Star. — London, England, 1818-04-24 00:00:00

LONDON. /Wt 01 STOOD*IIIIII DAY AT TIMM' O'CLOCK Ifeclnced-79H--Consols 79f 80—for Aec. sot per Cent. 971 --Navy Anns.lo6ll Ildia Bonds 97 98 pr.—Exch. Bins 18 21 pr. Very little business has been done this morning. The great contest between the friends off' the New Plan of Finance and the Stock Exchange tontines: the latter appear determined to keep Consols under 80, while the former persevere in endeavouring to raise them above that sum. It is probable this state of things will continue until the 2d of next month, the time affixed for the funding of Exchequer Bins. At present there is but little funding; and if the Plan is not fully accomplished previous to that day, the Mi • nister will be compelled to have recourse to some other plin.--Consols for the account opened this morning at 80, and at twelve o'clock were 80f }—for money, 79f, 80i. The Commissioners gave 80, and were served generally by the Jobbers. We now subjoin the ptincipal passages of the Ma nifesto which, as we mentioned yesterday, has been addressed to the world by the Constituent Congress, of the United Provinces of Rioale la Plata. It will be read, we are persuaded, with feelings of no ordi nary interest. The eloquent exposition which it con tains of the treatment and cruelties the South Ame rican Colonies have suffered from the Spanish Go- yernment, and the causes that have impelled them to declare their independence, must carry home sympathy and conviction to every breast. The Colonists appeal to precedents—to that, among others, of the United States of North America when they determined to resist the power of taxation which the Parliament of Great Britain attempted to exercise over them.—And who indeed can say that there was any thing in the conduct of Great Britain towards her Colonies, which can be a more than the most dis tant coropasison to that system of flagrant and cruel oppression which dr.: Spanish Colonists make the justificatory ground of their present declaration of freedom and independence ? Yet the United States were lost to Great Britain, and their independence as a separate and distinct State was recognized by all the Powers of the civilized world, and by none more readily or cordially than by Old Spain herself. We learn, by intelligence received at the same time from Buenos Ayres, that towards the end of December, General SAN MARTIN was about to re commence operations. He had then a force of 5000 effective men and 700 cavalry, in and nrar Santiago. General O'HtAasis, with another force of 4000 wen t was blockading Talcaguana. The Chili Mail bad brought letters stating, that 3000 Royalists, from Lima, had embarked in fourteen vessels, with. the design of acting against Valparaiso, or relieving Tal caguana. Preparations were making at the former place to receive them, and seven or eight English vessels lying there had put themselves in readiness to aid in the defence. The Chricos were all armed, and the cavalry mouved. The inroads which ARTIGAS, who has established his head-quarters at Purification, a small town on the Uraguay, had made into the Province of Entre-rios, on the left bank of the Plata, between the rivers Pa rana and Uraguay, had led its inhabitants to solicit the protection of the Buenos Ayrean Government, and a force of 800 men had accordingly been em barked for that destination. One of Anrweb's Go vernors had revolted, and the power of ARTIGAS was supposed to be in a tottering condition. Ile is, however, allowed to be a man of very commanding abilities, and to possess, in a particular manner, thei art of rendering himself popular with the gouches (country people.) It was whispered in the higher circles at linen°, Ayres, that °lime:Las had been repulsed in an at attack upon Talcaguana, in which he had lost 200 men, 'and left 22 Officers on the fiel2.. . : is clue to their outraged rights and honour, and by a becoming respect for other nations of the earth Afier the Spaniards possessed themselves of these countries, they preferred to establish their dominion by a 'system of extermination, destruction, and de gradation: the foundation of their p e tver was laid in plans of devastation, and their syst has been con tinued during the space of three hundred years. They began by assassinating the Monarchs of Peru, and acted in the same manner towards the other Chiefs and Primates wherever they came. The inhabitants of the country gallantly sought to check the savage invaders ; but their inferiority in the arts of war and arms, was fatal to them ; and they were compelled to abandon their towns to the flames which were kia died without mercy or distinction of persons, or fall under the unsparing sword. " The natives having been so far exterminated, the Spaniards set a barrier to the population of America from other countries ; though cultivation