Chapter 13 (Madrid Spring
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAPTER 13 Intrigues at Court - Quesada and Galiano - Dissolution of the Cortes - The Secretary - Aragonese Pertinacity - The Council of Trent - The Asturian - The Three Thieves - Benedict Mol - The Men of Lucerne - The Treasure Mendizabal had told me to call upon him again at the end of three months, giving me hopes that he would not then oppose himself to the publication of the New Testament; before, however, the three months had elapsed, he had fallen into disgrace, and had ceased to be prime minister1. An intrigue had been formed against him, at the head of which were two quondam friends of his, and fellow-townsmen, Gaditanians2, Isturitz and Alcala Galiano3; both of them had been egregious liberals in their day, and indeed principal members of those cortes which, on the Angouleme invasion, had hurried Ferdinand from Madrid to Cadiz, and kept him prisoner there until that impregnable town thought proper to surrender, and both of them had been subsequently refugees in England, where they had spent a considerable number of years.4 These gentlemen, however, finding themselves about this time exceedingly poor, and not seeing any immediate prospect of advantage from supporting Mendizabal; considering themselves, moreover, quite as good men as he, and as capable of 1 After a conflict with Queen Regent Maria Cristina, Mendizabel resigned on 15 May 1836. 2 Cadiz, in the far south, was forever Spain’s most radical town. Many liberal politicians were born or bred here. It had been the liberal stronghold during the Peninsular War, and the place where in 1812 a hastily – and illegally - summoned parliament had proclaimed Spain’s famous first Constitution, an extremely radical document which was to be the bone of contention in all further political struggles of the century. In 1820, the radical Riego rising, which ushered in the three-year constitutional regime, took place in its immediate hinterland, at Cabezas de San Juan. 3 Francisco Javier de Isturiz (Cadiz 1790 – Madrid 1871) and Antonio Alcalá Galiano (Cadiz 1789 – Madrid 1865), who at this time formed the Moderado (Moderate) liberal party by seceding from Mendizabal’s more radical Progresistas. Both spent the years between 1823 and 1833 in London exile. For a good description of Isturiz see Hughes, Overland, vol. 1, ch 29, 375. 4 In 1823, as the French army known as the 100,000 Sons of Saint Louis, led by the Duke d’Angouleme, marched into Spain to make short work of the three-year liberal regime, the government and parliament fled south to Seville, taking King Ferdinand with them. When the pursuing French approached that city, preparations were made to continue to Cadiz, but the King, who was to be the great beneficiary of the French invasion, refused to move. Alcala Galiano then had the neat inspiration to declare the king temporarily insane, and take him along forcefully. There is perhaps no more telling illustration to the true nature of this liberal ‘Trienio Constitutional’. The King, a staunch absolutist, had sworn to the Constitution in 1820, but had done everything in his power – including conspiracy and rebellion - to undermine it. The liberals, meanwhile, pretended to be his loyal subjects; but had to kidnap their liege to show how much they loved him. [Llorens, Liberales y Romanticos, 38.] George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition) governing Spain in the present emergency; determined to secede from the party of their friend, whom they had hitherto supported, and to set up for themselves.5 They therefore formed an opposition to Mendizabal in the cortes; the members of this opposition assumed the name of moderados, in contra-distinction to Mendizabal and his followers, who were ultra liberals. The moderados were encouraged by the Queen Regent Christina, who aimed at a little more power than the liberals were disposed to allow her, and who had a personal dislike to the minister. They were likewise encouraged by Cordova6, who at that time commanded the army, and was displeased with Mendizabal, inasmuch as the latter did not supply the pecuniary demands of the general with sufficient alacrity, though it is said that the greater part of what was sent for the payment of the troops was not devoted to that purpose, but, was invested in the French funds in the name and for the use and behoof of the said Cordova. It is, however, by no means my intention to write an account of the political events which were passing around me at this period; suffice it to say, that Mendizabal finding himself thwarted in all his projects by the regent and the general, the former of whom would adopt no measure which he recommended, whilst the latter remained inactive and refused to engage the enemy, which by this time had recovered from the check caused by the death of Zumalacarregui, and was making considerable progress, resigned and left the field for the time open to his adversaries, though