1814. 24. the Cortes America. CHAP. spirit with which they were animated, acted in a still VII. more important way upon the destinies of the New World than those of the Old. The deputies from the Influence of Transatlantic provinces, to whom, in a liberal and worthy on South Spirit, the gates of the national representation at Cadiz had been opened, came to the hall of the Cortes, in the Isle of Leon, with feelings wound up to the highest pitch, from the wrongs they had so long endured from the selfish and monopolising policy of the mother country, and the free and independent spirit which the breaking out of the revolution in the Caraccas and elsewhere had excited in her transmarine possessions. They found themselves in a highly democratic and vehemently excited assembly, in which the noble name of liberty was continually heard, in which the sovereignty of the people was openly announced, the whole fabric of the new coustitution was made to rest on that foundation, and in which the most enthusiastic predictions were constantly uttered as to the future regeneration and happiness of mankind from the influence of these principles. They returned to South America, under the restriction which had been adopted of each Cortes to two years' sitting, before these flattering predictions had been brought to the test of ex is not interested in the establishment of such an assembly. Unhappily, in legislative assemblies, the most tyrannical and unjust measures are the most popular. I tremble for a country such as Spain, in which there is no barrier for the preservation of private property, excepting the justice of a legislative assembly possessing supreme power. It is impossible to calculate upon the plans of such an assembly: they have no check whatever, and they are governed by the most ignorant and licentious of all licentious presses-that of Cadiz. I believe they mean to attack the royal and feudal tenths, the tithes of the Church, under pretence of encouraging agriculture; and finding the supplies from these sources not so extensive as they expected, they will seize the estates of the grandees. Our character is involved in a greater degreethan we are aware of in the democratical transactions of the Cortes, in the opinion of all moderate, well-thinking Spaniards, and, I am afraid, with the rest of Europe. It is quite impossible such a system can last what I regret is, that I am the person who maintains it. If the king should return, he will overturn the whole fabric, if he has any spirit; but the gentlemen at Cadiz are so completely masters, that I fear there must be another convulsion."— WELLINGTON to DON DIEGO DE LA VEGA, Jan. 29, 1813; GURWOOD, x. 64, 65, 247; xi. 91. VII. 1814. perience, or anything had occurred to reveal their fallacious CHAP. character. They instantly spread among their constituents the flattering doctrines and hopes with which the halls of the Cortes had resounded in Europe. Incalculable was the influence of this circumstance upon the future destinies of South America, and, through it, of the whole civilised world. To this, in a great degree, is to be ascribed the widespread and desperate resolution of the 1 Comte de vast majority of the inhabitants in the revolutionary con- Trequ test in those magnificent settlements; their frightful deso- l'Anglelation by the horrors of a war worse than civil; and their Lord Palfinal severance, by the insidious aid of Great Britain, from . 265. the Spanish crown.1 mont, de terre et merston, 25. Portugal: more effect of the more the seat of removal of Rio In all the particulars which have been mentioned, PORTUGAL was in the same situation as Spain; but in Situation of two respects the situation of that country was favourable for innovation, and her people were ripe for revolt than in the Spanish provinces. The royal government family having, during the first alarm of the French inva- neiro. sion, migrated to Brazil, and dread of the terrors of a sea voyage having prevented the aged monarch from returning, he had come to fix his permanent residence on the beautiful shores of Rio Janeiro. A separation of the two countries had thus taken place; and the government at Lisbon, during the whole war, had been conducted by means of a council of regency, the members of which were by no means men either of vigour or capacity, and which was far from commanding the respect, or having acquired the affections, of the country. While the weight and influence of Government had been thus sensibly weakened, the political circumstances of Portugal, and the events of the war, had in an extraordinary manner diffused liberal ideas and the spirit of independence through a considerable part of the people. Closely united, both by political treaties and commercial intercourse, with Great Britain, for above a century Portugal had become, in its maritime districts at least, VII. 1814. 