ee
pledging the Government to this policy. A constituent Cortes was
convoked and the outcome was the promulgation of the constitution of
June 17, 1837, based upon the instrument of 1812, but in respect to
liberalism standing midway between that instrument and the Statute of
1834. Like the constitution of 1812, that of 1837 affirmed the
sovereignty of the nation and the responsibility of ministers to the
legislative body. On the other hand, the Cortes was to consist, as
under the Statute, of two houses, a Senate and a Congress. The members
of the one were to be appointed for life by the crown; those of the
other were to be elected by the people for three years. In a number of
respects the instrument of 1837 resembled the recently adopted
constitution of Belgium, even as the Statute of 1834 had resembled the
French Charter of 1814. In the words of a Spanish historian, the
document of 1837 had the two-fold importance of "assuring the
constitutional principle, which thenceforth was never denied, and of
ending the sentiment of idolatry for the constitution of 1812."[840]

[Footnote 840: R. Altamira, in Cambridge Modern
History, X., 238.]

*672. The Constitution of 1845.*--October 12, 1840, the regent Maria
Christina was forced by the intensity of civil discord to abdicate and
to withdraw to France. Her successor was General Espartero, leader of
the Progressistas and the first of a long line of military men to
whom it has fallen at various times to direct the governmental (p. 608)
affairs of the Spanish nation. November 8, 1843, the princess Isabella
although yet but thirteen years old, was declared of age and, under
the name of Isabella II., was proclaimed sovereign. Her reign,
covering the ensuing twenty years, comprised distinctly an era of
stagnation and veiled absolutism. Nominally the constitution of 1837
continued in operation until 1845. At that time it was replaced by a
revised and less liberal instrument, drawn up by the Moderados with
the assistance of an ordinary Cortes. The duration of the Cortes was
extended from three to four years, severer restrictions upon the press
were established, supervision of the local authorities was still
further centralized, and the requirement that the sovereign might not
marry without the consent of the Cortez was rescinded. In the course
of a revolutionary movement in 1854 there was convoked a constituent
Cortes, dominated by Moderates a