Cabinet to take the business into consideration, and on Thursday,
31st Jan., they met both morning and evening. It was agreed that they
should, in consequence of the representation in Perceval’s letter of
the state of the army and navy and the progress of private Bills
(which he artfully had pressed on), communicate to the Prince that it
would be subjecting the country to very material injury if he delayed
48 hours longer the bringing his mind to a determination, either of
changing the Ministry, or retaining those now in their offices. In the
meantime Sr. Henry Halford (Dr. Vaughan), who had been suspected of
meddling more with the body politic than with the diseased physical
body he was called in to attend, had frequent audiences of the Prince,
in which he worked upon his imagination and fears by drawing the
picture of the King agitated and thrown into an exa--tion [_sic_] which
might end fatally; their removing his confidential servants would
inevitably produce that effect. It is also suspected that he added if
the King recovered and found things stationary he would not reassume
the authority, and that the Prince might continue in power. There
are besides a hundred little anecdotes, which by not writing at the
time have escaped my memory. There was also a letter from the D. of
Cumberland, who said, ‘_Vaughan has behaved nobly to us all_.’
The Prince was very much agitated, and on Friday he saw Adam, Lds.
Moira and Hutchinson, to whom he stated the distracted state of his
mind, and bid them do justice to his feelings. In the evening he sent
Adam and Ld. Hutchinson to Camelford House, by appointment to Lds. G.
and G., intimating that in consequence of the report of the physicians
as to the probable recovery of the King, he had resolved not to remove
the Ministers, hoped they approved, thanked them for their generous
conduct, and begged to see them on the following Sunday, and also Ld.
Holland, Mr. G. Ponsonby.
[Sidenote: AFFAIRS IN SICILY]
_October, 1811._--Sudden return of Ld. Wm. Bentinck[385] from Sicily
for further instructions, after an absence of only a few weeks, has
surprised people, and convinced them of his want of capacity and
timidity of character. It is understood that his instructions were
merely an echo of those given to his predecessor, Lord Amherst, the
substance of which was to induce the Court by moderate means to admit
the native Sicilians into the Governt., and to diminish the burthens
upon the people, and various other points of importance. Ld. Wm. is
accused of having very unskilfully in his first paper to Circello
betrayed the whole context of his secret instructions; whereupon
its not appearing that Ld. Wm. had the power of withholding the
subsidy Circello made a most able diplomatic reply, deprecating the
interference of any foreign power, however allied, with the internal
Governt., and giving it plainly to be understood that _allies_ who
acted thus might withdraw their forces. Upon the receipt of this, Ld.
Wm., without further discussion, got on board the first vessel, which
happened to be Capt. Clifford, of the _Cephalus_, gun brig, and came
home. It is said Ministers were astonished, but declared everywhere
that they were highly pleased at his conduct. As that is _impossible_,
the glossing it over must be out of compliment to the D. of Portland.
The report is that the Cabinet have resolved upon vigorous measures,
and those who know the Queen believe she will not resist, but in case
of her being so disposed, she is to be made to submit, and a retreat
into Austria suggested as her best resource. The unfortunate Barons
who were imprisoned in consequence of their appeal,[386] are left
in severe confinement, and Prince Belmonte, who is in a precarious
state of health, will certainly not survive the confinement in one of
the worst dungeons, and in the most unwholesome spot in the Island.
The idle English, by their silly language in the coffee houses have
contributed much towards irritating the Queen. Fredk. Lamb[387] is at
last to accompany Ld. Wm.
[Sidenote: COMMISSION TO MEXICO]
The Commissioners to Mexico are to begin their peregrinations in about
3 weeks; it is a trading voyage. Capt. Cockburn,[388] who is one and
is to have the rank of Commodore and a flag, goes first to Lisbon
to pick up Mr. Stewart; then to Cadiz for the Spaniards; to Jamaica
for Mr. Morier; and finally to Vera Cruz. From what is said, the
expedition seems to be rather a wild goose chase. It is not certain
that the Spanish Governt. will accept the offered mediation. When it
was originally proposed, they accepted, annexing the condition that
if the colonies did not within 15 months fall into their allegiance
to the Mother Country, that in that case the English should assist
with military force and compel them to submit by subduing them. This
condition has not been acceded to on the part of this Governt.,
but they send out this Commission, without waiting for the final
determination of the Govt. of Cadiz, now they know that they are
only to be supported in any pacific measures. The man upon whom much
depends is Bardachi, a sort of Secretary of State, who, with some
abilities and honesty, is full of prejudice against this country, and
of an impracticable temper. B. Hoppner is Sec. to the Commission.
