XII. for it, must necessarily be the first duty of the government; but CHAP. it would fulfil only half its duties if it attended to this alone: other duties remained, to be the great reward of the virtue of 1808. the Spaniards and of their sacrifices. A little time only had September. passed since, oppressed and degraded, ignorant of their own strength, and finding no protection against these evils, neither in the institutions nor in the laws, they had even regarded foreign dominion as less hateful than the wasting tyranny which consumed them. The dominion of a will always capricious, and most often unjust, had lasted too long: their patience, their love of order, their generous loyalty had too long been abused: it was time that law, founded on general utility, should commence its reign. This was the desire of their good and unfortunate King Ferdinand; this was what he pointed out, even from the captivity to which a perfidious traitor had reduced him. The name of their country ought no longer to be a vague and idle word to the Spaniards; henceforward it was to import to their ears and to their hearts the sanctuary of laws, the theatre for talents, the reward of virtue. Such a country the Junta solemnly promised they should possess; and till the military operations, which must at first be slow, in order better to insure success, should furnish the leisure necessary for this great and solemn reform, the government would privately prepare for it. Instead of rejecting the advice of enlightened men, they desired and requested it. The knowledge and illustration of their ancient and constitutional laws; the changes which change of circumstances rendered necessary in their re-establishment ; the reform which might be necessary in the civil, criminal, and commercial codes; projects for improving public education, which was in Spain so greatly on the decline; a system of regulated economy for the distribution and collection of the public revenue,.. these were subjects for the investigation of wise and thoughtful men, and on which the opinions of such men were XII. CHAP. solicited. The Junta would form different committees, each entrusted with a particular department, to whom all writings on 1808. matters of government and administration might be addressed : so that each contributing by his exertions to give a just direction to the public mind, the government might be enabled to establish the internal happiness of Spain.” September. Jovellanos proposes a and that a Cortes be These were fair professions; nor were the intentions of the Regency, Central Junta less laudable than their language. Tilly alone summoned. excepted, the members were upright and honourable men, worthy to represent a nation distinguished for its high sense of honour. But they were unacquainted with each other, and except the President, Jovellanos, and Garay, wholly unused to business for a national assembly too few, and for an executive government too many. Jovellanos was of opinion that they ought immediately to appoint a regency of five persons, one of them being a dignitary of the church, to be installed on the first day of the ensuing year: that the Central Junta should then be reduced to half its original number, retaining one member only of each deputation, for the purpose of watching over the observance of the constitution entrusted to the regency, and corresponding with the provincial Juntas, which should thenceforward consist of four members each: these were to exist as long as the Council of Regency; and the Central Junta of Correspondence, as it was then to be called, only till the meeting of the Cortes, which Jovellanos maintained ought immediately to be announced as to assemble as soon as the enemy should have been driven out of Spain, or, at all events, in two years from the present time, if the delivery of the country should not be accomplished before. He proposed also that the Junta, before it resigned its powers, should appoint persons qualified for such a task to prepare plans of reform in the constitution, laws, finance, system of public instruction, army, and marine; . . these plans were to be formed under the inspection and approbation XII. October. of the Council of Regency and the Junta of Correspondence, CHAP. and finally submitted to the Cortes. In delivering this advice, Jovellanos, to remove all suspicion of any interested views, re- 1808. peated in writing the solemn declaration which he had before made by word of mouth, that he never would accept of any office or employment himself; the natural and invincible repugnance which he had ever felt for such preferment, the bitter price which he had paid for having once accepted it, in deference to a brother whom he respected like a parent, and the sad sense of decay both in his physical and moral powers, determined him to this resolution. The only duty which he would undertake to perform was the noble one of simply delivering Jovellanos those opinions which he thought most conducive to the good of p. ii. § 33, his country, in discharge of the high trust wherewith his own dices, Ño. 5. province had honoured him. Memoria, 34. Apen tions from a Cortes. Jovellanos expected the greatest benefit from a Cortes; but Expectahe apprehended great evil if it were hastily