About ninety Notables had now assembled at Bayonne, including those who had been decoyed thither with Ferdinand. A much greater number had been convoked; but some dared not undertake the journey, for fear of the people, who would justly have regarded them as traitors for obeying the summons; and others engaged heartily in the national cause. The Bishop of Orense, D. Pedro Quevedo y Quintana, was one of the persons whom the Junta of Government had summoned; and he declined obedience in a letter of calm and dignified remonstrance, which produced as much effect upon the people as the most animated military address, and which those who hoped or affected to hope for any melioration of the state of Spain by Buonaparte’s means could not have perused without a sense of shame. Impressive as this composition was, it derived additional weight from the character of the writer, for the Bishop of Orense was one of those prelates whose truly Christian virtues are the proudest boast and the truest glory of the Catholic church. During the dreadful years of the French revolution he received into his palace three hundred of the emigrant clergy: there he lodged and supported them, and lived with them at the same table, refusing to partake of any indulgence himself which could not be extended to these numerous guests. It was not possible for him, he said, infirm as he was, and at the age of seventy-three, to undertake so long a journey upon so sudden a notice. But bearing in mind the good of the nation, and the intentions of the Emperor, who desired to be as it were its angel of peace, its tutelary spirit, ... he would take the opportunity of saying to the Junta, and through them to the Emperor, what, if he were in person at Bayonne, he should there have said and protested. The business there to be treated is of remedying evils, repairing injuries, improving the condition of the nation and the monarchy: ... but upon what bases? Is there any approved means for doing this, any authority recognized by the nation? Will she enslave herself, and by that means expect her safety? Are there not diseases which are aggravated by medicine, and of which it has been said, tangant vulnera sacra nullæ manus? And does it not appear that those of the Royal Family are of this kind, and have they not been so aggravated by the treatment which they have received from their powerful protector, the Emperor Napoleon, that their case is now desperate? The Royal Family had been sent into the interior of France, ... of that country which had banished it for ever; sent back to its primitive cradle, it found a grave there by a cruel death, where its elder branch was cruelly cut off by an insane and sanguinary revolution. And this having been done, what could Spain hope for? Would her cure be more favourable? The means and the medicines did not promise it. He proceeded to say, that the abdications made at Bayonne could not be believed, and appeared to be impossible; that they could not be valid unless they were renewed and ratified by the Kings and the Infantes in their own country, and in perfect freedom from all constraint and fear. Nothing would be so glorious for Napoleon as to restore them to Spain, and to provide that in a general Cortes they might act according to their free choice; and that the nation, independent and sovereign as it was, might then proceed to recognize for its lawful King the person whom nature, right, and circumstances, should call to the Spanish throne. This indeed would be more honourable for the Emperor than all his victories and laurels. This indeed would deliver Spain from the dreadful calamities which threatened her; then might she recover from all her evils, and giving thanks to God, return also the most sincere gratitude to her saviour and true protector, then the greatest of all Emperors, the moderate, the magnanimous, the beneficent Napoleon the Great.
At present, said the venerable prelate, Spain cannot but behold him under a very different aspect. She sees in him the oppressor of her Princes and of herself. She looks upon herself as fettered and enslaved, when happiness is promised her, ... and this by force even more than by artifice, ... by armies which were received as friends, either through indiscretion and timidity, or perhaps by treason. These representations he laid before the Junta in the discharge of his duty as one of the King’s counsellors, that office being attached to the episcopal order in Spain: and he desired that they might be submitted to the Great Napoleon. “Hitherto,” said he, “I have relied upon the rectitude of his heart, as being free from ambition and averse to deceit. And still I hope that, perceiving Spain cannot be benefited by enslaving her, he will not persist in applying remedies to her in chains, for she is not mad.”
♦Buonaparte delivers a constitution to Azanza.♦
The want of any legitimate authority in the Junta of Notables to legislate for the nation was so palpable, even to the members themselves, that their president, Azanza, represented to Buonaparte, as an advisable measure, to convoke a Cortes in the usual form, and within the kingdom. But it was too late for this; the name of a Cortes, and the appearance of free deliberation, could no longer delude the Spaniards, after the forced abdications at Bayonne and the slaughter at Madrid. Buonaparte maintained that the consent of the nation would supply the want of any formalities which could not be observed in the existing circumstances; he delivered to Azanza the project of a constitution, and ordered him to appoint two committees, who should arrange the subject for discussion, and propose such alterations and modifications as they might deem convenient. Azanza and those who acted with him had flattered themselves that they should make terms with the new dynasty, and secure to their country a free representative government; but they now found that they were to receive a constitution as well as a King from the will and pleasure of Buonaparte. ♦Speech of Azanza at the opening of their sittings.♦ Nevertheless Azanza congratulated the Junta at their first sitting on the delightful and glorious task to which they were called, of contributing to the happiness of their country in labouring for the good of the present generation and of posterity, by the order and under the auspices of the hero of their age, the invincible Napoleon. Thanks and immortal glory, said he, to that extraordinary man who restores to us a country which we had lost! He spoke of the long misgovernment by which Spain had been degraded under a succession first of crafty then of imbecile sovereigns, till the last of their kings had resigned his rights to a Prince who, for their happiness, united in himself all the talents and resources required for restoring her to her former prosperity. He called upon them to sacrifice some privileges, which for the most part were but imaginary, upon the altar of their country, and to construct a monument at once simple and grand in place of the Gothic and complicated structure of their former government. He told them that it was in their power, by their collective representatives, and by their individual efforts, to do much towards appeasing the agitation which prevailed in many parts of the kingdom. Misguided men, without plan, without accord, without object, were acting in a manner from which nothing but ruin and desolation could ensue. Certain as the Junta were of that truth, it must be their business to convince others of it who were now deluded. Thus should they render their labours useful, and fulfil the generous designs of the hero who had convoked them; Spain would recover her ancient glory, and they would have the sweet satisfaction hereafter of thinking that they had contributed to it.
