Tavignano, and its tributary the Restonica, run near the town and unite a short distance below it. The citadel is strong by its position, with one winding path up to it; the streets of the town are steep, and there are but few really good houses. | deserves notice, as indicating one of the chief products o. the island at that time. The Romans founded two colonies, both on the east coast: Mariana, at the mouth of the Golo, founded by Marius, and Aleria, at the mouth of the Tavignano, by the Dictator Sylla. The Romans used the island as a place of banishment. Seneca was sent to it as an exile. On the downfall of the Roman empire Corsica came Goths; but the successes of Belisarius forced them to abandon the island, which was then included in the exarchate of Ravenna, a dependency of the Eastern Empire. Early in the eighth century, the Saracens, then masters of Spain, possessed themselves of Corsica; but the decline of their power and the attacks of the kings of France and Aragon, and ultimately of the Pope, led them to abandon the island, which became the subject of contention between the papal see and the maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa. During the period of independence there was a university here, established by Paoli: but it appears to be no longer in existence. It is mentioned however in the 'Dic-into the hands of the Vandals, and subsequently of the tionnaire Universel de la France,' by Prudhomme, published in 1804. We are not aware whether anything had been done in consequence of the legacies left by General Paoli for the instruction of his countrymen, and which it was intended to appropriate to the foundation of a college near Corté. The trade of Corté consists only in agricultural produce: indeed its situation in the midst of mountains and far from the coast, without any advantage or opportunity of inland navigation, preclude the extension of its commerce: though Boswell's enthusiasm led him confidently to pronounce that it would undoubtedly be one day a city of eminence.' The population, in 1832, was 3282. The Geneese, who at length crushed the maritime power of Pisa, and succeeded in possessing themselves of Corsica, governed it with a rod of iron for several centuries. In 1553 the French, under the Marquis de Thermes, assisted by some malcontent Corsicans, and supported by a considerable Turkish fleet, attempted to conquer the island, and met at first with great success, subduing all the isle except Bastia and Calvi; but the Genoese, under the command of the veteran Andrew Doria, and supported by the em peror Charles V., at length recovered the island; and though they had by treaty granted many immunities and privileges to the natives, they soon resumed their oppressive course of government. A revolt soon took place (in. 1564) under Sampiero de Bastelica or Ornano, who had instigated the French in their attempt to wrest the island from the Genoese; but he was assassinated in 1567, and the revolt quelled shortly after. The oppressions of the Genoese became after this greater and more systematic. Commercial restrictions imposed by them, checked the development of St. Florent, or St. Fiorenzo, is in the arrondissement of the resources of the island; while the internal commotions Bastia, on the north-west side of the island, on the bay of of the islanders themselves, which led to continual assassinSt. Florent, close to the mouth of the little river Cigno. ations, prevented their uniting for the common good: the It is a handsome town with a small harbour. The popu- legal authorities converted these assassinations and dislation, by the return before the last, amounted to 500. The turbances into grounds for confiscation, or exacted large place is accounted very unhealthy. There is in the neigh-sums as the price of the offender's escape. In 1676 the bourhood a lead mine, much vaunted by the Corsicans as yielding silver also, but the proportion is very small. Porto Vecchio, in the arrondissement of Sartene, on the east side of the island, has the best harbour in Corsica, five miles long, and one and a half broad, with deep water and a good bottom. The town is rendered unhealthy by the neighbouring marshes, especially during the heats of summer. The inhabitants amounted, in 1823, to 1738; they trade in excellent wine. Granite is quarried in the neighbourhood. Calvi is on a small peninsula projecting into the gulf of Calvi, which is on the north-west side of the island. It is a small town, defended by a fortress; but the harbour or road is capable of holding a considerable fleet. The population by the return previous to that of 1832 (we believe made in 1826) was 1175 for the commune. Sartène is in the south part of the island, a few miles inland from the gulf of Valinco, and about two or three miles from the left or south bank of the river Valinco. The population in 1832 was 1715 for the town, or 2715 for the whole commune. Bonifacio, in the arrondissement of Sartène, is on the straits of Bonifacio, which separate Corsica on the south from Sardinia. It is well fortified, and has a tolerably good harbour. The inhabitants, who amounted to 2944 in 1832, trade in wine and oil, and fish up coral. Vico, a town the population of which may be probably estimated at 1000, near the gulf of Sagone, trades in wine and oil. Ile Rousse, or Isola Rossa, on the coast between Calvi and St. Florent, has a small but deep harbour. Cervione, near the east coast, has probably about 1000 inhabitants. Bastelica, near the source of the Prunella, had, in 1833, a