"Thus ended the existence of a tribunal," to use the words of the translator of Puigblanch, "which in Spain had lorded it over the people for more than three hundred and twenty years, had been an outrage to humanity, and a powerful engine of internal police in the hands of despots. Thus perished a tremendous and inconsistent power, which even in Rome no longer held sway; and though the triumph was unfortunately short, the daring and enlightened measure of the Cortes will ever remain on record as part of that great attempt to rally round the sacred standard of civil and religious liberty, as far as was possible in a country so benighted as that over which they presided; and, as a meritorious act, the destruction of the Inquisition thence entitles them to the respect of their contemporaries, and the gratitude of posterity." But, alas! notwithstanding the abolition of this most detestable tribunal, and the praiseworthy efforts of many Spanish patriots to prevent its ever again disgracing their country, it is most distressing to be compelled to add, that it was soon afterwards re-established by Ferdinand VII. No sooner did that monarch find himself again in possession of the throne, for his restoration to which he was indebted to the valour of the British nation, than he annulled the acts of the Cortes, and re-established the Inquisition in its full powers. The following are the terms of the edict, which set up anew this unjust court. "The past tumults, and the war, which have desolated all the provinces of the kingdom for the space of six years—the residence therein during this period of foreign troops consisting of many sects, almost all infected with abhorrence and hatred of the Catholic religion, and the disorders these evils always bring with them, together with the little care latterly taken to regulate religious concerns are circumstances which have afforded wicked persons full scope to live according to their free will, and also given rise to the introduction and adoption of many pernicious opinions, through the same means by which they have been propagated in other countries," viz. the press: "Wherefore I have resolved that the council of the Inquisition, together with the other tribunals of the holy office, shall be restored, and for the present continue in the exercise of their jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical—a power granted them by the popes at the request of my august predecessors, united with that vested in local prelates by virtue of their ministry—as also royal, conferred upon them by successive monarchs; the said tribunals, in the use of both jurisdictions, complying with the statutes by which they were governed in 1808, as well as the laws and regulations it had been deemed expedient to enact at various times, in order to prevent certain abuses." Dated Madrid, July 21, 1814.