The National Register. — London, England, 1809-09-24 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. their head a Chief of equal experience and achievements. Con sidering, however, the state of the Kingdom Of Callieia, and the Principality of Asturias, the Junta, after mature deliberation, has determined that the Marquis/hall transfer his command to that General of his army whom be shall judge most capable. " I communicate to your Excellency the ►►rder of his Majesty for its fulfilment, advising at the same time, that the command of the army cannot with propriety be tranferred to the Major- General the Conde de Noronha, became' he being Seem(' Com mandant-General in Gallicia, ought always to remain in that kingdom." In consequence of this Royal Order, the Marquis de Romana bus signified, that he has confided the command of the army to Major-General Don Gabriel de Mendezabal, and that of the kingdom to the Conde de Noranin, Second Commandant-Gene ral, and President of its Royal Audience. 607 upon the military authority, and in order td control it raised troops under its own immediate orders, and uomiunted the per sons who were to command them. In the Year 1503, an act of the Cortes is on record, conceding to the. King permission to np. point officers for a body of troops destined to be employed in Italy. We are told that the Cortes of A rragnn were vigilantly atten tive to all the ceremonies sanctioned by antiqoit . v, in their pro ceedings, and the following remarkable fact is stated it; support or the allegation : According to the estalslished laws; and customs of Arragon no foreigner had Merry to enter the halt in which the Cortes assemhled. Ferdinand, in the year 1181, op pointed his Queen, Isabella, Regent of the kingdom, while he was absent during the course of the campaigd. The law requir ed that a Regent should take the oath of fidelity in presence of the Cortes; but as Isabella was a foreigner, before the could be admitted, the Corium thought it necessary to pa's an act, autho rising the Serjeant-Porter to open the door of the hall to allow her to enter." PROVINCIALS. The wheat harvest being now concluded, the to:lowine may be considered its an impartial estimate of the pr o du ce wh e w, on the strong lands, short of quantity, but good in quality. On the light and cold lands, a fair crop, as to produce, but much affected with the smut. Some strong lands, which last year produced four quarters an acre, do not this year average snore than three; but with respect to weight, it is coseidera bl y bet ter than that of last year. On the whose, from the various ac counts, the produce may he estimated at about one-eighth short of what. is termed an average crop at three quarter; :us acre ; the quality, however, is generally so superior, the deficiency or: the quantity may probably be obviated, so as to raise the pro duce of nutriment equal to that of last year. RA MSGATE, SE PT. 19.—This morning, about nine o'clock, many persons on this pier were highly gratified by the follow ing instance of humanity and activity of ,eur watermen. A sailor looking through a telescope on the pill-, saw a boat at sea, seemingly coming towards the harbour, when he perceived her to suddenly upset at about three miles distance. lle im mediately gave the. alarm, and the Nile Ramsgate boat, Wil kinson, Master, in a moment manned and put off, with a great press of sail, to their assistance, at the imminent danger of being themselves overset, as there was a fresh breeze, and a consider able scud. The Nile fortunately arrived its time to save the lives of all the persons belonging to the boat, nine in number, lieutenant, midshipman, and seven seamen, belonging to the Diana frigate, in the Downs. But for the prompt assist ance of the Ramsgate boat, nu doubt some must have perished, there was a good deal of sea. They were all, including the lieutenant, who has but one arm, preserved, and put on shore at Ramsgate. On Friday sc'nnight, the following melancholy affair hap. posed at Camus, near Blyth :—Mr. John Storey. who had been fishing, at sea, for Isis amusement, returned at dusk in the even. ing. and immediately proceeded home to announce his arrival to his family, when his two daughters, one aged fourteen, she ,other twenty-two years of age, proposed to accompany him to the shore, in order to assist in securing the boat. The rather and eldest daughter proceeded toward: the boat, while the youngest one staid at a distance with a light, which sitddeely disappearing, the other sister went to ascertain the cause, when, melancholy to relate, the wretched father never beheld them again in existence. It is supposed they had got on a quicksand at the edge of the river, and had been thus precipitated The eldest was found floating at sea on the follow lug day, and the other