convoked, and without due preparation. That party who have since assumed the appellation of Liberales censured him for proposing to postpone it so long. They were then a very small, but active, minority, consisting chiefly of physicians, lawyers, and unbelieving priests, whose little knowledge, exclusively derived from prohibited French books, was worse than ignorance. These persons were for hurrying on to a jacobinical revolution, and were impatient for a Cortes as the first great means of embodying that democracy which they expected to govern. But there were also many of the best of the Spaniards who looked to the Cortes as the surest means of delivering their country, and restoring it to its former dignity and power; and the same views were very generally entertained in England, and by the British Government itself. In fact, the assembling of a Cortes had been proposed by our first authorized agent, Mr. Stuart, to the Juntas of Galicia and Asturias. Some of the difficulties which would October. CHAP. attend it were then perceived; the Asturians proposed that it XII. should assemble at Oviedo, the Galicians at Villa Franca in the 1808. Bierzo, each Junta wishing that it should be convoked near their own place of abode; and for the purpose of retaining their power, they wished to enlarge the deputation, so that all their own members might be included. Though it was thus seen that the measure was not so easily accomplished as had been supposed, still the opinion prevailed in England, that if a free legislative assembly were established in Spain, the same blessings would ensue which the British people enjoy under the well-tempered constitution which has grown with their growth, and adapted itself to their circumstances. There are errors from which it is painful to be undeceived. Those persons were wiser in their generation, who, having the recent example of France before their eyes, believed that legislative assemblies, in countries unaccustomed to such modes of legislation, are more to be dreaded than desired; that the reformation which is thus begun tends to certain anarchy; and that where great and extensive improvements in the existing system are necessary, the only means whereby they can be effected, without inducing worse evils than those which are removed, is by an upright and farsightest minister, under a strong government. Upon this point Florida-Blanca judged more truly than Jovellanos. Such, howaverse to it. ever, was the respect with which the opinions of that admirable man were at this time heard, that his proposal would have been carried, if the Junta had come to an immediate decision upon it; and it was only by deferring the final discussion till Nov. 7, being that day month, that the minority averted a measure which shocked their prejudices as much as it alarmed their fears. Florida- Javellanos Memoria, p. $35. State of Catalonia. The Junta were at this time full of hope; they had just confidence in the national character; and they were elated by the enthusiastic spirit which had manifested itself, the splendid successes which had been obtained, the apparent inactivity of the XII. October. enemy, and the promised co-operation of Great Britain, which CHAP. had already effected the delivery of Portugal. They had also encouraging advices from Catalonia. After relieving Figueras, 1808. the French dispatched a force from that fortress to get possession of Rosas, but failed in the attempt. Ill armed, and worse dis- July 16. ciplined as they were, the Catalans displayed that unconquerable spirit which in all ages has distinguished them. In no other province were such great and continued exertions made against the invaders and in no other province were the people left so entirely to their own resources. They made the most urgent solicitations to the Junta of Seville for a supply of artillery, which could have been spared in abundance from the arsenals of Seville and Cadiz, and which Lord Collingwood offered them the means of conveying; but they could obtain none, and were fain, therefore, to use the trunks of trees, bored, and hooped with iron. The want of cavalry was even more severely felt in all the level part of the country; . . no substitute could be found for this, nor was it possible that their volunteers and newlyraised levies could resist well-disciplined horse-soldiers upon plain ground. They had, however, been eminently successful where the ground favoured them; and confiding in their numbers, they occupied the right bank of the Llobregat from San Boy to Martorell, in order to distress the enemy in Barcelona. From thence they were dislodged by General Lechi, who, marching out by night with 2500 men, forded the river in several places at daybreak, drove them from their batteries, sacked the towns and villages along the line, set fire to them, and returned in triumph, bearing as trophies the banners of the churches which had been plundered. Duhesme then resolved to undertake the Duhesme siege of Gerona, having concerted it with Reille, who was to co- besiege operate with him from Figueras. It was an object of great importance; for while Gerona and Hostalrich were in possession of the Spaniards, they would be able greatly to molest, if not VOL. I. 4 N resolves to Gerona. |