Cadiz, Dec. 20th, 1810. MY LORD,--The decree which I mentioned in my last letter with respect to the marriage of the Princes of the Spanish Blood Royal was actually proposed by Capmany, and discussed on the 10th. Capmany’s motion was that no King of Spain or Prince of the blood royal should contract matrimony with _any person whatever_, without the consent of the Cortes lawfully assembled; this is more general and, as a fundamental Law of the State, more consistent, perhaps, with sound policy, than the decree to which I alluded. The motion was referred to the committee on the constitution, and I hope they will lose no time in deciding upon it. Such had been the shameful intriguing and trafficking for places and pensions, for titles and ribands and crosses and promotions in the army and navy, frequently conferred upon the most worthless individuals, during the government of the Central Junta and of the late Regency, that the _self-denying_ decree appears to me to have been absolutely necessary to give the Cortes that degree of public confidence and popularity which alone could render their labours of any benefit to the nation. With respect to the title of Majesty, I am convinced that, in assuming it, the Cortes had no intention to degrade the royal dignity and that no democratic views lurk under this measure. Your Lordship will be pleased to consider the very peculiar circumstances under which they met. The nation was _then_ for the first time in the history of the Monarchy represented by deputies that had the least shadow of a claim to fair or legitimate election; they had to give to their country what it never possessed before--a _Constitution_, by which the hitherto despotic power of the King should be limited, and which should be binding on him as well as on the people. They had to prescribe to him the conditions upon which the Spanish nation were willing that he should continue to wear the crown. It was necessary that, at the first moment of their meeting, they should make some kind of public and solemn expression of the sovereign and inherent rights of the nation, lawfully represented, to form and establish the fundamental laws of the State. The title of Majesty was therefore not assumed with levity; its expediency was maturely considered. It was requisite that the multitude and all ranks and classes of the State should at once receive the deepest impression that the authority and dignity of the _present extraordinary_ Cortes were paramount to every other; before which all other authorities and dignities must, for the present, bend. It was necessary, therefore, that they should be addressed in the language corresponding to the high dignity of their situation--they could not otherwise