Star. — London, England, 1809-12-01 00:00:00

-ing Collies of the Spanish frionarchy are to be convoked and held. " SPANIARDS—By a combination of events as sin gular as fortunate, it has seemed good to PROVIDENCE that in this terrible crisis you shall not advance a step towards independence, without likewise advancing one towards liberty. ‘,‘ A foolish and feeble tyranny, in order to rivet your fetters, and aggravate your chains, prepared the way for French despotism, which, with the terrible apparatus of its arms and victories, endeavoured to subject you to a yoke of iron. It at first exhibited itself, like every new tyranny, under a flattering for* —and its political impostors presumed they should gain your favour, by promising. you reforms in the Administration, and announcing, in a constitution framed at their pleasure, the empire of the laws—a barbarous and absurd contradiction, worthy certainly of their insolence! " Would they have us believe that the moral edi fice of the liberty and fortune of a nation can be securely founded on usurpation, iniquity, and trea chery ? Bit the Spanish people who were the first of modern nations to recognize the true principles of the social equilibrium—that people who enjoyed be fore any other the prerogatives and advantages of civil liberty, and knew how to oppose to arbitrary power the eternal barrier directed by justice, will bor row from no other nation maxims of prudence and political precaution, and tell those impudent legisla.. tors, that they will not acknowledge as laws the arti fices of intri4ues, nor the mandates of tyrants. " Animated by this generous instinct, and inflam ed with the indignation excited by the perfidy with which yOu were invaded, you ran to arms, without fearing the tei rible vicissitudes of so unequal a corn ba,—:ind fortune, subdued by your enthusiasm, ren dered you homage, and bestowed on you victory in reward for your valour. The immediate effect of these first advantages was the recomposition of the state, at that time divided into as many factions as p •ovinces. Our enemies thought that they had sown among us the deadly germ of anarchy, and did not advert that Spanish judgment and circumspection were always superior to French machiavelism. " Without dispute, without violence, a sspreme authority was established; and the people, after having astonished the world with the spectacle of their sublime exaltation and their victories, filled it with admiration and respect by their moderadon and discretion, ‘. The Central Junta was installed ; and its first care was to announce to you that if the exptilsion of the enemy was the first objece of itsattention, the interior and permanent felicity of the State was the principal in importance. To suffer it to be plunged into the flood of abuses, prepared for its ruin by arbitrary power, would have been, in the eyes of your present Government, a crime as enormous as to deliver you into the hands of Bonaparte-wtherefore, when the turbulence of war permitted, fecaused tO resound in your ears the name of your Cortes, which, to us, has ever been the bulwark of civil liberty, and the throne of national majesty—a name heretofore pronounced with mystery by the learned, with distrust by politi cians, and with horror by tyrants—but which, hence forth, will signify in Spain the indestructible base of the Monarchy, the most secure support of the rights of Ferdinand VII. and of his family—a right for the people, and for the Government an obligation a That moral resistance, as general as sublime, which has reduced our enemies to confusion and des pair, in the midst of their victories ' •• must not receive less reward. • Those battles which are lost—those ar mies which are destroyed, not without producing new battles, creating new armies , and again display ing the standard of loyalty on the ashes and ruins which the enemies abandon—those soldiers who, dis persed in one action, return to offer themselv4 for another—that populace which, despoiled of almos t all they possessed, return to their homes to share the wretched remain; of their property with thedefender; of their country—that concert of lamentable and des pai: ing groans and patriotic Songs—that struggle, in fine, of ferocity and barbarity on the one hand, and of resistance and invincible constancy on the other, • present a scene as terrible as niainificent, which Eu rope contemplates with astonishment, and which his tory will one day record letters of gold, for the I miratic n and example of posterity. A people so magnanimous and generous ought only to be governed by laws which are truly stfch, 1 and which shall bear the great character of public; consent and common utility—a character which they i can only receive by emanating from the august I sembly which has been announced to you. The junta had proposed that it should be held during the l whole of the ensuing year, or longer, if circumstances I should permit: 'but in the time which has intervened since this resolution, a variety of public events hive agitated the minds of the people ; and the difference , of opinions relative to the organisation of the Govern. I sent, and the re establishment of our fundamental ; laws, have recalled Ole