1814-20] Spain and the Foreign Powers 211

The military character of the insurrections and the predominance of military leaders is explained by the fact that among the general population, little affected by Liberal ideas, it was impossible to find a sufficient number of armed adherents to effect a revolution, while military discipline made of the soldiery a docile instrument, and the officers, men of considerable cultivation, much affected by French ideas, and indignant at the persecutions and at the official neglect of the army, furnished ready material for revolutionary action. Later these conditions were modified by personal struggles and by the ambitions of commanders, which prolonged, as will presently appear, the era of those military insurrections which form so large a part of the history of Spain almost throughout the century. Meantime the organisation of the National Militia, by arming the bourgeoisie and the people, introduced a new civilian element into the revolutionary party.

The failure of all the movements from 1814 to 1820 increased in every case the severity of Ferdinand towards all who were suspected of Liberalism, and produced fresh victims. Even men like Escoiquiz and the famous guerrillero " El Empecinado " were banished for addressing to the King some observations on the inefficacy of a system of terror and on the need of attracting the more advanced group by means of reforms. Thus opinion was being prepared for new explosions, which were soon to introduce a second constitutional period.

The excesses of the reaction in Spain disgusted not only Spaniards but also the sovereigns and Governments of the Great Powers. Louis XVIII clearly showed this disgust by refusing the aid of the Spanish troops sent by Ferdinand under Castanos after Napoleon's escape from Elba, while accepting the aid of other nations in the campaign of 1815. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the obstinacy of Spain incurred a rebuff, deserved by the King, but not by the Spanish people, which had taken its full share in the overthrow of Napoleon's power and in a war which had roused the enthusiasm of all Europe. The claims of the Spanish representative, a diplomatist of moderate capacity named Gomez Labrador, were disregarded; Spain refused to sign the Final Act, and was not invited to join the Holy Alliance. In return Ferdinand refused to recognise or accede to the decisions of the Coalition of 1815.

But, if the Spanish monarchy was neglected abroad, at home in the Court of Madrid the Powers contended for influence over the Government and strove to guide its policy or win advantages. Great Britain and Russia were conspicuous in this effort through the persistent intrigues of their ambassadors, Henry Wellesley and Count Taticheff. Russia favoured a moderate policy, partly from expediency, since an extreme system, by driving Spaniards to the brink of revolution, was dangerous to Europe; partly because the Tsar Alexander was still in that phase of semi-Liberal romanticism which he afterwards abandoned. The British Government and ambassador at that time supported abso

212 British and Russian influence at Madrid [1815-8

lutism; but on the other hand they were displeased with Ferdinand for his ingratitude towards Wellington and disregard of Wellington's prudent counsels, and for his vexatious measures against British commerce and even against British subjects living in the Peninsula. These motives of dissatisfaction, together with the strong Liberal feeling existing in England, produced vigorous attacks from the Opposition in Parliament upon Ferdinand and his councillors. These attacks injured English influence in Madrid for the time, and Taticheff contrived to obtain the supremacy, partly by means of Queen Isabel, whose desire for moderation he supported. Thus came about the slight respite of two years (1816-8), which began with the elevation to power of Jose Leon y Pizarro, a man of sound intelligence and political experience, who was expected to give a more humane and Liberal turn to the Government, and which ended with the fall of Garay. To recover favour, Great Britain supported the claims of the Bourbon family in Italy, and obtained at last the Treaty of June, 1817, which secured the reversion of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to the Infanta Marie-Louise, formerly Queen of Etruria, and her male descendants. The insurrection of the American Colonies offered a fresh opportunity to Great Britain to gain influence over Spain. The open assistance lent by her to the insurgents as well as her influence in Portugal, which through her Colony of Brazil represented a powerful factor in the Trans-Atlantic political problem, convinced the Spanish Government of the need of closer relations with Great Britain; and at last, after a fruitless effort made with the support of Russia in the permanent Commission of the Allied Powers, it attained this end by the Treaty of September 17, 1817, which opened to Great Britain the commerce of the Indies and prepared the way for the abolition of the slave-trade. But this did not destroy at the time the influence of Taticheff in the Court, and especially in the camarilla, some of whose members were guided by him, nor did it prevent the intervention of other Russian politicians in Spanish policy. Among these was Prince Galitzin, an amateur of literature and art and intimate with the writers of the time, who resided in Madrid as a secret and busy agent of Russia. Among his friends was Mora, editor of the Crdnica Cientifica, who was induced by Galitzin to aid him in drawing up a memorial upon the political, military, moral, and economic state of Spain, persuading him that it was to be presented to Capcdistrias, with a view to obtaining the support of the Tsar in pending questions. Mora, induced by the intrigues of Galitzin, succeeded in bringing into the affair the Secretary of Justice, the illiterate Lozano de Torres, to whom he proposed a mission to the Courts of foreign Powers and an interview with Capodistrias. This mission was to be entrusted to Mora himself, in order to ascertain exactly what truth there was in rumours of conspiracies and plots against the Spanish State, rumours of which the inept Spanish diplomacy seemed totally ignorant. The

