VII. 1820. the Junta already elected there. The British officers CHAP. were everywhere dispossessed of their commands, and put under surveillance, but treated with equal kindness and consideration. After a debate, which was prolonged for several days, it was decreed that the two Juntas should be united into one composed of two sections-one charged with the ordinary administration, and the other with the steps necessary for assembling the Cortes; and Count Palmella was despatched on a special embassy to Brazil, 1 Ann. Hist. to lay before the king an account of the events which iii.475,476; had occurred, and assure his Majesty of the continued 234, 235. loyalty of the Portuguese to the royal family.1 Ann. Reg. Marshal is forced to land. In the midst of these events, Marshal Beresford re- 98. turned from Brazil to Lisbon, in the Vengeur of 74 guns, Return of charged with a message from the king to the former Junta. Beresford, Being informed by a fisherman, as he approached the who coast, of the revolution, and subversion of the former go to Engauthorities, he made no attempt to force his way in, but requested permission to land as a private individual, as he had many concerns of his own to arrange. This, however, was positively refused; he was forbid on any account to approach the harbour; the guns were all loaded, and the artillerymen placed beside them to enforce obedience to the mandate. Beresford expostulated in the warmest manner, but in vain; and as the agitation in the city became excessive as soon as his return was known, it was intimated to him that the sooner he took his departure for England the better. During all this time the shores were strictly guarded, and no precaution omitted which could prevent any communication with the Vengeur. At length Beresford, finding he could not open any correspondence with the new Junta, sent them the money he had received at Rio Janeiro for the pay of the troops, and returned to England in the Arabella packet; while the Vengeur proceeded on its destination up the Mediterranean.2 Such was the return which the Portuguese nation 2 Ann. Reg. 1820, 237; Ann. Hist. .426, 427. VII. 1820. 99. Effect of ment of CHAP. made to the British for their liberation from French thraldom, and the invaluable aid they had rendered them during six successive campaigns for the maintenance of their independence! A memorable, but, unhappily, a the banish- not unusual instance of the ingratitude of nations, and the the British. immediate disregard of the most important services when they are no longer required, or when oblivion of them may be convenient to the parties who have been benefited. Above a hundred officers accompanied Marshal Beresford to England; and the effects of the absence of this nucleus of regular administration soon appeared in the measures of Government. The two Juntas came to open rupture in regard to the manner in which the Cortes was to be convoked. The Lisbon maintained it should be done according to the ancient forms of the constitution; but this was vehemently opposed by the Oporto Junta, which was composed of ardent democrats, who asserted that these antiquated forms were far too aristocratical, and that the public wishes would never be satisfied with anything short of the immediate adoption of the Spanish constitution. Few knew what that constitution really was; but it instantly was taken up as a rallying-cry by the extreme democratic party. Still the Junta of Lisbon held out, upon which Silviera, who was at the head of the violent revolutionists, and had great influence with the troops, surrounded the Palace of the Junta with a Ann. Hist. body of soldiers, who, by loud shouts and threats, inAnn. Reg. stantly extorted a decree, adopting in toto the Spanish 237. constitution, and appointing one deputy for every thirty thousand inhabitants, to be elected by universal suffrage.1 So far the victory of the revolutionists was complete, Reaction, but the step had been too violent; neither the public nor tion of more the majority of the army were, on consideration, inclined to go into such violent measures. The incorporations (Gremios) and magistrates protested against the proceedings, and a majority of the officers in the army came round to the same sentiments. A hundred and fifty Nov. 11. iii. 478, 480; 1820, 236, 100. moderate measures. VII. 1820. officers in the army, and nearly all the civil authorities, CHAP. resigned their situations. The consequences were soon felt. On the 17th November a general council of officers was held, at which Colonel Castro Sepulveda, who was at the head of the moderate party, laboured so assiduously to convince them of their error, that, after a debate of six hours, resolutions were passed to the effect that the state of public opinion in the capital required that those who had resigned should resume their situations; that the election of the Cortes shall be made according to the Spanish system, but no other part of the Spanish constitution adopted till the Cortes had met and considered the subject. The reaction was now complete: upon these resolutions being intimated to the officers of the late Government who had resigned, they resumed their functions. Silviera was, with the general concurrence of the people, ordered to quit the city in two hours, which he did amidst loud acclamations, and the ascendancy of the moderate party was for a time established. But it was for a time only. The fatal step had been taken, the irrecoverable concession made. The resolution that the Cortes should be elected on the Spanish principle, which was a single chamber and universal suffrage, and that there should be a member for every thirty thousand inha- 1820, 237, bitants, necessarily threw the power into the hands of the de Lisbon, multitude, and precluded the possibility of anything like 1820. a stable or free constitution being formed.1 1 Ann. Hist. . 