Note 11 — REPRESENTATION OF FILIPINAS IN THE SPANISH CORTES

The special session of the Cortes closed on the date of the decree above, and the regular session opened at Cádiz, either in the latter part of September or the first part of October. On October 4, the last meeting was held in Cádiz and opened again in the island of León because of yellow fever in the former place. On the eighth of that month, Reyes presented three plans for the benefit of the agriculture, industry, commerce, and navigation of the Philippines. On the twenty-ninth of October meetings at the island of León were suspended, and resumed again in Madrid, on January 15, 1814. Fernando VII, released by order of Napoleon, after the disastrous campaign conducted by Joseph in Spain, abolished the Cortes by his decree of May 4, 1814, and on the publication of this decree in Madrid, on the thirteenth many of the members of the Cortes were arrested, all the acts of the constitutional government were declared null and void, the Inquisition reëstablished, and absolutism was again proclaimed in Spain. On the publication of the decree in the Philippines, the Ilocans, deeming it only a ruse of the governor, revolted, sacked churches and convents, and destroyed public records. Their insurrection was directed chiefly against their own principales and their wives.11