THE

HE degraded state to which Spain was reduced after the return of its king, by a relapse to arbitrary government and ecclesiastical domination, had rendered her at the close of the last year an object of little concern to the rest of Europe; and particularly had deprived her of the interest taken in her fate by those warm friends in England, who had indulged the hope of seeing light and liberty extending their beneficial influence through a country of ancient renown. It was long expected that the training which the Spanish nation had received during its contest for independence, and the liberal sentiments with which it had been impregnated, would have produced a struggle against the violences of despotism and bigotry; but experience seemed to prove that it was only an inconsiderable minority who had imbibed the spirit of freedom and improvement, and that the general mass was still fitted only for slavery and superstition.

At the beginning of the year the Spanish government appears

to have been chiefly intent upon fitting out the long-delayed expedition for reducing the insurgents in South America, and in putting an end to all attempts at home to propagate obnoxious opinions. A proclamation was issued in January by the Inquisitor-general which, after reciting the Pope's bull against free-masons and other secret societies, takes notice of the connection formed by a number of Spaniards, who had resided in foreign countries, with societies "leading to sedition, insubordination, and to every error and crime," and summons them within a fortnight to return to the bosom of the church, which is ready to receive them with becoming tenderness, denouncing at the same time all the penalties inflicted by the civil and canon law against such as shall "continue obstinate in the path of perdition."

When Buonaparte subverted the Bourbon throne of France, it was natural that a king of the same family should join the league of sovereigns to dispossess the Usurper; but Spain was too much [I 2]

reduced,

reduced, and its throne too weakly filled, to take an active part on the occasion; and it was not till the month of May that Ferdinand VII. ventured to declare himself united with the allied powers who published the declaration of March 13th. This manifesto was characterised by the feeble and circumstantial prolixity common in the state papers issued by the Spanish court; and the nation was particularly called upon to interest itself in the war, as being under taken against an enemy of religion. It is scarcely necessary to say that the dreaded invader was vanquished long before Spain was in any condition to assist in the conflict. Previously to this warlike manifesto, the Spanish minister at Vienna had presented to Prince Metternich a requisition on the part of the King for the delivery of the States of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, then occupied by Austrian troops, to the Infant Charles Louis, King of Etruria, as their lawful possessor. The reasoning on which this demand was founded turned upon the facts, that the powers who by the treaty of Fontainebleau bestowed these Duchies upon the Archduchess Maria Louisa, disposed of what did not belong to them, since military occupation confers no right; and that the same powers having by their declaration in congress on March 13th announced that the above treaty was broken by the forcible entrance of Buonaparte into France, it can no longer be an obstacle to an act of just restitution. From a subsequent protest to the Spanish minister dated June 5th, it appears that the congress had paid no at

tention to this requisition; and had likewise offended his Catholic Majesty by recommending to him the cession of Olivenza to Portugal. Such was the degree of estimation in which this government was held abroad!

At home, the system of rigorous and unrelenting persecution was still persisted in against the whole party of liberales, together with the re-establishment of civil and ecclesiastical authority, in its most arbitrary forms. These measures, though long passively submitted to, at length produced an insurrection which at first put on a formidable appearance. General Juan Diez Porlier, who obtained great distinction in the war for independence under the name of the Marquesito, had incurred the suspicion of the restored monarchy, and undergone confinement for a year in the castle of St. Antonio. Having obtained permission to visit a bathingplace on acount of his health, on September 18th, at night, he assembled the troops quartered at St. Lucia, without the gates of Corunna, and entering the city early on the next morning, he placed the Governor, the Captaingeneral, and a few other persons under arrest. Tranquillity being restored, he issued a proclamation addressed to the soldiers of the Galician army, in which he inveighed severely against the conduct of Government since the return of Ferdinand, and proposed the removal of the ministers, and the re-establishment of the Cortes. A long manifesto to the same effect was also addressed to the Spanish nation, purporting to be from the Provincial Junta of

Galicia

Galicia under the presidency of Porlier, styled Gen.-Commandant of the interior of the kingdom. A column of grenadiers and provincial light infantry of Galicia was at this time quartered at Santiago, upon whose co-operation Porlier relied; and being informed that they were hesitating how to decide, and that his presence would probably confirm them in his cause, he marched from Corunna on the night of the 21st, at the head of 800 men collected in haste, with four pieces of cannon. The chapter of Santiago, which possesses great wealth, resolved to employ it in frustrating the revolutionary enterprize; and placing a large sum at the disposal of the governor of the place, it was employed to gain over the troops; and the result was, that a regiment on its march to join Porlier was ordered to halt. This leader arrived on the night of the 22d at a village three leagues from Santiago, where he halted his fatigued men, and with his officers took a slight repast. In the meantime some emissaries from Santiago introduced themselves among his men in the disguise of peasants, and made promises of advancement to the ser, jeants if they would assist in apprehending the General and his Officers. These promises, with a plentiful distribution of money, were successful; and a plan was laid, by which Porlier and his officers were secured without resistance such was the termination of this ill-fated and apparently rash enterprize at its very com

mencement.

The unfortunate leader was brought to Corunna on the 26th,

and thrown into the prison of the Inquisition; and having been hastily tried by a court-martial, on October 3d, he suffered death by the cord as a traitor. He directed that a handkerchief steeped in his last tears should be given to his wife, with a consolatory letter, in which he exhorted her not to afflict herself with the kind of death to which he was sentenced, since it was dishonourable only to the wicked, but glorious to the virtuous. From all that has been published it would appear that the people took no part in this movement, at least not in its favour.

