438 
SPAIN. 
The report was sanctioned by the Cortes; additional and 
almost unlimited powers were given to the government, and 
to the junta, which was specially charged with the arrange¬ 
ment and enforcement of the measures judged necessary for 
the defence of the town. It is difficult, however, to believe 
that either the minister or the Cortes could seriously en¬ 
tertain any hope of being able to hold out much longer; and 
the loss of the fort Santi Petri (Sept. 20), which formed the 
key of the right of their position in the island, seemed to 
render their situation nearly hopeless. On the 23d, the 
French fleet opened a bombardment on the town, which 
was set on fire in several places; and the despair of the 
citizens now became almost universal; a disposition to 
revolt was manifested by the regular troops, and was only 
kept down by the militia of Madrid, which alone seemed 
to retain something of determination and courage amid the 
despair which depressed all around them. 
In the meanwhile, the besieging army were hastening on 
every side their preparations for a general assault; and neither 
the naval or military commanders, when required by the 
minister to state their opinions as to the means of defence 
possessed by the place, attempted to dissemble the inade¬ 
quacy of them. The report of their opinions were laid 
before the Cortes on the 28th; and the members could no 
longer resist the conviction, that all farther resistance was 
unavailable. Accordingly, a resolution was passed, by a 
majority of sixty votes to thirty, declaring that the king was 
restored to his former authority, and that a deputation should 
be sent to him, begging his Majesty to proceed to the French 
head-quarters, there to stipulate such conditions as should 
be most favourable to the welfare of his afflicted people. 
The deputation proceeded immediately to the custom-house, 
where the king had resided since his arrival at Cadiz, and 
were admitted to an audience. Ferdinand is said to have 
expressed his satisfaction at the decree of the Cortes, and to 
have promised his pardon and protection to all persons con¬ 
cerned in the late events. 
At eleven o’clock on the 1st of October, Ferdinand, ac¬ 
companied by his family, embarked on board a sloop, and 
in half an hour reached the port, where he was received on 
his landing by the Duke d’Angouleme, surrounded by his 
staff, and backed by an immense multitude of people. 
The first exertion of Ferdinand’s recovered authority, gave 
but an unfavourable augury of what was to follow. On the 
same day of his arrival at Port St. Mary, he issued a decree 
which pronounced all the acts of the government called Con¬ 
stitutional (of whatever kind and description they may be), 
from the 7th of March, 1820, until the 1st of October, 1823, 
null and void, declaring, that during the whole of that period 
he had been deprived of his liberty, obliged to sanction laws 
and authorize orders, decrees, and regulations, which the 
said government framed and executed against his will. 
The king then ordered that Cadiz and the Isle of Leon 
should be delivered up to the occupation of the French 
troops. A considerable emigration had already taken place 
from the city ; between four and five hundred individuals, 
including most of the members of the Cortes and the late 
constitutional government, together with the principal offi¬ 
cers of the army, embarked in the port, and sought refuge, 
for the most part, at Gibraltar, from whence they afterwards 
proceeded either to England or America. 
On the 3d, the principal posts were given up to the French. 
On the same day the king left Port St. Mary for Seville. 
The news of the events which bad taken place at Cadiz, soon 
spread throughout the Peninsula, and of course, all purpose 
of further resistance was abandoned by the constitutionalists. 
Lerida surrendered on the 18th of October—Seo d’Urgel 
three days later. The remaining fortresses of Catalonia were 
given up to the French, by a convention signed the 1st of 
November, by which the local militia agreed to lay down 
their arms, and return to their several homes; but the troops 
of the line and the militia were to be sent to canton¬ 
ments. 
A considerable number of individuals concerned in the 
late events, thought it prudent to leave the country. Mina 
himself embarked for England. The campaign was now 
brought to a close, and the Duke d’Angouleme set out on his 
return to France. 
On the fourth day after his leaving Port St. Mary, the 
king published from Xeres a second decree, ordaining that 
on his journey to the capital, no individual who, during the 
existence of the system styled Constitutional, had been a de¬ 
puty to the Cortes in the two last legislative sittings, should 
present himself, or be within five leagues of the route to 
Madrid. 
At Seville, his Majesty published (Oct. 11) a third decree, 
constituting a junta of censure, under the presidency of Don 
Victor Saez, which was ordered to examine all works, and 
determine upon those which they conceived would be pro¬ 
per for instilling into the people sentiments likely to render 
them the proper supports of the altar, the throne, and of 
their country. At Seville, too, the king received the con¬ 
gratulations of Sir William A'Courf, upon his restoration to 
his authority. Our court, however, mixed little in this 
matter, and prudently kept aloof. The regency of Urgel 
addressed the King of England twice, and Angouleme’s 
regency once ; but to the former no reply was sent by our 
ministry, and Mr. Canning flatly refused to present the 
letter of the second to his king, and returned it. 
Riego was no sooner sent to Seville, than the regency 
immediately decreed that he should be tried by the second 
tribunal of the Alcades of the household, for having, as a 
deputy to the Cortes, taken part in the deliberation of the 
11th of June, which declared the suspension of the king. 
Riego denied the competence of the tribunal, but he was 
found guilty, and condemned to be hanged, and his goods 
confiscated. The sentence was executed on the 7th of No¬ 
vember. The widow of Riego went to England, where she 
excited much sympathy. 
The King and Queen of Spain made their solemn entry 
into Madrid on the 13th of November, and their return 
was made the subject of popular festivity for some days 
after. The amnesty, however, so necessary to quiet the 
public mind, did not appear. On the 27th, a decree was 
published, ordering all possible reductions to be made in the 
number of persons employed in all the branches of admi¬ 
nistration, and likewise that the salaries should be reduced 
to the minimum necessary to a functionary to preserve the 
decorum of his place ; and this was followed, on the next 
day, with another, directing the disbandment of the royal 
volunteers. 
A change of ministers took place a few days after, and 
the Madrid Gazette of the 4th of September contained four 
decrees. 
By the first, his Majesty appointed as first minister of state* 
the Marquis of Casa Irujo; as minister of grace and justice 
for Spain and the Indies, Don Narciso de Heredia; as mi¬ 
nister of war, Major-General Don Josef de la Cruz; and as 
minister of finance, Don Luis Lopez Ballasteros. The mi¬ 
nister of marine remained. 
By the second decree, his Majesty appointed as president 
of his council, Don Ignacio Martinez de Villela. This 
place was still vacant; the Duke del Infantado having refused 
to accept it. 
By the third decree, Saez, the king’s former prime minis¬ 
ter and confessor, was nominated to the bishopric of Tortosa, 
vacant by the death of Don Manuel Ros y Medrano. At 
the same time that he ceased to be minister, he ceased to be 
confessor to the king. 
By the fourth decree, his Majesty, “ seeing the absolute 
necessity for the good government of his vast monarchy, of 
establishing a council of state which might unite the know¬ 
ledge and the experience requisite to guide the resolutions of 
his sovereign authority,” nominated ten individuals, com¬ 
posed of persons selected from the old"council of state, ex¬ 
isting on the 7th of March, 1820, and others, to be a council 
of state. His Majesty reserved the pewtr of adding to their 
number. The counsellors named were—Eguia, the Duke 
of San Carlos, Don Juan Perez Villamil, Don Antonio Var¬ 
gas Laguna, Don Antonio Gomez Calderon, Don Juan Bau¬ 
tista 
