SPAIN. 
439 
tista de Erro, Don Josef Garcia de la Torre, and Don Juan 
Antonio Rojas. 
These nominations were attributed chiefly to the sugges¬ 
tions and representations of the foreign ministers; particu¬ 
larly those of France and Russia; M. Pozzo de Borgo, the 
Russian ambassador at Paris, having been charged by his 
master to proceed to Madrid, for the special purpose of con - 
gratulating Ferdinand on his restoration to his capital and 
to his crown. The individuals composing the new ministry 
were men for the most part of known liberal principles. 
Casa-Jrujo occupied the place of Ambassador from the Cortes 
at the court of France, before the attempted counter-revolu¬ 
tion of the 7th .of July, 1822; but he was supposed to have 
had understanding with the French government in the ma¬ 
chination of that plot; and had in consequence been super¬ 
seded in his embassy by the Duke of San Lorenzo. The 
minister of grace and justice, Heredia, had ever been stig¬ 
matized as an Afrancesado or Jssephino. It might have 
been expected that the dismission of Saez, and the nomina¬ 
tion of such a ministry to succeed him, would not be 
popular with the violent royalist faction by which Ferdi¬ 
nand, was surrounded. And it is said that the remonstrances 
of this party on the subject, were so strong, that Ferdinand 
was upon the point of turning out his new cabinet within 
four-and-twenty hours after the nomination of it. He was 
saved, however, from this step by the renewed interposition 
of the ministers of those allies, to whose exertions he owed 
his throne; and of whose representations it would have 
been neither prudent nor decent so soon to have manifested 
his disregard. 
In the year 1824, treaties were concluded, in the month of 
January, with the court of France, for the mutual restoration 
of vessels taken in the late war; for the assignment of the 
amount of debt due by Spain to France, and for the further 
occupation, for six months, of the Spanish territory, by a 
French corps of 45,000 men. Soon after a circular dispatch 
was sent by the court of Madrid to the allied powers, pro¬ 
posing to establish a conference at Paris, for the arrangement 
of the affairs of the revolted provinces of America. Mr. 
Canning, on the part of the British government, positively 
refused to take part in such congress, and intimated, in no 
very equivocal terms, that any attempt on the part of 
foreign powers to mediate by force, in the pending quarrel 
between Spain and her colonies, would be met by Great 
Britain with an immediate and unqualified acknowledgment 
of the independence of those colonies. This declaration had 
its intended effect in at once precluding any further enter¬ 
tainment of such a project. A second invitation, indeed, to 
the same effect, was made to the British government in the 
course of the year’ but met with no better success. 
On the 9th of February, the king issued a decree opening 
the ports of his American possessions to the subjects of Euro¬ 
pean powers, his friends or allies. As the mother country had , 
long since lost all effective authority over the regions in 
question, the instrument was ridiculous enough.- 
The new administration, though for the most men of safe 
principles and moderate views, were but little able to restrain 
the violence of the party which late events had made trium¬ 
phant. The Marquis de Casa-Irujo, indeed, was soon released 
from the embarrassment of such a service by his death, which 
took place on the 11th of January. He was succeeded in the 
direction of affairs by the Count Ofalia. Senor Calomarde, 
the secretary of the council of Castile, then became minister 
of grace and justice; an appointment which was considered 
as unfavourable to the hopes of the moderate party, as Cal¬ 
omarde was known to be one of the leading members of the 
ultra faction, which went by the name of the apostolic junta. 
The man who at this time was supposed to enjoy the most 
personal favour with the king, was M. IJgarte, who did not, 
however, occupy any ministerial function, but assisted at the 
council in the ostensible capacity only of secretary of the 
board. 
Enjoying, as they seemed to do, little of the confidence of 
the king, and deprived by the penury and general disorgan¬ 
ization of the state of all means of active operation against the 
disturbers of the public peace, the ministers were able to 
effect little for carrying into effect the good intentions for which 
they had the credit. The royal volunteers who had been 
ordered to disband, still remained in arms in many provinces, 
and continued to indulge in every act of violence against all 
whom they chose to suspect of abetting the constitutional 
system. In this state of things, it must be admitted that the 
voice of French influence was uniformly heard in favour of 
measures of mildness and mercy; it was, however, too 
often disregarded; and the Marquis de Talaru, the French 
ambassador, is supposed to have at length sought a respite 
from the continual rebuffs and disgusts which he experienced 
in his residence at Madrid, by an indefinite leave of 
absence. 
We do not know any better mode of illustrating the spirit 
of government at this period, than by giving two or three of 
the decrees which it issued from time to time, and the enu¬ 
meration of which, indeed, composes nearly the whole his¬ 
tory of Spain for the present year. A circular was issued 
from the war department, in which, after complaining of 
the existence of the armed bands which infested the high 
roads, and of the obstinacy of the enemies of the monarchy, 
who continued to pour forth invectives against the sacred 
rights of the throne and eulogies of the abolished constitu¬ 
tion, directions were given for instituting certain paramount 
military commissioners, who were to take summary cogni¬ 
zance of the proceedings, among others, of the following 
persons:—-Those who, since the 1st of October, of the last 
year, had declared, or should declare, themselves, by taking- 
arms, or any other overt act, the enemies of the legitimate 
throne, or the partisans of the constitution:—those who, 
since the same period, had written, or should write, pam¬ 
phlets of a similar tendency:—those who, in public places, 
should speak against the sovereignty of the king, or in favour 
of the said unhappy constitution:—finally, those who en¬ 
deavour to seduce their fellow-citizens, with the design of 
forming a party. 
Shortly after, a decree was issued for the suppression of all 
political journals, except the official gazette and the Diario 
of Madrid. This measure, however sweeping and arbitrary, 
was probably conceived in the interest of the moderate party, 
as the journals of the exalt ado's were of course silenced with 
the rest. At the same time, more vigorous measures were 
taken for enforcing the disbandment of the volunteers, and 
the Baron d’Eroles, who had refused to dissolve his army, 
was recalled from Catalonia and replaced by the Marquess of 
Campo Sagrado. 
The finances of Spain had, by this time, reached the last 
term of penury and discredit; and all the efforts of the 
ministers could effect little for their re-establishment. Their 
propositions for a loan were at once indignantly rejected, 
on the exchanges of London and Paris; no capitalists could 
be found to make advances to the government, which refused 
to acknowledge the engagements contracted by the Cortes ; 
and to such an extremity of disorganization was the country 
reduced, that the ordinary resources of taxation afforded little 
or nothing to the state. The old system of indirect impost 
was now resorted to; at the same time, thefrutos chiles, a 
sort of land-tax, amounting to about 5 per cent, on the net 
income, was re-established, and levied with rigour through¬ 
out the kingdom; the clergy themselves not being exempted 
from its operation. A singular resource employed by the 
government for the restoration of the finances, was the esta¬ 
blishment of a sinking fund. The king’s decree ordained, 
that an annual sum of 80 millions of reals should be assigned 
to the sinking fund. This fund was to answer for the pay. 
meat of the new obligations, which the treasury might con¬ 
tract, in order to meet the current wants of the govern¬ 
ment. 
On the 27th of March, the king and royal family set out 
on a visit to Aranjuez,—a journey, to pay the expenses of 
which, the court had been under the necessity of raising- a 
sum of 30,0004, upon a particular pledge. The departure 
of 
