among the first to flee from the presence of the approaching destroyer. A board of health having been established, and active measures ordered for cleansing the capital, the queen, accompanied by some of the cabinet ministers, took her departure, with her family, for St. Ildefonso, which was strictly guarded by sanatory cordons of troops. Even the foreign ministers who followed her, and the members of their families, were made to perform quarantine in the neighbouring villages. The disease-of which, however, the medical men of the court maintained that it was merely a more intense degree than usual of the ordinary ailments of the season, and was perfectly distinct from the Oriental pestilencemanifested itself in the capital about the middle of July. On the 14th of that month there were 18 deaths; on the 15th, 38; on the 16th, 140; on the 17th, 270; on the 18th, upwards of 300, after which the mortality diminished. Popular alarm, ignorance and prejudice, produced at Madrid the same popular excesses, which, under the same visitation, they had stirred up in other European cities: but in Madrid they were said to have been made the instruments of political party spirit. On the one hand, the Carlists were accused of having poisoned the waters of the public fountains, in order to impede the assembling of the Cortes, by aggravating the prevailing panic. On the other hand this story of the poisoning was alleged to be not only most certainly an invention, but a wilful invention of the Exaltados, who, fearing that the Cortes might not go radically enough to work in dealing with the church, had resolved to use the mob, the Urban militia, and even the regular troops, as instru ments for exposing the monks to odium, and exciting against them the vengeance of the populace. The latter seemed to be the more probable explanation; for the monks were the sufferers. On the 17th of July, a Franciscan friar happening to be standing near one of the public fountains with a paper in his hand, which turned out to be merely a cigar paper, the byestanders accused him of having been throwing poison into the fountain. His denials and explanations were not deemed satisfactory, and he was stabbed to death upon the spot. The perpetration of this murder spread among the people as evidence of the guilt of the victim, and of the class to which he belonged; and, in the space of an hour, three other friars had been put to death in the streets as public poisoners, one of them under the very windows of the cavalry barracks. The mob then resolved on more wholesale slaughter. They proceeded to the Jesuit convent of San Isidro, the patron saint of Madrid. Having demanded admittance, the monk, who opened the door, was instantly put to death; the populace rushed in, and twenty friars were massacred in their cells. The neighbouring convent of St. Thomas was next attacked. The loss of life among the Franciscans of that convent was still greater than it had been among the Jesuits of San Isidro, and some soldiers of the line were said to have been more active in the slaughter than either the rabble or the Urban militia. While these atrocities were in the act of being committed within the convent, three of the regular priesthood, one of them bearing a lantern with the host, and all of them dressed in full canonicals, made their way through the crowd in front of the building, receiving, as they passed, the customary prostrations and other marks of respect, thus shewing the different feelings with which the monks and the parochial clergy were regarded. A number of the other convents were afterwards visited, but the doors of all of them having been instantly thrown open, the mob contented themselves with plunder. On the 18th, this work of devastation was renewed, particularly at the great convent in the Calle de Atocha; but either because the ringleaders were sated with spoil, or because the military authorities interfered more zealously than on the preceding day, the proceedings were conducted with much more moderation, and without further bloodshed. The civil governor of Madrid issued a proclamation, in which, while he called on the inhabitants to assist in preserving the public peace, he actually gave countenance to the outrages of the mob, by assuming the truth of the story of the fountains having been poisoned, and pledging himself to bring to condign punishment those who had been accessory to the injury of the public health. On the following day, the minister of the interior, on the other hand, issued a proclamation strongly denouncing the belief, real or pretended, in this imaginary crime; and the government itself seized the opportunity to promulgate an ordinance definitively and formally abolishing the Inquisition, and applying its revenues to the purposes of the state. San Martin, the captain general of New Castille, and Falces, Corregidor of Madrid, were severely blamed both by the public and by the government for the remissness, some said the connivance, which they had shewn, while these massacres were going on. They resigned, and a prosecution was ordered to be instituted against St. Martin, who was stated to have demanded an investigation into his conduct. The Jesuits were said to have foreseen and given warning of the meditated attack on the religious bodies. The elections of the Procuradores to the Cortes had disappointed, in some instances, the expectations of the government by the election of candidates, on whose support it could not reckon. The ministers were unable to carry their own candidate in Madrid. The editor of a suppressed journal was returned by more places than one, although it was notorious that he did not possess the necessary quali fication. Romero Alpuente, a name well known in the former popular commotions in Spain, likewise obtained a seat, and immediately put himself forward as the leader of the Exaltado party. At a preliminary meeting of the deputies, a question was started, not about the mode of voting, for the code of regulations promulgated by the crown had provided that the members should vote viva voce, instead of by ballot as in France, but about the way in which the viva voce vote should be given, a point on which the royal regulations said nothing. Count Toreno, a popular and influential nobleman whom the government, to strengthen itself in the Cortes had named minister of finance in the place of Imaz, maintained that the members ought to give their votes at the table, where the secretaries se- would take them down, and the president declare the result. Alpuente contended that this manner of voting was devoid of publicity, and shewed nothing of the spirit of freedom or responsibility to the 398] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1834. people. The vote should be given serious affair. On the very eve of CHAP. XIII. SPAIN continued.