population of 2314. The first notice of Corsica is in Herodotus, under the name Cyrnus (Kipvoc). The people of Phocæa (wkain), a city in Asia Minor, unable to resist the Persian Cyrus, determined to desert their native town. In the year 544, B. C., they embarked with their wives and children, first for Chios, and afterwards for Corsica, in which they had twenty years before founded the town of Alalia ('Alain). Half the number, however, returned to Phocæa, but the remainder pursued their voyage and joined the people of Alalia, with whom they continued five years, plundering the surrounding nations, until having suffered dreadful loss in a sea fight against the allied fleet of the Tyrrhenians (Tvpnvoi), and Carthaginians (Kapyndóvioi,) they abandoned Corsica to seek another settlement. (Herodot. I. 165, &c.) In the time of Gelon of Syracuse (B. C. 480) we find mention of Corsicans (Képvio) among the troops with which the Carthaginian Hamilcar came to the aid of Terillus, tyrant of Himera (Iμion). (Herod. vii., 165.) The Carthaginians had probably possessed themselves of Corsica, at least of the coast, and on their downfall it came under the power of the Romans. It was ravaged by these B. C. 259, but not subdued till long after. A tribute of 200,000 lbs. of wax imposed on them Genoese settled here a colony of Mainote Greeks, who had fled from the oppressions of their Turkish conquerors: their descendants still continue at or near Ajaccio. Between these settlers and the natives great jealousies and feuds arose; and when the island at last revolted, the Genoese found in these Greeks their staunchest supporters. In 1729 the long-smothered discontent broke out. A tax collector seized some of the goods of a poor woman of the village of Bozzo, near Corte, for the amount of taxes due from her, amounting to about five-pence English. The remonstrances of the neighbours drew forth threats from the collector, and they, irritated by his conduct, drove him away with stones. The Genoese sent troops to quell the commotion, and the natives assembled to repel them: the revolt became general, and the natives placing at their head three of their countrymen, Andrew Ceccaldi, a noble, Luigi Giafferi, a man of less elevated origin but large family connexion, and Domenico Raffaeli, an ecclesiastic, possessed themselves of the town of Bastia, though they failed in their attempt on the castle. The Genoese tried.at first to subdue the revolters by their own forces alone, but finding these insufficient, applied to the emperor Charles VI., who sent first in 1731 a small body of forces, which proved inadequate, and then a large army under the Prince of Wirtemberg (A.D. 1732), which compelled the islanders to submit upon terms, the observance of which the emperor guaranteed. The three chiefs, with another Corsican of note, went to Genoa as hostages, and the Genoese would have put them to death with the emperor's consent, but for the interference of the Prince of Wirtemberg and Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Genoese violated the terms, and in 1734 the revolt broke out anew: the Corsicans chose for their leaders Giafferi, the only one of their three chiefs who had returned to the island, and Giacinto Paoli. In the year 1736 there came a vessel under the English flag from Tunis, laden with artillery and warlike stores, clothing, and money, and bringing a person of noble exterior, richly dressed in the Turkish fashion, who landed for the assistance of the islanders, claimed to be a grandee of various countries, and made the most magnificert the chief prod founded two dis he mouth of the e mouth of the mans used the sa was sent to BE empire Corsa subsequently d ius forced the included in the the Eastern E -ens, then se =; but the de ings of Franc ed them to contention ublics of Ps. to be resisted. He addressed his adherents in a pathetic The promises of foreign aid. This was Theodore, by descent was taken without resistance; and Paoli, retiring with a reBaron of Neuhof in Westphalia, but by birth a French-duced force, was beset by a body of the enemy too powerful man, who, after a life of romantic adventure, aspired to become king of Corsica, and had secretly negotiated with some of the chiefs for the purpose. The Corsicans, struck with his personal appearance, dazzled by his promises, and looking upon his opportune arrival as little less than miraculous, willingly chose him as their king. He exercised the regal power for some months, coined The French Revolution revived the hopes of the Corsican money, distributed patents of nobility, instituted an order patriots, and Paoli went over to Paris to thank the Constiof knighthood, and, to evince his firmness, put to death tuent Assembly for having admitted Corsica to the benefit. three persons, members of distinguished families. He of the French laws, and recalled those who had been exiled undertook many enterprises against the towns still held by for having sustained its independence. He was appointed the Genoese, took Porto Vecchio, but failed before Bastia. military commander in Corsica; but having observed with Before long however, through the failure of his promises, alarm a proposition made in the French legislature to cede his popularity diminished, and he determined to leave the Corsica to the Duke of Placentia, and lamenting the course island, to solicit, as he said, the succours of which he had which the Revolution subsequently took, having been acbeen disappointed. He arranged for conducting the govern- cused also