XXVI. there was no attempt to establish that iron bulwark CHAPTER of despotism, a standing army; at least, none nearer than that of the voluntary levies of the hermandad, raised and paid by the people. The queen never admitted the arbitrary maxims of Ximenes in regard to the foundation of government. Hers was essentially one of opinion, not force. 23 Had it rested on any other than the broad basis of public opinion, it could not have withstood a day the violent shocks, to which it was early exposed, nor have achieved the important revolution that it finally did, both in the domestic and foreign concerns of the country. sideration. The condition of the kingdom, on Isabella's ac- Their concession, necessarily gave the commons unwonted consideration. In the tottering state of her affairs, she was obliged to rest on their strong arm for support. It did not fail her. Three sessions of the legislature, or rather the popular branch of it, were held during the two first years of her reign. It was in these early assemblies, that the commons bore an active part in concocting the wholesome system of laws, which restored vitality and vigor to the exhausted republic. 24 23 A pragmatic was issued, September 18th, 1495, prescribing the weapons and the seasons for a regular training of the militia. The preamble declares, that it was made at the instance of the representatives of the cities and the nobles, who complained, that, in consequence of the tranquillity, which the kingdom, through the divine mercy, had for some years enjoyed, the people were very generally un provided with arms, offensive or de- 24 The most important were those PART II. After this good work was achieved, the sessions of that body became more rare. There was less occasion for them, indeed, during the existence of the hermandad, which was, of itself, an ample representation of the Castilian commons, and which, by enforcing obedience to the law at home, and by liberal supplies for foreign war, superseded, in a great degree, the call for more regular meetings of cortes. The habitual economy, too, not to say frugality, which regulated the public, as well as private expenditure of the sovereigns, enabled them, after this period, with occasional exceptions, to dispense with other aid than that drawn from the regular revenues of the crown. 25 There is every ground for believing that the political franchises of the people, as then understood, were uniformly respected. The number of cities summoned to cortes, which had so often varied according to the caprice of princes, never fell short of that prescribed by long usage. On the contrary, an addition was made by the conquest of Granada; and, in a cortes held soon after the queen's death, we find a most narrow and impolitic remonstrance of the legislature itself, against the alleged unauthorized extension of the privilege of representation. 26 of Madrigal, in 1476, and of Tole- nes, Introd. p. 91.) Marina notices this cortes with equal panegyric. (Teoría, tom. i. p. 75.) See also Sempere, Hist. des Cortès, p. 197. 25 See Part I. Chapters 10, 11, et alibi. 26 At Valladolid, in 1506. The number of cities having right of XXVI. Royal ordi In one remarkable particular, which may be CHAPTER thought to form a material exception to the last observations, the conduct of the crown deserves to nauces. be noticed. This was, the promulgation of pragmáticas, or royal ordinances, and that to a greater extent, probably, than under any other reign, before or since. This important prerogative was claimed and exercised, more or less freely, by most European sovereigns in ancient times. Nothing could be more natural, than that the prince should assume such authority, or that the people, blind to the ultimate consequences, and impatient of long or frequent sessions of the legislature, should acquiesce in the temperate use of it. As far as these ordinances were of an executive character, or designed as supplementary to parliamentary enactments, or in obedience to previous suggestions of cortes, they appear to lie open to no constitutional objections in Castile. 27 But it was not likely that representation, "que acostumbran continuamente embiar procuradores á cortes," according to Pulgar, was seventeen. (Reyes Católicos, cap. 95.) This was before Granada was added. Martyr, writing some years after that event, enumerates only sixteen, as enjoying the privilege. (Opus Epist., epist. 460.) Pulgar's estimate, however, is corroborated by the petition of the cortes of Valladolid, which, with more than usual effrontery, would limit the representation to eighteen cities, as prescribed" por algunas leyes é inmemorial uso." Marina, Teoría, tom. i. p. 161. 27 Many of these pragmáticas purport, in their preambles, to be made at the demand of cortes; many more at the petition of corpora tions or individuals; and many from PART H. limits, somewhat loosely defined, would be very nicely observed; and under preceding reigns this branch of prerogative had been most intolerably abused. 28 A large proportion of these laws are of an economical character, designed to foster trade and manufactures, and to secure fairness in commercial dealings.29 Many are directed against the growing spirit of luxury, and many more occupied with the organization of the public tribunals. Whatever be thought of their wisdom in some cases, it will not be easy to detect any attempt to innovate on the settled principles of criminal jurisprudence, or on those regulating the transfer of property. When these were to be discussed, the sovereigns were careful to call in the aid of the legislature; an example which found little favor with their successors.30 It is good evidence of the public confidence del Reyno, que se imprimió la pri- 28" Por la presente premática- 29 Indeed, it is worthy of remark, as evincing the progress of civilization under this reign, that most of the criminal legislation is to be referred to its commencement, while the laws of the subsequent period chiefly concern the new relations which grow out of an increased domestic industry. It is in the "Ordenanças Reales," and "Leyes de la Hermandad," both published by 1485, that we must look for the measures against violence and rapine. 30 Thus, for example, the important criminal laws of the Hermandad, and the civil code called the "Laws of Toro," were made under the express sanction of the commons. (Leyes de la Hermandad, fol. 1.- Quaderno de las Leyes y Nuevas Decisiones hechas y ordenadas en la Ciudad de Toro, XXVI. in the government, and the generally beneficial CHAPTER scope of these laws, that, although of such unprecedented frequency, they should have escaped parliamentary animadversion. But, however patriotic the intentions of the Catholic sovereigns, and however safe, or even salutary, the power intrusted to such hands, it was a fatal precedent, and under the Austrian dynasty became the most effectual lever for overturning the liberties of the nation. measures of The preceding remarks on the policy observed Arbitrary towards the commons in this reign must be further Ferdinand. understood as applying with far less qualification to the queen, than to her husband. The latter, owing perhaps to the lessons which he had derived from his own subjects of Aragon, "who never abated one jot of their constitutional rights," says Martyr, "at the command of a king," "2 and whose meetings generally brought fewer supplies to the royal coffers, than grievances to redress, seems to have (Medina del Campo, 1555,) fol. 49.) Nearly all, if not all, the acts of the Catholic sovereigns introduced into the famous code of the "Ordenanças Reales," were passed in the cortes of Madrigal, in 1476, or Toledo, in 1480. 31 It should be stated, however, that the cortes of Valladolid, in 1506, two years after the queen's death, enjoined Philip and Joanna to make no laws without the consent of cortes; remonstrating, at the same time, against the existence of many royal pragmáticas, as an evil to be redressed. "Y por esto se estableció lei que no hiciesen ni renovasen leyes sino en cortes. Y porque fuera de esta órden se han hecho muchas 32 premáticas de que estos vuestros 32 Liberi patriis legibus, nil |