attention of the Junta to those important objects with which it has latterly been pro- / foundly occupied. t , It his been recommended on the one hand, that the present Government should be converted into a Regency of three or five persons : and this opinion has been represented as supported by one of our an cient laws, applicable to our present situation. But the situation in which the kingdom was when the French threw off the mask of friendship to execute their treacherous usurpation, is singular in our his tory, and cannot have been foreseen in our institu, • tions. Neither the infancy nor the insTmity,.ner ever] I the captivity of the Prince, in the usual way in xhicia - 1 these evils occur, can be compared with Our present I case, and the deplorable situation to which it has re duced us. 4 , A political position entirely new, requires politi- CAI forni, and principles likewise entirely new. To ex. pr.l the French, to restore 011;3 liberty and his thrmie our adored King, and to establish solid and peisna nent bases of ii od Govertuncnt, 'are t h e maxims -which gave the impulse to our gt7olution— are th ose w hich support and dircct it ; and' that government will be the best which shall pknn!ote and tplfil the O live jrishvs of the Spai.i,sh nation. • is Does the Regency, of which that law sneaks, IT C CORTES OF SPAIN. SEVILLE, NOVEMBER s. His Majesty has thought proper to publish the fol- 14 , wing Manifesto, fixing the days when the General promise ,us this security i What inconveniencies, ; the ante expertness and confidence, . A new inunda what daggers, how many-divisions, how many parties, tion of barbarians, who carried desolation throughout how many ambitious pretensions, within and without the provinces of which they took possession, was the the kingdom—how much and how just discontent in ' consequence of these reverses I and the ill-closed our Americas, now called to have a share in the pre- wounds or our unfortunate country began painfully • sent Government I What would become of our to open, and pour forth blood in torrents. The State Cortes, our liberty, the cheering prospects of future thus lost half its strength ; and when the Junta, bound welfere and glory, which now present themselves ? to save the honour, the independence, and the unity What would become of the object most valuable and of the nation from the impetuosity of the Tyrant, sacred to the Spanish nation, the preservation of the took refuge in Andalusia, a division of 00,000 men rights of Ferdinand? repaired to the walls of Saragossa, to bury themselves " The advocates for this institution ought to spud- in its ruins. The army pf the centre, behig thus de der at the immense danger to which. they exposed prised of a great part of its strength, did not' give to themselves ; and to bear in mind, that by it they af- its operations that activity and energy which must , • forded to the Tyrant a new opportunity of buying and have had very difficult results from those of the battle selling them. Let us bow with reverence to the ye- of tides. The avenues of the Sierra Morena, and I nerable antiquity of the law ; but let us profit by the the Banks of the Tagus, were only defeaded by ill ' experience of ages. Let us open our annals and trace armed handfuls of men, to whom could scarcely be 1 tho history pf our Regencies. What shall we find ? given the name of armies. The Junta, however, by I A picture equally melancholy and frightful, of deso- • means of activity and sacrifices, rendered them so.— ' lation ' of civil war, of rapine, and of human depra, Routed and dispersed in the two battles of Ciudad -1 vity, in unfortunate Castile. Real and Medellin, instead of despairing of the Doubtless, in great States power is more benefi- country, they redoubled their efforts, and in a few daily exercised by few than by many. Secrecy in days collected and opposed to the enemy 70,000 in deliberation, unity in concert, activity in measures, fantry and 12,000 cavalry. These • forces have since "and celerity in execution, are indispensable requitites fought, it is true, with . ill success, but always with , for the favourable issue a the acts of Government, gallantry and glory . The creation, the reparation, 1 and are properties of a concentrated authority only. and the subsistence of these armies have more than ! The Supreme Junta has, therefore, just concentrated absorbed the considerable supplies that have been sent ! its own, with that prudent circumspection which nei. to us by our brethren in America. We have main- I ther exposes the State to the vacillations consequent taiped in the free provinces unity, order, and justice ; upon every change of Government, nor materially and in those occupied by' the enemy, we have exerted affects the unity of the body which is intrusted with ; our endeavours to preserve, though secretly, the fire ' it. Henceforth a section, composed of the remov. !of patriotism, and the ties of loyalty ; we have Yin able members, will be specially invested with the ne- 1 dicated the national honour and independence in the cessary authority to direct those measures of the exc. ; most complicated and difficult diplomatic negocia. cutive power, which, frpm their nature, require