along the shore. About ten o'clock on the night of Thursday se'nnight, three French prisoners were detected in making their escape final the beech at Rottingdean, where they had taken possession of • boat, with sails and oars, and in live minutes would have cf.., fected their purpose, be getting to sea, had they experienced no interruption. They were the next day taken at Lewes, and examined before a sitting Magistrate, who sent them to the House of Correction, to he hereafter diposed of as the Transport Board might direct. They are all young men of very decent appearance, and, if their tale is to be accredited, of respectable conn ections. They have sterered considerable hardships, espa daily one of them, who is the nephew of a Merchant lit Hour.; deaux, and at the breaking out of the present war, was rap tured off the Isle of France, in a ship belenging to his uncle, in which he ranked as second captain, and carried tp 41ftdrasvie f • SEPT. 24. THE SPANISH CORTES. In our extracts from the Spanish Papers, introduced into our columns on Thursday, we had the satisfaction of stibinitt km to the attention of our Readers a Royal Order respecting the Con vocation of the Cortes, which is represented as being " the most important object that can or ought to employ the Supreme Junta." We cannot avoid expressing our great I;ttisfaction on the dis covery that the Executive Council of S - lin is at last convinced of the necessity of this measure, which -4 1re have so repeatedly urged a! imlispensible to the salvation of the country. A short explanation of the constitution and duties of the Spanish Cortes; will chew the reasons which have induced us to recommend so strenuously the recognition of its authority. It is not generally known, but it is a fact of great consequence, and highly honourable to the intelligence and spirit of the Span ish nation, that the representatives of the Commons formed a constituent part in. thg Supreme Assemblies of that kingdom a century before they were admitted to that rank in the other Eu ropean nations. Zurita mentions a convention of the Cortes in the year 1133, at which the procaradores de las cindades y villas were present. The Cortes was composed of t he Nobility, the Clergy, and the Representatives of the cities. They were the depositories of the Legislative Government, the Executive being confided to the King, under tbe inspection, however, in some provinces at least, of the Jusliza, or Suprenie Jude, who, like the Ephori with the Lacedemonians, was the protector of the people and the con troller of the Prince. From Gil Gonzales de Avila, who gives the writ of summons to the town of Abula, in 1390, we learn that Bishops, Dukes, Narquisses, the Masters of the three Military Orders, as Conies and Ricos Hombres, were required to attend the Cortes. The cities sending Members on that occasion were 48 in number, and their Representatives 125. These places commissioned more or fewer Members to discharge their important functions in that as sembly, according to their rank and dignity, which appears to have been nearly in proportion to their population. There was one regulation which, in modern times at least, 'would be extremely embarrassing: no law could pass without the assent of every individual of the Cortes. Its powers were pr►►digiously extensive; without its permission no tax could be imposed, no money could be coined, and no war could either be commenced or terminated. It governed all the inferior Courts, redressed all grieva,fees, and inspected every department of public administration. The King could neither prorogue or dissolve it, and its session continued during forty days. For several centu ries prior to the 14th it met annually, but subsequently to that period biennially.—Those who applied for relief to the Cortes did not approach that Assembly as lowly supplicantsand humbl►• petitioners, but they demanded its assistance as the birth-right of freemen. It is well known that until the lime of Ferdietand and Isabella, at the close of the 15th century, the kingdoms of Leon, Castille, and Arragon, were not uui!ed. From the silence of the hist°. glans of the two former, as to the powers alidduties of the Cortes, during the fourteenth and fiftt-entli centuries, we are under the necessity of resorting to the annals of Arragon to supply the defi ciency, but it is probable that we shall commit no material erro rs supposing that these contemporaneous establishments were si milar in the extent of their powers and privileges. The Cortes of Arragon not only opposed the attempts of their Kings to increase their revenues and extend their prerogatives, but they claimed and exercised for some time the extraordinary ewer of appointing the oflicers of his household, as well as the fibers et his Council. The Cortes looked with ajealous eye