Note 370 — JOURNAL OF ELIZABETH LADY HOLLAND (continued 5)

The ordinary composition of the Cortes was a three-chamber assembly consisting of clergy, nobility, and commons. The Central Junta, in whom the power of calling together the Cortes rested, decided that as a compromise with the extreme party of reform, only two chambers (the higher clergy and nobility sitting together in one) should be summoned to assemble early in March. The advance of the French, however, postponed the meeting, and the supreme government was placed in the hands of a Regency of five. These took good care to keep the power as long as possible, and when the Cortes was at last found necessary, only one chamber could be elected, and that within the boundaries of Cadiz, for the French were almost at their gates. See Appendix B, p. 297.