LIII. 1808. 50. Constitu CHAP. default of both, in the other brothers of the imperial family in their order of seniority, but under the condition that the crown of Spain was not to be united on the same head with another. The legislature was to consist at Bayonne of a senate of eighty members, nominated by the king: leon to the a Cortes composed of one hundred and seventy-two Spaniar.ls. members arranged in the following proportions and tion given by Napo order,-twenty-five archbishops and bishops, and twentyfive grandees, on the first bench; sixty-two deputies of the provinces of Spain and the Indies; thirty of the principal towns; fifteen of the merchants and manufacturers; and fifteen of the arts and sciences. The first fifty, composing the peers, were appointed by the king, but could not be displaced by him; the second class was elected by the provinces and municipalities; the third was appointed by the king out of lists presented to him by the tribunals and chambers of commerce, and the universities. The deliberations of the Cortes were not to be public; none of their proceedings were to be published, under the penalties of high treason; the finances and expenditure were to be settled by them at one sitting for three years; the colonies were constantly to have a deputation of twenty-two persons at the seat of government to watch over their interests; all exclusive exemptions from taxation were abolished; entails perstitution of mitted only to the amount of twenty thousand piastres Bayonne, (£2000) yearly, and with the consent of the king; an 402, 403 alliance, offensive and defensive, was concluded with France, and a promise held out of the establishment of the liberty of the press within two years after the commencement of the new constitution.1 1 See Con Thib. vi. and Tor. i. 292, 295. Thiers, viii. 655. 51. of Napoleon, Everything was conducted by the junta of Notables Proceedings at Bayonne to the entire satisfaction of Napoleon. The Joseph, and grandees of Spain rivalled his own senate in graceful Notables, at adulation of his achievements, in obsequious submission to his will. When the constitution was read to them, it was received with transport, and adopted by acclamation. the Junta of Bayonne. July 7. LIII. 1808. Thunders of applause shook the hall when the new king CHAP. made his appearance in his royal robes; when he retired, two medals were unanimously voted to record the memorable acts of Bayonne; and the assembly, in a body, hastened to the Emperor to lay at his feet the homage of their gratitude for the unparalleled services which he had rendered to their country. There was in the flattery of the Spanish nobles a mixture of studied servility with Oriental grandiloquence, which was novel and agreeable to a sovereign toward whom had been exhausted all the arts of European adulation.* Two days after, the new king set out for the capital of his dominions; he was accompained as far as the frontier by his imperial brother and a splendid cortège of a hundred carriages, and crossed the Bidassoa amidst the roar of July 9. artillery and all the pomp of more than regal magnificence. On the 20th, Napoleon himself set out from July 20. Bayonne, having first given such instructions to Savary as he deemed sufficient to bring the insurrection, which had now broken out on all sides, to a successful issue; and returned by Pau, where he visited the birthplace of Henry IV., Bordeaux, la Vendée, the mouth of the Loire, Nantes, and Tours, to St Cloud, which he reached in the middle of August. Meanwhile Ferdinand VII., resign- Aug. 14. ing himself to his chains, wrote to the Emperor from Valençay, thanking him for his condescension, and requesting permission to meet him on his route to lay July 26. "Sire!" said M. Azanza, the President of the Notables, "the junta of Spain has accomplished the glorious task for which your Majesty convened it in this city. It has accepted, with as much eagerness as freedom, the great charter which fixes upon a sure foundation the happiness of Spain. Happily for our country, an overruling Providence has employed your irresistible haud to snatch it from the abyss into which it was about to be precipitated. It is well that it was irresistible; for an inexplicable blindness has caused those who ought most to rejoice at this benefit to misapprehend it. But all Spain, Sire! will open its eyes. It will see that it required a total regeneration, and that from your Majesty alone it could obtain it. Public evil was at its height; the agents of a feeble government devoured the public patrimony, or extended unceasingly the I mits of arbitrary power: the finances were a chaos; the public debt an abyss ; the period of total dissolution was approaching. To what other power but that LIII. 1808. Aug. 1. 1 CHAP. his homage at his feet,* which was not granted; and Charles IV., after testifying his entire satisfaction with the palace, parks, and country around Compiègne, reSee the quested permission, on account of his health, to pass the winter in a warmer climate, which was graciously In the autumn he moved to Marseilles, where he lingered out in ease and obscurity the remainder of his inglorious life.1 Letter in Nell. ii. 262. Thib. vi. 406, accorded. 408. Tor. i. 294, 295. 52. try of Jo his journey to, and arrival and reception at Madrid. The ministry appointed by Joseph, before his departure New minis- from Bayonne, was mainly taken from the counsellors of seph, and the Prince of Asturias; and this selection, joined to their ready acceptance of their new dignities, throws a dark shade of doubt over the fidelity with which they had served that unhappy prince, during his brief but eventful possession of the throne. Don Luis de Urquijo was made secretary of state; Don Pedro Cevallos, minister for foreign affairs; Don Sebastian de Pinuela, and Don Gonzalo O'Farril, ministers of justice and at war; Don Miguel Azanza obtained the colonies, and Mazaredo the marine. Even Escoiquiz wrote to Joseph protesting his devotion to him, and declaring that he and the rest of Ferdinand's household "were willing to obey his will blindly, down to the minutest particulars." The Duke del Infantado was appointed to the command of the Spanish, and the Prince Castel-Franco to that of the Walloon Guards. Joseph entered Spain surrounded by the highest grandees and most illustrious names of Spain. He reached July 22. of your imperial and royal Majesty could it be reserved, not merely to arrest the evil, but entirely to remove it? Such are the wonders, Sire, which you have wrought in a few days, and which fill the world with astonishment."