of treason to the French government, he put ment during his absence, quitted Corsica, and visited succes- himself at the head of a party of malcontents, by whom sively Italy, France, and Holland. Being arrested for debt he was elected generalissimo and president of an assembly at Amsterdam, he was released by a Jew and his associates, held at Corté. He now sought the aid of the English adwho furnished him with funds to fit out three merchant miral Lord Hood, who commanded the Mediterranean fleet; vessels and a frigate, with which he appeared off the island and after some negotiations and warlike operations on a in 1738 but the Genoese had by this time called in the small scale, General Dundas landed on the island A.D. 1794, aid of the French, who had under M. de Boisseux made with five regiments. The French troops evacuated St. Fiogreat progress in putting down the insurgents; and Theo-renzo, and shortly after Bastia surrendered with a garrison dore was afraid to land, though he put on shore some war- of 4000 men. Calvi also surrendered; and by negotiation like stores. The next year the French, under the Marquis between the British government and the Corsicans, the de Maillebois, a man of great promptitude and severity, island became part of the British empire. A constitution forced the insurgents to lay down their arms. Theodore was drawn up by an assembly of the nation at Corte, and again appeared off the island in 1742; but the natives did agreed to by Sir Gilbert Eliot (afterwards Lord Minto), as not show any inclination to receive him. He afterwards viceroy of the king of Great Britain. But though it is said went to London, where he was imprisoned for debt, but that the mass of the people were favourable to these proobtained his release through the kind interference of ceedings, the French had still a strong party, and this was Horace Walpole, and made over his kingdom of Corsica increased by disgusts which arose between the Corsicans as a security to his creditors. He died in London in 1756, and the English functionaries. Various incidents, trivial and is buried in St. Ann's Churchyard, Westminster, where in themselves, increased the alienation; and the English his epitaph records the strange vicissitudes of his life. Giaf-government, jealous of Paoli's well-earned influence over feri and Paoli went to Naples, in the service of which king- his countrymen, directed him to leave the island and prodom they continued till they died. ceed to England. Upon his departure things assumed a more serious aspect, and the English at last determined on abandoning Corsica, which they did in 1796. The French soon repossessed themselves of it, and exiled the leaders of the revolt. ce this time Corsica has been united to France. Upon the departure of the French, A.D. 1742, the revolt broke out again, Gaffori and Matra being the leaders of the Corsicans. In the year 1745 a British fleet gave assistance to the Corsicans, and by bombarding Bastia and St. Fiorenzo, obliged the Genoese in those towns to surrender. But the dissensions among the islanders, which resulted from the jealousy of Matra and Gaffori at the appointment of Count Rivarola to be generalissimo, disgusted the British, who withdrew, and the Genoese soon after recovered Bastia and St. Fiorenzo. The jealousy subsided, and the three chiefs shared the government between them, until the departure of Rivaroli on a foreign mission, on which he died in 1748, and the entrance of Matra into the Piedmontese service, left the sole power to Gaffori. Gaffori was assassinated in 1753, as was supposed by the contrivance of the Genoese: and the island continued for two years without a chief, until the appointment in 1755 of Pasquale or Pascal Paoli, son of Giacinto Paoli already mentioned, to the office of General of Corsica. Paoli defeated the Genoese and those of his countrymen who opposed him, settled the government of Corsica, and provided for the improvement of his countrymen. The cessation of those internal discords among the Corsicans, which had enabled the Genoese to maintain their footing in the island, alarmed the latter, who again implored the aid of France, which being in debt to the republic of Genoa, furnished auxiliary troops by way of payment. In 1764 the auxiliaries arrived, and were put in garrison in Bastia, Calvi, Ajaccio, St. Fiorenzo, and Algagliola, near Calvi. Their instructions were to secure these points without undertaking offensive operations against the natives. From the attack of these therefore the Corsicans prudently abstained, and directed their efforts elsewhere. One of our authorities indeed (L'Art de vérifier les Dates, tom. xviii., p. 38), speaks of an unsuccessful attack on Bastia, made by Paoli in 1765. In the year 1768 Genoa ceded the island to France, reserving only the right to reclaim it upon payment to the French government of the expenses they had incurred or might incur in the subjugation of it. This cession quite changed the face of affairs. A large French army was employed in active operations under the Marquis de Chauvelin, the Count de Marbœuf, and the Count de Vaux. The natives fought desperately; but they had not adequate means of resistance. Corté, which they had made their capital, Bonaparte never showed much favour to Corsica: he was not popular there, nor is his memory cherished. On his downfall, owing to the oppression of the military commandant discontents broke out in Corsica, and a small British force landed on the island at the invitation of the islanders; but