The Junta of Seville, however, did worse than this. In electing its deputies it chose two persons so notoriously unworthy of such a trust, that the only motives which could be assigned for the choice were a desire of being rid of them, or an opinion that they would submit to any terms for the sake of the appointment. D. Vicente Hore was the one; he had been a creature of Godoy’s, and was so sensible of the estimation in which he was held, that he declined the charge, knowing his life would be in danger if he appeared in Madrid, where it was of course expected that the Central Junta would assemble. D. Juan de Vera y Delgado, titular Archbishop of Laodicea, the coadjutor of Seville, was then chosen in his place; and this was an unexceptionable choice. It was hoped and expected that Tilly, the other member, would follow Hore’s example, in declining an appointment for which he was equally disqualified; but Tilly was of a bolder stamp. A blasted character had not prevented him from obtaining great popularity at Seville; and being utterly regardless of the means by which he brought about his ends, he was ready to venture for the highest stake in the game of revolution. Foul facts had been proved against him, and fouler were, upon no light grounds, imputed. He had found it necessary to fly from Madrid before the troubles, because he was implicated in the robbery of a jeweller. The murder of the Conde de Aguila was attributed to him, because it was certain that he might have saved the Count by the slightest interference in his behalf. A wretch who was notoriously his creature had been one of the most active instruments in Solano’s death; and Reding would have been made away with by his means before the battle of Baylen, if the intention had not been disclosed to Castaños, and by him prevented.
This appointment was not perhaps what Tilly would have chosen; for it was believed that he had no inclination to show himself at Madrid; but he trusted to his talents for intrigue, obtained a monthly allowance of 500 dollars, and looked ♦The other members unexceptionable.♦ for those opportunities which revolutionary times offer to insane and desperate ambition. It is to the honour of the Spaniards, that this was the only exceptionable person elected for the central Junta: perhaps in no country could an equal number of men, under similar circumstances, have been chosen more worthy of the trust reposed in them. To be elected to a situation of so great responsibility, in a time of unexampled difficulties, was no object of desire; in no instance was the appointment solicited, and in most it was reluctantly accepted. The persons deputed were thirty-five[32] in number; of whom Florida-Blanca and Jovellanos were the most remarkable, for the offices which they had formerly filled, and the rank which they held in public opinion. Both were scholars as well as statesmen, both men of business, both high-minded and honourable Spaniards. Florida-Blanca had more of the spirit of his country, Jovellanos was more influenced by that of the age. The former had been an ambitious politician; the latter was always a philosopher, in the true and virtuous meaning of that polluted word. As the despotic minister of an absolute king, Florida-Blanca had used his power vigorously to uphold the dignity of the kingdom, and improve its internal condition; most of his measures were wise, and all were well-intended; but if he had ever conceived a wish to correct the abuses of the state, it had never appeared in his actions: Jovellanos had unwillingly accepted office, because it placed him in a sphere uncongenial to his modest habits and better mind, and withdrew him from the task to which he had devoted himself, of improving his native province. Jovellanos’s desire was to meliorate the government and the nation by recurring to the free principles of the old constitution; Florida-Blanca thought that if governments were administered as they ought to be, the strongest must be the best. Both, without hesitation[33], obeyed the call of their country, though Florida-Blanca, who was in extreme old age, would more willingly have passed the short remainder of his days in preparing and waiting for death; and Jovellanos, broken down, more by the infirmities which an unjust and cruel imprisonment had aggravated or induced, than by the weight of sixty-five years, desired for himself nothing in this world but tranquillity. The former brought with him little more than a venerable name; but Jovellanos was in full possession of his intellectual powers.
♦Jovellanos refuses all offers of the Intrusive Government.♦
Every effort had been made by Azanza, O’Farril, Urquijo, Mazarredo, and Cabarrus, to engage this excellent man in the Intruder’s service. He had lived in habits of friendship with all these persons, more especially with the two last. Knowing how inaccessible he would be to all unworthy inducements, they endeavoured to deceive him, as they would fain have deceived themselves, by representing that theirs was the only course which could secure the welfare of Spain; and that by no other means could the calamities with which it was threatened be averted; for they thought it absurd to imagine any effectual resistance could be opposed to the determined ambition of Buonaparte. His reply was, that if the cause of their country were as desperate as they supposed it to be, still it was the cause of honour and loyalty, and that which a good Spaniard ought to follow at all hazards. Jovellanos held with his favourite author Cicero that friendship was to be preferred to every thing except honour and virtue; he had given proof of this by his former conduct toward some of these friends, and they found now, as they had then, that no considerations could ever prevail in him over the sense of duty. It gave him no little pain that his name should be published in the Madrid gazette as one of Joseph’s ministers; thus to appear a traitor even for a few days to those who knew him not, or knew not how decidedly he had refused the appointment, was an injury which he felt severely. This was one of Buonaparte’s insolent acts; fallen as Urquijo and his colleagues were, they would not have thus outraged the feelings of a man whom it was not possible that they could ever cease to respect and admire. At length, the Intrusive Government having ascertained that he was really suffering under severe bodily infirmities, forbore to molest him with further solicitations. He was gradually recovering when news of the battle of Baylen refreshed his heart, and seemed to give him new life as well as hope. And when his appointment to the Central Junta was announced, though his first thought was of the ravages which age and affliction had made upon his debilitated frame, the sense of duty ♦Jovellanos a sus Compatriotas, p. ii. art. i. 18–25.♦ overcame all personal considerations, and he notified his acceptation without delay, at the same time declining a salary of 4000 ducats which had been assigned him.
