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The powers of the Cortes are chiefly these: 1st, To move 
and pass the laws; and to interpret and alter them when 
necessary. 2d. To administer the constitutional oaths to 
the King, the Prince of Asturias, &c. 3d, To determine any 
doubt or fact relative to the succession. 4th. To elect a 
regency, and define its powers. 5th. To make the public 
recognition of the Prince of Asturias. 6th. To appoint 
guardians to the king while a minor. 7th. To approve or 
reject treaties previous to ratification. 8th. To allow or re¬ 
fuse the admission of foreign troops into the kingdom. 9th. 
To decree the creation or suppression of offices in the tri¬ 
bunals established by the constitution, as well as of places 
of public trust. 10th. To fix, every year, by the king’s pro¬ 
posal, the land and sea forces. 11th. To regulate the military 
code in all its branches. 12th. To fix the expenses of the 
government. 13th. To impose taxes, contract loans, and 
direct every thing relating to the revenue. 14th. To esta¬ 
blish a plan of public instruction, and direct the education of 
the Prince of Asturias. 15th. To protect the political 
liberty of the press. 16th. To enforce the responsibility of 
the secretaries of state, and other persons in office. 
Laws may be proposed, in writing, by any one of the 
deputies. Two days after the motion, the bill is to be read a 
second time. It is then determined whether the subject is to 
be debated, or to be referred to a committee. Four days 
after the bill has been voted worthy of discussion, it is read a 
third time, and a day is appointed for the debate. A majo¬ 
rity of votes decides the fate of the bill: the members pre¬ 
sent on these occasions must exceed the half of their total 
number by one. 
The powers of the king are, 1st. To suspend the passing 
of a law by withholding his sanction. He can exercise this 
power against any decree of the Cortes, for two consecutive 
sessions; but is compelled to give his assent if the same law 
is passed by three Cortes successively. 2d. The executive 
power resides exclusively in the king, and extends to what¬ 
ever relates to the preservation of public order in the interior, 
and to the external security of the state, according to the 
constitution and the laws. The privileges and duties of the 
executive are thus detailed in the constitution: the king may 
issue decrees, regulations, and instructions, for the more 
effectually enforcing of the laws;—it is his duty to watch 
over the administration of justice;—he declares war, and 
makes peace, under the control of the Cortes;—he appoints 
judges to all the civil and criminal courts, on the presenta¬ 
tion of the council of state ;-—all civil and military employ¬ 
ments are of the king’s appointment;—he presents to all 
bishopricks, ecclesiastical dignities and benefices which may 
be in the gift of the crown; all by the advice of the council 
of state;—the king is the fountain of honour; the army 
and the navy are at his command, and he has the appoint¬ 
ment of generals and admirals;—he has the right of coinage, 
and the privilege of impressing his bust on the metallic cur¬ 
rency of the realm ;—the king can propose new laws, or 
amendments to those in existence.—It belongs also to him 
to circulate or withhold the Pope’s rescripts and bulls;—he 
can choose and dismiss his own ministers. 
The following checks are laid on the king’s authority by 
the constitution:— 
1st. The king cannot prevent the meeting of the Cortes at 
the periods fixed by the constitution; neither can he dis¬ 
solve them or disturb their sittings. His advisers and abettors, 
in such attempts are guilty of treason. 2d. If the king should 
quit the kingdom without the consent of the Cortes, he is 
understood to have abdicated the crown. 3d. The king can¬ 
not alienate any part of the Spanish territory. 4th. He can¬ 
not abdicate the crown in favour of his successor without 
the consent of the Cortes. 5th. He cannot enter into any 
pdlitical alliance, or make commercial treaties without the 
consent of the Cortes. 6th. He cannot grant privileges or 
monopolies. 7th. The king cannot disturb any individual 
in the enjoyment of his property, nor deprive him of his 
personal liberty. If the interest of the state should require 
the arrest of any individual by virtue of a royal order, the 
prisoner must be delivered over to a competent tribunal 
. I N. 
within eight-and-forty hours. 8th. The king cannot marry' 
without the consent of the Cortes; he is supposed to abdi¬ 
cate the crown by taking a wife against their will. 