Sc- 1 tions ; and we have made head against adversity, with- : crecy, energy, and dispatch. i out suffering ourselves to be ever beaten down by it, ' , " Another opinion, hostile to the Regency, equally Itrusting that we should overcome it by our coestancy. contradicts whatever innovation may be attempted . to We have, without doubt, committed errors, and we be made in the political form the Government has at would willingly, were it possible, redeem them with present, and ob j ects to the inteoded Cortes as an in- our blood ; but, in the confusion of events, among sufficient representation, if thsty ate constituted ac- the mountains of difficulties - which surrounded us, who cording to the ancient formalities ; as ill timed, and, could be certain of always being in the right ? Could perhaps, hazardous, in respect to present circum- we be responsible, because one body of troops wanted stances ;in short, as useless, since it supposes that the valour, and another confidence; because one General' superior Juntas, elected immediately by the people, bad less prudence, and another less good fortune.— are their real represer&tattves. Much, Spaniards, is to be attributed to our. inexpe " But the Junta had expressly declared to the na- Hence, much to circumstances, but nothing to our tion, that its first attention in the great object would intention. That ever has been to deliver our uafor be occupied with the number, mode, and cless with tunate King from slavery, and preserve to hinf4 which the meeting of this august assembly, in the throne, for which the Spanish people has made such. present situation of affairs, should be carried into ef- sacrifices, and to maintain it free, independent, an 4 feet; and afterahis declaration, it is quite superfluous, happy. We have, from the time of our institution, not to say malicious, to suspect that the future Cortes promised him a country; we have decreed the aboll are to be confined to the rigid and exclusive forms of tion of arbitrary power, from the time we-announced our ancient ones. the re-establishment of our Cones. Such is, Oh, Spa: " Yes, Spaniards, you are going to have your niards ! the use we have made of the unlimited power Cortes ; and the national representation will in them and authority confided to us ; and when your wisdom be as perfect and full as it can, and ought to be, in an shall have established the basis and form of Govern assembly of such high importance and eminent dignity. ment most proper for the independence and good of You are going to have Cones, and to have them im. the State, we will resign the authority into the hands mediately, because the urgent situation in which the you shall point out ; contented with the glory of hay ' nation is placed imperiously demands it ; and at what ing given to the Spaniards the dignity of a nation, time, gracious GOD, can it adopt this measure better legitimately constituted. May this solemn and mag than at present, when an obstinate war has exhausted nificent assembly be productive of efficacious means, all the ordinary means ; when the selfishness of some, energy, and fortune ; may it be an immense, inextin and the ambition of others, debilitate and paralyse guishable volcano, from which may flow torrents of , the e ff orts of the Government by their opposition or patriotism,to revivifyeverypart of this vast monarchy; I indifference ; when they seek to eradicate the essential to inflame all minds with that sublime enthusiasm, principle of the monarchy, which is union ; when which produces the safety and glory of nations, and the h7dra of federalism, so happily silenced the pre- the despair of tyrants ! Raise yourselves, noble Fe lceding year by the creation of the Central Power, ' thers of the Country, to the elevation of your high daces again to raise its poisonous heads,and endeavours duties ; and Spain, exalted with you to an equally to precipitate us into the dissolution of anarchy ; brilliant destiny, shall see returned into her bosom for i when the subtilty of our enemies is watching the mo- her happiness, Ferdinand VII. and his unfortunate Iment when- our divisions disunite us, to destroy the farnily—shall see her sons enter on the paths of pros I State, and to erect their throne on the ruins which our perky and glory, which they ought thenceforth to I distractions afford them ? This is the time, this, to pursue; and receive the crown of the sublime, and Icollect in one point the national dignity and honour ; almost divine efforts which they are making. and when the Spanish people may will and decree the " Marquis of ASTOROA, President. extraordinary surplus which a powerful nation ever 1 • • .." PEDRO DE RIVER°, Secretary-General" has within it for its salvation, it alone can en- " Royal Alcazar of Seville, October 1:8, Ist.T." counter and put them in motion ; it alone can encou rage the timidity of some, and restrain the ambition of others; it alone will suppress importunate vanity, puerile 'pretensions, and enfuriated passions, which, unless pfevegted, go to tear in pieces the Government. It Will; in fiae, give to Europe a tresa example of its religion, its circumspection, and its discretion, in the just and moderate use which it is