is the first source of national wealth, and population the strength of every nation, they doomed the land to sterility, and prohibited by severe laws the admission of fo reigners ; they limited even that of the Spaniards themselves as much as possible ; until of late they have facilitated it only to men attainted, whom they have seen fit to expel from the Peninsula, for their crimes, corruption, and immorality. ". Neither the vast, yet beautiful, desarts which they had formed by the extermination of the natives ; nor the profits which Spain would have derived from the cultivation of fields so fertile and boundless ; nor the spectacle of the richest and mast abundant minerals of the earth ; nor the allurements of innumerable pro ductions, some of which were unknown before, others precious for their inestimable value, and all of them calculated to enliven industry and commerce; conducting society to the extreme of opulence, exalting happiness to the highest degree of perfecti nor, in fine, the preservation of the most delightful regions of the globe overwhelmed with wretchedness, could have powers to produce a change in the blind and ill-omened principles of the Court of Madrid: so that at the end of 300 years of undisturbed pos session, there remain many hundreds of leagues, stretching from one town to another, without any roads, or villages, or intervening signs of cultivation or population. Entire generations have become ex tinct, sinking beneath the ruins of the mines, or fallen sacrifices to the meta or drafting for the forced service of the mines, without having had any effect towards a reform of this system of extermination, notwith standing the lamentations of all Peru, and the very energetic representations of some most humane and zealous Ministers " The acts of injustice, which excited the provinces of Holland to take up arms and to separate themselves from Spain, were not so reiterated, nor so flagrant; nor were those which actuated Portugal to throw off the same yoke—nor those which caused the Swiss, under the direction of William Tell, to oppose the Emperor of Germany ; nor those complained of by the United States of North America, when they de termined to resist the power of taxation, which the Parliament of Great Britain attempted to exercise over them ; nor those of many other countries ; which, without having been separated by their natural posi tion from the mother country, have themselves shaken off an iron yoke, and taken means to accom plish their happiuess. " We, however, separated from Spain by an im !tense sea, living in a different climate, having dis tinct wants and habits, were treated like herds of cat tle; while we have exhibited a singular example of patieat suffering, in the midst of so much degrada tion, remaining passively obedient, whilst so many flattering occasions have been presented to its for breaking the yoke and casting it to the other side of the ocean " Having been accustomed blindly to perform whatever was required of us; we yielded obedience to Kiag Ferdinand of Bourbon, notwithstanding he had by means of a mob collected at'Aranjuez, seized the throne from his father, Charles IV. We saw Ferdi nand subsequently proceed to France, where he was de tained with his parents and brothers, and surrendered the crown which he had so recently usurped. Spain was convulsed, and occupied in every quarter by French troops; in the civil agitations and cony ulsions that took place, when the most illustrious men of society, who, governed the provinces with wisdom, or served in the armies with honour, were assassinated by an excited populace. During this state of oscillation, various governments started up in Spain, each ascribing to it self supreme power, pretending to exercise sovereign authority over America. A junta of_this description, self-constituted, assembled at Seville, was the first that had the presumption to command our obedience, and' to these the Viceroys obliged us to render allegiance and submission. In less than two months after this, another junta, entitled the Supreme Junta of Gallicia, set up similar pretensions ; and sent us a Vice-Roy with the rude menace, that 30,000 men should follow, if it were necessary. Then there assembled a central 1 Junta, in the formation of which we had no part, but still we obeyed it with the same alarcity, executing, their decrees with zeal and efficacy. We forwarded succour of money, the fruits of voluntary donations, and aid of every description, to prove that our fide lity would remain unshaken, under every trial to which it had been subjected. ... " We had been tempted by the agents of King Jo seph Napoleon, and flattered with the fairest promises that our condition should be meliorated, if we would adhere to his cause. We knew that the Spaniards of the greatest distinction and importance had already