SPAIN. 
429 
loyalty of an able general, he still would have found fidelity 
among the soldiers, and a great part of the officers. 
Abisbal was still at Madrid; and his late important ser¬ 
vice gave hopes that he would be faithful to the king, for 
whose sake he had sacrificed the honour he had pledged to 
the patriots. It was considered improbable that he would 
change a fourth time in his politics; and he was, accord¬ 
ingly, invested with the command of the army of La Mancha. 
But, before he quitted Madrid, on the 3d of March, he had 
plotted with the colonels and superior officers of the gar¬ 
rison, engaging to declare for the constitution as soon as he 
should reach Ocana, where one of his brothers commanded 
a battalion of infantry. True to this last engagement, 
Abisbal proclaimed the constitutional system, the day after 
he had quitted the court. He established a communication 
with the patriots of La Isla, and left thefinal completion of the 
revolution to his reconciled friends, the liberals of Madrid. 
The account of the military insurrection at Ocana did not 
fail to produce the effect which had been prepared by the 
Constitutionalists of the capital. An immense crowd sur¬ 
rounded the royal palace, who called on Ferdinand to ac¬ 
cept the constitution. Things had now come to a point 
where there was no room for deliberation. The king ap¬ 
peared at the balcony, holding a copy of the constitution in 
his hand, as a pledge of his readiness to swear observance to 
its laws. As, according to that code, the monarch cannot 
exercise his portion of authority till he has taken the oath 
therein prescribed, a committee of government was installed, 
who should convoke the Cortes, in whose presence alone the 
king can perform those acts which put him in full possession 
of his constitutional rights. 
The instant dispersion of that abominable tribunal, the In¬ 
quisition, and the liberation of the state prisoners, whom 
Ferdinand allowed to linger in confinement, were the first 
acts of the Spanish Liberals. 
As it has been our study so to perform this rapid sketch, 
as to put the reader in possession of such facts as may enable 
him to understand the principles and temper of the two great 
parties which contend for political power in Spain, We can¬ 
not omit the bloody and disgraceful scene which took place 
at Cadiz on the 10th of March, the day which had been 
appointed to proclaim the Constitution. 
. The Captain-General Freyre, on the receipt of dispatches 
announcing the king’s acceptance of the Constitution, re¬ 
paired to Cadiz from Port St. Mary’s, in the afternoon of 
the 9th of March. The impatience of the triumphant party 
to have the Constitution proclaimed, scarcely allowed him 
to postpone that ceremony till the next morning. But a 
desire that the chiefs of the patriotic army, whom he had in¬ 
vited, should be present, was a sufficient reason to check the 
eagerness of the people. Quiroga, the patriot general, w'as, 
however, too well acquainted with the temper and dispo¬ 
sitions of his enemies, to acquiesce in the demand that he 
should disband his troops, and allow the unarmed soldiers 
to mix with the citizens, at the ensuing solemnity. Four 
officers alone, preceded by a flag of truce, were sent to wit¬ 
ness the proclamation. Being admitted to the presence of 
the Captain-General, the evident uneasiness under which 
they perceived him labouring, and some expressions indi¬ 
cating a degree of anxiety for their safety, had just begun to 
raise their fears, when the report of musquetry, mixed with 
the cries of the suffering, or affrighted multitude, suddenly 
changed suspicion into the most appalling certainty. Freyre 
hastened out of the house, without providing for the safety 
of the deputies, who were yet so fortunate as to find the 
means of escaping the fury of their enemies. 
In the mean time, the most atrocious massacre was taking 
place in the streets, and in the principal square of Cadiz, 
where the people had assembled to witness the proclamation. 
The instruments of this barbarous deed were the privates 
and non-commissioned officers of two battalions of infantry, 
called the Guides, and the Loyalists of Ferdinand the 
Seventh, Instigated, as it is believed, by the governor of 
the town, and the chiefs of the royalist party, the soldiers 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1581. 
had engaged to disperse the multitude, and prevent the in¬ 
tended ceremony. Large quantities of wine and spirits had 
been sent to the barracks, so that the men were in a state 
bordering upon intoxication, when they broke out with their 
arms. From the moment these monsters were loosed, they 
continued firing, indiscriminately, upon the people, till their 
ammunition was exhausted. About five hundred persons, 
men, women, and children, were seen in the streets of Cadiz, 
dead, dying, or wounded, before the authorities of the place 
had taken any measure to stop the massacre. Some officers 
of the Andalusian militia, not on duty, ran, of their own 
accord, to their barracks, and, drawing up in great haste 
part of the men, sallied forth into the streets, where they 
exercised themselves, with the utmost zeal, in protecting the 
lives of the defenceless citizens, and giving help to the 
wounded. The deputies from the patriotic army, coming 
forward from their places of concealment, surrendered them¬ 
selves into the hands of the Captain-General, who, still 
hoping some favourable turn in the affairs of the royalists, 
confined them within the Castle of Saint Sebastian. Indeed, 
so blindly confident were the leaders of that party that the 
insurrection would yet be quelled, as to have ventured on 
giving public thanks to the assassins. But the next dis¬ 
patches from Madrid put an end to their hopes. The depu¬ 
ties were set at liberty. 
The Constitutional System being now completely restored, 
and in action, the Cortes assembled at Madrid in June, 1820, 
and the king took his solemn oath, before them, on the 9th 
of the following month. 
The Cortes Extraordinary, which were convened on the 
restoration of the constitution, contained most of the patriots 
who had suffered during the arbitrary reign of Ferdinand— 
the original contrivers and supporters of the constitution. 
This was a measure which the military reformers of the Isla 
could not, and, probably, were not disposed, at that time, 
to oppose. But the seeds of jealousy between the two parlies, 
the contending claims of the liberators, and those they had 
set free, could not remain dormant and inactive. The Isla. 
Patriots naturally aspired to the first places and influence in 
the state: the Old Liberals soon felt their own dependence 
and inferiority. The Secret Societies were now more active 
than ever, and a rivalship between the Free-masons and the 
Comuneros grew out of the different principles adopted 
by each of these parties, who, in their character and views, 
might be compared to the Old Whigs and the Radical 
Reformers in England: The Free-masons, however, soon 
found themselves defeated; and those who had been forced 
upon Ferdinand, as his ministers, were displaced to make 
room for the friends of the revolutionary army. 
The Cortes, though elected under the influence of the 
triumphant party, and acting under the direction of the 
popular leaders and their emissaries, who were regularly 
stationed in the galleries of the House, exhibited a degree 
of moderation which does honour to the national character. 
The measures of retaliation were limited, and infinitely 
less severe than those in which the king’s friends had in¬ 
dulged. Even the most violent democrats, those who had 
placed themselves at the head of the populace, were satis¬ 
fied, for a time, with the awe into which the Revolution had 
thrown their opponents. Still it has not been in the power 
of the new government to establish themselves without en¬ 
croaching upon the rights of the church, and, thereby, con¬ 
firming the suspicions of infidelity, under which all denomin¬ 
ations of Liberals have long lain among the Spaniards. 
To steer clear of this rock exceeded the powers of human 
wisdom. The Cortes Extraordinary, as well as the Ordi¬ 
nary, which succeeded them, contained a large proportion 
of the talent, though scarcely any of the rank and property 
of the country. Most of the clergymen, and perhaps all 
the lawyers, who had obtained seats, belonging to that class 
of Spaniards, who, free from religious prejudices, but 
having no system of their own to support upon these points, 
would shrink from an open contest with the zealots, without, 
however, letting pass an opportunity of showing their spite, 
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