I enclose a very well written address to the deputies of the Cortes which was published here three days before they met; the author, tho’ the initials of the name were not subjoined, your Lordship would readily know to be Quintana. He has not been elected for the Cortes. Capmany is one of the deputies for Catalonia.
The last decree of the Junta Central which you had the goodness to send me was not suppressed by their successors; it was circulated here in manuscript. I read it a few days after it was passed: it was not printed and published, but its not being so did not, in my opinion, arise from any improper motive. The truth is that the Junta Central were and still are held in such universal abhorrence that anything coming from them, were it ever so good in itself, would have been ill received by the public. The only member of that body to whom no public odium has attached is your friend Jovellanos. He has retired to some corner in Asturias; it was reported some weeks ago that he had been named deputy to the Cortes from some parts of that province, and the intelligence gave great and general satisfaction. Garay and a few others are still here, but seldom appear in public. Valdes is in Gibraltar. Tilly and Calvo close prisoners in the Castle of St. Sebastian. Villel in Catalonia, and the rest I know not where. Riquelme, who, to avoid the effects of the popular indignation, had taken refuge on board a Spanish frigate commanded by Dn. Raphael Lobo, was the only person killed by the fire of the French batteries on the Trocadero when the frigate, having been driven from her anchors during a violent storm, grounded within reach of the French batteries and was at last set on fire by red hot shot.
I enclose a number of the Conciso (a new paper published here) which has just come from the press; the account which it gives of the proceedings in the Cortes differs very little from what I have written above.
The assembly of the Cortes, tho’ late, is a most fortunate circumstance; it affords the only hope of saving the nation. The single circumstance of the Regency having been appointed by the Junta Central, would for ever have prevented them from obtaining the confidence of the public.
I beg to offer my best respects to Lady Holland and Mr. Allen, and have the honour to be, &c.
R. Campbell.
P.S.—Though the Cortes in a body are to have the tratamiento of Majesty, the individual members are to have no tratamiento nor any badge of distinction as members of Cortes. When the Regency took the oaths to the Cortes on the evening of the 24th, the Bishop of Orense did not come, saying he was fatigued and much indisposed, and he has since declined to take the oaths from some scruple of conscience, of what nature we do not know. The Cortes were sitting yesterday in a secret committee of the whole, deliberating upon a communication from the Regency.
Mr. R. Campbell to Lord Holland.
Cadiz, Dec. 10, 1810.
My Lord,—Being much hurried at present I must refer your Lordship to the public reports for an account of the further proceedings of the Cortes and of the events which have lately taken place in this country. I shall only say in general that we are still full of confidence. A measure, which I have taken the liberty of strongly recommending to some of my friends among the deputies, will probably be moved in the Cortes this day or to-morrow. It is to pass a decree making it a fundamental law of the state that any King of Spain or Prince of the blood royal who shall marry a foreigner without the consent of the Cortes, shall by that act forfeit his title to the crown. The subject of this decree, independent of its general policy, is immediately to anticipate any new trick or stratagem which Bonaparte may probably devise, should the campaign in Portugal prove, as we hope, signally disastrous to his arms, by marrying Ferdinand to a Frenchwoman or an Austrian, and bringing him to Spain as King, in order to create new factions and disunion. This law will probably be proposed by Arguelles, and I have little doubt will pass.