XXIV. 1830. 87. in Italy. ITALY also felt the shock, and from the more ardent CHAP. temperament of its inhabitants, and the circumstance of their having so long been unaccustomed to the exercise of any of the rights of freemen, with more violence than in Convulsions the colder latitudes of the Alps. In Lombardy and Piedmont the extreme vigilance of the police, and the presence of an immense Austrian force, the fidelity of which could perfectly be relied on, prevented any open convulsions; but the impression was not the less decided, and the public passions, long and rigorously repressed, only acquired the greater strength from being brooded over in silence. The fermentation was extreme in Bologna and Modena, the two cities of the peninsula most warmly attached to the new institutions; but it was repressed with rigour, and in Florence overawed by the influence of Austria. In Rome the effect was very great at first, but it was ere long superseded by the election of a new Pope, in consequence of the death of Pius VIII., which took place on the 30th November. He was succeeded by Cardinal 1 Ann. Hist. Capellari, elected to the pontifical chair on February 2d, 688. who took the title of Gregory XVI.1 xiii. 684, the order of But these events, important and startling as they were, 88. yielded in ultimate importance to an event which took Change in place in this year in Spain, and proved the source of succession unnumbered calamities to both the kingdoms of the Penin- in Spain. sula. This was the CHANGE IN THE ORDER OF SUCCESSION to the Spanish crown, as it had now been established for a hundred and twenty years, with the concurrence of all the powers of Europe. This order, which strictly excluded females from the crown, was an innovation on the old law of Spain, which admitted them; but it had been established by a decree or pragmatic sanction on 10th September 1713, on occasion of the accession of Philip V. to the throne, and subsequently ratified by all the powers of Europe, and in particular by France and England, by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1714. It had ever since regulated the succession to the Spanish crown, and was regarded as CHAP. XXIV. 1830. 1 See Life of Marl borough, c. xii. p. 474, 524. 89. and politi a fundamental point in the public law and fixed policy of Europe. The object of it was not so much any peculiar necessity for the male succession in the Spanish monarchy beyond other states, but considerations of the highest moment for the general balance of power. The bequest of the crown of "Spain and the Indies" to the Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., in 1700, by the King of Spain, had lighted up the flames of the War of the Succession in Europe, which burnt fiercely for thirteen years, and were very imperfectly laid by the Peace of Utrecht in 1714. This treaty was thought by the Tories to have averted the danger of a union of the crowns of France and Spain on the same head, by entailing the crown of the latter kingdom on the male line. Bolingbroke and Harley, who made that treaty, did not perceive, what the event ere long demonstrated, that it was not the union of the crowns, but the alliance of the kingdoms, which was the real object of danger; that a family compact" founded on family connection might prove as formidable as a union of kingdoms; and that, if the English fleets were outnumbered, and blockaded in their harbours, as they often were in the course of the century, by those of France and Spain together, it were of little moment whether it was in virtue of a united government or a family alliance. 1 * An opportunity now occurred which enabled the Its motives Liberals of Spain to lay the foundation for a revival of cal objects. their hopes, which had been so signally blasted by the universal burst of indignation against their rule that appeared on the invasion of the Duke d'Angoulême in * In every one of the wars of England against France, in the course of the eighteenth century, subsequent to 1714, the Spanish government took part with the French, and their united navies always considerably outnumbered the English. This was particularly the case in the American War and the war of the Revolution, in the former of which the French and Spanish fleets, numbering forty-seven sail of the line, blockaded the English, of twenty-one sail, in Plymouth; while, at the outset of the latter, their combined fleets outnumbered those of Great Britain by forty-four line-of-battle ships.-See ALISON's Life of Marlborough, vol. ii. p. 474, 3d edit. XXIV. 1830. 