This decree, which developed the principles of the central Junta, and completed their labours, the Regency did not think proper to make public; one of the many acts of injustice which the Junta suffered after their compulsory resignation. The council of Castille, or rather the Consejo-reunido, in which such of its members were incorporated as had followed the legitimate Government into Andalusia, hinted, in a memorial full of calumnies against the ex-Junta, that the Cortes ought not to be convoked; their opinion was doubtless of great weight with the Regency; and as the Regents did not conceive themselves bound to follow the course which the preceding Government had marked out, they suppressed the edict, and issued in its stead an ♦Feb. 11.♦ address, breathing the same spirit as all the proclamations of the Spanish Government, but putting off the meeting of the Cortes. “The council of Regency,” they said, “could well have wished that your representatives had been at this time in Cortes assembled, and that the nation itself might thus have regulated its own destinies. The means which are necessary for our deliverance would quickly appear at its energetic and powerful voice. But this means of preservation has been too long delayed; and evils gathering upon each other, with the rapidity of a whirlwind, do not permit that it should be accomplished at the time and place appointed. The Isle of Leon, where the national congress ought to assemble, is at this time besieged by the enemy; from this isle we see their fires, we hear their artillery, we hear their insolent threats, and witness their ravages. Their rash endeavours, beyond a doubt, will fail against these intrenchments, where the watch-tower is erected which presents to all good patriots a beacon in the midst of the tempest. But the Isle of Leon, thus threatened by the enemy, cannot be at present a proper place for the celebration of our Cortes; and necessity compels us to delay it till the present crisis shall be past, and place and time suitable for so august an assembly can be assigned. Meantime, none of the measures and forms established and decreed for the convocation are to be suspended for a moment. The elections are to proceed, and the members who are chosen must hold themselves ready to perform their functions; the intention of the Government being, that the Cortes shall meet as soon as the circumstances of the war permit.”
Notwithstanding this language, it is possible that Spain was indebted for its Cortes more to the annunciation from Seville that the Intruder was about to convoke one, than to the inclination of its own rulers. The central Junta had delayed it not from intentional procrastination, but from their sense of the difficulty of the task, and from the deliberation which so peculiarly characterizes the Spaniards. They had overcome the difficulties, and framed a plan of representation, which preserved a due respect to old venerable forms, and was well adapted to the existing circumstances of the country; this having been done, as soon as it was ascertained that Cadiz might defy the enemy there ought to have been no delay. That was ascertained in February, as soon as the Isle of Leon was secured from a coup-de-main. But it was not till the middle of June that a decree was ♦Cortes convoked.♦ issued, ordering the elections to be completed as soon as possible, and requiring the deputies to assemble in the island during the month of August, that as soon as the greater part of them were met the sessions might begin. The plan which the central Junta framed was altered in one most material point, only one house being convoked. Had Jovellanos and his colleagues determined thus, they would still have summoned the privileged orders; but the Regency, departing inconsiderately from a resolution which had been the effect of long deliberation, neither summoned them to meet apart from the third estate, nor with it, nor devised any plan for representing them; so that two of the three estates were excluded as such from the national representation.
Three days of rogation were appointed previous to the opening of the Cortes, and on the 24th September they commenced their proceedings. At nine in the morning ♦Commencement of their proceedings.♦ the deputies assembled in a hall fitted up for their sittings in the palace of the Regency: the military were under arms, and they went with the Regents in procession to the parochial church of the Isle of Leon, where the Mass of the Holy Ghost was performed by Cardinal Bourbon, Archbishop of Toledo. After the gospel, the Bishop of Orense, who was president of the Regency, addressed them in a solemn discourse; and then the following oath was proposed: “Do you swear to preserve the Holy Catholic Apostolic Romish religion in these realms, without admitting any other? Do you swear to preserve the Spanish nation in its integrity, and to omit no means for delivering it from its unjust oppressors? Do you swear to preserve to our beloved sovereign, Ferdinand VII., all his dominions, and in his failure, to his legitimate successors; and to make every possible exertion for releasing him from captivity, and placing him upon the throne? Do you swear to discharge faithfully and lawfully the trust which the nation reposes in you, observing the laws of Spain, but changing, modifying, and varying such as require to be altered for the general good?” When all the deputies had made answer, “Yes, we swear,” they advanced two by two to touch the gospels; after which the bishop said, “If ye shall do this, so may God give you your reward; but if not, so may he enter into judgment with you!” The hymn Veni Sancte Spiritus, and the Te Deum, were then sung.