they held the posts which they occupied merely for the purpose of transferring them to the restored government of the Bourbons. CORTE'. [CORSICA.] CORTES, HERNAN, was born in 1485 at Medellin, a village of Estremadura, in Spain. He was sent to study law at Salamanca; but being of a turbulent and dissipated disposition, his father wished him to go to Italy as a military adventurer under the Great Captain. Not succeeding in this, in 1502 he obtained permission to follow his kinsman Ovando, who was appointed governor of Hispaniola; but an accident which befell him in scaling a lady's window prevented his joining Ovando till 1504. In 1511 he distinguished himself under Velasquez in the conquest of Cuba, and in 1518 was selected by this governor to undertake the conquest of Mexico, then just discovered by Grijalva. Accordingly, Cortes set sail from St. Jago de Cuba the 18th of November, 1518, with ten vessels, ten pieces of cannon, eighteen horsemen, 600 infantry, thirteen only of whom were musketeers, and the rest cross-bowmen. He touched at various places, and among them at Havannah in search of more adventurers; and setting out again February 10th, 1519, bent his course to Cozumel, left this island on the 4th of March, and proceeded up the river Grijalva, or Tabasco. Velasquez, soon after he had dispatched his lieutenant with the brilliant prospects of conquest, revoked his commission, and attempted to get him brought back under arrest; but the vigilance of Cortes frustrated all the schemes of the governor. Having taken the town of Tabasco, with much slaughter, he received from its cacique gold and provisions, and twenty female slaves. One of these, who makes a great figure in the history of the conquest, under the name of Doña Marina, being a native of Mexico, became highly useful as inter preter, in conjunction with Jerome de, Aguilar, who had | 1520. This victory enabled Cortes to subdue some of the been eight years prisoner in the island of Cozumel. Ad- neighbouring territories with the assistance of the Tlascalans, vancing into the interior, Cortes met at San Juan de Ulua to attach 10,000 more of them to his service, to attack Mexico some Mexican chiefs, who were anxious to know his inten- again six months after his retreat, and to retake it the 13th of tions. Cortes laid great stress upon the importance of his August, 1521, after seventy-five days of fierce and almost mission from the great monarch of the east, and the neces- daily fighting. The natives once more reduced to despair rose sity of his waiting upon their king. Native painters in the again, and again they yielded to superior discipline, though mean time were delineating on cotton cloth the ships, on no occasion did native Americans so bravely oppose horses, artillery, &c. of the ominous visiters, in order to European troops. Thus a daring adventurer, regarded acquaint their sovereign with the wonders which words and treated by his countrymen as a rebel, after a bloody could not describe. To awe them still more, Cortes dis- struggle, gained possession of a country which for more played the evolutions of his men and horses, and the havoc than three centuries formed one of the brightest gems in made on trees by the terrific thunder and discharge of can- the Castilian crown. The atrocities of Cortes have been non-balls. Several of the terrified Indians fell to the ground, the subject of much declamation, but he was a soldier by and so many ran away, that it was difficult to subdue their profession, and while the Inquisition burnt Jews and Proalarm and regain their confidence. testants in Spain, he could learn from his chaplains no other or better means of converting heathens than by fire and the sword. During the negotiations for his progress to the capital, Cortes founded the colony of Villa Rica de Vera Cruz, and defeated the faction of the partizans of Velasquez, who, in the midst of the expedition, were in full readiness to revolt. Not satisfied with this, to prevent all farther hesitation and division among his followers, by leaving them no other chance of safety than in union and the conquest of a hostile country in which he shut them up with himself, he deliberately broke his ships to pieces. Cortés, moreover, gained over the caciques who were impatient of the Mexican yoke. The cacique of Zempoalla implored his assistance, and furnished him with provisions and 200 Indians to carry burdens, an invaluable service in a country where beasts of burden were unknown. On arriving at the confines of the Tlascalans, Cortes was attacked by them, under suspicion of his seeking the friendship of the Mexicans, their implacable enemies; but after an incredible slaughter, 6000 of them joined the conquerors. With this reinforcement Cortes reached the territory of the Cholulans, who, being the antient enemies of his new auxiliaries, refused to admit them into their holy city of Cholula. However, in obedience to Montezuma's injunction, they received the Spaniards, but at the same time formed a plot against them. Cortes, anticipating their treachery, destroyed 6000 of them without the loss of a single soldier. The perplexity of the Mexican councils increased with the boldness of the invaders, who were now regarded as those descendants of the sun, destined by prophetic tradition to come from the east, and subvert the Aztec empire. Accordingly, on the 8th of November, 1519, they were received at Tenochtitlan, the Mexican capital, as Teules, or divinities. Soon after, however, an attack was made by the