SWABEY DIARY. 34 
restraint of authority. Noblemen’s estates, though uncultivated, have 
not passed into other hands, and in short, during the five years war of 
invasion the order of things seems to’have been rather suspended than 
subverted. The only subversion is the legal adoption of a new govern- 
ment holding out protection to the poor, and the execution of justice 
unsullied by aristocratical, or what is worse, ecclesiastical influence. 
Should Ferdinand ever return to the throne he will not be in a 
position to oppose the transference of power from his own hands into 
those of a mixed government having restraint on the regal prerogative, 
nor do I think he will be blind enough to the real interest of Spain to 
wish to do so.! 
15th July.—Kvery preparation is being made to attack St. Sebastian 
where there is a garrison of from 4000 to 5000 men. The place stands 
on a commanding sort of isthmus running into the sea, and flanked on 
the land side by a creek. The principal obstacle to its attack is the 
castle which occupies a very commanding position, it has a horn-work 
and a Moorish wall which protects the only side where breaching bat- 
teries can be erected, and this has first to be breached by firing across 
the creek. On the seaside I conclude, though I am not certain, that 
an attack is impossible. Where the isthmus joins the main land is a 
convent which forms a sort of out-work. This was breached by Mor- 
rison’s? 18-pounders and was then carried with little loss. 
14th July—The Spaniards having pickets at St. Sebastian were 
surprised and nearly all taken in a sortie, they having very quietly 
gone to sleep in a house, which is characteristic of them. 
15th July.—I understand that our divisions which occupy the passes 
have their outpost in France. This may be necessary for the sake of 
information, but I highly disapprove of Spaniards levying contribu- 
tions on France, which has likewise been done. No man can blame them 
if they resort to hard measures, and we have seen what the French are 
capable of when invaded. I conceive we cannot adopt a plan more 
likely to reanimate their beaten army, or to make new soldiers and 
volunteers for them; these are not to be despised in mountains, where 
irregular troops can act to some advantage. 
16th July.—My leg having been for some time stationary, I con- 
sulted a Mr. Gunning, a surgeon of known eminence sent here on 
purpose to assist in obscure cases, who on probing my knee pronounced 
very decidedly that, though he could not find it, the ball was there, and 
he said he felt cloth or some foreign body in the wound, to extract 
which he proposes to-morrow morning to cut the wound open. 
1 Nevertheless this is precisely what Ferdinand did.—(#.a.w.) 
‘On his restoration to the throne, in March 1814, he refused to swear or accede to the con- 
stitution of the Cortes, as interfering too much with the free exercise of the regal authority. And 
from the moment that he assumed the reins of government a series of transactions took place which 
excited the astonishment and disgust of all liberal-minded politicians in Europe. Instead of the 
promised constitution, there commenced a fearful system of persecution against all who were sus- 
pected of holding liberal opinions ; and executions, imprisonment, exile, and confiscation of property 
reigned in all parts of the kingdom. The monastic orders, the Inquisition, and the rack were re- 
stored, At length, in January, 1820, an insurrection broke out, and Ferdinand was compelled to 
restore the constitution of the Cortes of 1812, but the French government interfering by force of 
arms absolutism was restored in Spain in 1823.” Chambers Encyclopedia. 
2 Captain William Morrison (Kane’s List, No. 934). 
