in the place. Accompanied by his nephew, he spent a part of the night upon the ramparts, conferring with his partizans, and expecting movements in his favour; but it appears that he had not sufficiently prepared his own officers for the attempt, for they sent one of their number to inform the viceroy of the transaction, and to assure him of their fidelity to the government. In conclusion, Mina found it necessary to retire, followed by those who were most attached to him, and take the road of Puente La Reyna, where, it is said, there was a great ferment among his soldiers, a part of whom quitted his standard. The viceroy published a proclamation addressed to the deputies of the province, informing them of these events; and another proclamation, to the people of Navarre, was issued by the bishop and two other persons in authority, in order to excite their loyalty.

A royal ordinance, issued by Ferdinand on Sept. 15th, exhibited a further progress in that system of bringing every thing back to its former state, which seemed the leading, or rather the sole, policy of his government. It recited, that by a decree of the General and Extraordinary Cortes, on August 6th, 1811, all jurisdictional seignories of whatever class were incorporated with the nation, and all payments both real and personal, which owed their origin to a jurisdictional title, were abolished, with the exception of such as proceeded from free contract, in the exercise of the right of property; abolishing also the privileges called exclusive, priva

tive, or prohibitive, such as those of the chase, fishing, ovens, and mills: that in this state of things, representations had been made to him by various grandees of Spain, and titulars of Castille, jurisdictional lords of townships in Arragon, Valencia, and other provinces, complaining of the robberies suffered by them under pretence of the said decree, in the enjoyment of the rights and payments reserved to them; demanding restitution, and some of them praying the nullity of the decree: that the said memorials had been referred to the council of state, and the law-officers of the crown, in consequence of whose recommendation and advice, his Majesty orders, that the said jurisdictional lords be immediately replaced in the enjoyment of all the rights, emoluments, &c. belonging to their territorial and manorial seignory, and of all the other rights which they enjoyed prior to Aug. 6th, 1811, and which do not derive their origin from jurisdiction and exclusive privileges: without prejudice to what he may hereafter resolve, as to the nullity, continuance, or revocation of the said decree of the Cortes, abolishing seignories.

If the immediate operation of this ordinance was in many respects to render strict justice according to existing laws, the hope manifestly held out of a future revocation of the popular decree of the Cortes, was a bait offered to the nobility of the kingdom, to secure their attachment to the renewed order of things. On the other hand, the king, whose natural disposition appears to be frank and conciliating, studied to

ingratiate himself with the public by acts of condescension and kindness. Particularly, it is related that, on the morning of October 4th, he visited the royal prison of Madrid, and examined its different departments inquiring into the cases of some who were detained for slight offences, and giving them their discharge, and ordering the demolition of a horrible part called the Grillera, destined to solitary confinement.

The high character formerly sustained by General Mina cannot fail to interest readers in his fate, notwithstanding his failure in an enterprize perhaps rashly under taken, and the precise object of which is only matter of conjecture. We therefore subjoin the following particulars respecting him, taken from a French account. His nephew, a gallant young man, after the miscarriage at Pampeluna, took refuge at Pau with several officers attached to him and his uncle, and having presented himself at the police-office, addressed a memorial to Louis XVIII. In this he represented that he had constantly supported the Bourbon cause in Spain, and that his great object had been to effect their restoration to the Spanish throne on the basis of a free constitution; that such a constitution had been acknowledged by the whole nation, but that Ferdinand, unmindful of the blood which had been shed in his cause, had persecuted with the greatest rigour those patriots who had most exerted themselves in his behalf, and had plunged the nation in the greatest calamities.

On this account, he (Mina) with many of his companions in arms

had made an exertion in support of the constitution, but having failed, they now applied to his Majesty to grant them hospitality in France, or to furnish them with passports to any other country than Spain. About this period Espoz de Mina arrived in Paris with four or five of his officers, and applied under fictitious names for passports to Count de Casa Flores. the Spanish Chargé d'Affaires. Being recognized by one of the legation, notice was given to the Count, who amused Mina till he had obtained from the French commissary of police an order for his arrest. The French minister for foreign affairs, apprised of the fact, caused the commissary to be arrested in turn for having violated the laws of France, by obeying the order of a foreigner, who had no authority whatever in the kingdom. The king was then informed of the whole affair, and directly ordered Mina to be liberated, and dismissed the commissary from his office; and in consequence of what subsequently passed, the Spanish Chargé d'Af faires was ordered to quit the French territory. Nothing could be more honourable to Louis and his ministers than the proceedings on this occasion.

Another instance of the preválent policy in the Spanish government of reverting to old institutions, was given by re-investing the council of the Mesta in its former function, by which the flocks of Merino sheep will be permitted, as formerly, to traverse all Spain, notwithstanding the injury thence accruing to agriculture, which has been demonstrated by various enlightened writers.

OF

F all the Sovereigns whom the subversion of the tyranny of Buonaparté restored to their dominions, no one appears to have resumed his authority with the resolution of exercising it more fully to its former extent, than Pope Pius VII. In his proclamation issued at Cezena, on May 5, previously to his return to Rome, he applied to himself the ancient title of God's Vicar on Earth;" he spoke of his temporal sovereignty as essentially connected with his spiritual supremacy; and acquainted his people, that although he could not at this moment resume the exercise of it in all the ancient possessions of the church, he did not doubt shortly to recover them, being confident not less in the inviolability of his sacred rights, than in the justice of the Allied Sovereigns.

