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 Canning and the Spanish Patriots in 1808 49 was preferred to Madrid, owing to the turbulence of the lower classes at the capital. Asturias refused to join its neighbors ; but the accession of Cas- tile gave to the union of the northern provinces an enhanced im- portance. At the first meeting of the united juntas of Galicia, Cas- tile, and Leon, held on August 29, the president of the last-named province was chosen to act as president for the month : he at once proposed that each province should choose two deputies to represent it in the supreme junta. Despite the opposition of Galicia to a proposal which rendered nugatory all the further discussions at Lugo, it was carried by twenty-four votes as against six dissentients. On being asked to take part in the discussion, Stuart complied and spoke, though somewhat guardedly, in favor of a national union based on constitutional methods. About ten days later the deputies selected for these duties proceeded toward ^Madrid ; and Stuart, on the request of Don Antonio, accompanied them. On his arrival at Valladolid, he found intrigues afoot, started by the old and dis- credited council of Castile with a view to the restoration of its power. At Segovia on September 15 he had an interview with Gen- eral Cuesta, who was there with about 12,000 troops. The general admitted that national union could alone put an end to the existing an- archy, one result of which was that the northern provinces had kept all the money and supplies sent from England for the common cause, and that he had received nothing. Stuart departed for Ma- drid with the conviction that Cuesta would help on the unionist move- ment : but, on arriving at the capital, he heard that the general had arrested Don Antonio and other deputies at Segovia, on the pretext that their election was illegal or irregular. Against this tyrannical action Stuart protested most strongly, and countemianded the order for the sending of supplies and stores to Cuesta's army. Ultimately the deputies from nearly all the provincial juntas met at Aranjuez, and there was some talk of depriving Cuesta of his command for this insult to the deputies of the nation ; but even the central junta hesi- tated to take a step which might possibly have led Cuesta to march against them. This episode, and many others which must be omitted for lack of space, show the unheard-of difficulties which faced the new deputies. Even the retreat of the French into Navarre tended to increase the complexity of the civic problems ; for it puffed up the Spaniards with a pride which made them almost impervious to argu- ment. The escape of nearly the whole of Romaiia's corps from the shores of Denmark on British ships tended to enhance the influence of the British envoy at Aranjuez: but that influence was for a time AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XII. — 4.