SPAIN. 
425 
respect and influence. But if the rich merchants decked them¬ 
selves with the marks of distinction so eagerly coveted by 
Spaniards, they still wore them without ease or satisfaction. 
Apparently raised by these externals to the ranks of the old 
titled gentry, the new' marquis or knight still found himself 
but little removed above those of his former condition. He 
could not meet with the hereditary deference which the Ca¬ 
ballero of the interior found in the labouring classes. Cadiz, 
in its days of prosperity had no poor; for, while a stream 
of w'ealth was poured in from the American colonies, the sea 
forbad its population to spread beyond the limits of comfort¬ 
able subsistence. The line of distinction between the higher 
and the lower classes was, therefore, less marked than in 
other large towns of the peninsula; and, when the season of 
mercantile prosperity was over, as the depression was general, 
it left the various classes at the same proportionable distance. 
Cadiz cherished, thus, a republican spirit. The line which 
divided her rich and her poor, her workmen and their em¬ 
ployers, was almost imperceptible when compared with the 
gulf of prejudice and pride which separated the merchant 
from the grandee. Thus, undivided by jealousies of rank, 
and feeling in common that impatience of political superio¬ 
rity which is inherent to the human heart, the people of 
Cadiz were ready to greet any prospect of change in the 
monarchical and aristocratical system of the country. 
All that was wanting to bring these dispositions into action, 
and give them a definite aim, was driven into Cadiz by the 
advance ot the French armies within sight of its walls. Ma¬ 
drid had, for a long time, been the resort of the most en¬ 
lightened Spaniards; the only spot where persons, who had 
embraced liberal principles, could feel the oppressive yoke 
of religious tyranny somewhat eased on their necks. As 
they generally belonged to that numerous class of the Span¬ 
ish gentry who look up ,to the patronage of government for 
the means of subsistence, the court drew them together from 
the provinces. On the prospect of the political changes 
which the captivity of Ferdinand opened to the country, 
these men attached themselves to the Central Junta, and 
finally followed its members in their flight from Seville to 
Cadiz. Thither, too, flocked all the stragglers of the philo¬ 
sophical party; and, on the dissolution of that dull, dilatory 
knot of ill-assorted men, who, under the veil of dignified 
gravity,- had for a time concealed their unfitness to direct the 
nation, the Spanish speculates found themselves in the 
midst of a population highly disposed to listen to their doc¬ 
trines, to embrace their views, and constitute them the 
organs of the new laws which were to remodel the kingdom. 
The majority of the first Cortes being composed of the 
class of men whom, by anticipation, we have called Libe¬ 
rates, the project of a Constitution was immediately set on 
foot, and a committee of the ablest members appointed to 
draw up the fundamental code of the monarchy. Such a 
task, at all times arduous, was, in the present circumstances 
of the country, beset with peculiar difficulties. The legis¬ 
lators, confined within the walls of a town where innova¬ 
tions could not fail to be popular, went through their task 
under a strong delusion, mistaking their own wishes and the 
applause of the surrounding multitude for the sense of the 
nation. Encouraged by the absence of the king, placed be¬ 
yond any check from the privileged classes, and the weight 
of the landed property of the country, it is surprising that 
the framers of the new constitution were not more rash than 
they appear in the code, of which we have laid an abstract 
before our readers. 
We strongly suspect, however, that the authors of the 
Spanish constitution were less disposed to consider the real 
sense of the nation, than to prepare, in their code, the most 
effectual means of working a radical change in the public 
mind. 
On one subject alone the authors of the Constitution 
yielded to national prejudice without reserve or modification. 
The article on religion is, unfortunately, an accurate expres¬ 
sion of the opinions which the mass of the Spanish nation 
hold upon that point. But the Liberates meant more than 
they dared to express—the bigots gained all they wanted. 
Voj,. XXIII. No. 1580. 
Thus, while victory was apparently on the side of the for¬ 
mer, the latter held, in the religious intolerance of the coun¬ 
try, now raised into a constitutional law, the strongest 
pledge of a future and more permanent triumph. The events 
which followed the return of Ferdinand must convince every 
impartial judge, that the great mass of the Spaniards were 
not disposed to second the views of the Liberates; and that, 
if the constitution has, at a later period, had influence 
enough to arm one p: rt of the kingdom in its defence, it 
owes this support to the injustice and misconduct of the 
court faction after the restoration, and not to an original 
attachment on the part of the people. 
The rapid series of misfortunes which had shaken the 
imperial throne of France to its foundations, opened the way 
for the return of the captive Ferdinand to Madrid. But an 
absence of six years, employed by the friends of constitu¬ 
tional liberty in disseminating the principles of political 
reform, and fomenting a spirit of jealousy against the crown, 
had now created an active party, who dreaded the appear¬ 
ance of a monarch, born and bred a despot, among a people 
whose habits were those of implicit obedience. 
By a decree of the Cortes, the king was suspended from 
the exercise of all power till he should take the oath which 
the new constitution prescribed. A route was made out for 
his journey from the frontiers to Madrid, and an escort di¬ 
rected to watch over him in his progress. The Cardinal, 
president of the Regency, was to meet his royal relative on 
the road, under strict injunctions not to perform the usual 
ceremony of kissing the king’s hand. General Copons, the 
military commander of Catalonia, was made the bearer of 
copies of the constitution, and of the decree which suspended 
the royal authority. These he was to deliver into the hands 
of Ferdinand on the frontiers of the kingdom. 
The king entered the Spanish territory on the 24th of 
March, 1814, and followed the route prescribed by the 
Cortes, till the vicinity of Zaragoza afforded him a pretext 
for visiting that renowned scene of Spanish patriotism. He 
soon perceived a general indifference to the constitution 
among the lower classes; a jealousy of the new men who 
had risen into importance by means of the late changes; 
and a revival of those feelings of passive loyalty which the 
unbounded power of the Spanish monarchs, during so many 
centuries, had blended with the national character. From 
Zaragoza, Ferdinand repaired to Valencia, a city well af¬ 
fected to the crown, where Elio, a royalist general, had the 
command of a considerable body of troops. Thither flocked 
many grandees and dignitaries of the church, anxious to 
inform the king of the turn of public opinion in favour of 
an absolute monarchy. 
Elio, in the name of his military division, presented a 
memorial to. the king, in which he was entreated to govern 
in the manner of his ancestors. A petition, signed by sixty- 
nine members of the sitting Cortes, reached the king, about 
this time, describing that body as a mere tool in the hands 
of a republican party, without freedom of debate, and acting 
under the controul of a mob. 
On the 4th of May, 1814, a decree was solemnly pro¬ 
mulgated, in which the Cortes were declared illegal, and all 
their laws consequently rescinded. The spirit of the worst 
times of the Spanish monarchy seemed to have dictated this 
first act of the restored Ferdinand—that king for whom 
Spaniards of all classes, opinions, and denominations, had 
been lavish of their blood. Having thus announced his in¬ 
tention to wipe off the memory of constitutional freedom, he 
set off for the capital, preceded by a division of Elio’s army, 
under the command of General Eguia. These troops found 
no resistance either on their way to Madrid, or upon enter¬ 
ing that town. The people, on the contrary, seemed ge¬ 
nerally disposed to greet the approach of the absolute king. 
The Cortes, thus despised and neglected by the majority of 
the Spaniards, and internally cankered by the presence of a 
strong party, who had constantly aimed at the destruction 
of the system which they had sworn to support, were in¬ 
stantly dispersed by the soldiers. The arrest of the two in¬ 
ferior agents, Agfi and Ciscar, and of the president and 
5 Q secretary 