Frere, who has been living here upwards of a month, to my astonishment
expressed himself surprised and offended that he had been neglected by
Ld. Wellesley, saying that from his knowledge of Spain he considered
himself as the fittest to be employed; boasted of his influence
over Bardachi, who owes his place to him, and various other such
_absurdities_. I was petrified, it not being possible to acquiesce in
the reasonableness of his complaint, or consider it as an injury the
not selecting him.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
The following lines are taken from Lord Holland’s verses ‘To a lady on
her Birthday, Florence, March 25, 1795.’[389]
When twice twelve times the rolling earth
Brought back the period of her birth,
Thus to the Genius of the day
A certain Dame was heard to pray:
‘Give me, indulgent Genius, give
’Midst learned cabinets to live,
’Midst curiosities, collections,
Specimens, medals, and dissections,
With books of every tongue and land
All difficult to understand,
With instruments of various sorts,
Telescopes, air pumps, tubes, retorts,
With friends, fair wisdom to pursue,
Fontana, Macie, Blagden, Drew.’
* * * * *
Such are thy wishes, but if kind
The Gods, and of a mortal’s mind,
These sacrifices they will spare,
And long preserve you what you are;
And when obdurate time besprinkles
Your head with grey, your face with wrinkles,
When sickness and when age shall come
And wither transient beauty’s bloom,
Still shall the beauties of your mind,
By reading and by time refin’d,
Still shall thy wit and polish’d ease
In spite of fickle nature please;
And then th’ enchanted world shall see
Rochefoucauld’s laws belied in thee,
See female merit youth outlive,
And loveliness thy charms survive.
So when old Time’s relentless page
At full threescore shall mark thy age,
With equal truth but better verse
Some Bard thy merits shall rehearse,
And like myself be proud to pay
A tribute to this happy day.
Thirty-six years afterwards, on March 25, 1831, Lord Holland gave his
wife another copy of verses, and the reader will probably be interested
in seeing a short selection from them.
I promised you, ’tis long ago,
Some six and thirty years or so,
Another Bard your praise should sing
When you had reached your sixtieth Spring.
That sixtieth spring has come--to you,
My Dearest Soul, the verse is due.
Nor ever thine more fit t’inspire
The heart’s delight, the Poet’s fire,
Than Charms, unfading Charms, like yours,
Than merit which the test endures
Of health and sickness, smiles and tears,
And all that chequers lengthened years.
Nor will you frown, tho’ my prediction
In one sole point turn out a fiction,
And this so late reviving lay
Raised to record your natal day
Prove no strange minstrel’s ode or hymn,
But the unaltered vows of him,
Whose earliest and whose last emotion
Has been and must be warm devotion
To all the Charms he sees combined
In thy dear frame and lovely Mind.
* * * * *
I write not, I, for prize or fame,
Nor bays nor triumph is my aim;
To you, My Love, my strains belong,
To you I dedicate my song:
And all my hope and all my due
Is one kind happy smile from You.
Content if on this blessed day
My simple rugged lines convey
One truth, which be it verse or prose,
From my heart’s heart sincerely flows:
‘I loved you much at twenty-four,
I love you better at threescore.’
APPENDIX B
The following letters from Mr. Campbell to Lord Holland, referring
to the first meeting of the Cortes at Cadiz, have been considered of
sufficient interest for publication.
_Mr. R. Campbell to Lord Holland._
Cadiz, Sept. 26th, 1810.
MY LORD,--I am just returned from the Isle of Leon where
I had been to witness the opening of the Cortes, and am
favoured with your Lordship’s letter of the 6th inst; the
packet has orders to sail immediately upon receiving Mr.