A proclamation issued at Rome by the apostolic delegates on May

15, declared in the name of his Holiness the abolition of the Code Napoleon, and the restoration of the former pontifical, civil, and criminal code; also, the suppression of what was called the civil state; and that all the funds, rents, &c. of every corporation shall be placed under the administration of a commission formed of ecclesiastics, which commission is immediately, "even previously to the examination of the respective and legitimate rights," to restore the yet un-alienated property of all religious establishments, and to cause the regulars of each sex to be paid a two month's pension, and to provide for the public service in the churches. The Pope, on resuming his functions in person, at his capital, at first contented himself with requiring the retraction of those who had taken part in the late usurped government, and forbade by a proclamation all inqui

ries by individuals into the late transactions, reserving to himself all proceedings against the culpa ble. Such ecclesiastics as had taken the oath to Buonaparte were ordered to disclaim it, on pain of being suspended from all divine offices. A commission was appointed in July for the purpose of making a report on the property termed national, or extraordinary domains, which had been ceded to companies that were creditors of the French government, or had been sold by agents of the financial administration.

On August 7, that event so important to the Church of Rome, and which peculiarly marks the spirit of the present pontificate, the restoration of the order of Jesuits was publicly declared. When it is considered that the suppression of this Order in 1773, was effected by the compulsion of the Sovereigns of the house of Bourbon, and was the consequence of that jealousy of its power, and detestation of its principles, which then seemed almost universal in the Catholic world, it must appear a measure of extraordinary boldness in a Pontiff but just restored to his own authority, to become the renovator of a body lately so obnoxious. The Jesuits, indeed, were always regarded as the most devoted satellites of the see of Rome; whence it is not to be wondered at that their revival was a desirable object of the papal court; but the policy of effecting it in so precipitate a manner, and by a mere exertion of ecclesiastical authority, appears very questionable. The ceremonial observed on this great occasion is thus described: "His Holiness, on SunVOL. LVI

day, August 7, went to the church of Jesus to celebrate high mass at the altar of St. Ignatius. After hearing another mass, he proceeded to the neighbouring oratory of the congregation of nobles, where he was seated on a throne prepared for him. He then handed to the master of the ceremonies, and caused him to read with a loud voice, a bull for the re-establishment of the company of Jesuits." This memorable piece (see State Papers) begins with reciting, that Francis Karen and other members of the suppressed company resident in the empire of Russia, having entreated his permission to unite themselves in a body for the purpose of being able more easily to carry on public instruction, and their request receiving the recommendation of the Emperor Paul, his Holiness had by brief, dated March, 1801, granted them permission accordingly, and authorized them to resume and follow the rule of St. Ignatius, of Loyola: that shortly after, at the request of Ferdinand, King of Sicily, the same favour had been granted to the Jesuits in his dominions: that the Catholic world now demanding with unanimous voice, as communicated by daily petitions from archbisho; s, bishops, &c. the reestablishment of the same order, he should deem himself guilty of a great crime towards God if he refused now to do what he wished he had done at the commencement of his pontificate. He therefore decrees, that all the concessions and powers granted to the company in Russia and Sicily shall be extended to his ecclesiastical states, and to all other states; he confers upon them all the privileges they for

[G]

On October 14, being the king's birth-day, he attended the theatre at Madrid, to the great satisfaction of the heroic inhabitants of the capital. The dramatic piece selected for the occasion is entitled "Giles with the Green Breeches," which certainly does not indicate any thing very elevated. On the same day his Majesty published an amnesty in favour of all persons detained in prison, or fugitives from the kingdom, on account of any other crimes than those recited in a copious list, including high treason, divine and human, resistance to justice, peculation in the finances, and other defaults, which would exclude from the benefit all the subjects of the late arrests. In the mean time these arrests were still going on, and included several distinguished general officers; while frequent changes in the ministry denoted the unsettled state of public affairs, and the imbecility of the monarch. One of these instances of despotic violence was displayed on Nov. 7th, when the king in person repaired to M. de Macanaz, minister of justice and of the interior, and putting seals upon all his papers, ordered him to go to prison. Nothing could more decisively exhibit the weakness and petty policy of the king of his ministry, than the importance given to a pamphlet by M. Amaros, entitled "Representation to Ferdinand VII." The Supreme Council being ordered to take measures for seizing all the copies of this work, circulars were sent to all the tribunals, civil and criminal, and to the prelates and clergy, enjoining them to carry into effect his Majesty's wishes concerning it. In consequence, the work was very generally read, and

many copies of it were preserved in manuscript. Conformably to this exercise of the sovereign authority, the government made a collection of all the papers which recorded the operations of the Cortes, especially the liberal journals entitled "l'Albesa," "el Redactor," "el Conciso." “el Universal," &c. and caused them to be conveyed in two carriages to a square in Madrid, where they were committed to the flames with all the formalities formerly practised at an auto da fé.

A more important matter, however, had long been under the consideration of the Spanish ministry, which was, the fitting out of an expedition for the reduction of the revolted provinces in South America. Various obstacles occurred to this undertaking, arising from the exhausted state of the finances, and the public disorders; but late in the year the preparations appear to have been nearly completed, and the following account was given of its intended conduct and destination. The expedition, under the command of General Morillas, was to sail from Cadiz in three divisions, convoyed by a ship of the line, two frigates, and a brig, and the island of St. Catharine was appointed for the general rendezvous. From thence the troops were to embark for Rio Grande, and having proceeded up that river in small vessels as far as it is navigable, they were to march over land, and undertake the siege of Maldonado, a place one hundred miles to the east of Montevideo, in which the naval force was to cooperate.

In December the sentence upon the state prisoners was made public at Madrid. Twenty-one per