♦Aranjuez chosen for the place of meeting.♦
In little more than a week he joined the deputies for Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia, at Madrid; and then two difficulties, which had not been anticipated, occurred. The first related to the instructions with which the Junta of Seville had fettered their members; instructions wholly repugnant to the principle upon which the provisional government was formed. The inconsistency and the evils of this measure were represented to Castaños, who was then in Madrid with his army; that General’s influence was never exercised unworthily, nor withheld when it might be useful; and in consequence of his remonstrance the obnoxious instructions were withdrawn, though it appeared afterwards that secret ones to the same tenour had been substituted. The other difficulty was concerning the place of meeting. Jovellanos thought that no place could be so proper as the metropolis: there, in the palace of their kings, the Central Junta would derive consequence and respect from the place; they would appear at the head of the first tribunals and chief magistracy; the public documents were upon the spot, and any advice or assistance which they might require at hand. The members who were at Madrid agreed in this opinion, which was supported also by Castaños: but the Junta of Seville were averse to any measure which might lessen their authority, and in this instance they were well served by Tilly for reasons which nearly concerned himself. He had stopped at Aranjuez, and succeeded in persuading Florida-Blanca, who was decidedly for fixing the government at Madrid, that it would be convenient to hold their first sittings where they were, and determine there upon the forms which they should observe in the capital. He gained time by this ... always a great object for one who trusts to intrigue and fortune. So fully persuaded however were Jovellanos and his colleagues when they went to Aranjuez that they should speedily adjourn to Madrid, that they left orders for forming an establishment there.
♦Installation of the Central Junta. Sept. 26.♦
The greater part of the deputies having arrived, their installation was performed with as much ceremony as the place and circumstances would permit. The Archbishop of Laodicea performed mass, and administered an oath to his colleagues, first taking it himself, that they would preserve and extend the holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion, defend their Sovereign Ferdinand, their rights, privileges, laws, and usages, and especially those relating to the succession in the reigning family, promote every thing conducive to the welfare and improvement of the kingdom, keep secret every thing which ought not to be divulged, maintain the laws, and resist the enemies of the country at all hazards. The oath having been taken, Te Deum was sung by the barefooted friars of St. Pasqual, and the assembly then adjourned to the hall chosen for their sittings. Florida-Blanca was appointed president, and his first act was to proclaim King Ferdinand from the great gallery of the principal front of the palace. The gates of the palace had not been opened till now since the departure of Charles for Bayonne; and the ceremony of thus proclaiming Ferdinand in the favourite residence of his ancestors, ... the scene of his own childhood, ... the spot where, six months ago, he had been acclaimed King, ... he who was now prisoner in a foreign land, and in the power of the perfidious tyrant who had ensnared him, ... moved the venerable statesman to tears when he pronounced his name, and excited feelings of grief and indignation in the multitude, which heightened and hallowed the enthusiasm wherewith they repeated it.
♦Conduct of the Council of Castille.♦
The Junta dispatched copies of the act and oath of installation to the different councils and tribunals, requiring their members to take the same oath, and issue orders to all the subordinate Juntas, provinces, magistrates, governors, and viceroys, for obeying the new government, as holding in deposit the sovereign authority for Ferdinand, the councils continuing in the exercise of their ordinary functions, but referring to the Central Junta all matters exceeding their powers, and upon which the Sovereign ought to be consulted. Other tribunals immediately signified their prompt and unreserved obedience; the Council of Castille alone delayed their answer. The mortification which they felt at not being incorporated with the provisional government, as they had proposed, was embittered by a consciousness that they had forfeited all claim to the confidence of the nation. Having, however, almost by accident, recovered so much authority, they strove to extend it, and after five days returned an answer, saying that, having given the subject their most serious consideration, they had resolved to take the oath, and circulate the necessary orders that the Central Junta should be obeyed in whatever was for the service of the King and of the public cause. But they added, that in discharge of their indispensable duty, they would hereafter communicate to the Junta the result of their consultations for the observance and maintenance of the laws. The reservation implied in this reply offended the Junta, and more especially the President Florida-Blanca, who had not been accustomed to tolerate delay or demur under his administration; and an answer was returned conveying reproof in the form of admonition, which reduced the Council of Castille to a quiet but malevolent submission.