1819-20] Galitzin. Mora. American revolutionary agents 213

proposal having been accepted by the King, Mora started secretly on April 20, 1819, for Italy, where according to Galitzin he was to meet Capodistrias and show him the memorial. The interview with the Russian Minister did not take place ; but on his journey through Spain, Italy, and France, Mora became convinced that the Government of Ferdinand was discredited in the opinion of Europe, and that everywhere conspiracies were aiming at a Spanish revolution, chiefly supported by American agents from the Spanish Colonies and from the United States, who hoped thus to aid the emancipation of Spanish America, and also by the Freemasons and the King of Sardinia himself. One of those who informed Mora of these movements was Godoy, who was then in Rome, his naturalisation in Austria being opposed by Ferdinand through the ambassador Cevallos. By the advice of Mora, given on the strength of the revelations made in his dispatches, Ferdinand made one of his frequent changes of Secretaries; but he refused to establish or subsidise in Madrid a political periodical which might counterbalance the polemics carried on by the English Press. Other advice given by Mora was also neglected; and when this improvised diplomatist urged the King to disarm the conspirators by granting a Constitutional Charter on the lines of the French Charte, and also an amnesty to the Liberals and proscribed afrancesados, he was recalled from his mission and returned in disappointment to Madrid at the very time when Capodistrias was writing to him from Paris—perhaps not with serious intentions—inviting him to an interview in the French capital. Meantime the United States Minister, George Erving, was pressing upon the Spanish Government the cession of the Floridas, which was finally accomplished by the Treaty of 1819, ratiiied on October 20, 1820. In return Erving professed complete neutrality with regard to the Colonies, although it was well known that frequent help was sent from the United States to the insurgents, and that the American Freemasons boldly supported the movement with the knowledge and connivance of the Federal Government.

According to Mora's communications agents from North and South America swarmed throughout Europe, with centres of action and vigilance established in Lisbon and in London to observe the movements of troops destined for America and to prepare for the outbreak of an insurrection on the eve of their departure: by these means, apart from the effects upon Spain herself, the struggle in the Colonies would be closed. The Italian Carbonari were in communication with the Lodges of Philadelphia, and, in concert with William Shalderque, the United States agent in Leghorn, had dispatched one of their number, the agitator Sertini, from Genoa to Barcelona. Shalderque had correspondents in several parts of the Peninsula, through whom he distributed money to prepare the Revolution. Rumours of this American gold were current in Cadiz at the end of 1819 and beginning of 1820; and some Americans afterwards boasted of having thus contributed to the

214 Progress of the revolutionary movement [1814-20

revolution. These rumours were recalled many years afterwards by the anonymous author of the History of Fernando VII (1842) ; but, although Mora's information may have been partly true, it should be noted that Alcala Galiano—who, like most converts, is very candid in his memoirs — absolutely denies that the conspiracy received such support, and dwells upon the indigence of the Cadiz conspirators, who, at the end of 1819, succeeded with great trouble in collecting through the contributions of some Cadiz merchants about 4000 dollars; a sum quite insufficient to suborn officers and soldiers. The fact is, that whatever interest the Americans may have had in raising hindrances in Spain against the reinforcement of the Spanish forces in America, there existed in the Peninsula sufficient elements for the support of more or less serious revolutionary action without external aid or incitement.