natives, acting under secret orders, upon Vera Cruz, and the head of a prisoner was carried in triumph through the country up to the court, to disprove the immortality of the Spaniards. Cortes, on Learning this treachery, carried off the emperor Muteczuma, or Montezuma, to his quarters, although he asserted his innocence, and offered to deliver up the chief aggressor. But Cortes demanding also the son of this officer and five officers more, had them all burnt alive in front of the imperial palace, on a pile made of the weapons which were kept in store for the defence of the state. During the execution, the emperor was loaded with irons. Subsequently he acknowledged Charles V. as his lord, but he constantly refused to embrace Christianity; and when Cortes led his soldiers to stop the human sacrifices and throw down the idols in the grand temple, both priests and people rose in arms and forced him to desist. After this provocation, the Mexicans became resolved to expel the Spaniards, and Montezuma, though a prisoner, assumed the tone of a sovereign, and ordered Cortes to depart. After six months' occupation of Mexico, when the danger of the Spaniards had increased, 18 ships with 80 horsemen, 800 infantry, 120 cross-bowmen, and 12 pieces of artillery, were sent under Pamphilo de Narvaez by Velasquez against Cortes. Cortes, deriving fresh courage from his disappointment and indignation, persuaded Montezuma that he was going to meet his friends. Leaving him and the capital in charge of Pedro de Alvarado, with only 150 men, he marched with 250 against Narvaez, attacked him in the dead of night near Zempoalla, made him prisoner, and with the new army hastened back to Mexico, which had revolted in his absence. Although he resumed his former position there, he had soon to maintain a desperate conflict, and to retreat for safety after Montezuma had perished in attempting to appease his subjects. This success of the Mexicans led to their total defeat in the battle which they fought and lost in the plain of Otompan or Otumba, July 7th, Indignant at the ingratitude of Charles V., who listened to his enemies, Cortes returned to Spain in 1528 to face his accusers. He was received with much respect, and made Marquis of the rich valle de Oajaca, but in 1530 had to return to Mexico divested of civil power. Being anxious, after his military exploits, to extend his fame by maritime discovery, particularly in the opening of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, he fitted out ar his own expense different expeditions, one of which discovered California in 1535, and he himself coasted next year both sides of the gulf of that name, then called the Sea of Cortes. He returned to Spain in 1540, when he was received by Charles V. with cold civility, and by his ministers with insolent neglect. He accompanied however this prince in 1541 as a volunteer in the disastrous expedition to Algiers, and his advice, had it been listened to, would have saved the Spanish arms from disgrace, and delivered Europe three centuries earlier from maritime barbarians. Envied and ill requited by the court, Cortes withdrew from it, leaving sycophants and detractors to reap the fruits of his labours and his genius. He died however in affluence near Seville, the 2nd of December, 1547, in the 63rd year of his age. The destruction of his fleet at Vera Cruz, with the object of compelling his followers to conquer or diehis fearless entry into Mexico-the still bolder seizure of Montezuma in his own palace-his defeat of Narvaez-his victory of Otumba-and his magnanimity in the siege of Mexico, are deeds almost unparalleled, and more like romance than reality. Robertson has estimated the character of Cortes at least as highly as his own countrymen Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Gomara, Herrera, Solis, Lorenzana (who published, in 1770, a History of New Spain, founded on the only writings of Cortes, which consist of four letters to Charles V.), and Trueba. CORTES, the name of the assembly of representatives of the Spanish nation. These assemblies have been variously constituted in different ages, and in the different king doms into which Spain was divided till the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. The cortes of Castile and Leon and those of Aragon were the principal. Considerable obscurity prevails as to the origin and the formation of both. The earliest national assemblies under the Visigothic kings met generally at Toledo; they consisted chiefly of the digni faries of the church, and were called councils. After deciding all questions of church discipline, they concerned themselves with temporal affairs, and in this stage of the discussion the lay lords or barons took an active part, and the king presented his requests. In the acts of the council of Leon, A.D. 1020, ch. vi., the transition from ecclesiastical to temporal affairs is clearly pointed out:-Judicato ergo ecclesia judicio, adeptaque justitia, agatur causa regia, deinde populorum.' In the acts of the council of J 1063, we find that several points of discipline with the consent of the nobles and prelates;' and the sig natures are those of the king, the infantes, nine bishops, three abbots, and three magnates; but it is added in a note that all the other magnates had subscribed to the same acts.' It is now generally acknowledged, that in that age, and down to the end of the twelfth century, there was no popular representation from the towns or commons of Cas tile and Leon in those assemblies. (Marina, Teoria