he possessed an immense majority in the cortes, and had the voice of the nation, at least the liberal part of it, in his favour.7 5 Highly intelligent as he was, once it came to politics or economics, Borrow betrayed his total lack of learning and sophistication. His analysis of motives never rises beyond the personal greed of politicians and his judgement of social forces stops short with the morality of a Hollywood Western, in which some wear the white heads and others the black. Although it is true that many liberal politicians of the 1830s showed a shocking tendency to self-enrichment and corruption, the split of the liberal movement into Moderados and Progresistas corresponded with distinct different visions of how the country should be run and what it took to preserve the constitutional regime from its open Carlist enemies and its hidden conservative fellow-travellers in government-held territory. The Progresistas were iconoclasts, convinced the country could be whipped into modern shape by punishment, expropriation and draconian law. The Moderados were more timid, and aimed to reach an understanding with the Church, the localist forces, and the classes of small proprietors. Both, in any case, were unable to run the war-economy in such a way as to sustain the military effort necessary to beat the Carlists. So the war continued, independent of who held power in Madrid, until by 1840 both warring sides had bled white and a compromise peace of the moribund could not be avoided. 6 Commander-in-Chief of the army from June 1835 to August 1836. Borrow met him once aboard a boat riding at anchor in Lisbon harbour, in April 1840, where the good general had come to fetch smuggled cigars. See the appendix at the end of this book, or Knapp, I : 339-342. 7 Under the reigning statute, neither one nor the other made the difference. The Cortes – which showed a great majority for the Progresistas ever since the general elections of early 1836 - might proclaim or reject laws, but the appointment of the ministry was the prerogative of the Crown, hence in practice of Queen Regent Maria Cristina, who reigned in stead of her 6 year old daughter. In the absence of universal suffrage, the ‘voice of the nation’ could only be expressed in the streets, and then usually by its most hooligan members in Madrid – as happened on many occasions with all its dire consequences. Chapter 13 Thereupon, Isturitz became head of the cabinet, Galiano minister of marine, and a certain Duke of Rivas minister of the interior. These were the heads of the moderado government, but as they were by no means popular at Madrid, and feared the nationals, they associated with themselves one who hated the latter body and feared nothing, a man of the name of Quesada, a very stupid individual, but a great fighter, who, at one period of his life, had commanded a legion or body of men called the Army of the Faith, whose exploits both on the French and Spanish side of the Pyrenees are too well known to require recapitulation. This person was made captain general of Madrid.8 13.1 Quesada By far the most clever member of this government was Galiano, whose acquaintance I had formed shortly after my arrival. He was a man of considerable literature, and particularly well versed in that of his own country. He was, moreover, a fluent, elegant, and forcible speaker, and was to the moderado party within the cortes what Quesada was without, namely, their horses and chariots. Why he was made minister of marine is 8 Vicente Genaro de Quesada, Marques de Montcayo (Havana 1782 – Hortaleza 1836), one of the great soldiers and turncoats of the time. A career soldier and arch-conservative by nature, he served Ferdinand VII loyally, even commanding an army which battled the liberal regime of the Trienio Liberal from beyond the Pyrenees. In the early 1830s he was Captain General (military governor) of Andalucia and put down a liberal riot in Cadiz which followed six weeks after the catastrophic Torrijos landing at Malaga on 4 December 1831. Yet in 1833 Quesada threw in his lot with the Liberals and held various commands against the Carlists. As Captain General of Madrid, he commanded all regular forces in the city and its immediate surroundings. His position was obviously due to his conservative credentials, so he was at once a guarantee of armed support to the Moderado government, and a clear provocation to the radical populace of Madrid. George Borrow: The Bible In Spain (Gabicote Edition) difficult to say, as Spain did not possess any9; perhaps, however, from his knowledge of the English language, which he spoke and wrote nearly as well as his own tongue, having indeed during his sojourn in England chiefly supported himself by writing for reviews and journals, an honourable occupation, but to which few foreign exiles in England would be qualified to devote themselves.10 He was a very small and irritable man, and a bitter enemy to every person who stood in the way of his advancement.