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POSTSCRIPT.

July, 1822.

THE events which have followed the transition from despotism to freedom in Spain, subsequent to my leaving Madrid, would, of themselves, furnish much more voluminous materials than I collected during my visit to that country; and of which a part is contained in the preceding correspondence.

If the insurrection of 1820 marks one of the most important epochs in modern history, the circumstances attendant on it will deserve to become the theme of future historians. Occupied, as the European family continues to be, with ocurrences, in which its destinies are so deeply involved, there is, perhaps, no immediate necessity for making them the subject of a regular work. As, however, such strenuous efforts are hourly made to counteract the effect of the Spanish revolution, it is indispensable that the advocates of truth and justice should be duly impressed with a sense of the benefits conferred by the late happy change, as well as informed of the errors committed by those into whose hands the fortunes of Spain, perhaps of man

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kind, were entrusted by the regenerating army of La Isla. It is on this account, and also with a view of giving somewhat more unity to my design, that I would fain recapitulate various measures in detail, which I can now only stop to point out as beacons to guide those who may be desirous of forming an impartial judgment on the question at issue between the two great parties which divide Spain, and have made it the theatre of civil war.

When the armies of Napoleon entered the Peninsula, in 1808, they found a government encumbered with the accumulated corruptions of several centuries. A few of the plans of reform, meditated and carried into effect by the French emperor and Afrancesados, are noticed in Letter VII; what they commenced, was, in a great degree, completed by the Cortes of 1812. Notwithstanding the want of form, inseparable from assembling Cortes in the midst of a sanguinary contest, which had already overspread the whole Peninsula, the four volumes, containing their judicious and provident decrees, establishing the elective franchise on a broad basis, abolishing feudal rights and privileges, proclaiming the liberty of the press and freedom of commerce, reforming the clergy, and appropriating the superfluous portion of church property to the wants of the state, and payment of the public creditors-form the best. defence and proudest eulogium of that patriotic body. But the most important service rendered to Spain by the Congress of 1812, was, undeniably,

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that of framing and establishing the political code, which alone roused the nation to persevere in the struggle against France, and round which the army and people rallied in 1820.* If the reforms, above alluded to, form the highest panegyric of the national representatives, the popularity and adoption of this famous code by Naples and Piedmont, where so many others might have been chosen, proves that it is regarded as the best written constitution of our day. To say that the political code of Spain is exempt from defects, would be giving those who drew it up a degree of credit which no set of men ever merited; but, after admitting all that calumny or envy have advanced on one side, and an over-strained admiration, which produces a similar effect, on the other, it would be the height of injustice to say, that the Spanish code is not drawn up in unison with the spirit of the age, according as much liberty to the people as the existing circumstances of Europe at the time of its being drawn up would admit, and curtailing the power of the prince within bounds, which, if they have not been found sufficiently limited, appeared at least to promise all the effects that the friends of constitutional liberty could desire. In addition to the minor imperfections disco

* The reforms effected by the Cortes of 1812, are minutely detailed in a pamphlet published at Paris soon after the insurrection of La Isla. This production is attributed to Count Toreno, and is, perhaps, the greatest service he has rendered to his country.

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vered in the Spanish code, the want of a second Chamber is that which seems to have excited most attention. Though all the French writers who have touched on Peninsular affairs during the last two years, do not fail to point out this as a defect, Count Lanjuinais and the Abbé de Pradt, are the only persons whose celebrity gives any weight to their opinions on this important subject; without entering into an examination of the grounds, upon which the French publicists found their objections, I cannot help thinking that had they sufficiently reflected on the state of the aristocracy, its incongruous divisions, confusion of classes, impossibility of drawing a line between them, and above all, its backwardness on the score of general information, they would have paused before promulgating a single word, calculated to shake the faith of the Spanish people, in a code so essential to their civil and political salvation.

It was equally incumbent on those who commented on the new code to consult the able and erudite essay, explanatory of all its parts, which was read to the Cortes when the commission presented the result of their labours to that body in 1812. An attentive perusal of this truly valuable explanation and commentary, would have convinced the Abbé and Count, that in treating the subject of an upper chamber, there was only a choice of evils, and in choosing the least, they had taken the wiser part. The study of El discurso preliminar would have done more; it would

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have convinced those two writers, that in proclaiming the sovereignty of the people, and limiting the power of the crown, the Cortes of 1812 only re-asserted rights which had been established by the people of Spain, when the rest of Europe was buried in the profoundest depths of ignorance and barbarism.*

More deeply versed in the difficult science of legislation, and less interested in adding needless shackles to public liberty, than many of his competitors, the penetrating and comprehensive mind of Jeremy Bentham suggested a far different mode of reasoning, at once flattering to those who drew up the code, and consonant to the interest of the Spanish people; and this, without ever seeing the preliminary discourse, or, perhaps, reading any more of the old chronicles of Spain than what is to be found in the history of Charles V. and

The reasons adduced for discontinuing the old practice of assembling the Cortes by estamentos or separate branches of clergy, grandecs and deputies chosen by the people, as in Sicily, are fully detailed in the preliminary discourse, and seem quite conclusive on the subject; for it is proved, that the intervention of the two first classes was purely of feudal origin, and that even when they appeared in Cortes, they came rather as counsellors than representatives. On the other hand, the unequal distribution of the nobility in the present day, was regarded as an insurmountable barrier to the estamentos. The indeterminate condition of the nobles, the great numbers in one province, while scarcely any are to be found in another; the endless divisions and subdivisions of classes, the opposition which, by far the largest portion would have made to the establishment of an

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