restoration and the independence of their country. Sentences of imprisonment, exile, or perpetual servitude, were passed upon all the deputies of the Cortes who had shown any zeal in the cause of freedom. Many distinguished leaders in the Spanish armies met with similar treatment, while others withdrew from persecution by seeking an asylum in foreign countries. The yoke of despotism, however, was not borne without impatience. Occasional irruptions showed that the flame of liberty might be smothered, but was not extinguished. An attempt of Porlier at Corunna to accomplish a revolution upon the principles of the oppressed liberals, was followed by others in Valentia, Catalonia, and Galicia, but were all attended with similar results, and equally disastrous to their promoters. The unfortunate issue of these designs checked for a time the spirit of opposition. If the term absolute can be applied to any monarch, the king of Spain at this period well deserved the appellation."

Descriptive of the state of Spain, at the same period, the Annual Register, for successive years, bears the following melancholy record :—

1815. Perhaps no country in Europe is at present in a more wretched and degraded state than is Spain. It is really disgusting to dwell on the character of Ferdinand. The case of Ferdinand will abundantly prove how much evil a despotic sovereign may punish his subjects with, even when he is the most imbecile in intellect. It is not surprising that a man so weak, and so blind to his own interest, should be the dupe of bigotted and cruel priests, or that he should readily agree to their design of establishing the inquisition. In short, the state of Spain, viewed either in a political or religious light, appears

* Brewster's Encyclop. vol. xviii. p. 304.

to be much worse now than it was even in the days of the most bigotted and tyrannical of the Philips. Indeed, till the Spaniards are more enlightened, and less under the dominion of superstition, (kingdom of the beast, full of darkness) it is in vain to expect from them any efforts to raise themselves to their just rank in the scale of European nations."

1817. The affairs of Spain still present a melancholy picture.”

1818.- The little that is known of the state of Spain is, that the finances are still in a wretched condition-that there are no means to send out the expedition to South America-that poverty and oppres sion gain ground, and that the inquisition possesses more power than ever.”*

1820.- Much surprise was naturally excited that the Spaniards submitted so completely as they appeared to do, for such a length of time, (from 1814 to 1820) to the wretchedness of all descriptions with which they were overwhelmed. Agriculture, manufactures and commerce nearly annihilated; the finances in a most dilapidated state; the most enlightened patriots, those to whom the monarch and the country were most indebted, exiled or in prison,formed the picture of Spain."+

Spain is exclusively a province of the kingdom of the beast, and ruled by popery. Hence its yet impervious darkness, and miserable fate. Ferdinand himself is but the hound of the popish priesthood, and the liesh is in their hands. "The clergy is the great and dominant body in Spain, which moves every thing at will, and gives impulse even to the machine of state. When we see a device of the Spanish government breathing a spirit of bigotted intoler ance, we are not to ascribe it to this or that minister,

*Annual Register, 1818, p. 356.

Ibid. 1820, pp. 386, 387,

but rather to some unseen bishop or father abbot behind the curtain. From these causes, then, and not from the sovereign will of a single individual, originate those persecuting decrees and apostolic denunciations which have brought on Ferdinand the appellation of bloody bigot, and all the hard names in the calendar of abuse."*

The disannulling of the constitution,—the re-establishment of the inquisition, the absolute despotism of Ferdinand, himself the dupe of bigotted and cruel priests, led to the imprisonment, exile, or perpetual servitude of the bravest and most enlightened of her sons; and, notwithstanding abortive attempts for the recovery of liberty,-which served but to aggravate their pains and increase their bondage,―reduced Spain to a worse state than it was even in the days of the most bigotted and tyrannical of the Philips, and, under the dominion of superstition, overwhelmed it with miseries of all descriptions.

Of the little that, in a time so full of darkness, could be known of Spain, all was misery; and the spirit of priestly domination or of religious or political fanaticism that preyed on Spain, and of which the most enlightened of her sons were the victims, may be exemplified in the fact, that when the " priest party was restored to preponderance and power," after the brief but troublous supremacy of the Cortes, "it was publicly proclaimed from a pulpit in Madrid to be no sin to kill the child of a constitutional, though in its mother's womb." And the inquisition was an engine of cruelty, and an instrument of torture, the very secrecy and seclusion of which aggravated the agony, such as nothing but faith could

overcome.

*A Year in Spain, vol. ii. pp. 337, 345. + Ibid. p. 9.

It is much to be feared that the minds of the Spaniards, whether tormentors or tormented, whether holding power by persecution, or daring the miseries of the dungeon in the hope of freedom, were divided between superstition and infidelity, and that there was no peace in the minds of the sufferers but what, as their hopes were earthly, the world could take "Imprisonment or perpetual servitude," the hard alternative and common doom, were enough to break the heart of which liberty was the idol, and proofs too conclusive abound, to show that miseries were superadded enough to cause them to gnaw their tongues for pain.

away.

"The real condition of Portugal at the close of the peninsular war," or from 1814 to 1820, is thus described, in general terms.

"The extinction of the few native manufactories of the kingdom, the total loss of the lucrative commerce of Brazil, and the utter ruin of agriculture by the ravages of a cruel warfare, had all conspired to overwhelm the mass of the Portuguese population in distress and poverty. The return of a season of tranquillity, which should have healed the wounds left by foreign invasion and national misfortunes, had been permitted to exercise no real salutary influence. On the contrary, during the six years, the continued residence of the court in Brazil, with the exactions of an absentee nobility, the general corruptions of the institutions of government, and the misrule of the regency, had altogether aggravated instead of assuaging the sufferings of the nation. The clergy, and the harpies of administration, had alone flourished amidst the general calamity; the great body of the people, and especially the peasantry, were reduced to the lowest stage of penury and wretchedness."

But, exclusive of this general description of the wretchedness of Portugal, which admits not of denial, there is the testimony of witnesses who bore their part in the sufferings, and were the inmates of

State of Portugal, p. 46.

prisons; and whose case has not only excited the commiseration of a few, but commanded the attention of the British parliament and public. Sir John Doyle and Mr. Young were but two out of many thousands, who, on account of political offences, whether real or presumed, were immured in the dungeons of Portugal. And their right to a hearing in our land of liberty, and to protection as British subjects, though in a foreign kingdom, has exposed to view the horrors of Portuguese imprisonment, in a manner that otherwise could not have been divulged or credited. There darkness still has its seat. the task is yet reserved for history, fully to disclose such abominations and barbarities. And in lieu of official documents, such as never can be given, and of historical records, which are yet wanting, recourse must be had to individual testimony; yet at no second hand, but of one who, for many years, was an eye-witness to what he describes, and who felt what he tells.

And

"I could mention facts," says Mr. Young, "which I have witnessed within these twenty years, that would make Englishmen turn with abhorrence from the pictures of villany which may be concealed under the cloak of religion. Many of these facts would be scarcely credible in a country not cursed with monks and friars."* "It should never be lost sight of, in speaking of the government of Portugal, that we are speaking of a set of men whose actions have one object, which they are all sworn to maintain as one man, that of acquiring absolute dominion over the minds and the property of the entire community; and for the attainment of which object they prostitute the sacred name of religion, violate every moral and social tie, and are ready to sacrifice friend or foe to the attainment of their wishes." "It should always be borne in mind, that Miguel is the mere tool, or political engine, of the principal jugglers of the college of Jesuits."

"It is scarcely possible for language to describe the de

* Portugal in 1828, by William Young, Esq. † Ibid. 123.