INTERNAL POLITICAL TRANSACTIONS.
With the military affairs thus mismanaged, the civil and political transactions proceeded step by step, and in the same crooked path. Short as the period was between the first breaking forth of the insurrection, and Mr. Stuart’s Letters. Parliamentary Papers. the arrival of Mr. Stuart at Coruña, it was sufficient to create disunion of the worst kind. The juntas of Leon, of the Asturias, and of Gallicia, were at open discord, and those provinces were again split into parties, hating each other with as much virulence as if they had been of a hundred years growth. The money and other supplies sent by the English ministers were considered, by the authorities into whose hands they fell, as a peculiar donation to themselves, and appropriated accordingly. The junta of one province would not assist another with arms when there was a surplus, nor permit their troops to march against the enemy beyond the precincts of the particular province Ibid. in which they were first organized. The ruling power was in the hands of the provincial nobility and gentry, men of narrow contracted views, unused to business, proud, arrogant—as extreme ignorance suddenly clothed with authority will always be—and generally disposed to employ their newly-acquired power in providing for their relations and dependants at the expense of the common cause, which with them was quite subordinate to the local interests of their own particular province. Hence a jealousy of their neighbours regulated the proceedings of all the juntas, and the means they resorted to for increasing their own, or depressing a rival government’s influence, were equally characterised by absurdity and want of principle. The junta of Gallicia did their utmost to isolate that province, as if with a view to a final separation from Spain and a connexion with Portugal. They complained, Mr. Stuart’s Letters. MS. as of an injury, that the army of Estremadura had obeyed the orders of the junta of Seville; they at once struck up an independent alliance with the junta and bishop of Oporto, and sent troops, as we have seen, under Valladeras, to aid the war in Portugal, but, at the same time, refused to unite in any common measure of defence with the provinces of Castille, until a formal treaty of alliance between them was negotiated, signed, and ratified. In the mean time their selfishness and incapacity created so much disgust in their own district, that plots were formed to overthrow their authority. The bishops of Orense and St. Jago became their decided enemies; and the last-named prelate, an intriguing man, secretly endeavoured to draw Blake, with the army, into his views, and even wrote to him, to desire that he would lead the forces against Ibid. the government of Coruña; but the junta having intercepted the letters, arrested the bishop. Their own stability and personal safety were however still so insecure, that many persons applied to Mr. Stuart to aid in changing the form of government by force. The Asturians were even worse, they refused to assist Blake when his army was suffering, although the stores required by him, and supplied by England, were rotting in the harbours where they were first landed. Money also that was sent out in the Pluto frigate for the use of Leon was detained at Gihon, and Leon itself never raised a single soldier for the cause: and thus, only two months after the first burst of the insurrection, corruption, intrigue, and faction even to the verge of civil war, were raging in the northern parts of Spain.
The same passions were at work in the south, and the same consequences followed. The junta of Seville, still less scrupulous than that of Gallicia, made no [Appendix, No. 13], section 5. secret of their ambitious views; they stifled all local publications, and even suppressed the public address of Florida Blanca, who, as president of the Murcian junta, had recommended the formation of a supreme central government. They wasted their time in vain and frivolous disputes, and neglecting every concern of real importance, sacrificed the general welfare to views of private advantage and interest. They made promotions in the army without regard to public opinion Ibid. or merit; they overlaid all real patriotism; bestowed on their own creatures places of emolument, to the patronage of which they had not a legal right; and even usurped the royal prerogative of appointing Sir Hew Dalrymple’s Paprs.
Coxe’s Correspondce. canons in the church, for their cupidity equalled their ambition. They intercepted, as I have already related, the pecuniary supplies necessary to enable the army to act; they complained that La Mancha and Madrid, in whose defence they said “their troops were sacrificing themselves,” did not subsist and supply the force under Castaños; under the pretence of forming a nucleus for disciplining thirty thousand levies as a reserve, they retained five battalions at Seville, and, having by this draft weakened the army in the field, they neglected the rest, and never raised a man. The canonries filled up by them had been vacant for several years, and the salaries attached to those offices were appropriated to the public service. The junta now applied the money to their own and their creatures’ emolument; and at one period they appear to have contemplated an open partition of the funds received from England among themselves. Against this flagitious junta also the public indignation was Sir Hew Dalrymple’s Paprs.