♦Address of the Notables to King Joseph.♦
The first sitting was employed in forming an address to King Joseph, and the business of the second was to present it. The glorious task which had been imposed upon them, they said, was to lay the foundations of durable happiness for their beloved country; was it not then their first duty to come before the chief of the Spanish nation, the centre of all their hopes, and devote themselves in his presence with the utmost zeal and ardour to the work? They noticed the disturbances in Spain as momentary troubles, occasioned by the error of the people, who never reflect, and who are worthy of commiseration when they return to their duty. The Intruder replied, that he wished to remain ignorant of these tumults, and to find none but Spanish hearts beyond the Pyrenees. In quitting a people who did justice to his government, he had made the greatest of sacrifices, he said; but, from his own feelings, he anticipated the love of the Spaniards. He knew the wisdom and the loyalty of the Castillian character. He would visit his provinces, bearing with him the heart of a father, and he should meet with none but his children. The enemies of the Continent (so in his brother’s manner he designated the English) were endeavouring to detach the colonies from the mother country, but the agents and instruments of this crafty hatred should not be spared. He concluded by desiring them in their deliberations to regard nothing but the good of the country, and to reckon upon the blessings of the people, and upon his entire satisfaction.
♦The Bayonne constitution.♦
Ten other sittings completed the business of the Junta, who had little time allowed them for their discussions, and less power. Some alterations they were permitted to make in minor points, but the principle and form of the constitution were of Buonaparte’s stamp. It was promulgated by the Intruder as the fundamental law of the kingdoms, and the basis of the compact whereby his people were bound to him, and he to his people. ♦Religion.♦ The first article declared that the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion should be the religion of the King and of the nation in Spain and in all the Spanish possessions, and no other should be permitted. ♦The succession.♦ The Salic law of succession was established, as in France; in failure of legitimate male descendants to Joseph, the crown was to devolve on Napoleon, and his heirs male, whether natural and legitimate, or adopted; in their default to Louis and Jerome, and their heirs in succession, Lucien being tacitly excluded. In failure of all these, the son of the eldest daughter was to inherit; and if the last King left no daughter who had issue male, the crown might then go to the person whom he should have appointed by his will, whether one of his nearest relations were chosen or any one whom he should deem most worthy to govern the Spaniards, but the appointment must be presented to the Cortes for their approbation. The crown of Spain and of the Indies was never to be united with any other in the same person. The King should be considered as a minor till he had completed his eighteenth year; during a minority there should be a Regent, who must be at least twenty-four years old; if the last King should not have nominated one among the Infantes, that Infante was to hold the office, who being of the age required was the last in succession to the throne. The Regent, like the King, was to be irresponsible; and he was to have a fourth part of the revenues which were settled upon the crown. Should there be no Infante of age for the office, a Council of Regency was then to be composed of the seven senior senators. The minor King was not to be under the Regent’s care, but under the guardianship of his mother, in case his predecessor should not have designated a guardian; and if the last King had not appointed five senators for a Council of Tutelage, to provide for the education of the minor, and to be consulted in all things of importance relating to his person and establishment, that office devolved upon the five senior senators, or if there were a Council of Regency existing, on the five senators next in seniority to the members of that council.
♦Patrimony of the crown.♦
The palaces of Madrid, the Escurial, S. Ildefonso, Aranjuez, the Pardo, and others belonging to the crown, with all the parks, forests, inclosures, and property thereunto appertaining, were the patrimony of the crown: if the rents of the whole did not amount to a million of pesos fuertes, other lands were to be added to them which would make up that sum. The public treasury was also charged with the payment of two millions of pesos fuertes per year to the crown, in monthly payments. The hereditary Prince became entitled to a revenue of 200,000 from the age of twelve, the other Infantes to 100,000, the Infantas to 50,000 each, charged upon the public treasury: the Queen Dowager was to have 400,000, charged upon the treasury of the crown.