about to make of the glorious liberty in which it is constituted. " Thus it is that the Supreme Junta, which im mediately recognized this national representation as a right, and proclaimed it a reward, now invokes and implores it as the most necessary and efficacious re medy ; and has therefore resolved, that the General Cones of the Monarchy, announced in the Decree of the 22d of May, shall be convoked on the 1* day of January, in the next year, in order to enter on their august func•ions the Ist day of March following. " When brat happy day has arrived, the Junta shall say to the represeetatives of the nation : • Ye are met together, 0 fathers of your country, and re-esta blished in all the plenitude of your rights, after a lapse of three centuries, when despotism and arbitrary power dissolved you, in order to subject this nation to all the evils of servitude. The aggression which we have suffered, and the war which we maintain, are the fruits of the most shameful Oppression and the most unjust tyranny. " The provincial Juntas, who were able to resist and repulse the eeenly in the first impetus of his in vasion, i n s ested the Supreme Junta with the sovereign authority, which they exercised for a time to give unity to the. State and concentrate its power. Called to the exercise of this authority, not by ambition and intrigue, but by the unanimous voice of the provinces of the Kingdom, the individuals of the Supreme Junta spewed themselves worthy of, the high confidence re posed in them, by employing all their vigilance and exertions for the preservation and prosperity of the State. PRIVATE LETTERS. " Li.be N.avember 16. " Lord Wellington has been for some days at Se ville with the Junta, and the Marquis his brother. Afterwards he accompanied the latter to Cadiz, from whence it is expected he will proceed to Badajos to join the arniy. " Marshal Beresford has not left this city yet, but he is to go from hence in a short time for the purpose I before told you, of inspecting the Portuguese army in its different cantonments from Oporto to Elvas. After he has performed this duty, he is to meet Lord Wellington at Badajos, to whom he is to make his report of the condition, discipline, supplies, &c. of the Portuguese troops. " From some officers tint have just arrived from Elvas, I am informed that. the mortality is prodi gious, amounting to more than double the number I mentioned to you on a former occasion. Head-quar ters are still at Badajos. " I isbon, November " The news tve have heard from Spain is rather of a firvourable nature, and many sanguine people in this city flatter themselves that the common enemy wiil at length be expelled beyond the natural boun dary of France and Spain. The natives are reported to hive gained several advantages, and even to threaten the capital, from which Joseph had ietired. The oc cupation of Madrid by the Spaniards has been often reported, and I hope it Is the 'anticipation of an event, it they have not yet so far succeeded, which is likely to take place. a A lassitude prevails in this city, and I fear I may say in this country, highly unfavourable to the cause of inifependence. The people have no-energy, no ac tivity, and they will sleep, lam great apprehension, till they are waked. by the artillery of the enemy.—' It thf,•pet-ple had their liberties at heart, is it to be believed, that out of such a population only 20,000 tun have been raised ? 4, The magnitude of our efforts will be apparent from the roSidfration of the enormity of the evils which preceded; when the power was placed in our bands, our armies, half formed, were unprovided and destitute . of every t hing ; our treasury was empty, and our resources uncertain and distant.— The despot' of 'Prance,' availing himself of the tran quillity in which the forth then was, powed upon the Peninsula th . wattary poWer under his command, the most formidable that has Veen known in the world. }lit exeti s ced leginds, tetter provided, and above all Morernerons,rushed on every side, though mach to their cost, sena our armies, destitute of ••••• 66 The English sailors belonging to the transports have volunteered to man the Portuguese ships of war ; but I have little doubt that their services will be re jected. 66 Affairs in Catalonia, according to recent intelli gence, do not go 'on so well as could be wished. Ge rona is said to be tottering to its fall ; but every de pendence is to be placed upon the undaunted spirit cf the inhabitants. Before tie accounts respecting the Toulon fleet arrived, fears *ere entertained that Blake could not maintain his ipsition near Barcelona; Out hopes are now revived," AMERICA. NORFOLK, SEPT. Tl. A letter, of which the following is a copy, Tir ,, issued from the office of the Secretary of the C(. r: , mOntvealth of Pennsylvania, on the day it bears (L, We understand that the Adjutant-General has, ir consequence, written to all the Brigade Intpec..tes, directing them to use their best endeavours to (Any into effect the orders of the Governor : 4in—,The Governor has directed me to stzte you, that in Consequence of :he pleas'aig ptospe•:t a speedy and honourable adjustment of the &split.... between the United States and the Britia G Jvcru _ ment having vanished, he deems it hi; duty to i pl o every thing in his power to place the :state of Per.a. Sylvania in such a sitt;ation a; to defend 4.7,04 and contribute its full proportion towar.i.; the defence ~f the jii;t rights of the United States, againq e, at tacks of that hostile Government. lie tilf!refi, re di rects, that, inasmuch as the returns made Lr gale Inspectors are incomplete, some having niaa e no returns at all, and none of them as to the :fate ~f the repairs of the arms, that you intmediately 441 upon the Brigade-Inspectors throughout the State ie . spectively, to make returns to you on or before i L e 4th Monday of November nest. of the number muskets within the bounds of their respect:we designating public from priyate property, rally of all the arms and military accoutteme n , every desztiption, proper for the soldier in 4ctaa! . . . vice; also the situation of the arms as to tL e approaching fall-trainings furnishing a favourablp,, ; ,. portunity for that purpose ; and that, as corm shall have received such returns, to m.ike repur; thereof to the Erecittiye Moat - merit, that the sari : :pay be laid before the Legislature, at the cummenk.e. went of their next Session, at It may tarnish to aid them in placing the ;nilitia of this Corr.m.c... wealth in a situation competent to meet any exigency that may occur. Arld that you make every ariance : • ment in your power to ficilitat the drafting of the militia, should a draft Le required.—With due reipe e t and consideration, Sir; Ott,. Obedieat servant, • " N. B. Boux.itz, Sec. Tnos. *KEAN, Jun. Adj. Gen. P.M." 66 tAtoeuter, Secretary's Office, Aug. 14,1809." EN ENIS( STAR. LONDON. . FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1. PRICE OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT ONE crcroCK s per Cent. Cons. for money acc. 701. Reduced 69i—Omnitun rm. • . . A considerable number of private letters were r". ceived yesterday from Walcheren, but not in time for our publication. it is now pretty generally .know. there that our troops are about to quit the island, though the arrival of brick-layers, plaisterers, and the like, has something of a different indicaton. (3 . c: the article " JIM": " We have for months endcayoured to enforce the propriety and necessity of withdrawing our troop; from the pestilential swamps AK Walcheren. Need we add, that the gi-ounds on wl;;ich we recommended the measure, are now admitted in their fullest extent, and the purity of our motives vindicated, by the conduct now pursued by the Government, in opposition to the abuse and calumnies which were heaped upon us by some of our time-serving contemporaries. We have been equally strenuous in recommending a speedy evacuation of the Peninsula, but hitherto with less effect. The advice, however, which we have thought it cur indispensible duty to offer to nv.r country, must sooner or later be acted upon by the Government ; nor shall any thing deter us frorn speaking our hottest sentiments on this important subject, and endeavouring to open the eyes of cur countrymen to the folly of attempting the emancipa tion of Europe, by sending British soldiers to fight the battles of those who ought, without such aid, to have tramplcii their enemies in the dust long before thii period. It is true, the Supreme Junta of Spain has at 1.:.; published a Manifesto Icr convoking the Col tes— r.c.• the preceding column)—but it is equally true that 11:4 ought to have been done a year ago—and would have been done long since by men anxious for the salrat' , .3 of their country. And w.:w that they find themselves under the necessity of relinquishing a charge for they were inadequat-:, what period have they fixed on for the Cortes to enter on their functioug ? The first day of March, 1810 ! ! Will NAPOI.I:ON be idle in the interim? These sapient rulers tiank less of the waste of a quarter of a year than a seise man would of one quarter of an hour. If the Cortes meet in time to answer the exigencle; of their countiy, they will not need the ;lid of a foreign army. If they meet too late for this, the whole army of Great Britain cannot save them !—This country has already made sacrifices for the Spaniards of which the latter have shewn themselves unworthy ; and at this *moment our army in Portugal is mouldering away by disease [Sre our letters from Li,box]• Deucalion like, we could, by throwing stones over our heads, produce men, we might indeed continue the. contest for some time longer in the tery neighbour hood of the supplios of our enemy ; but, with such allies as we have hitherto been supporting, we must inevitably exhaust our strength, and dry up those r•:- sources which will, ere long, be required fur cur own protection against a foe who has denounced for out no common destruction.—But enough a: present we shall not lose sight of this subject. Wednesiay morning being very fine, his Messrs; Y, and PriiiceSses AUGCSTA and Sorms, with their at tendant:;* Wok their usual rides in *Windsor Grcat Park ; bnt yesterday morning being very unfavour able, his M4Jr.s.ry did not ride, but the two Princesses took a'ride in the Park. • V 1 J fi J C I I 19 I I • 4 1 4 1 1 a b 3 4 r • 4 r e r 'C • r • t Lt t • t I!, '1