Wellesley’s despatches, which I am informed will be ready
in less than an hour, so that I have only time to give your
Lordship a very short and imperfect account of what has
hitherto passed in the Cortes; such, however, as it is, I
have no doubt but it will be interesting to your Lordship.
The Cortes met, agreeably to the summons of convocation, in
the Isle of Leon, on the 24th inst, and having taken the
usual oaths, administered to them in an adjoining church
by the Bishop of Orense, President of the Regency, they
repaired in a Body to the _Theatre_ which had been fitted
up for their reception, as the most convenient for _them_
and the best adapted for the accommodation of the _public_
of any place that could be selected in the Island. They
were accompanied by a great concourse of people of all
ranks, shouting, ‘Viva España, viva la nacion, y vivan
los Padres de la Patria.’ After they were installed,
the Regency who had accompanied them gave an account of
their administration and made a formal demission of their
authority in the hands of the Cortes, and then withdrew.
I was not present during the whole of the sitting, which
continued till 5 _o’clock_ in the morning, but the
following is, I believe, a pretty correct account of the
most important Decrees which were passed, some of which you
will allow to be of _great importance indeed_, viz.:--
The _sovereignty_ of the nation, now assembled in Cortes.
The legislative power vested in them. The inviolability
of the persons of the deputies. All the cessions made in
Bayonne declared to be null and void, not only on account
of the violence employed in obtaining them, but _chiefly_
for having been made without the consent and contrary to
the will of the Spanish nation so strongly pronounced.
Ferdinand VII. declared to be King of Spain and the Indies.
(The motion was, King and _Sovereign_, but the word
_Sovereign_ was rejected.)
The late Regency, for the present (_interinamente_) to
exercise the executive power; they and the Ministers to
be responsible to the Cortes for their conduct in the
administration of public affairs and to grant no offices
which were not absolutely and indispensably necessary in
the actual circumstances of the nation.
The Regency to take the usual oaths to the Cortes (which
they did on the same evening).
The Regency not to remove more than one league from the
place where the Cortes shall be sitting.
All officers, civil, military, and judiciary, confirmed in
their appointments. The judiciary to confine themselves
_strictly_ to their _judicial_ capacities.
Everything was conducted with a greater degree of
decorum than could have been expected, all circumstances
considered. Your Lordship will be of opinion that it was
a spectacle highly interesting to see a body of men thus
suddenly assembled and unaccustomed to public business,
discussing objects of the greatest magnitude with calmness
and dignity and with as much confidence that they were
laying the foundations of the independence, liberty,
and happiness of their country as if there was not a
Frenchman on this side of the Pyrenees, tho’ they were then
deliberating with a French army in sight and almost within
reach of their batteries.
I have the strongest hopes that the meeting of the Cortes
will produce the most favourable effects. It cannot fail
to rouse every dormant energy of the nation; _here_ the
enthusiasm is universal, and I am not afraid of its running
into any of those horrible excesses which disgraced the
French Revolution. The elections have fallen upon persons
distinguished for talents, probity, and patriotism; this
I know to be the case with respect to those deputies which
have been chosen here, and I have reason to believe that
it is _generally_ so. There is but one Grandee in the
Cortes--Villafranca--who was chosen by the _Ayuntamiento_
of Murcia. Infantado would have been chosen by the
Emigrants from Madrid here. He had the greatest number of
suffrages; but being only one of three, who were balloted
for agreeably to the mode of election prescribed by the
enclosed paper, the lot fell upon a _Relator_ of the
Council of Castile, a very able and upright lawyer.
A commission, or rather committee, was appointed yesterday
to draw up a plan of the forms by which their future
proceedings were to be regulated. We expect that a decree
will be passed in a few days establishing the liberty of
the press; the plan of it, I have reason to think, is
now preparing. We expect likewise that a journal of the
proceedings and debates of the Cortes will be published
daily, and this, I hope, will be circulated, in thousands,
all over the country occupied by the enemy, by means of
the _guerrillas_ which are every day increasing in number,
force, and audacity. I saw yesterday a respectable person
who was in Madrid when the _Empecinado_ attacked the _Casa
de campo_, and when Joseph and his suite fled in confusion
and dismay from the playhouse. Very few of the French
cabinet couriers escape the vigilance and boldness of the
_guerrillas_. Another intercepted mail has just arrived
here containing correspondence of a very interesting
nature; it will be soon published.