Coxe’s Correspondce. rife; a plot was formed to assassinate the members; the municipal authorities remonstrated with them, the archbishop of Toledo protested against their conduct, [Appendix, No. 13], section 5. and the junta of Grenada refused to acknowledge their supremacy; but so great was their arrogance, so unprincipled their ambition, that the decided and resolute opposition of Castaños alone prevented them from commencing a civil war, and Ibid. marching the victorious army of Baylen against the refractory Granadans. Such was the real state of Spain, and such the patriotism of the juntas, who were at this time filling Europe with the sound of their own praise.
In the northern parts Mr. Stuart endeavoured to reduce this chaos of folly and wickedness to some degree of order, and to produce that unity of design and action without which it was impossible to resist the mighty adversary that threatened the independence of the Peninsula. He judged that to reduce the conflicting passions of the moment, a supreme authority, upon which the influence of Great Britain could be brought to bear with full force, was indispensable. To convoke the ancient cortez of the realm appeared to him the most certain and natural method of drawing the strength and energy of the nation into one compact mass; but there the foresight of Napoleon interfered; by an able distribution of the French forces, all direct communication between the northern and southern provinces was intercepted. Bessieres, Dupont and Moncey at that time occupied a circle round Madrid, and would have prevented the local governments of the north from uniting with those of the southern, if they had been inclined to do so. An union of the nearest provinces, to be called the Stuart’s Correspondence. Parliamentary Papers. northern cortez, then suggested itself to Mr. Stuart as a preliminary step, which would ensure the convocation of a general assembly when such a measure should become practicable. Accordingly he strenuously urged its adoption, but his efforts, at first, produced no good results. It was in vain that he represented the danger of remaining in a state of anarchy when so many violent passions were excited, and such an enemy was in the heart of the country. It was in vain that he pointed out the difficulties, that the want of a supreme authority fastened on the intercourse with the British cabinet, which could not enter into separate relations with every provincial junta. The Spaniards, finding that the supplies were not withheld, that their reputation for patriotism was not lowered in England by actions which little merited praise, finding, in short, that the English cabinet was weak enough to gorge their cupidity, flatter their vanity, and respect their folly, they assented to all Mr. Stuart’s reasoning, but forwarded none of his propositions, and continued to nourish the disorders that, cancer-like, were destroying the common cause.
The jarring interests which agitated the northern provinces were not even subdued by the near approach of danger. The result of the battle of Rio Seco rather inflamed than allayed the violence of party feeling. If Bessieres had not been checked in his operations by the disaster of Dupont, he would have encountered few obstacles in establishing Joseph’s authority in Gallicia and Old Castile. The enthusiasm of those provinces never rose to a great pitch; Bessieres was prepared to use address as well as force, and among the factions he must doubtless have found support. The reinforcements continually arriving from France would have enabled him to maintain his acquisition, and then the ability of the emperor’s dispositions would have become apparent; for while Bessieres held Gallicia, and Dupont hung on the southern frontier of Portugal with twenty-five thousand men, Junot could have securely concentrated his army in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, and have rendered an English disembarkation on the coast nearly impracticable.
The whole of the French monarch’s combinations were overturned by the disgraceful capitulation of Baylen, and when Joseph evacuated Madrid a fresh impulse was given to the spirit of the people; but, unfortunately for Spain, as a wider scope for ambition was obtained, the workings of self-interest increased, fresh parties sprung up, and new follies and greater absurdities stifled the virtue of the country, and produced irremediable confusion, ending in ruin. The fact of Dupont’s capitulation was made known to the council of Castile before king Joseph was informed of it, and the council, foreseeing all the consequences of such an event, immediately refused, as I have already related, to promulgate officially his accession to the throne. Joseph permitted this act of obedience to pass without much notice. He was naturally averse to violence, Azanza and O’Farril, Mem. and neither he, nor his brother Napoleon, did at any period of the contest for Spain constrain a Spaniard to accept or retain office under the intrusive government. Joseph went further; before he abandoned Madrid, he released his ministers from their voluntary oath of allegiance to himself, and left them free to choose their party once more. Don Pedro Cevallos and the marquis of Pinuelo changed with, what appeared to them, changing fortune; but five others remained steadfast, preferring an ameliorated government under a foreign prince to what they believed to be a hopeless struggle, but which, if successful, they knew must end in a degrading native despotism; perhaps, also, a little swayed by their dislike to England, and by the impossibility of obtaining that influence among their countrymen which, under other circumstances, their talents and character would have ensured.