declared in his favour ; that the nation was without armies and without a head to direct it with the vigour which the exigency of the times require. We wire informed that the troops of Rio de la Plata that had been prisoners in England, since the first expedition -. l FMaNEiCti)ipgi STAR. FRIDAY, APRIL 24, ISIS. THIt MANIFESTO, Addressed to the Nations of the World, by the General Consi tuest Congress of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, exposing the treatment asd sruelties they have suffered from the Spanish Government, and the causes which impelled them to declare their independence. Liberty and reputation are dearer than life itself to rational men, and they are bound to defend them above all earthly objects. The United Provinces of Rio de la Plata have been accused of rebellion by the Spanish Government, and of perfidy towards other nations : having - denounced the declaration of emancipation, which the National Congress promul gated at Tucuman, on the 9th of July, 1816, imput ing to them the love of anarchy, and the introduction of the principles of insurrection into other countries, while they were accused at the very time of soliCiting the friendship of those same nations, and the nego ciation of that memorab le Act, in order to be ad mitted to rank among nations. The National Con gress, among the sacred obligations which devolved upon it, -rleemed it their first duty to repel such de famatory charges, and to defend their country's cause, by esposing to the world the extent of their -sufferings, and the motives which impelled- them to the declaration of independence. In performing this act, t h e y disclaim all ideas which would yield to any power on earth, the authority to dispose of the rights which have cost America torrents of blood, and every description of sacrifices and bitter suf fering ; governed alone by the consideration which of the British, had been conducted to Cadiz and treated there with the greatest inhumanity ; that they had been reduced to the necessity of begging alms in the streets to escape perishing front hanger ; and that naked and without any sort of relief, they had been marched off to fight against the French. Yet under all these barefaced indignities, we remained in the same position, until the French having occupied the Andalusias, the central Junta was dispersed. " After these circumstances, a paper was pub lished, without date, and signed solely by the Archbishop of Laodicea who had been President of the late Central Junta. It ordered the establishment of a Regency, and designated three Members, of whom it was to be composed. We could not refrain' from surprise at such strange and unexpected acts. We became alarmed, and were fearful of being in- volved in the same calamity as the mother-country. We reflected on the uncertain and vac . illitating situa_ tion in which she was placed, the French having al ready presented themselves before the gates of Cadiz, , . l and the Isle of Leon : we were afraid of the new Re- gents, not recognized by us ; the most eminent of the Spaniards having joined the French, the Central 3unta having been dissolved, and the individuals that had composed it, being persecuted and charged in the public papers with treason. We were convinced of the inefficacy of the Decree published by the Arch bishop of Laodicea, and his want of power to esta blish the Regency : we did not know that the French might not have become masters of Cadiz, and com pleted the conquest of Spain, during the time that that papek was coming to hand ; and we doubted whether a Government created from the fragments of the Central Junta, might not run the risk of shortly experiencing the same fate. Instead of our hopes be ing realized, we soon saw the Regency expire, and re peated changes of Government succeed - one another in times the most critical. In the mean while, we esta blisht,d our Junta of Government, in imitation of those of Spain. Its institution was purely provisional, and in the name of the captive king Ferdinand. The Viceroy, Don Baltasar de Cisneros, dispatched circular letters to the governors, to prepare for civil war, and to ex cite the provinces to take up arms against one ano ther. The river la Plata was immediately blockaded I by a Spanish squadron : the governor of Cordova (b egan to organize an army ; the governor of Potosi, and the president of Charcas, marched anotheito the confines of Salta ; and the president of Cuzco pre sented himself with another army on the borders of the Desaguadera, made an armistice of forty days, to put us off our guard ; and before the expi ration of the term, in breach of his honour, he re commenced hostilities, attacked our troops, and a sanguinary combat ensued, in which we lost up- ward of fifteen hundred men. Memory shud ders at the recital et the horrors that were then com