SPAIN. 
were driven from their position with considerable loss, and 
retreated in the direction of Cuenqa. 
The speech pronounced by the King of France to his 
Chambers, being justly considered as tantamount to a de¬ 
claration of hostilities, the ministers now took measures for 
placing the army on a footing of war, and on the 5th of 
February they proposed, that the Cortes should decree an 
additional levy, of thirty thousand men. This was done on 
the following day; at the same time the active militia, cal¬ 
culated to amount to 58,000 men, was rendered disposable, 
and 200 gun-boats were ordered to be fitted out and manned 
for the defence of the coasts and harbours. 
Upon the same occasion, the minister of finance proposed, 
4hat the government should be authorized to receive the 
contributions, in corn, if necessary; a proposition that 
strikingly marks the difficulties under which the public 
treasury must have been labouring. 
As the close of the session of the extraordinary Cortes was 
approaching, it was thought right to provide for the removal 
of the government from Madrid, if circumstances should 
occur to render it necessary. This was opposed by several 
deputies as premature, and only calculated to alarm ; it was, 
however, strongly supported by Arguelles, and finally 
adopted, (Feb. 15) by 84 voices to 63. 
On the 19th, the close of the session took .place. The 
king declined to appear in person on this occasion; and the 
ministers sent to the congress a speech in his name, in which 
his Majesty, after shortly running over the late succession of 
events, -ended by assuring them of his uualterable determi¬ 
nation to support the rights.of the nation. But no one sup¬ 
posed that the ministers in this spoke the real sentiments of 
the king; and when he was requested to transfer the seat of 
-government to some other part of the kingdom, he betrayed an 
invincible repugnance to comply, accused the ministers 
of having acted contrary to his commands in making the 
proposition which had received the legislative sanction, and 
immediately dismissed them from office. As soon as these 
events became public, great agitation took place. A crowd 
collected around the palace, vociferating menaces against the 
person of the king, calling out for a regency, and testifying, 
in every way, their indignation at the dismissal of the mi¬ 
nisters. The ministers w;ere therefor^ replaced in their re¬ 
spective situations, and >the public tranquillity was restored. 
On the following day (the 20th), a multitude met in the 
Place Major, and signed a petition demanding a regency. 
■During this scene of turbulence, which created little alarm, 
and was attended with no excesses, the great body of the 
citizens remained calm and orderly. 
The opening of the ordinary Cortes took place on the 1st 
of March, It was again stated, that the health of the king 
did not permit him to be present in person on this occasion; 
and accordingly his speech was read to the assembly by the 
president. The tenor of it was similar to that of the former 
communications of which this weak prince had so often been 
made the channel. After indignantly adverting to the prin¬ 
ciples avowed by the allied powers, and to the threats con¬ 
veyed in the speech of the King of France, Ferdinand was 
made to go on thus:— 
For my part, I once more offer to the National Congress 
the co-operation of all my efforts to realize hopes which the 
friends of liberal institutions place in Spain, by carrying into 
execution all the measures within the compass of my autho¬ 
rity-to repel force by force. The seasonable removal of my 
person and the Cortes to a point less subject to the influence 
of military operations will paralyze the enemy’s plans, and 
prevent any suspension in the impulse of the Goyernment, 
the action of which ought to be felt in every point of the mo¬ 
narchy.” 
Ferdinand did indeed avail himself of the only means 
which remained to him of publishing his disavowal of the 
speech which he had been made to sign. On the very same 
day he dismissed the whole body of his ministers; but as the 
newly nominated ministry signified reluctance to take office, 
under the present circumstances, the former ministers re¬ 
431 
mained provisionally in the direction of their several depart¬ 
ments. 
On the 2d, a discussion took place in the Cortes, in 
which the necessity of removing the king was violently in¬ 
sisted upon. One of the deputies, Senor Rico, openly de¬ 
clared that the time was come for pronouncing the physical 
incapacity of the king ; which was, in other words, his de¬ 
position ; and this proposition was received with a thunder 
of applause from the galleries. The Cortes, however, con¬ 
tented itself with unanimously adopting a proposition of 
Senor Canga, as amended, by Senor Arguelles, in the 
following terms:—“ That the Government shall to-mor¬ 
row inform the Cortes of the place which his Majesty has 
been pleased to point out for the removal of the Government 
and the Cortes; and also of the measures which have already 
been adopted for carrying the removal into effect.” 
To this short and peremptory intimation of the will and 
pleasure of the Cortes, the king did not think it prudent to 
offer any resistance; accordingly, on the following day, the 
secretary of state for the interior handed to the president a 
communication, which stated that his Majesty, being in¬ 
formed of the resolution of the Cortes, respecting the removal 
of the government, had been pleased to appoint the city of 
Seville, as the place to which the transfer should be effected. 
The ministers now pressed the immediate departure of the 
king, but Ferdinand still urged the state of his health, and 
his physicians declared that they could not be answerable for 
the safety with which his Majesty could undertake the 
journey at present. 
The Cortes, somewhat incredulous as to the serious nature 
of a malady that seemed to occur so conveniently for what 
were known to be his Majesty’s real wishes, appointed a 
commission of nine members, (six of whom were physi¬ 
cians) to inquire into the case. They reported—they were 
of opinion that his Majesty was under no impossibility of 
commencing his journey, while all the cares which were ne¬ 
cessary to the convenience of his royal person might be la¬ 
vished upon him ; and that it was not credible that a journey 
undertaken under such auspices was impracticable, or likely 
to lead to any unpleasant results. 
They proposed, therefore, that a deputation be sent to the 
king to announce to his Majesty that the Cortes hope that 
he would deign to arrange his departure before the 18th of 
the month, and to fix, at present, the precise day and hour 
which he might deem fit to take to begin his journey. 
A deputation was immediately sent from the Cortes to the 
king, and on their return to the hall, they announced that 
his Majesty would be ready to set out on the 17th; but 
that he wished that the journey should be put off to the 20th, 
if the Cortes saw no inconvenience in the alteration; and, 
alter a short discussion, the Cortes decreed that this farther 
delay should be accorded. 
On the 20th, accordingly, at eight in the morning, the 
king, with his family, left Madrid, on the road to Toledo, 
escorted by a detachment of cavalry and infantry, which 
was subsequently reinforced to the amount of above 5000 
men. Two days after, he was followed by the diplomatic 
body, now reduced to the ministers ,o,f England, the Nether¬ 
lands, Sweden, Portugal and the United States. 
In the meanwhile, the Puke of Angouleme had already 
left Paris, March 15th, in order to take the command of the 
invading army. He proceeded, in the first instance, to 
Toulouse, and from thence to Bayonne, where he arrived 
on the 30th. Here the French army was assembled in 
five bodies; the first corps under the Marshal Duke of 
Reggio, was destined to move on Madrid; supported on its 
left flank by the second corps under Count Molitor, and on 
its right and rear by the third, under Prince Hohenlohe; 
the fourth corps, commanded by Count Bourdesoulle, was 
to act as a reserve; besides this, a fi,fth corps, under the com¬ 
mand of Marshal Moncey, Duke of Cornegliano, was de¬ 
stined to occupy Catalonia. The whole army was com¬ 
puted to amount to about 92^000 men, including the Spanish 
royalist division under Espana and Quesada, 