481; Ann. Reg. 238; Diario Nov. 18, 101. ment of re Italy. ITALY was not long of catching the destructive flame which had been kindled, and burned so fiercely, in the CommenceSpanish peninsula. The career of reform was begun in forms in Piedmont on the 25th February 1820, by a decree of the King of Sardinia, which created a commission composed of the most eminent statesmen and juris-consults, to examine the existing laws, and consider what alterations should be made to bring them into harmony with the institutions of other countries and the spirit of the VII. 1820. CHAP. age; and even in the realm of Naples, the germ of practical improvement had begun to unfold itself. The excessive increase of the land-tax, which had in some places risen to thirty-three per cent, had tended to augment in that country the general discontent, which in the inhabitants of towns, and the more intelligent of those in the country, had centred in an ardent desire for representative institutions, which they regarded as the only effectual safeguard against similar abuses in time to come. The government of Murat, and the society of the French officers during eight years, had confirmed these ideas, and augmented the importunity for these institutions. This desire had been fanned into a perfect passion in Sicily by the experiment which had been made of a representative government of that country by the English during the war, which was in the highest degree popular with the Liberal leaders. But it had been found by experience to be so alien to the character and wants of the rural inhabitants, that it fell to the ground of its own accord after the with1 Colletta, drawal of the English troops on the peace; and the only trace of the constitutional regime which remained was the ii. 330, 340; ominous word "uno budgetto," a money account, which had been imported from their Gothic allies into the harmonious tongue of the Italian shores.1 Historia di Napoli, 1790-1825, Ann. Hist. iii. 488. 102. the King's tion. July 25. May 1815. Ferdinand the king had, in accordance with the deBreach of clared wishes of the most intelligent part of his subjects, promise of announced the acceptance by the Government of a cona constitu- stitutional regime during the crisis which preceded the fall of Napoleon and conclusion of the war. Before leaving the Sicilian shores to reoccupy the throne of his fathers, on the dethronement of Murat in 1815, he had issued a proclamation, in which he announced "The people will be the sovereign, and the monarch will only be the depositary of the laws, which shall be decreed by a constitution the most energetic and desirable." These words diffused universal satisfaction, and, like Lord William Bentinck's celebrated proclamation to the Genoese VII. 1820. 1820, 238; in the preceding year, were regarded with reason as a CHAP. iii. Colletta, ii, Nov. 24, 1815; Re plomatique, but slight All reforms and already introduced. The hands of the King of Naples were thus tied by 103. an overwhelming power, which he had not the means, Progressive even if he had possessed the inclination, to resist. that could be done was to introduce local reforms, correct in a certain degree local abuses; and some steps towards a representative government had already been taken in this way. Provincial and municipal assemblies had been authorised, which had commenced some reforms and suggested others, and were in progress of collecting information from practical men as to the real wants and requirements of the country. But these slow and progressive advances by no means suited the impatience of the ardent Italian people, and least of all, of that ener- 2 Colletta, getic and enthusiastic portion of them who were enrolled ii. 338, 341; in the SECRET SOCIETIES which already overspread that iii. 488; beautiful peninsula, and have ever since exercised so im- 1820, 238. portant an influence on its destinies.2 Secret societies banded together for some common purpose are the natural resources of the weak against the Ann. Hist. Ann. Reg. * "De' cinque fogli del re, scritti in Messina dal 20 al 24 maggio erano i sensi: : pace, concordia, oblio delle passate vicende; vi traluceva la modesta confessione de' propri torti; parlavasi di leggi fondamentali dello stato, di libertà civile, di formali guarentigie; e così vi stava adombrata la costituzione senza profferirsene il nome."- COLLETTA, Historia di Napoli, ii. 261. |