mitted by Goyenecbe, in Cochabamba. Would to HitAvitx it were possible to blot from remembrance the name of that ungrznetul and blood-thirsty Ame rican; who, on the day of his entry, ordered the vir tuous Governor and Intendant Antesana, to be shot ; who, beholding from the balcony of his house, that infamous murder, cried out with a ferocious voice to the soldiers, that they must not fire at the head, be cause he wanted it.to be affixed to a pole ; and who, after the head was taken off, ordered the cold corpse to be dragged through the streets ; and, by a barba rous decree, placed the lives and fortunes of the citi sens at the mercy of his unbridled soldiery, leaving diem to exercise their licentious and brutal sway during revere.' days! " Posterity will be struck with horror at the cruel ties, with which a few men, interested in the subjec tion of the Americans, have glutted themselves—and its astonishment can never equal the mad malice with which they have pretended to punish a conduct stamped with the indelible seals of fidelity and love. The name of Ferdinand of Bourbon was . refixes to all the decrees of the Government, and headed all 'their documents ; the Spanish flag waved over our vessels and served to inflame the ardour of our sol diers. The provinces finding themselves placed in state of orphanage, by the dispersion of the National' Government, and the n ant of another respectable and legitimate, and by the almost entire conquest of the mother country ; had raised for themselves an argue, to watch over their safety, and to preserve themselves unimpaired for their caprice, whenever he should recover his liberty. This measure was an imitation of Spain, produced by the declaration she made to America, incorporating it with the Mo narchy, as an integral part, and with equal rights : and the same thi-ig had been previously done in Montevideo by the advice of the Spaniards them selves. We offered to continue our pecuniary suc cours and voluntary donations to prosecute the war, and published a thousand times the earnestness of our intentions, and sincerity of our desires. " Great Britain, then so well deserving a friend of Spain, interposed her mediation and good offices, to obtain for us a treatment less unnatural and severe. But those blind and cruelly capricious men, rejected the mediation, and dispatched rigorous orders to all the Generals, to aggravate the war and to punish us with more severity—the scaffolds were every where multiplied, and invention was racked to devise means for spreading murder, distress, and consternation. " Thenceforth they made all possible efforts to spread division amongst us, to incite us to mutual extermination. They have slandered us with the most atrocious calumnies, accusing us of plotting the destruction of our holy religion, the abolition of all morality, and of introducing licentiousness of man ners. 'they wage a religious war against us, con triving a thousand artifices to disturb and alarm the consciences of the people, making the Spanish Bishops issue decrees of ecclesiastical condemnation, public excommunications, and disseminating, through the medium of some ignorant confessor; fanatical doc trines in the tribunal of penitence. By means of tkese religious discords - they have divided families against themselves--they have canoed disage o o o34. tweet n n par e e s n:s hi a e n h d nenhiitledrehunsb; husband d ey have wifeav di m ll e ie e y a hav ebro. e dissolved tender spread rancour and implacable hatredan be ; then's the most endeared, and they have pre, ooed cord; system o f ourdema . throw r Th all ey na h t a u r r e e i a n d to np d t i e s ; men indiscriminately, to diminish ens numb er , 00 l e on their entry into morns, they have s - -"" p; of a;f even to the market people, leading them t , 1 1 1,, squares, and there shooting them one lot coo rees le cities of Chuquisaca and Cochabamba have m ookaa once been the theatres of these horrid slaugiono " They have intermitted with their troops o lio ,of ours whom they had taken prisoners, car . ; away the officers in chains, to garrisons, wh o , 4 . 1 impossible to preserve health for a year—th e , left others to die in their prisons of hunger and mo o , . and others they have forced to hard laboos public works. They have exultingly pox to death ( , Le bearers of flagi of truce, and have be n o uiltv •;., blackest atrocities to our Chiefs after theyhad so dered, as well as to other principal characters. o disregard of the humanity with which we t. prisoners; as a proof of it, witness we Depure '.;ores of Potosi, the ,Captain Gene al Puma o : neral Angulo and his brother Coemnanda. t \f oo . cas, and other partisan chiefs, who wem slut: . 