The revolutionary movement gathered force gradually, as in other countries. We have already said that the majority of the intellectual element, although a minority of the whole population, had more or less pronounced Liberal tendencies, leaning either towards the doceanistas or the afrancesados. The intellectuals were joined by many men of the middle class, especially merchants, some nobles and ecclesiastics, and many officers of the army. The list of the conspirators and Freemasons of that time, and the names of those who after the triumph formed the juntas and municipalities in Madrid and the other capitals, clearly prove that in every class, and particularly in the bourgeoisie, Liberal ideas claimed adherents. Even among those who had recognised the absolutist Government of 1814, and those who occupied public posts, partisans were to be found not perhaps of the Constitution of 1812, but at least of a moderate constitutionalism, or of a more Liberal monarchy. In Cadiz the chief part of the population favoured these ideas, doubtless owing to the influence of the Cortes which had sat in that city. In some regions, as in Asturias, the most prominent men, and almost all the patriots who in 1808 had organised resistance to the French, joined the Liberal movement, although afterwards many of them changed sides, becoming excessively Conservative. The general feeling of the young men was the same. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the authorities, the books of the Encyclopedists and the abundant political literature, not yet adequately studied, which had sprung from the discussions of 1810-3, passed from hand to hand, as well as pamphlets and poems more or less seditious and inflammatory, in which young men secretly vented their aspirations for a vague liberty, all the more eagerly desired because not clearly defined. The refugees of 1814, chiefly living in England, carried on thence a persistent campaign (described in Mora's dispatches) against the absolutism of Ferdinand and his camarilla, with the support of the English Liberal Press, which always by some means found entrance into Spain. The officers, who had been made prisoners in the War of Independence and had returned to Spain, constituted, as has been said, a considerable

1814-9] The Freemasons in Spain 215

Liberal element, influenced as they were by French ideas ; and some of them, as Riego and San Miguel, were members of foreign secret societies, such as that of the Freemasons.

Freemasonary had existed in Spain from the middle of the eighteenth century. The persecutions of 1814 and the propaganda of the returning refugees greatly increased its range, first in dependence upon centres established in other countries, but afterwards with a separate organisation. Not all the Masons were revolutionists, but all aided one another ; and under the shadow of the Lodges the Radical elements steadily worked forre volution anddrew in fresh adherents, some of them convinced partisans, others hardly understanding to what they were committing themselves. Alcala Galiano says that in 1817 Spanish freemasonry on the whole " was not yet determined to act vigorously and directly against the Government," although most of the malcontents and converts to Liberalism were becoming Masons. In the insurrection of Lacy, which was supported by the Murcian Lodge, not all the conspirators were Masons ; and the Cadiz Lodge hesitated before approving the conduct of the Lodge of Algeciras, which had welcomed the fugitives from Catalonia. But in 1819 matters took a more decided political turn. The Andalusian Masons, especially those of Cadiz and Seville, who had wide ramifications in the garrisons and in the army which was being assembled at Cadiz to be embarked for America,decided under the influence of some enthusiasts to push on the revolution. Among the civilians, two young men took the lead in the conspiracy, Alcala Galiano, son of the brave sailor killed at Trafalgar, and Mendizabal, who was employed in the provisioning of the troops, a man then obscure but afterwards a leading figure in Spanish politics.

Notwithstanding the insignificance and timidity of those who ostensibly ruled the masonic society of Cadiz, matters were actively pushed on through the enthusiasm of a few men and the illusory hopes entertained by the military members of large monetary contributions and powerful aid from the Sovereign Chapter sitting in Cadiz. Among the armed forces the movement was much aided by the repugnance generally felt in the army and navy against embarking for America. This repugnance, which is not uncommon in colonial wars and can be paralleled in the modern history of several countries, was justified in this case by the mismanagement of the expedition and such scandals as that of the purchase of Russian ships, which were destined for America. Itwas also believed that the movement would be directed by General O'Donell, Conde de La Bisbal, an Irishman by birth, commander of the expeditionary army, whose ambiguous conduct and decided tolerance towards the conspirators seemed to show a disposition to revolt. But, when all was ready for the outbreak, La Bisbal—whether upon his own initiative or upon the persuasion of Sarsfield, the second in command — arrested the commanders of battalions at Puerto de Santa Maria (Cadiz — July).