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

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-41re 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