The Council of State is composed of forty individuals, 
viz. two bishops, two priests, and four grandees; the other 
thirty-two must not belong to any of these classes. The 
members of the Council of State shall be chosen by the king 
out of a triple list presented to him by the Cortes. The 
Councillors of State cannot be removed without a trial be¬ 
fore the Supreme Court of Justice. Their salary is fixed by 
the Cortes. The functions of this Council of State are to 
advise the king on all important matters of government, and 
especially upon giving or refusing his sanction to the laws, 
declaring war, or making treaties. The king, besides, can¬ 
not bestow any ecclesiastical benefice, or appoint any judge, 
but at the proposal of the Council of State, who, upon every 
vacancy, are to confine his choice to one out of three in¬ 
dividuals, whose names they are to lay before his majesty. 
The laws for the security of personal liberty are these, 1st. 
No Spaniard can be imprisoned without a summary pro¬ 
cess, wherein he is credibly charged with the infraction of 
some law which subjects the offender to corporal punish¬ 
ment ; 2d. The arrest cannot take place without the warrant 
of a competent judge ; 3d. Prisoners are not to be examined 
upon oath; 4th. The gaoler shall keep a register of the 
prisoners, expressing the warrant, and the alleged cause of 
confinement. 
Such are the main articles of the Spanish Constitution ; a 
production which, considering the circumstances of its ap¬ 
pearance, highly deserves the attention of the politician and 
the philosopher. Spain had been for ages under the most 
effectual restraints which can be laid on the human mind, to 
prevent its dwelling upon subjects connected with the autho¬ 
rity of civil and ecclesiastical rules. Few Spaniards, out of 
the learned professions, devoted any part of their time to 
reading. The knowledge of the clergy was generally limited 
to scholastic divinity, as that of the lawyers to the forms of 
the civil courts. A small proportion of both classes had 
privately ventured to look beyond the bounds which church 
and government had set to their speculations, and, books 
being smuggled from France, an inconsiderable number 
were become initiated in the principles of the French 
Philosophical School. The seeds of doubt and dissent, in 
matters of religion and policy, had greatly spread for the 
last forty years; but the bulk of the nation was still without 
a thought on these subjects, and blindly followed the im¬ 
pulse which time and habit had given them. The events 
which dethroned Charles IV. had no farther broken these 
habits than merely to show the people how effectually they 
could oppose their own will to the constituted authorities. 
But their loyalty was not impaired by their successful efforts. 
The name of Ferdinand VII. was the great bond of union 
which preserved the Spaniards from anarchy. To defend 
the authority of the crown was the only object of their 
general insurrection; and, having deposited its unbounded 
powers in the hands of a few, the people retired to their 
homes, setting no limits to their obedience. 
Had not the progress of the French armies dispersed the 
Central Junta, and concentrated the fugitive patriots at 
Cadiz, it is more than probable that the Cortes would have 
been assembled according to the ancient forms, and that the 
privileged classes, supported by the majority of the nation, 
would have defeated any attempt to alter the old constitu¬ 
tion. But Cadiz offered to that party, which has been since 
known by the name of Liberal, the most favourable oppor¬ 
tunity of striking a deadly blow at the very root of the 
monarchical power, under which they had so long groaned. 
From its maritime position, its commercial interests, and 
the foreign extraction of many of its inhabitants, Cadiz has, 
at all times, exhibited a scene of life so different from that 
which strikes the observer in the interior, that, upon enter¬ 
ing its walls, he might imagine himself suddenly transported 
out of the kingdom. There, instead of the national preju¬ 
dices in favour of birth, he might perceive the pride of 
wealth, and an ill disguised impatience of all other claims to 
respect 
