New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-10-20

feet the true nature of the civil government.
The Central Junta, charged with tue expulsion
of the invaders from the Spanish soil, was driven
by the success Of the hostile arms fro M,drid to
Seville, and from Seville to Cadiz, there to e1-
pire ANONYMOUSLY. Its reign marked bys
diseraceful succession Of defeats, BY the annlhi-
lstion of the Spanish armies, and lastly BY tho
dissolution Of regular warfare into guerilla ex-
ploits. As said Urquizo, Spanish noblenan. TO
Cuesta. the Captain. General Of CASTLE, on April
3, 1865;
aO,r Spsin is Gothic cdfce, composed OF heero-
Ceneous norsels with as many forces privileges leg
issions and customs as there arr provinces inese
s,s En- her nothing Of what they call public spirit IA
Furope These reasons will prevent the establish
msnt of any GENITAL power Of 50 solid structure "a
10 be able ~ unite our nsiionai 'orees'
If then. the actual state of Spain at the epoch
OF the French invasion, threw the greatest posi-
bic difficulties in ,he way OF creating reVo-
iutiouary center the very composition oil me
Central Junta iIcapscitafed 1t iron proving
match for the terrible crisis IN which the country
found itself placed Being too numerous aud TOO
fortuitously mixed for an executive government
they were too few to pretend to the authority oil
National Convention. The mere fact OF their
poyer having been delegated from the provincisl
iuntas rendered them unfit for overcoming the
ambitious propensties, the i'll will, and the
cspricious egotism of those bodies. These juntas
the members of which, AS we have shown
in former article, were elected on the whole
IN consideration of the situation they occupied in
the old society, rather than of their capacity to
inaueurate new one, sent in their turn to
the Central" Spanish grandees prela'e'. titu
laries of CASTLE ancient ministers, high civil and
military officials, instead of revolutionary up
starts. At the outset the Spanish revolution
failed by its eudesvor to remain legitimate and
respectable.
The two most marked members of the Central
Junta, under whose banners its two great parties
ranged themselves, were Florida Blanca aud Jo-
veanos, both of them martyrs of Godoys perse-
cutiop. former Ministers, valetudinarians, and
grown old in the regular and pedantic habits Of
the procrastinsting Spanish regime, the solemn
and circumstantial slowness of which had be-
cone proyerbial even at the times of Bs,on
who once exclaimed, May death reach me from
.Spain it will then arrive at late hour |"
Florida Blanca and Jovellanos represented an
part of the eighteenth century hich preceded the
era of the French Revolution; the former Pic
bian bureaucrat, the latter an aristocratic phi.
lanthropst: Florida Blanca partisan and prac.
ticer of the enlightened despotism represented
BY Pombal, Frederic H.. and Joseph III. Joyel-
lsnos friend Of the people" hoping to raise
them to liberty by an aDxiousy wise succession
of economical laws, and by the literary propa-
eanda of generous doctrines both opposed to the
traditions of feudaIism, the one by trying to dis
entangle the monarchical power, the other by seek
ing to rid civil society of It's shackles. The part
acted by either in the history of their country
corresponded with the diversity of their opinions.
Florida Blanca ruled supreme as the Prime Min.
lister Of Charles Ill, and his rule grew despotio
according to the measure in which he met with
resistance. JoyelanOs, whose ministerial career
under Charles ". was but shOrtlyed, gained
his influence over the Spanish people, not asa
Minister, but az a scholars not by decrees, but by
essays. Florida Blanca, when the storm Of the
times carried him to the head of q revolutionary
Government, was an Octogenarian, mistaken only g,
in his belief in despotism, and his distrust of
popular spOntaneity. When delegated to Madrid
he left with the Municipality of Murca secret
protest, declaring that he had only ceded TO force
snd to the fear Of popular assassnations aud that
he signed this protocol with the express view to
prevent King Joseph from ever finding fault
with his acceptance of the peoples mandate.
Not satisfied with returning to the traditions OF
his manhood, he retraced such steps of his minis
terial past, as he now judged TO hsve been too
rash. Thus, he who had expelled the Jesuts from
Spain was hardly installed in the Central Junta,
when he caused it to grant leave for their return
lin a private capacity" If be ackno wledged
any change to have occurred since his time, il was
simply this: that GOdoy, who had bsnished him.
and had dispossesse the great Count of Florida
Blanca of bis Governmental Omnipotence. was
now again replaced by that same Count of Florida
Blanca and driven out in his turn. Thiswas the
man whom the Central Junta chose as its Presi.
dent, and whom its majority recognized as an
infallible leader.
JoyellenOs, who commanded the influential
minority Of the Central Junta, had also grown
old, and lost much of his energy In u long and
painful imprisonment inflicted upon himby Godoy.
But even in his best times be Vas not a man Of
toned relormer, who, from oyerniceness as to the
means would never have dared to accomplish an
end In France, be would perhaps have gone
the length of Mounier or Lally Tollendsl, but not
step further In England, he would have figured
as popular member Of the House Of Lords. 10
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