had hitherto submitted with patience to the influence and 
power of France, hopeless of rescuing themselves while 
Charles possessed the throne, and while the prince of the 
Peace directed his councils; but the accession of Ferdinand, 
and the consequent disgrace of the favourite, had led them 
to hope that they should now find a sovereign willing to 
direct and assist their efforts to regain their independence. 
Under these expectations, a great part of the nation had come 
forward to offer their assistance in supporting the claims of 
the new monarch. The province of Catalonia, the most in¬ 
dustrious and the most warlike of the Spanish nation, par¬ 
ticularly distinguished itself by the promptitude and extent 
of its offers. Soon after Ferdinand had ascended the throne, 
the captain-general of Catalonia, relying on the well known 
resources and dispositions of the inhabitants, had come for¬ 
ward with an offer of a military force of above a hundred 
thousand men; and other provinces would have followed this 
example, but Ferdinand had discouraged these military pre¬ 
parations, and appeared willing to submit quietly to French 
bondage. 
The spirit which had animated the Spaniards thus boldly 
to support their sovereign, was not of a nature to be chilled by 
his timidity or repressed by his example. The renunciation of 
the royal family in favour of Buonaparte was no sooner 
known in Spain, than the northern provinces burst into open 
insurrection. Asturias and Gallicia set the example; and it 
was soon followed by almost every part of Spain, not im¬ 
mediately occupied or overawed by the armies of France. 
One of the first steps taken by the leaders of the insurrec¬ 
tion was, to assemble the juntas or general assemblies of the 
provinces. When these were organized, they issued procla¬ 
mations, calling on the Spaniards to rise in defence of their 
sovereign, and in the assertion of their own independence. 
Besides these proclamations from the provincial juntas, ad¬ 
dresses were published in almost every province by the leaders 
of the popular cause ; in particular, the province of Arragon 
was addressed by Palafox, a name celebrated in the annals of 
the Spanish revolution, in a bold and spirited manifesto. 
The junta of Seville, which assembled on the 27th of May, 
formed itself into a supreme junta of government, caused 
Ferdinand to be proclaimed king of Spain, took possession 
of the military stores, and issued an order for all males from 
16 to 45, who had not children, to enroll themselves in the 
national armies. 
It 