The boldness of the council of Castille was not publicly chastised by the intruding monarch, but secretly he punished the members by a dexterous stroke of policy. General Grouchy wrote to Castaños, saying, that circumstances had arisen which required the presence of the French troops in another quarter, and he invited the Spanish general to take immediate possession of Madrid for the preservation of public tranquillity. This communication gave rise to an opinion that the French were going to evacuate Spain; a report so congenial to the vanity and indolence of the Spaniards was greedily received, and contributed among other causes to the subsequent supineness of the nation in preparing for its defence; thus by appealing to Castaños, and affecting to treat the council of Castille as a body who had lost their influence with the nation, Joseph gave a handle to their enemies which the latter failed not to lay hold of. The juntas dreaded that the influence of such a body would destroy their own; that of Gallicia would not communicate with them, affirming that, individually, the members were attached to the French, and that, collectively, they had been the most active instrument Sir H. Dalrymple’s Papers.
Coxe’s Correspondence. of the usurper’s government. The junta of Seville endeavoured not only to destroy the authority of the existing members, but to annul that of the council, as an acknowledged tribunal of the state. The council, however, was not wanting to itself, the individuals composing it did not hesitate to seize the reins of government the moment the French had departed; and the prudence with which they preserved tranquillity in the capital, and prevented all re-action, proves that they were not without merit; and forms a striking contrast to the conduct of the provincial juntas, under whose savage sway every kind of excess was committed, and even encouraged.
Aware of the hostility they had to encounter, the members of the council lost no time in forming a party to support themselves. Don Arias Mon y Velarde, dean or president for the time being, wrote a circular letter to the local juntas, pointing out the necessity of establishing a central and supreme power, and proposing that deputies from each province, or nation, as they were sometimes called, should repair to Madrid, and there concert with the council the best mode of carrying such a measure into effect. If this proposal had been adopted, all power would inevitably have fallen into the hands of the proposers. Confessedly the first public body in the state, and well acquainted with the forms of business; the council must necessarily have had a preponderating influence in the assembly of delegates, and it appeared so reasonable that it should take the lead, when an efficient authority was required to direct the violence of the people in a useful channel, before the moment of safety was passed; that all the juntas trembled at the prospect of losing their misused power. The minor ones submitted, and agreed to send deputies. The stronger and more ambitious felt that subtlety would avail more than open opposition to the project.
The council followed up this blow by the publication of a manifesto, containing an accurate detail of the events of the revolution, defending the part taken by its members, and claiming a renewal of the confidence formerly reposed in them by the nation. Mr. Stuart’s Correspondence. This important state paper was so ably written, that a large party, especially at Valladolid, was immediately formed in favour of its authors; and the junta of Seville were so sensible of the increasing influence of the council, that they intercepted a copy of this manifesto, Cox’s Corresponce. addressed to sir Hew Dalrymple, and strictly [Appendix, No. 13], section 5. suppressed all writings favourable to the formation of a supreme central authority. Nothing they dreaded more; but it was no longer possible to resist the current, which had set strongly in favour of such a measure. The juntas, however they might oppose its progress, could not openly deny the propriety of it, and in every province, individuals of talent and Mr. Stuart’s Correspondence. consideration called for a change in the Hydra polity, which oppressed the country, and was inefficient against the enemy. Every British functionary, civil or military, in communication with the Spaniards, also urged the necessity of concentrating the executive power.
Ibid.