Translation:Aurora de Chile/28/On the freedom of the press.

by Anonymous

SOBRE LA LIBERTAD DE LA PRENSA.	ON THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS.
SES[1]: DE LAS CORTES[2]	SES[1]: OF THE CORTES[2].
HABLO despues el Sr. Muñoz Torrero[3] por la libertad de la prensa, manifestando que la nacion tiene el derecho de celar y exâminar la conducta de todos sus agentes y diputados, como juez unico que debe saber si cumple sus obligaciones, derecho del que no puede desprenderse mientras sea nacion : que era locura pensar que esta daba a sus diputados unas facultades absolutas sin reservarse este exâmenes : que es necesaria una salvaguardia para enfrenar la voluntad de la Córtes y del poder executivo, en caso que quisiesen separarse de la voluntad de la nacion : que esta salvaguardia no podia ser otra que el tribunal pacifico de la opinion publica, es decir, la facultad de hablar y de escribir, que es la barrera del despotismo, y del poder inmenso de la corona ; lo qual se conseguia con la libertad politica de la imprenta. Trató despues de las ventajas de esta libertad, alegando que si la hubiera habido, no se hubiera visto encarcelado el Sr. D. Fernando VII. siendo Principe de Austrias[4]; ni habria quedado oculta la sentencia que dieron aquellos dignisimos magistrados en el Escorial[5], ni se hubieran verificado los destierros de los que padecieron por Fernando[6] ; y por ùltimo, no hubiera llegado Godoy al estado de poder en que le vimos desolando esta nacion generosa[7]. Añadió que los tan ponderados males de la libertad de la imprenta eran infinitamente menores comparados con los bienes y ventajas que de ella resultaban ; y así que era cosa de justicia el establecimiento de dicha libertad.	AFTERWARDS, Mr. Muñoz Torrero[3] spoke of the freedom of the press, expressing that the nation has the right to monitor and examine the conduct of all its agents and representatives, as the one judge that should know if its obligations are met, the right of which can not be lost while it be a nation: that it was madness to think that this [nation] gave to its representatives some absolute powers without reserving these checks for itself: that a safeguard is necessary to bridle the will of the Cortes and of the executive power, in the case that they want to deviate from the will of the nation: that this safeguard would not be other than the pacific court of public opinion, which is to say, the ability to speak and write, which is the barrier to despotism, and of the immense power of the crown; that which is achieved with the political freedom of the printing press. He dealt later with the benefits of this freedom, claiming that if it had been in place, Mr D. Fernando [Ferdinand] VII, being crown prince of the Hapsburgs[4] would not have been incarcerated; nor would the sentence that those very worthy magistrates gave in the Escorial[5] have remained hidden, nor would the banishments of those who suffered for Ferdinand[6] have been verified; and finally, Godoy would not have arrived to the state of power in which we saw devastating this generous nation[7]. He added that the so-much pondered evils of the freedom of the printing press were infinitely small compared to the goods and benefits that resulted from it; and as such that the establishment of that freedom was a thing of justice.

Notes

1. Abbreviation for sesión, "session."
2. Cortes here, left untranslated, refers to the Spanish Cortes Generales, which is today Spain's legislature, but in imperial Spain typically exercised little power outside of occasional tax-related matters. Specifically, the session referred to occurred during the Cádiz period (1808-1814) of the Cortes when, after Napoleon's invasion and Ferdinand VII's abdication, the Cortes were established in Cádiz as a liberal, reformist legislative body, operating in the monarch's name, but with no royal oversight. The period was also witnessed the first delegates from Spain's colonies to the Cortes in 1810. Much of its actions, including the Constitution of 1812 were later repudiated by the restored Ferdinand, who dismissed the Cortes in favor of absolutist rule.
3. Diego Muñoz-Torrero y Ramírez Moyano, the celebrated liberal, priest and delegate to the Cádiz Cortes, was known for his arguments for freedom of the press. Muñoz-Torrero was imprisoned for six years after Ferdinand's restoration, then freed and returned to the Cortes during Gen. Rafael del Riego's liberal coup (the Trienio Liberal, or "Three Liberal Years"), and in 1823 finally fled to Portugal after the Holy Alliance's intervention in favor of Ferdinand, where he was tortured and died in prison in 1829
4. The reference here is unusual. The House of Habsburg (Casa de Austria) was the ruling dynasty in Spain from 1516-1700, after which the Bourbon dynasty (1700-1808, 1813-1833, 1874-1931, 1975-present) ascended to the throne. Ferdinand VII was not a Habsburg prince, which had not existed in Spain for over a century, nor is it likely that one of his subjects would have mistaken him for one.
5. El Escorial, the royal palace and monastery
6. i.e., the flight of the Cortes and anti-Bonapartists to Cádiz and elsewhere
7. Manuel de Godoy was the powerful Spanish Prime Minister until 1808. He was involved in negotiating Spain's alliances with Napoleonic France before their war, particularly the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1807, which would have partitioned Portugal between France and Spain and set up a Kingdom of Algarve in southern Portugal with Godoy as king. When the French subsequently invaded Spain instead, a popular uprising known as the Mutiny of Aranjuez took hostage the unpopular Godoy, who was largely blamed for allowing the French invasion, in return for Charles IV's abdication in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII.

Source

• Scan of original document
• Spanish transcription from Auroradechile.cl