de las Cortes; Sempere, Histoire des Cortes; Dunham, History of Spain and Portugal.) The people are said to have occa sionally attended these national councils on some solemn occasions, as in the council held at Toledo in 1135, but only were reformed Subdue some of t ce of the T ice, to attack Mc - retake it the of fierce and i luced to desp -r discipline, so bravely a venturer, reg bel, after a ry which t brightest ge Cortes Ear he was a s rnt Jews his chaps thens than SV, FL in 1329 respect, as spectators and witnesses, to see, to hear, and to praise In Castile, from the end of the thirteenth century, the popular estamento made rapid strides towards increasing its influence, being favoured in this by some kings or pretenders to the crown, such as Sancho IV. and Enrique II., or taking advantage of disputed successions and stormy minorities, to obtain from one of the contending parties an extension of their privileges. In 1295 the deputies of thirty-two towns and boroughs of Castile and Leon assembled at Valladolid, and entered into a confederacy to defend their mutual rights against both the crown and the nobles. Among many other resolutions, one was, that each of the thirty-two constituencies should send two deputies every two years to meet about Pentecost at Leon or some other place, in order to enforce the observance of their stipula tions. In 1315, during the frightful confusion which attended the minority of Alonso XI., we find another confederacy between the nobles and the procuradores of 100 communities, with a similar clause as to deputies meeting once or twice every year. These meetings of deputies for special purposes ought not to be confounded with the general cortes of the kingdom, which were always convoked by the king, though at no fixed times. Enrique II. having revolted against his brother Pedro the Cruel, courted the support of the municipal towns, which at the cortes of 1367 demanded the admission de jure of twelve deputies into the royal council, which had till then consisted of hereditary nobles and prelates, with occasionally some civilian called in by the king. Enrique promised to comply with their request; but his brother's death having insured his seat on the throne, he evaded the fulfilment of his promise by creating an Audiencia real, or high court of appeal, consisting of prelates and civilians, and a criminal court of eight alcaldes, chosen from different provinces of the kingdom. Juan I., who succeeded him, after the loss of the battle of Aljubarrota, created a new council in 1385, con sisting of four bishops, four nobles, and four citizens, with extensive executive powers. The towns next solicited the dismissal of the bishops and nobles from the council, in order that it should consist entirely of citizens; but Juan rejected the demand. They also contrived at times to exclude the privileged orders from the cortes. Marina says that the privileged orders themselves having lost much of their influence, abstained from attending the cortes; yet it is certain that although money might be voted without them, for the simple reason that they were exempt from taxation, the third estate alone paying all direct taxes, yet nothing else of importance could be decided without their concurrence. Although members of the privileged orders should not attend, they might be represented by proxy, as was the case in Aragon. Besides, the cortes were not all of one sort; there were general or solemn cortes, and especial cortes for some particular purpose. Juan appointed by his testament six prelates and nobles as guardians of his infant son Enrique III., who were not, however, to decide in any important affair without the concurrence of six deputies, one from each of the cities of Burgos, Toledo, Leon, Seville, Cordova, and Murcia. The fourteenth century seems to have been the brightest period of popular or more properly municipal representation in Spain. The cortes were frequent, and the subject of their delibea definite representation; to no mecting of this period did all or half the great towns send deputies; and those which did return them appear to have observed little proportion in the numbers. There can be no doubt that two should be returned from each; yet in the cortes of Madrid, in 1390, we find that Burgos and Salamanca sent eight each, while the more important cities of Seville and Cordova sent only three; Cadiz only two; Oviedo and Badajoz one; Santiago, Orense, Mondoñedo, and other great cities of Galicia sent none at all. In fact, only forty-eight places returned deputies to these cortes, and the number, at the most, was inconsiderable. Incidentally, we learn that in the assemblies of this period the archbishop of Toledo spoke for the ecclesiastical state, and the chief of the house of Lara for the nobles. Some of the deputies contended for the precedence in voting, as well as for that of seats. This rivalry was more conspicuous between Burgos and Toledo, until Alonso XI. found the means to appease it. "The deputies of Toledo," said the monarch in the midst of the assembly, "will do whatever I order them, and in their name, I say, let those of Burgos speak." The municipal corporations could boast of something more than the honour of returning deputies, an honour to which many of them were perfectly indifferent. Their condition was far superior to that of the seignorial towns, which, for the most part, groaned under the oppressions of the nobles.' (Dunham, History of Spain and Portugal, b. iii. sect. 3, ch. ii.) The remonstrances or