1823. The King, now advanced in years, had married CHAP. in the close of the preceding year CHRISTINA, daughter of the King of the Two Sicilies; and the fêtes consequent on the marriage, which was graced by the presence of the royal parents of the bride, had been of so magnificent a character as to have recalled the pristine days of the monarchy, and in some degree reconciled even the Liberals to the sway of "El Rey Assoluto." In the spring of this year the Queen was discovered to be with child; and as the sex of the infant was of course uncertain, and DoN CARLOS, the King's immediate younger brother, was, failing male issue of the marriage, the heir-apparent of the monarchy, and the avowed head of the despotic party, the Liberals resolved upon a device, which was attended with entire success, for altering the order of the succession, and establishing it in favour of the King's issue, whether male or female. By this means they hoped to ingraft a war of succession on a war of principles, and gain for themselves an ostensible and visible head, a matter of importance in all civil wars, but especially in one in Spain, where the people were much 1Ann. Hist. more inclined to attach themselves to persons than to 690. things.1 xiii. 688, 90. tion of the 1830. By the united influence of the young Queen and the old father-confessor, the King was won over in his old age Promulgato this intrigue, and the decree accordingly appeared decree. calling females as well as males to the succession of the March 29, throne. To render the device the more plausible, it was stated in the decree that it was no new order of succession which was thereby established, but that it was a mere transcript of a former decree made by the late king, Charles IV., in 1789, on the requisition of the Cortes. Neither the alleged old decree, however, nor the requisition of the Cortes, were ever produced to give authority to the innovation, and it was done without the privity or concurrence of any of the powers in Europe which had been parties to the Treaty of Utrecht, by which the XXIV. 1830. CHAP. crown had been entailed on the male line. This, however, soon came to be of little moment; for in due time the Queen gave birth to a daughter, ISABELLA, the present sovereign of Spain; and although the irregularities of the mother's conduct gave rise to serious doubts as to the infant's legitimacy, yet she was immediately adopted as the head of the Liberals, and the dependants of the Crown united with the partisans of free institutions in making THE QUEEN the war-cry of their united party. It will appear in the sequel what important consequences followed this circumstance, what mournful tragedies it occasioned in all xiii. 690, 1 Ann. Hist. parts of the Peninsula, and how completely, in the end, it has had the effect of nullifying Spain in the general balance of power in Europe.1 691. 91. Thus, within less than six months after the Revolution Resumé of of 1830 broke out, and Charles X. had been dethroned, ence of the was the whole face of affairs in Europe changed. Distrust Revolution had everywhere succeeded to confidence, apprehension the influ in France over Europe. to security, convulsion to stability. In vain had Louis Philippe assured the Continental sovereigns, and with sincerity, that he was inclined to abide by existing treaties, to check the spirit of revolution, to stand between them and the plague. Events had proved that, whatever his intentions were, his power to carry them into effect was extremely circumscribed. It was evident that there were two governments in Paris, one in the Tuileries and one in the clubs, and that the latter was more powerful for evil than the former was for good. The spirit of propagandism, nursed in France, and quadrupled in strength by its victory there, was now spreading over the adjoining states, and had already achieved the most signal triumphs in foreign nations. The Conservative administration had been overturned in England, and a party installed in power, based on popular support, and pledged to organic changes, with a democratic tendency in the constitution; the Kingdom of the Netherlands had been revolutionised, the King dethroned at Brussels, and XXIV. 1830. Belgium to all appearance irrevocably severed from Hol- CHAP. land; the barrier of Europe against France had been converted into the outwork of France against Europe; Germany had been convulsed, and a reigning sovereign dethroned; Switzerland subjected to democratic change, and brought under the influence of the clubs in Paris; and in Spain the order of succession changed, and a visible head given to the democratic party in the Peninsula, in the person of the heiress to the throne! A conflict of three days' duration in the streets of Paris had obliterated the whole effect of the victories of Marlborough and Wellington, overturned the barrier in Flanders to revolutionary power, and annihilated in Spain the last remnant of security against French influence becoming predominant in the Peninsula ! To all appearance the prophecy of Lafayette, forty years before, was about to be realised; the tricolor flag was to make the tour of the globe. |