The Cortes will probably remove their sittings in a short
time to Cadiz, where they will assemble in the church of
St. Phelipe Neri, the place in Cadiz best adapted for
the purpose. As it is not a parish church it will be
ceded without difficulty by the confraternity to which
it belongs. Your Lordship may remember that it is a
handsome _rotundo_ of modern architecture, with capacious
galleries. Above the altar of the principal chapel there
is a celebrated ‘Conception’ of _Murillo_; I mention this
circumstance to assist your memory in recollecting the
place.
I enclose a very well written address to the deputies of
the Cortes which was published here three days before they
met; the author, tho’ the initials of the name were not
subjoined, your Lordship would readily know to be Quintana.
He has not been elected for the Cortes. Capmany is one of
the deputies for Catalonia.
The last decree of the _Junta Central_ which you had the
goodness to send me was not suppressed by their successors;
it was circulated here in manuscript. I read it a few days
after it was passed: it was not printed and published, but
its not being so did not, in my opinion, arise from any
improper motive. The truth is that the _Junta Central_
were and still are held in such universal abhorrence
that anything coming from them, were it ever so good in
itself, would have been ill received by the public. The
only member of that body to whom no public odium has
attached is your friend Jovellanos. He has retired to some
corner in Asturias; it was reported some weeks ago that
he had been named deputy to the Cortes from some parts
of that province, and the intelligence gave great and
general satisfaction. Garay and a few others are still
here, but seldom appear in public. Valdes is in Gibraltar.
Tilly and Calvo close prisoners in the Castle of St.
Sebastian. Villel in Catalonia, and the rest I know not
where. Riquelme, who, to avoid the effects of the popular
indignation, had taken refuge on board a Spanish frigate
commanded by Dn. Raphael Lobo, was the only person killed
by the fire of the French batteries on the Trocadero when
the frigate, having been driven from her anchors during
a violent storm, grounded within reach of the French
batteries and was at last set on fire by red hot shot.
I enclose a number of the _Conciso_ (a new paper published
here) which has just come from the press; the account which
it gives of the proceedings in the Cortes differs very
little from what I have written above.
The assembly of the Cortes, tho’ late, is a most fortunate
circumstance; it affords the only hope of saving the
nation. The single circumstance of the Regency having been
appointed by the _Junta Central_, would for ever have
prevented them from obtaining the confidence of the public.
I beg to offer my best respects to Lady Holland and Mr.
Allen, and have the honour to be, &c.
R. CAMPBELL.
P.S.--Though the Cortes in a body are to have the
_tratamiento of Majesty_, the individual members are to
have no _tratamiento_ nor any badge of distinction as
members of Cortes. When the Regency took the oaths to the
Cortes on the evening of the 24th, the Bishop of Orense did
not come, saying he was fatigued and much indisposed, and
he has since declined to take the oaths from some _scruple
of conscience_, of what nature we do not know. The Cortes
were sitting yesterday in a secret committee of the whole,
deliberating upon a communication from the Regency.
_Mr. R. Campbell to Lord Holland._
Cadiz, Dec. 10, 1810.
MY LORD,--Being much hurried at present I must refer your
Lordship to the public reports for an account of the
further proceedings of the Cortes and of the events which
have lately taken place in this country. I shall only say
in general that we are still full of confidence. A measure,
which I have taken the liberty of strongly recommending to
some of my friends among the deputies, will probably be
moved in the Cortes this day or to-morrow. It is to pass
a decree making it a fundamental law of the state that
any King of Spain or Prince of the blood royal who shall
marry a _foreigner_ without the consent of the Cortes,
shall by that act forfeit his title to the crown. The
subject of this decree, independent of its general policy,
is immediately to anticipate any new trick or stratagem
which Bonaparte may probably devise, should the campaign
in Portugal prove, as we hope, signally disastrous to
his arms, by marrying Ferdinand to a Frenchwoman or an
Austrian, and bringing him to Spain as King, in order to
create new factions and disunion. This law will probably be
proposed by Arguelles, and I have little doubt will pass.
