this age, Europe required that the
sovereignty of Spain should be separated from that of Italy, when such
a separation could be effected, without transgressing the rules of
justice: that the unfortunate prince-royal having been destitute of
reason and reflection ever since his infancy, and no hope remaining that
he could ever acquire the use of these faculties, he could not think
of appointing him to the succession, how agreeable soever such a
disposition might be to nature and his paternal affection: he was
therefore constrained, by the Divine will, to set him aside in favour
of his third son don Ferdinand, whose minority obliged him to vest the
management of these realms in a regency, which he accordingly appointed,
after having previously declared his son Ferdinand from that time
emancipated and freed, not only from all obedience to his paternal
power, but even from all submission to his supreme and sovereign
authority. He then declared that the minority of the prince succeeding
to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies should expire with the fifteenth year
of his age, when he should act as sovereign, and have the entire power
of the administration. He next established and explained the order of
succession in the male and female line; on condition that the monarchy
of Spain should never be united with the kingdoms of the Two Sicilies.
Finally, he transferred and made over to the said don Ferdinand these
kingdoms, with all that he possessed in Italy; and this ordinance,
signed and sealed by himself and the infant don Ferdinand, and
countersigned by the counsellors and secretaries of state, in quality
of members of the regency, received all the usual forms of authenticity.
Don Carlos having taken these precautions for the benefit of his third
son, whom he left king of Naples, embarked with the rest of his family
on board a squadron of Spanish ships, which conveyed him to Barcelona.
There he landed in the month of October, and proceeded to Madrid; where,
as king of Spain, he was received amid the acclamations of his people.
He began his reign, like a wise prince, by regulating the interior
economy of his kingdom; by pursuing the plan adopted by his predecessor;
by retaining the ministry under whose auspices the happiness and
commerce of his people had been extended; and with respect to the
belligerent powers, by scrupulously adhering to that neutrality from
whence these advantages were in a great measure derived.

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