After vainly endeavoring to rule as an absolute monarch, Fernando
VII was compelled to convoke the Cortes by his decree of March 6,
1820. [164] On the twenty-second the regular session of the Cortes
for 1820-1821 was formally summoned, the colonies being allowed to be
represented by substitutes pending the arrival of regularly-elected
representatives. At the first preliminary meeting of June 26, the two
Philippine substitutes, [165] Jose María Arnedo and Manuel Felix Camus
y Herrera, presented their credentials. The Cortes were declared open
on July 9. Matters of trade and commerce, involving the question of
duties, [166] were of paramount interest, so far as the Philippines
are concerned, although the matters of elections, revenues, and
ecclesiastical affairs were debated at some length. From July 18 to
October 19, were considered at intervals the privileges and monopolies
of the Compañía de Filipinas, which were abolished by a decree of
the latter date. [167] Several decrees and orders of November 9 (on
which date the first session of the Cortes ended), affecting trade
and looking toward the development of the colonies, were issued. [168]
At the opening of the new session of the Cortes, the Philippine
substitutes of the previous session held over. [169] An order [170]
of March 22 decided that the vice-royalties, captaincies-general, etc.,
were not to be filled for stated periods, but incumbents were to hold
them at the will of the king. Of great importance was the approval
on June 30, of a petition presented by Arnedo on June 16 asking for
direct mails between Spain and the Philippines under charge of the
navy department. On that same date the report of the committee on
Hacienda on the estimated budget for the Ministry of Ultramar for 1822
(over 330,000 reals more than that of 1821), aroused considerable
discussion, especially among the American delegates. [171] A decree
of June 29 provided for public schools and provincial universities,
of which Manila was to have one. This decree provided for schools and
courses much ahead of anything in the islands, but it remained a dead
letter because of the speedy suppression of the constitution. [172]
This session of the Cortes closed on June 30.
The preliminary meeting of a special session was held on September
22, 1821, at which the above two Philippine substitutes were
approved. [173] Camus y Herrera was one of a committee chosen on the
twenty-third, to inform the king that the Cortes was ready to open
the session, which accordingly was opened next day. On November 4,
the Philippine government and governor were arraigned by representative
Lallave of Veracruz for electing only four instead of the twenty-five
representatives to whom they were entitled. Discussion of this
matter resulted in the Cortes directing the Minister of Ultramar
(February 11, 1822), that the Philippines, notwithstanding claims of
distance and poverty, were to elect their whole quota to Cortes. At
the secret session of February 12, 1822, it was decided to allow
Arnedo and Camus y Herrera (in view of a petition presented by them
on the eighth, and because of their pressing need), to draw a sum
sufficient to meet their needs and the debts that they had been
obliged to contract in the performance of their duties, from the
money sent by the provincial deputation of Manila (24,500 pesos)
for the regularly-elected Philippine representatives of the next
session. This special session closed February 14.
The first preliminary meeting of the regular session was held February
15, at which Vicente Posada, a former magistrate of the Manila
Audiencia, presented himself as a regularly-elected representative
from the Philippines. He was not, however, allowed to take his seat
in this session, which opened formally on March 7, and closed on July
30, as it was claimed that his resignation had not been confirmed and
that he was consequently still a government employe. [174] During this
session, a clause of a decree of June 28 ordered the encouragement
of visits to Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines by naturalists
for the purpose of study.
At the first preliminary meeting of the special session, held
October 1, 1822, Francisco Bringas y Taranco, ex-alcalde-mayor of
Ilocos, the deputy elect for Nueva Segovia, Manuel Sáenz de Vizmanos,
senior accountant of the Tribunal de Cuentas of the Philippines, and
Posada, presented their credentials, which were approved on October 3,
although Posada was again contested. At the preliminary meeting held
on the fourth complaint was made that the Philippines had elected but
four deputies instead of twenty-five. [175] The session which opened
on October 7 closed on February 19, 1823, without any action having
been taken by the Philippine representatives.
The regular session opened on March 1, 1823, at Madrid, but the
absolutists gaining control through the invasion of the French,
nothing was done in this session, and the Cortes, which had been
compelled to flee first to Sevilla and then to Cádiz, were finally
dissolved by Fernando on October 1, who declared all their acts from
March 7, 1820, to that time null and void. Posada was one of those
condemned by Fernando after his entrance into Madrid, for his liberal
tendencies. By decree of December 25, 1823, Fernando communicated
to America and the Philippines the reëstablishment of absolutism,
the suppression of the Constitution of 1812, and the abolition of
all the organisms inaugurated during the constitutional régime. [176]