0 00 blood after having been prisoners for oeveral " They took a brutal pleasure in cropoiag theta s of the natives of the town of Ville Grande, and sr ing a basket full of them as presents to the 'co; quarters ; they afterwards burnt that torn, mot oo fire to thirty other populous towns of Peru, and 1r . ro than the worst of savages, shutting the inhabium up in the houses, before setting them on tire, tha they might be burnt alive! " They have not only been cruel and unsparing in their mode of murder, but they have been void of all morality and public decency, causing aged eels siastics and women to be lashed to a gun and pub. licly flogged, with the abomination of first haoiag them stripped, and their nakedness exposed to shame, in the presence of their troops. " They established an inquisitorial system Li al these punishments ; they have seized en pea:eohl• inhabitants and transported them across the ma, to be judged for suspected crimes ; and they have puts great multitude of citizens to death eve.o without accusation or the form of a triaL " They have molested our vessels. ravaged car coasts, slaughtered the defenceless inhabitants. act sparing even septuagenary priests ; and by order of General Pezuela, they burnt the church of ex 'sea of Puna, and put to the sword old men, worn( ad children, who were all they could find. They have excited atrocious conspiracies among the Spaniards, settlers in our cities, and they have driven us to the painful necessity of inflicting capital punishment in the fathers of numerous families. " They have compelled our brothers and our chil dren to bear arms against us ; and forming armies of the -inhabitants of the country, nixier toe cots. ;nand of their officers, they have obliged them to fight against their kindred. Thee have excited do- mestic insurrections, corrupting with money and by all sorts of machinations, the peaceable cultivators of the fields, to involve us in frightful anarchy, is order to attack us thus weakened and divided. " They have, with inexpressible shamelessness and infamy, broken various capitulations we have re peatedly granted them, when wrhave had them him power ; they have caused 4,000 men to regime this arms, who with their commode!, General Pries; had surrendered to us at the cembat.of Saha, to whom General Belgrano, on the field of battle gear► rously granted a capsulation on parole, and such he still more generously complied with, trusting is their pledge of honour. " They have unveiled a crime of uoexampled hor ror, : in poisoning our water and provisicus, w:sea they were conquered by General Pinelo at La Pat; and in return for the kindness with which he maxi them, after they had surrendered at discretion , 'l e y had the barbarity to blow up the head-quarters, to der which they had constructed a mine, and pre pared a train before-hand. • " They had the baseness to abuse the sacred privi leges of flags of truce, to tempt our Generals acid Governors to betray us, openly and impudently ad dressing letters to them to that effect. " They have declared, that the laws of civilizzi warfare were not to be applied to us; and their Ge neral, Pezuela, after the battle of Ayouma, to co case himself from any compromise, coldly replied to General Belgrano, that he could wake so tr.. with rebels. " Such was the conduct of the Spaniards too:is us, even after Ferdinand of Bourbon was restsoe the throne. We till then believed that the : 1 talogue of disasters had reached its too reasonable to expect that a King who I formed in the school of adversity, would act be in different to his people's desolation ; and re seat a deputy to make known to him our sintaton. pct a doubt was entortaitted, that he would hcnour arm with a reception consistent with a gracious Prio'es and that he would take an interest in cur supoica dons, commensurate with the gratitude that was from him, and with the goodness of his hoot, Which the courtiers of Spain had extolled to the skies Bat a new series of sinful ingratitude was reserved c America to suffer, exceeding a ll example that is to be found in the history of the greatest tyrants. " He branded us with the stigma of rebels. the moment he returned to Madrid ; he refused to lista to our complaints, or to receive our supplications; old . . as an act of extreme favour, he offered us a paniols- Ile confirmed the Vicemys, Governors, and Generals, whom he found actually glutted with carnage. lie declared us guilty of a high misdemeanot, 101 113% ing dared to frame a Constitution for ow- own era' ment, free from the conttoul of a deified. aloolum, and tyrannical power, under which we I.:d been groaning three centuries : a measure that could be offensive only to a Prince, an enemy to justice Ind too neficence, an d oo nse q uently unworthy to rule over tn. " lie then undertook, with the aid of his Minister, to equip large military armaments, to be clitt:tcd ea' had beer wAs due . 1 out plu ,of ,'Dort MI $ pi"( e la , natii ;blisi 1 blc So thi an ill