petitions of the general cortes to the king generally began as follows:- The prelates, lords, and caballeros of the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, in the name of the three estates of the kingdom,' &c. Remonstrances from the deputies of the towns began:- Most high and powerful prince! your very humble vassals, subjects, and servants, the deputies of the towns and boroughs of your kingdoms, who are assembled in your presence by your order,' &c. (Cortes of Valladolid, June, 1420.) In the cortes of 1402, Enrique III. demanded for his wars with the Moors a supply of 60,000,000 of maravedis, but the deputies granted only 45,000,000. The king then proposed that if the money should be found insufficient, he might be allowed to raise the deficiency by a loan without convoking the cortes afresh for the purpose. To this the majority of the deputies assented. By his testament Enrique excluded the citizens from the Council of Regency during the minority of his son Juan II., and after this they were no longer admitted into the royal council. Thus the municipal towns lost a great advantage they had gained 30 years before under Juan I. They soon after sacrificed, of their own accord, their elective franchises. The expenses of the deputies to the cortes had been till then defrayed by the towns, but now having lost their influence at court by their exclusion from the royal council, the towns began to complain of the burthen. Juan II. listened attentively to their complaints, and, in the cortes of Ocaña, 1422, he proposed that the future expenses of the deputies should be defrayed out of the royal treasury, a proposal which was willingly T accepted. Accordingly, in the next cortes, 12 cities only, king Joseph Napoleon; all these, added to the altered state Burgos, Toledo, Leon, Zamora, Seville, Cordova, Murcia, of public opinion, to the long discontinuance of the old Jaen, Segovia, Avila, Salamanca, and Cuença, were sum- cortes by orders or states, to the diminished influence of the moned to send their deputation; some other towns were in-old nobility, and the creation of a new nobility during the formed that they might entrust their powers to any deputy latter reigns merely through court favour, made the origifrom the above. The privilege was subsequently extended nal plan appear impracticable. The situation of the counto six more cities: Valladolid, Toro, Soria, Madrid, Guada- try was in fact without a parallel in history. The central laxara, and Granada. These 18 places constituted henceforth junta consulted the consejo (reunido) or commission of mathe whole representation of the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, gistrates, from the old higher courts of the monarchy, who Galicia, and Andalusia. The other communities at last per- proposed to assemble deputies of the various brazos or estaceiving the advantage they had lost, petitioned to be re- mentos, all to form one house, a proposal extremely vague stored to their right, but found themselves strenuously op- and apparently impracticable, which looks as if made to posed by the 18 privileged towns. The influence of the elude the question. Jovellanos and others then proposed court was openly exercised in the elections of these towns, two houses, constituted as in England; but this would also and although the cortes of Valladolid in 1442, and those of have been a new creation without precedent in Spain, and Cordova in 1445, requested the king to abstain from such surrounded by many difficulties, the state of society beinterference, yet the practice became more barefaced than ing greatly different in the two countries. Meantime the ever. In 1457 Enrique IV. wrote to the municipal council central junta being driven away by the French, first from of Seville, pointing out two individuals fit to be deputies in Madrid, and afterwards from Seville in January, 1810, took the next session, and requesting they might be elected. The refuge at Cadiz, which became the capital of the Spanish municipal councils, which elected their own officers as well patriots, whither a number of persons from the various proas the deputies to the cortes, were composed of all the vinces and classes had flocked. Before leaving Seville, the heads of families, but by degrees the crown interfered in central junta issued regulations addressed to the provincial the appointment of the municipal officers. [AVUNTA-juntas about the manner of electing the deputies to the MIENTO.] Thus long before Charles I. (the emperor Charles V.), who has been generally accused of having destroyed the liberties of Spain, the popular branch of the representation was already reduced to a shadow, for the deputies of the 18 cities, elected by court influence, were mere registrars of the royal decrees, and ready voters of the supplies demanded of them. Under Ferdinand and Isabella the royal authority became more ex tended and firmly established by the subjection of the privileged orders; the turbulent nobles were attacked in their castles, which were razed by hundreds, and the Santa Hermandad hunted the proprietors throughout the country. Many of the grants by former kings were revoked and the proud feudatories were tamed into submissive courtiers. Charles only finished the work by excluding the privileged orders from the cortes altogether, he and his successors contenting themselves with convoking the deputies of the 18 royal cities of the crown of Castile on certain solemn occasions, to register their decrees, to acknowledge the prince of Asturias