junta, was influenced both to "petition" the Emperor
for Joseph's appointment and to ratify the _projet_ of a Napoleonic
constitution.

Napoleon's seizure of the crown of Spain was an act of sheer violence,
and from the outset Joseph was considered by his subjects a simple
usurper. The establishment of the new regime at Madrid became the
signal for a national uprising which not only compelled the Emperor
seriously to modify his immediate plans and to lead in person a
campaign of conquest, but contributed in the end to the collapse of
the entire Napoleonic fabric. Upon the restoration of some degree of
order there followed the introduction of a number of reforms--the
sweeping away of the last vestiges of feudalism, the abolition of the
tribunal of the Inquisition, the reduction of the number of monasteries
and convents by a third, and the repeal of all internal customs. (p. 604)
But the position occupied by the alien sovereign was never other than
precarious. At no time did he secure control over the whole of the
country, and during the successive stages of the Peninsular War of
1807-1814 his mastery of the situation diminished gradually to the
vanishing point. At the outset the principal directing agencies of the
opposition were the irregularly organized local juntas which sprang up
in the various provinces, but before the end of 1808 there was
constituted a central junta of thirty-four members, and in September,
1810, there was convened at Cadiz a general Cortes--not three estates,
as tradition demanded, but a single assembly of indirectly elected
deputies of the people.

*668. The Constitution of 1812.*--Professing allegiance to the captive
Ferdinand, the Cortes of 1810 addressed itself first of all to the
prosecution of the war and the maintenance of the national
independence, but after a year it proceeded to draw up a constitution
for a liberalized Bourbon monarchy. Save the fundamental decree upon
which rested nominally the government, of Joseph Bonaparte, this
constitution, promulgated March 19, 1812, was the first such
instrument in Spanish history. It was, of course, the first to emanate
from Spanish sources. Permeating it throughout were the radical
principles of the French constitution of 1791. It asserted
unreservedly the sovereignty of the people and proclaimed as
inviolable the principle of equality before the law. Executive
authority it intrusted to the king, but the monarch was left so scant
a measu