26. adoption of English ideas. Standing side by side learned to respect the CHAP. almost an English colony. English influence was predominant at Lisbon: English commerce had enriched Oporto the English market for port had covered the Its general slopes of Tras-os-Montes with smiling vineyards. In addition to this, the events of the late war had spread, habits and in an extraordinary degree, both admiration of the English institutions, and confidence in the English character, through the entire population. Thirty thousand Portuguese troops had been taken into British pay: they had felt the integrity of British administration: they had been led to victory by British officers. Unlike the native nobles who had held the same situations, they had seen them ever the first in the enemy's fire- the last in acts of domestic corruption. Immense had been the influence of this juxtaposition. with him in battle, they had English soldier in war, to admire the institutions which had trained him in peace. Even the hatred in which they had been bred of the heretic, yielded to the evidence of their senses, which had taught them his virtues. In daily intercourse with the British soldiers, they had learned to appreciate the liberty which had nurtured them; they had come to envy their independence of thought, and imitate their freedom of language. The mercantile classes in Lisbon and Oporto, almost entirely supported by British capital, and fed by British commerce, were still more strongly impressed with the merits of the political institutions, from intercourse with a nation governed by which they had derived such signal benefits. Thus a free spirit, and the thirst for liberal institutions, was both stronger and more widespread in Portugal than in the adjoining provinces of Spain; and it was easy to foresee that, if any circumstances impelled the latter country into the career of revolution, the former would be the first to follow the example. FERDINAND VII., whom the battle of Leipsic and conquest of France had restored to the throne of his VII. 1814. Ferdinand ancestors, was not by nature a bad, or by disposition a CHAP. cruel man; and yet he did many wicked and unpardonable deeds, and has, beyond almost any other of his con- 27. temporary princes, been the object of impassioned invec- Character of tive on the part of the Liberal press in Europe. Placed VII. in the very front rank of the league of princes, ruling a country in which the vast majority were decidedly monarchical-a small minority vehemently democratic,-brought, the first of all the monarchs of Europe, in contact with the revolutionary spirit by which they were all destined to be so violently shaken, it was scarcely possible it could be otherwise. But the character of Ferdinand was, perhaps, the most unfortunate that could have been found to tread the path environed with dangers which lay before him. He had neither the courage and energy requisite for a despotic, nor the prudence and foresight essential in a constitutional sovereign: he had not the courage which commands respect, the generosity which wins affection, nor the wisdom which averts catastrophe. Indolence was his great characteristic; a facility of being led, his chief defect. Incapable of taking a decided line for himself, he yielded easily and willingly to the representations of those around him, and exhibited in his conduct those vacillations of policy which indicated the alternate ascendancy of the opposite parties by which he was surrounded. His inclination, without doubt, was strongly in favour of despotic power; but he had great powers of dissimulation, and succeeded in deceiving Talleyrand himself, as well as the Liberal ministers subsequently imposed upon him by the Cortes, as to his real intentions. Supple, accommodating, and irresolute, he had learnt hypocrisy in the same school as the modern Greek has 100, 106. learned it from the Turk-the school of suffering.1 The treaty of Valençay, as narrated in a former work,* restored Ferdinand VII. to liberty, and he re-entered the kingdom of his fathers on the 20th March 1814, just ten * History of Europe, 1789-1815, chap. lxxxvii. § 71. 1Martignac, 28. arrival in Spain, and treatment by the Cortes. CHAP. days before the Allies entered Paris. This treaty had VII. been concluded with Napoleon while the monarch was 1814. still in captivity, and it was a fundamental condition of Ferdinand's it that he should cause the English to evacuate Spain. The subsequent fall of the Emperor, however, rendered this stipulation of no effect; and, after having been received with royal honours by the garrisons, both French and Spanish, in Catalonia, the monarch proceeded by easy journeys to Valencia, where he resided during the whole of April. The reason of this long sojourn in a provincial town was soon apparent. He was there joined by the Duke del Infantado, and the leading grandees of the kingdom, as well as many of the chief prelates. Meanwhile the Cortes, who had testified the greatest joy at the deliverance of the king, refused to ratify the Treaty of Valençay, as having been concluded without their consent -continued resident at Madrid, without advancing to meet their sovereign-and soon began to evince their imperious disposition, and to show in whom they understood the real sovereignty to reside. At the moment when Ferdinand reentered his kingdom, they published of their own authority a decree, in which they enjoined him to adopt, without delay, the Constitution of 1812, and to take the oath of fidelity towards it. Until he did so, he was enjoined not to adopt the title, or exercise the power of King of Spain; and they even went so far as to prescribe the itinerary he 1814; Mar- was to follow on his route to the capital, the towns he was 1 Decree, March 20, tignac, 107; 1814, 67, 29. Ann. Reg. to pass through, and the expressions he was to use in answer 68. to the addresses he was expected to receive. It is not surprising that he turned aside from such taskmasters.1 Scarcely had the monarch set his foot in Spain when Universal he received the most unequivocal proofs of the detestation unpopula in which the constitution was generally held, and the universal hatred at the subordinate agents to whom the Cortes had intrusted the practical administration of government. From the frontier of Catalonia to Valencia-in the fortresses, the towns, the villages, the fields--it was one rity of the Cortes. |