Here the electors of the district were to assemble. A Junta should have been previously constituted, consisting of the president of the superior Junta of the province; the archbishop or bishop, regent, intendant, and corregidor of the city, and a secretary. It was presumed that these persons would all be members of the provincial Junta; if not, they were called to this duty by virtue of their rank, and an equal number of members of the Junta added; this proviso being intended to secure for the provincial Junta that influence to which their services entitled them, for which their experience qualified them, and of which it might not have been easy to deprive them, even if it had been thought desirable. The board thus appointed, was to see that the primary and secondary elections were made throughout the province. After the same observances and scrutinies as on the former occasions, the final election was to be made. The person proposed must be a native of the province, but it was not necessary that his property should be there: nobles, plebeians, and secular priests, were equally eligible; no other qualification was required, than that he should be above five-and-twenty, of good repute, and not actually the salaried servant of any individual or body.
In this final election, the first step was to elect three persons successively. A simple majority was not sufficient here; more than half the electors must vote for the same person, and the voting be repeated till this should be the case: three having thus been chosen, their names were to be placed in an urn, and he whose lot was drawn was the deputy to the Cortes. A fourth was then to be elected, whose name, in like manner, was submitted to the lot with the two which had been left undrawn, and this was repeated till the number of deputies for the province was made up. Supplementary deputies were then to be chosen, in readiness for any vacancy by death; the supplementaries were in the proportion of one to three. The number of provincial deputies amounted to 208; that of the supplementaries to 68.
The provincial Juntas were to choose their members according to the rules of the final elections; observing also the same general principle, that the person chosen must be a native of the province. The form appointed for the city elections was, that where the regidores were proprietaries, or held their office during life by the kings appointment, the people should elect an equal number of electors, in the manner of the municipal elections. These electors, with the regidores, the syndic, and the officers who are called the Personero y Diputado del Comun, were to meet in the consistory, where the corregidor should preside, and there choose three persons out of their own body, the final decision being by lot. All the elections were to be made with open doors.
Twenty-six members were added for the Spanish possessions in America and the Philippines. But during the long interval which must elapse before these representatives could reach Europe, supplementaries for their respective provinces were to be chosen from natives resident in Spain; and a circular notice was issued, requiring that all American or Asiatic Spaniards then in the country would send in their names, ages, employments, places of birth and of abode. This being done, and lists made out accordingly, a Junta was to be formed, consisting of the members of the central Junta, who should at the time be acting as deputies for the colonies, or four ministers of the council of the Indies appointed by the Junta, and of four distinguished natives of the colonies, to be chosen by the other members; this Junta was to direct and superintend the election. Twelve electors for each province were to be chosen by lot from among the natives of that province then resident in Cadiz; but if it so happened that they did not amount to eighteen, that number was to be filled up by individuals of the other provinces. The twelve then chosen were to choose their deputies, in the manner of the final provincial election, first by nomination, and then by lot.
The archbishops, bishops, and grandees, were to meet in an upper house: it was required that the grandees should be the heads of their respective families, and above the age of 25; and those nobles and prelates who had submitted to the French government were excluded.
Such was the plan which the commission of the central Junta decided upon, and which the Junta adopted. The commission was composed of five members, the Archbishop of Laodicea, Jovellanos, Castanedo, Caro and Riquelme; but the two latter members being appointed to the executive committee, their places were supplied by the Count de Ayamans, and D. Martin de Garay. D. Manuel Abella, and D. Pedro Polo de Alcocer, were secretaries to the commission. The details were formed, and the official instructions drawn up by Garay. In their general principles the commissioners had been chiefly guided, as was expected and desired, by Jovellanos, the best and wisest of the Spaniards.
There was, however, a difference of opinion in the commission upon three points of considerable importance. Riquelme and Caro would have had only one house of assembly; Jovellanos referred to the English constitution, as the best model, and one to which in this point, the Spaniards, with sufficient conformity to their ancient customs, might assimilate their own. He proposed also, that certain qualifications of property, situation, and acquirements, should be required of the deputies. Riquelme opposed this restriction; and Jovellanos yielded to the majority of his colleagues with less repugnance, knowing how well the great body of the people had deserved of their country. Riquelme insisted that the Cortes should not assemble without deputies from the colonies; the other members would have omitted them in the first assembly, in consequence of the long and indefinite time which must elapse before they could be chosen in their respective provinces, and arrive in Spain. The plan which was adopted obviated this difficulty. The inadequate number of colonial deputies is less objectionable than it may at first appear, when the probable number of persons from whom the supplementaries were to be chosen is considered; especially as it was not pretended that the manner in which the first Cortes was convoked should be binding as a precedent. “The government,” said Jovellanos, “fearful of arrogating to itself a right which belongs to the nation alone, leaves it to the wisdom and prudence of the nation to determine in what form its will may most completely be represented in future.”
♦Regulations proposed by the central Junta.
Jan. 29.♦
The last act of the Junta had been to consign to the Regency the charge of seeing the Cortes assembled, according to these rules. In this final decree provision was made for choosing deputies to represent the provinces occupied by the enemy; they were to be chosen in the same manner as the colonial deputies. Here also the important point of the veto was determined. If the Regency refused its assent to a measure which had passed both houses, the measure was to be re-considered; and unless re-passed by a majority of two-thirds in each house, it was lost, and could not be brought forward again in that Cortes; but if both houses, by such a majority, ratified their former determination, three days were then allowed to the Regency, and if within that time the royal sanction was not given, the law was to be promulgated without it. The Junta endeavoured to confine the Cortes within its proper limits, by declaring that the executive power appertained wholly to the Regency, and the legislative to the representative body; and lest any party should arise, who should aim at making the Cortes permanent, or unnecessarily extending its duration, “by which means,” the Junta said, “the constitution of the kingdom might be overthrown,” the Regency was empowered to fix any time for the dissolution of the assembly, provided it were not before the expiration of six months.
♦The regency delays the convocation.♦