These ceremonies over, they returned in the same order to the hall of assembly: the Regents advanced to the throne, and occupied five seats under the canopy; the two secretaries of state, who accompanied them, took their seats at a table towards the head of the hall; and the deputies seated themselves indiscriminately as they entered, the old contest for precedency between Burgos and Toledo being no longer remembered. The bishop addressed them, briefly reminding them of the perilous state of the country, and the arduous duties which they were called upon to discharge; then desiring them to elect their president and secretaries from their own body, he and the other four members of the Regency quitted the hall, leaving a written paper upon the table.
A difficulty in point of form at the commencement of these proceedings was ended by appointing, as it were at random, two deputies to hold the offices of president and secretary, while the Cortes elected others. As soon as the election was made, the secretary read the paper which the Regents had left. “The five individuals,” it said, “who composed the Regency, received that charge, above their merits and their strength, at a time when any delay in accepting it would have been injurious to the country: but they only accepted it and swore to discharge its duties according to their capacity, till the solemn congress of the Cortes being assembled, should establish a government founded upon the general will. That moment so longed for by all good Spaniards has arrived, and the individuals of the council of Regency can do no less than state this to their fellow-citizens, that they may take it into consideration, and appoint the government which they deem most adapted to the critical circumstances of the monarchy, for which this fundamental measure was immediately necessary.”
Upon the motion of Torrero, deputy for Extremadura, the plan of a decree was then read, which had been prepared by his colleague Luxan, and which, after some discussion, was adopted to this effect. The members of the congress now assembled, and representing the nation, declared themselves legally constituted in a general and extraordinary Cortes, wherein the national sovereignty resided. Conformably to the general will, which had been declared in the most open and energetic manner, they proclaimed and swore anew, that Ferdinand VIIth, of Bourbon, was their only lawful king; and they declared null and void the cession of the crown which he was said to have made in favour of Napoleon Buonaparte, not only because of the violence which accompanied that transaction, but principally because the consent of the nation was wanting. As it was not proper that the legislative, executive, and judicial powers should remain united, they reserved to themselves the exercise of the legislative power in its full extent. They declared, that the persons to whom they should delegate the executive power, in the absence of their king, were responsible to the nation according to the laws. They authorized the Regency to continue exercising the executive power under the same title, till the Cortes should appoint a Government which they might deem more convenient. But to qualify itself for this continuance of its authority, the Regency should acknowledge the national sovereignty of the Cortes, and swear obedience to the laws and decrees which it should promulgate; for which purpose, as soon as the decree was made known to them, the members of the Regency ♦Oath required from the Regents.♦ should pass immediately into the hall of assembly, where the Cortes would remain till this was done, having declared their sitting permanent for this purpose. The form of the oath was thus prescribed: “Do you acknowledge the sovereignty of the nation, represented by its deputies in this general and extraordinary Cortes? Do you swear to obey its decrees, and the constitution which it may establish, according to the holy object for which they have assembled; to order that they shall be observed, and to see that they be executed? To preserve the independence, liberty, and integrity of the nation? the Catholic Apostolic Roman religion? the monarchial government of the kingdom? To re-establish upon the throne our beloved king D. Ferdinand VIIth, of Bourbon? and in all things to regard the public weal? As you shall observe all these things, God be your helper; and if you observe them not, you shall be responsible to the nation, in conformity with the laws.” The Cortes confirmed for the present the established tribunals, and the civil and military authorities; and they declared the persons of the deputies inviolable, and that no authority or individual might proceed against them, except according to the manner which should be appointed in future regulations, by a committee for that purpose.
Between ten and eleven at night this decree was passed. One of the members observed, that the Regents might be gone to bed, if they were not immediately apprized that their presence would be required that night; a deputation was therefore sent to them, while the ceremonial with which they were to be received was discussed. About midnight four of the Regents entered ♦The Bishop of Orense scruples to take the oath.♦ the hall and took the oath. The Bishop of Orense did not come; the unseasonableness of the hour, and the infirm state of his health, were assigned as reasons for his absence, but it was soon known that a stronger motive had withheld him. The sovereignty of the nation was a doctrine which the venerable prelate was not prepared to acknowledge, and from that hour he ceased to act as one of the Regency.
♦Sept. 25.♦
On the following day, the members resolved, as a consequence of their former decree, that the style in which they were to be addressed should be that of Majesty; highness was to be that of the executive power, during the absence of Ferdinand, and likewise of the supreme tribunals. They ordered also, that the commanders-in-chief, the captains-general of the provinces, the archbishops and bishops, tribunals, provincial Juntas, and all other authorities, civil, military, and ecclesiastic, should take the oath of obedience to the Cortes, in the same form as the Regency. By another edict, they decreed that their installation should be officially made known through all the Spanish dominions, and everywhere celebrated with Te Deums and discharges of artillery; and that prayers should be offered up during three days, imploring the divine blessing upon their councils.
♦Sept. 26.♦