The citizens of Corunna were thanked for their conduct on the occasion, in the congratulatory proclamations that were issued after the suppression of the insurrection. In one of these, from the members of the Junta of Corunna, who were placed under confinement during the insur rection, their deliverance is ascribed to the protection of the most holy Virgin of the Rosary, whose festival was then celebrating.

Towards the close of August, the Spanish army stationed in the environs of Bellegarde concentrated and made a movement towards the French frontier. The French General Ricard immediately advanced a division of troops in the direction of Perpignan, and all the other troops in the departments on the Pyrenees were put in preparation, On the 27th the Spaniards, to the number of from 12 to 15,000 infantry, and 1000 or 1200 cavalry crossed the Bidassoa, the Commander in chief, Count Avisbal, publishing a proclamation announcing that his en

trance

trance into France had no other object than to support the throne of Louis XVIII. and the integrity of his kingdom. At the same time another Spanish army under Gen. Castanos crossed the frontier on the side of Perpignan. So little, however, was such aid desired, that the Duke of Angouleme, in an interview with the latter commander, persuaded him to march back into Spain. Count Avisbal being informed of this transaction by Lieut.-Gen. Count de Viomesnil, announced that as soon as he should receive official notice of it from General Castanos, he would also repass the Bidassoa. This intention he put in execution on Sept. 4th, after having addressed a letter to Count Viomesnil, in which he extols the discipline observed by his troops whilst in France, who were neither provoked by the menaces of the local authorities, nor by the recollection of the enormities practised by the troops of Buonaparte in Spain, to acts of hostility. His letter concludes with the wish that the King of France may not one day have to repent of being deprived of the assistance of S0,000 Spaniards. This must appear mere vapouring, at a time when the presence of nearly a million of foreign troops had quelled all resistance to the Bourbons; and it is difficult to discover the motive of this invasion of the French territory, which must have excited high indignation in all parties, and would have been powerfully resisted, unless it were that of seeming, though late, to do something in the cause of the allies, and earning a subsidy.

The disgrace of several persons

who had been favourites of the King, and the dismissal of some ministers, immediately after Porlicr's insurrection, were thought to indicate an intended change in the measures of government; and a free pardon to the confined liberales, and even a restoration of the Cortes, were fondly predicted, especially as it was known that the allied powers disapproved the policy which had been pursued in Spain. Nothing of this kind, however, took place; and the remainder of the year exhibited the same predominance of arbitrary principles, superstition, and resistance to improvement, which had re-plunged this country into its former state of degradation.The character of the monarch was exhibited in a peculiarly odious light by the despotic rigour which he personally exercised upon the state prisoners. Having given orders that the trials of the liberales should be concluded within a fixed period, and that he should be consulted with regard to the sentences to be pronounced, he was greatly dissatisfied on being told that nothing appeared in evidence to convict the accused, and that it would be consonant to royal clemency to cast a veil over the past, and restore them to liberty. This recommendation only induced him to transfer the causes to another tribunal, to which he referred the consideration whether they were not comprised in certain laws relative to traitors and the exciters of tumults and disturbances. Receiving a reply that none of those who had been seized were guilty of offences of that nature, the king, in a rage, ordered the clerk of the court to bring to

him the proceedings, when he by himself pronounced sentence of exile or imprisonment for longer or shorter terms upon thirty-two persons, who had been the most distinguished deputies to the Cortes, or promoters of liberal principles. Of the nature of these sentences a specimen may be given in that of the celebrated Arguelles, to serve ten years as a common soldier in the regiment stationed at Ceuta; and in that of Garcia Herreros, former minister of grace and justice, to serve eight years in chains in the garrison of Gomera. Such is the prospect afforded of the reign of the beloved Ferdinand!

Of the occurrences in Italy during this year, the most important have been related in the chapter Concerning Murat and the revolution at Naples; some circumstances however remain to be noticed with respect to that country. The Roman Pontiff continued to pursue the plan of restoring to his see all the authority belonging to the head of the Catholic church, and of renovating the impaired dignity of religious institutions. On the first day of the year he issued a bull against ecclesiastical abuses, which contained various injunctions for rendering more sacred and respectable the characters of persons in holy orders. His expulsion from Rome ia consequence of the advance of king Joachim's troops, and his subsequent restoration after the fall of that temporary sovereign, were mentioned among the incidents of the Neapolitan war.

That important change in the affairs of Italy was followed by

an event of which notice was given by a proclamation published at Bologna on July 18th, by Cardinal Gonsalvi, secretary of state to the Pope, and addressed to the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna. The people of these districts are informed that by the unanimous will of the allies they are restored to the Holy See. The sentiments of his Holiness on the occasion are then communicated to them, which are, that every display of political conduct and opinion which had taken place in these provinces is banished from his mind, and that it is his desire that all shall look forward to the future with equal confidence and security; further, he expects that all the citizens shall imitate his example, and forgetting every thing past, shall regard each other as brothers, being all equally his sons. Moreover, his Holiness engages, that purchasers of property from the preceding governments, who have made their purchases according to the laws then subsisting, shall not be disturbed in their possession; and he also guarantees the public debt of the provinces, and the civil and military pensions, reserving only his claims on foreign countries in respect of them. The reduction of the taxes is then declared, and assurance is given that his Holiness will immediately employ himself on a new system of administration conformable to the welfare of his people.

A particular account of the circumstances connected with the restoration of the Papal territory was the subject of an allocution of the Pope in the Secret Consis

tory,