Your Lordship will perceive from this that we are at
present more afraid of the artifices than of the arms of
Napoleon.
Some discussion will likewise soon take place in the Cortes
with respect to the assumption of the title of _Majesty_
by them; a measure which, I was aware, would be liable
to much misconstruction in England. I shall write your
Lordship more fully on this and some other subjects by
next packet; in the mean time, your Lordship may be assured
that there was no intention, by the assumption of this
title, to degrade the royal authority.
I beg leave to offer my best respects to Lady Holland and
Mr. Allen, and have the honour to be, &c.
R. CAMPBELL.
_Mr. R. Campbell to Lord Holland._
Cadiz, Dec. 20th, 1810.
MY LORD,--The decree which I mentioned in my last letter
with respect to the marriage of the Princes of the Spanish
Blood Royal was actually proposed by Capmany, and discussed
on the 10th. Capmany’s motion was that no King of Spain
or Prince of the blood royal should contract matrimony
with _any person whatever_, without the consent of the
Cortes lawfully assembled; this is more general and, as a
fundamental Law of the State, more consistent, perhaps,
with sound policy, than the decree to which I alluded. The
motion was referred to the committee on the constitution,
and I hope they will lose no time in deciding upon it.
Such had been the shameful intriguing and trafficking for
places and pensions, for titles and ribands and crosses
and promotions in the army and navy, frequently conferred
upon the most worthless individuals, during the government
of the Central Junta and of the late Regency, that the
_self-denying_ decree appears to me to have been absolutely
necessary to give the Cortes that degree of public
confidence and popularity which alone could render their
labours of any benefit to the nation.
With respect to the title of Majesty, I am convinced that,
in assuming it, the Cortes had no intention to degrade
the royal dignity and that no democratic views lurk under
this measure. Your Lordship will be pleased to consider
the very peculiar circumstances under which they met. The
nation was _then_ for the first time in the history of the
Monarchy represented by deputies that had the least shadow
of a claim to fair or legitimate election; they had to
give to their country what it never possessed before--a
_Constitution_, by which the hitherto despotic power of
the King should be limited, and which should be binding
on him as well as on the people. They had to prescribe
to him the conditions upon which the Spanish nation were
willing that he should continue to wear the crown. It was
necessary that, at the first moment of their meeting, they
should make some kind of public and solemn expression of
the sovereign and inherent rights of the nation, lawfully
represented, to form and establish the fundamental laws of
the State. The title of Majesty was therefore not assumed
with levity; its expediency was maturely considered.
It was requisite that the multitude and all ranks and
classes of the State should at once receive the deepest
impression that the authority and dignity of the _present
extraordinary_ Cortes were paramount to every other; before
which all other authorities and dignities must, for the
present, bend. It was necessary, therefore, that they
should be addressed in the language corresponding to the
high dignity of their situation--they could not otherwise
have taken or maintained possession of the lofty ground
upon which they now stand, especially in a country where,
more than in any other, respect and authority are connected
in the minds of the vulgar with title and external
appearance. Besides, the title of Majesty had just been
given to the _Central Junta_ and to the late Regency; and
if the Cortes had not assumed the same title, it might have
been considered as a public acknowledgment of inferiority
in power and dignity to these two bodies. Had the Cortes
taken the title of _Highness_ and left that of _Majesty_
with the _Regency_, how would it have sounded in the ears
of a Spanish public that his _Majesty_ was nominated by
and responsible for his conduct to his _Highness_? I have
not heard it even insinuated that any future Cortes (or by
whatever other appellation the elective representatives of
the people shall be distinguished) ought to be addressed
by the title of Majesty. This title, it is generally
understood, when the Constitution is established,
should belong to the King _alone_, as the hereditary
representative of the power and Majesty of the nation.
In addition to all this, your Lordship will have observed
that the title of Majesty was more general in its
application in Spain than it is in England. In England it
belongs exclusively to the King; in Spain, it was likewise
given to the _Camera del Consejo Real_ and to the _Consejo
de Guerra_. I ought to beg your Lordship’s pardon for
hazarding these hasty opinions, which I submit with great
sincerity to your more enlightened judgment.