as heir apparent to the throne, to swear allegiance to a new sovereign, &c. The policy of absolutism has been the same in all countries of Europe, using the popular power against the aristocracy, in order to reduce and destroy both in the end. In Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia, which formed the dominions of the crown of Aragon, the cortes of each o these three states continued to assemble under Charles I. and his successors of the Austrian dynasty, who convoked them in their accustomed manner by brazos or orders, and they maintained some show of independence, although in reality much reduced in importance, after Philip II. had abolished the office of the Justiza. [ARAGON.] But, after the War of the Succession, Philip V. of Bourbon formally abolished the cortes of these states by right of conquest, as he expressed it, because they had taken part with his rival the Archduke Charles. cortes, stating at the end that 'similar letters of convocation would be addressed to the representatives of the ecclesiastical brazo and of the nobility.' This, however, was never done. abso The central junta soon after arriving at Cadiz resigned its powers into the hands of a council of regency composed of five individuals, but before its resignation it issued a decree approving of the plan of Jovellanos for two chambers, and recommending it to the regency. The regency however paid little attention to this recommendation; it seemed to hesitate during several months about convoking any cortes at all, for there was at Cadiz a party of pure lutists opposed to any representation whatever. The re geney again consulted the consejo reunido, the majority of which, departing from its former opinion, gave up the idea of cortes by estamentos, and proposed the election of deputies without distinction of classes. The council of stale being likewise consulted by the regency, decided that, owing to the actual state of affairs, it was best to elect the depu ties without estamentos, reserving to the 'representatives of the nation once assembled to decide whether the cortes should be divided by brazos or into two chambers, after listening to the claims of the nobility and clergy. The regency at length issued letters of convocation for the deputies of all the provinces to assemble in cortes at the Isla de Leon on the 24th September, 1810. The elections for those provinces which were entirely occupied by the French, were made at Cadiz by electoral juntas, composed of individuals of those provinces who had taken refuge there. A similar process was adopted with regard to the American provinces. (Arguelles, Examen historico de la Reforma Constitucional; Jovellanos, Memoria a sus Compatriotas, with appendix and notes to the same.) The cortes, styled extraordinary, sat at Cadiz from September, 1810, till September, 1813. During this time, amidst numerous enactments which they passed, they When, in 1808, the Spanish people rose in every proof 1812, framed a totally new constitution for Spain, which has vince against the invasion of Napoleon, the king was a the year in which it was proclaimed. This constitution prisoner in France after having been obliged by threats to established the representative system with a single popu abdicate the crown, and the nation found itself without a lar chamber, elected in a numerical proportion of one government. Municipal juntas were formed in every pro- deputy for every 70,000 individuals. The elections are not vince, consisting of deputies taken from the various orders direct, but by means of electoral juntas or colleges, as in or classes of society, nobles, clergymen, proprietors, mer- France: assembled citizens of every parish appoint, chants, &c. These juntas sent deputies to form a central by open written votes, a certain number of delegates, junta, with executive powers for the general affairs of the who choose, by conference among themselves, one of country, but a legislature was still wanting. The central junta more parish electors, in proportion to the population. was called upon to assemble the cortes for all Spain. They All the parish electors, of every district, assemble toge at first thought of reviving the antient cortes by estamentos ther at the head town or village of the same, and there or brazos, but many difficulties presented themselves. The proceed to elect by ballot the electors for the district. difference of formation between the old cories of Aragon and those of Castile; the difficulty of applying those forms to the American possessions of Spain, which were now, for the first time, admitted to equal rights with the mother country, but where the same elements of society did not exist, at least not in the same proportion; the difficulty even in Spain of collecting a legitimate representation of the various orders, while most of the provinces were occupied or overrun by French armies, and while many of the nobility and the higher clergy had acknowledged the intrusive All the district electors of one province form the electoral junta which assembles in the chief town of that province to appoint the deputies to the cortes, either from among themselves or from among the citizens who are not district electors, provided they are Spanish citizens born, in the full exercise of their civil rights, are more than 25 years of age, and have had their domicile in the province for at least seven years past. By Art. 924 qualification was inserted of a yearly income, the amount and nature of which were left to the discretion of future |