—SOUTHEY, i. 436, 437. "My uncle and brother have been equally charmed with myself at the announcement of the arrival of your imperial and royal Majesty at Pau, which brings us nearer your presence; and since, whatever route you choose, you must pass near this, we should regard it as a very great satisfaction if your imperial and royal Majesty would permit us to meet you, and renew in person that homage of sincere attachment and respect which we all feel, if it is not inconvenient."-FERDINAND VII. to NAPOLEON, 26th July 1808; NELLERTO, ii. 262. Napoleon, however, declined the honour, and never again saw Ferdinand or any of his family. LIII. 1808. July 20. Madrid on the 20th, having lingered for several days at CHAP. Burgos and Vitoria, and received there the oaths of allegiance from the Council of State, the Council of the Indies, and that of the finances. But though surrounded by the nobles, his reception in the capital was melancholy in the extreme. Orders had been given that the houses of the inhabitants should be decked out to receive their new sovereign, but very few obeyed the injunction. A crowd assembled to see the brilliant cortège and splendid guards which accompanied the King, but no cheers or applauses were heard. Every countenance bore a mournful expression; hardly any ladies appeared at the windows, notwithstanding the passionate fondness of the Spanish women for such displays. The bells of all the churches rang 1 Thib. vi. together, but they resembled rather the dismal toll at 427. Tor. i. the interment of the dead, than the merry chime which i. 482. announces a joyful event to the living.1 355. South. instances of torrent of his favour grandees. To the honour of Spain and of human nature it must 53. be stated, that, in the midst of this humiliating scene of Honourable aristocratic baseness, some sparks of an independent spirit resistance to were elicited, and some men in high station asserted the the general ancient honour of the Spanish character. When the adulation in Duke del Infantado, at the head of the grandees of the among the monarchy, delivered their address to the new sovereign, he concluded it with these words:" The laws of Spain. do not permit us to go farther at present. We await the decision of the nation, which can alone authorise us to give a freer vent to our sentiments." No words can convey an idea of the anger of Napoleon at this unexpected reservation. Instantly approaching the Duke, he said, "As you are a gentleman, you should conduct yourself as such; and instead of disputing here on the words of an oath, which you will doubtless violate as soon as you have an opportunity, you would do better to withdraw at once, put yourself at the head of your party, and combat there openly and honourably. But you may rest assured, that if you take an oath here, and afterwards fail in its per VOL. VIII. 2 F LIII. 1808. CHAP. formance, before eight days you shall be shot." This violent apostrophe produced the desired intimidation; the address was corrected, and delivered in the form above mentioned, by Azanza; but the Duke retained his opinions, and ere long appeared in the ranks of his country. The Council of Castile prefaced their address by the fulsome expression," Your Majesty is one of the principal branches of a family destined by heaven to reign over mankind;" but they eluded, by alleging want of authority, the simple and unqualified taking of the oath of allegiance. Jovellanos, who had been liberated by the resignation of Charles IV. and the fall of Godoy from his long captivity in the dungeons of Minorca, was offered by Joseph the portfolio of the minister of the interior. But the lengthened sufferings of that incorruptible patriot, under an oppressive government, could not blind him to the injustice now attempted by his deliverers, and he declared his resolution to abide by the fortunes of his suffering countrymen rather than accept wealth and greatness from their oppressors." The Bishop of Orense, when nominated as one of the junta to proceed to Bayonne by the regency of Madrid, returned an answer declining the 1 Tor. i. 281, honour, in such independent and elevated terms as must Pièces Just. for ever command the respect of the generous among mankind.1+ 299, 413. Memorable * "I am resolved," said he, in reply to the reiterated instances of Joseph and his ministers, " to decline the place in the administration which you offer me and I am convinced that you will strive in vain to overcome the resistance, by means of exhortations, of a people so brave and resolute to recover their liberties. Even if the cause of my country were as desperate as you suppose it, it will never cease to be that of honour and loyalty, and that which every good Spaniard should embrace at any hazard.”—TORENO, i. 299. " + " Spain," said this courageous prelate, in his letter to the junta at Madrid, now sees in the French Emperor the oppressor of its princes and its own answer of the tyrant; it feels itself enslaved, while it is told of its happiness: and these chains Bishop of Orense to his it owes even less to perfidy, than to the presence of an army which it admitted summons to to its strongholds when on terms of perfect amity. The nation is without a king, Bayonne. and knows not which way to turn. The abdication of its sovereign, and the appointment of Murat as Lieutenant-general of the kingdom, all took place in France amidst foreign armies, and under the eyes of an Emperor who conceived he was bestowing prosperity on Spain by placing on her throne a prince of his |