-Opening of the Cortes-Speech of the Queen Regent -Debates on the Address-Motion to insist on the liberty of the Press lost-Bill of Rights presented to the deputies-Debates upon it— Declaration for the liberty of the Press without a censorship carried -Declaration of rights finally voted by the deputies-Financial state of Spain-Bill presented by Government to recognize and provide for the Foreign loans-Reports of the Finance CommitteeDebates on the recognition of the loans contracted by FerdinandThe deputies refuse to recognize the Guebhard loan-Discontent of the Cortes bond-holders-The Peers amend the Bill by recognizing the Guebhard loan and providing for payment of interest on arrears -The Committee of the deputies reports against these amendments but the chamber adopts them-Bill of Exclusion against Don Carlos and his descendants-Military operations in Navarre and Biscay. ON N the 24th of July, the Queen Regent, with great pomp, opened the Session of the Cortes. She addressed them in the following speech: "Illustrious Proceres and Procuradores of the kingdom:-On finding myself this day in the midst of you, about to take, as Queen Regent, the oath provided by the fundamental laws of the monarchy, the first want of my heart is to make known to you the sentiments which animate it, and the thanks which I have to give to Divine Providence for having granted my wishes. "Closely to unite the throne of my august daughter with the rights of the nation, giving to both, as a common foundation, the ancient institutions of these kingdoms, which have elevated to so high a point their prosperity and glory, is the noble object which I have proposed to myself, and of which I cannot offer a more solemn testimony than this general and public convocation. "Notwithstanding the satisfaction which I experience therefrom, it is painful to me to reflect that this act should be accomplished in the midst of the calamity which now afflicts several provinces, and which has extended its ravages even to this capital. This sentiment is rendered, if possible, more painful by the fact that wicked and evil-disposed persons, availing themselves of the terror occasioned by the appearance of this scourge, which has caused such lamentable devastation in other countries, have committed crimes and disorders unworthy of the noble and gallant character of Spaniards, crimes which cannot be mention ed without the deepest indignation. The laws will chastise those offences; but if you consider that your co-operation should be necessary to prevent the repetition of these disgraceful scenes under any pretext whatever, I will claim it with confidence, inasmuch as the object is to defend the very basis of society by the maintenance of public order, and the protection of life and property. "It also occasions me much grief that the first important subject which will present itself for your consideration is the conduct of an ill-advised Prince, who, even during the life of his King, of his brother, endeavoured to promote his own ambitious designs, and who, since the death of my august husband, has attempted, by means of a civil war, to wrest the sceptre from its lawful heir. "The immemorial custom, and the ancient and fundamental laws of the monarchy-the practice observed in similar cases-impartiality-justice, all impose upon me the duty of submitting to your deliberation a subject of such high importance. But even were I not under such a sacred obligation as guardian of the rights of my august daughter, I could not and ought not to forget that the present tranquillity and the future fate of these kingdoms depend upon your decision; it will be worthy of you, and the nation awaits it with calmness. "That Prince, not content with exciting rebellion in this kingdom, lighted the flame of civil war from a neighbouring state, and threatened to cross our frontier in arms. Under these circumstances, the duty of self-defence dictated those energetic measures which justice, policy, and national honour equal ly demanded. The Spanish troops penetrated into Portugal, not for the purpose of attacking foreign independence, but to defend our own rights, and in a few days put an end to the contest-and the two Princes who, by their presence, troubled the Peninsula, were driven from its territory-a very recent lesson and chastisement by which the issue of every similar foolish undertaking is announced. "At the same time that the question of Portugal was settled, the solemn treaty, which had for its object a most important end, not only for the tranquillity of the two kingdoms, but also the peace and repose of Europe, was ratified in London. It is gratifying to me to manifest by this proof the amicable dispositions of which my august allies the King of the French and the King of Great Britain and Ireland have given me so many repeated testimonies, as well as the harmony which happily exists between the Government of her most faithful Majesty Donna Maria II. and that of my august daughter. So numerous and so united are the links which connect the two kingdoms, that it may be said that each takes care of its own cause while assisting in the common defence. "Other powers than those above-named have explicitly renewed their political relations with the Spanish Government since the accession of my august daughter to the throne; and for my part I have recognized some new states, either in conformity to a wise policy, or for the purpose of occasioning no interruption or prejudice to the navigation and commerce of the natives of these kingdoms. |