167_123.xml

Title: [[clxvii. 123] Removed 6 Aug. 1821]

Description: [clxvii. 123]

Removed 6 Aug. 1821

Part 11 Lett. 1

1820. Aug 18.

Rid yourselves of Ultramaria

Letter 11. Ultramarian aversion.

New lights exclude blend submission.

Thus much as to every sort of arrangement, by which, in any determinate shape, supposing it submitted to, any promise of advantage to Spain, could, as above, be afforded. But, to all such promise of affording arrangements, would be added - unavoidably added - a multitude of others, by no one of which, even for a moment, any such promise could be afforded: arrangements, covering in their totality, immense and continually encreasing expanse in the field of legislation.

For conveying a sufficiently correct and extensive conception of these causes of unmixt evil, a single sample will suffice, and, in the case of Appeals, this sample will presently meet your eye.

All this (it may be said) was submitted to before the change: why then (it may be asked) should it not continue to be submitted to after the change: all this was submitted to at the hands of as bad a government as ever existed: why then should it not be submited to at the hands of a so much better one? all this was submitted to under a government in which the people in question had no share: why then should it not be submitted to under a government in which they have so large a share?

The argument is not unplausible, and the endeavour has been to give to it the most advantageous shape of which it is susceptible. The argument is not unplausible: still, its own refutation, I can not help thinking, can scarce fail of having been suggested by it. The union being so highly detrimental to the interest of the people in the two countries, the more popular and in every respect better the new government, the more certain it is that an arangement so detrimental to them in both countries will not continue: and as it is on the people of the now dependant country that the evil will press with the greatest force, it is with them that the resistance will be seen to commence; a resistance for which such unexampled facility is (it will be seen) afforded by the very excellence of the new government. in addition to that which is afforded by its distance from the seat of supreme command. /authority/

While it kept all hands in shackles, the former government kept a gag in every mouth, a bandage over all eyes. By the present Constitution, these same instruments of tyranny shackles, gag, and bandage - are all cast forth: not less compleatly in the one hemisphere than in the other. By the terms of Article 371, "All Spaniards have liberty to write, print, and publish their political ideas, without any necessity for a license, examination or approbation, previous to publication, subject to the rstriction and responsibility established by law". By the terms of Article 373, "Every Spaniard has a right of Memorial to the Cortes, or the King, to claim the benefits of the observance of the Constitution." Under the former Government all Spanish America was kept hermetically sealed against all foreignors: thence, "against all such instruction as might be derived from them. Under the existing Constitution on payment of certain duties, the ports are, or are about to be, open to all foreignors."

+See Sittings of the Cortes Aug. 1820.

JB_172_022.xml

Title: [1820 Aug. 9 Emancipation Spanish]

Description: 1820 Aug. 9

Emancipation Spanish

Summary

Corruptive influence

Townsend

In the following passage in Spanish history, as referred to by

Townsend may be seen a series of events by which an illustration of the above

observations may be presented to Spanish eyes. In the first place the existence of

the matter of corruptive influence in the hands in question, and its operation on the

/a/ Cortes; in the next place the resistance, which, before the quantity of it had

swollen to a certain pitch, was capable of being opposed to it and the obstruction

applied by that resistance to the consummation of despotism; and lastly the removal

of that obstruction by the encrease given to the dominion of that King of Spain, whose more common appellation is the Emperor Charles the fifth.

Townsend II. 261 I. 319: 2 d edition: "It appears,

by the 5th. article in the requisitions of the Santa

Junta, (a) that the reigning Monarchs, ever watchful to

extend the bounds of their prerogatives, and to advance their power, had, by places

and pensions judiciously bestowed, maintained a corrupt influence in the popular

assembly; for as we have already seen, when giving a description of Toledo, the Junta insisted that the representatives of the Commons

should be paid by their constituents, and receive neither place nor pension from the

Crown.

"Yet, notwithstanding all that could be offered to the avarice or to

the ambition of the members, the Cortes, ever troublesome in representing grievances,

and difficult to manage, occasioned such embarrassment to the kings and to their

ministers, that, not desirous of listening to complaints, they were tardy in their

application to this intractable assembly, and never but from absolute necessity

issued a proclamation for calling them together."

As, under the existing Constitution, as the King can not carry on the

business of government without the concurrence of the Cortes, the consequence is -

that from any coercive power, capable of being exercised by the King or his

Advisers,- exercised either over the people at large or over their representatives in

the Cortes,- they can not during the existence of this same Constitution have any

thing to apprehend. At the same time, in the hands of those same Advisers - in the

hands of the Council of State, in conjunction with his own is lodged the whole

expenditure of government, together with the disposal of Ecclesiastical and Judicial

power in all their branches, and administrative and executive power in all their

highest branches, together with factitious dignity in all its shapes. Upon the

breasts of the representatives of the people in Cortes, without need of so much as a

word, said in this view by any body to any body, will the aggregate mass of all these

instruments of felicity, be operating in the character of matter of corruptive

influence.

Note (a)

(a) viz. of Castile, addressed to the Emperor Charles 5 th as King of Spain A o 1520 or thereabouts.

Townsend I. 319. 2 d edit. This Santa

Junta was "an assembly composed of the Deputies of all the Cities." The

disregard shewn to the above requisitions produced a civil war, which after

continuing two and twenty months, ended by the surrender of Toledo to the King, A o 1522, in consequence of the defection of the Ecclesiastics and

the Nobles: "and thus" (says Townsend I. 320.) "the Nobles in Spain, as in all other

countries, rather than give liberty to the people, submitted to receive the yoke"

167_135.xml

Title: [1820. July 28. Rid yourselves of Ultramaria]

Description: 1820. July 28.

Rid yourselves of Ultramaria.

'.6. Representatives no security

But, suppose the Spanish-american Representatives all chosen by their proper Constituents - all chosen in the best mode. How, in respect of corruption and uncorruption, would the case be bettered? Alas! not much. In the one as in the other hemisphere, every object of ambition being secretly disposed of,- disposed of by some agreement or other, that would be formed between the influential members of the legislative Cortes, and the influential members of the Executive Junta, the Council of State corruptive influence would pervade the whole system of government, would fill it with its poison interests of the greater part of the ruling few in Spanish America as well as the subject many in both countries would be the victims of it. As vultures to a carcase, place-hunters from Spanish America would be perpetually flocking to Madrid. At Madrid, Spanish American Election would be settled by the ruling powers: by a Committee, and that of course an unauthorized and secret one, composed, in some proportion or other, of members of the legislative and those of the Executive. As in England, so in Spain, every thing would be sham, nothing what it professed to be. The Spanish Constitution would be poisoned, and without any advantage to their constituents the hands of the Spanish American Representatives would be the hands of to poison it.