The National Register. — London, England, 1815-01-08 00:00:00

NAT were groan ing. On this subject they exhibited, most evidently, the most profound ignorance, the utmost ferocity, and as will • be seen, the grossest perfidy. But before we go into the proofs, we would also call the recollection of the reader to the retributive justice that has reached the Ayuntamicnto or Municipal Council of Cadiz, for being upon the spot, and possessing in fact the only monied influence then existing in Spain, it was 4he great point d'appui for the servile party in the Cortcs. " Verily they have their reward." The fac►s and df tails which follow are extracted from an •' Expose of the Dissensions of Spanish America," written by Mr. Walton, and are of such a nature, as, were they not well authenticated, appears to be incredible. " The feeling and impartial mind," says Mr. Walton, 0 re• volts at the masses of coarse and scurrilous invective that have issued from the Cadiz press ;" and is at the same " time astonished at the numerous. foul, and corrupt engines set to work to influence the dastard passions of the multitude and prevent the fair and unbiassed discussion of the most import ant question ever agitated in the Cortes of Spain." One of the first acts of the Cortes was to send Venegas to Mexico. Of the character of this man sent, it is to be rc.rol lected by tlie Cortes, and never recalled, an estimate may be formed by the following proclamation : " Ist. All rebels who have resisted the king's troops, are criminals, and subject to a military jurisdiction. " 6th. All insurgent chiefs, in whatever number they may be, are to be shot, without allowing them more time than to prepare for death in a christian manner. " lOth. Ecele!iactics taken with arms in their bands, to be executed in the same manner. Article 2, authorises the division or detachment malting prisoners, to execute these orders. The scenes which this and similar orders have given rise to, in such a country as the one to which I allude, ate such as would ei.grace the annals of a Tiberias, Don Ignacio Garcia Revolts's, in his eispatch to the viceroy, dated Querttaro, November 25, 1811, recommends Serjeant Francisco Mentes, 'as deserving the grade of an officer, fur amongst other gal. l out act i, o ,, be killed one qf his own nephews, who making himsey'known so him received for answer that he ham no nephew among insurgents." " cl minntotant Bustatnente, in his dispatch to the viceroy, dated Zits - pares, October 23, 1811, recommends Mariano Ochoa, a dragoon, r Ito in pursuing the iasurgents, had a brcthei• haat to him to Igg his l fit, which he took with his own hand.' " When two such acts as these become the blast of a dispatch to a viceroy. T leave my reader to judge of the other atrocities. Of these, history hiss no parallel. " General Truxillo, in a similar dispatch, boasts, that he admitted a flag of truce from Hidalgo, composed of various persons, in front of his line that was drawn up, and having received from them a banner of the Virgin Mary, he ordered his soldicrs to fire on the beam;,, by which means he expected not to he troubled any more with them.' The person , composing the flag of truce, were thus all murdered. Even the Cadiz papers cried out against this atrocity. " General Calrja, informs the viceroy, that in the affair of Aculco he had one man killed and two wounded ; but that he put to the sword, 5000 seduced Indians, and that their total, loss amounted to 10,000. The most of these were Indians, kneeling for mercy ! The same General entered Goanasoatu, with fire and sword, where 14,000 old tutu, wo men, and children, perished, and this, because the insurgent army had taken up its quarters there, and by a timely retreat, had escaped his fury. In his dispatch, he adds, f 7'o-ntorrow and the followirw den's, I intend to shoot is quantity oldie criminals who bare been tacit of the In- • r'St 18 THE yjorvar• — ••••'" — "" their fellow Trans-Atlantic sulbjects had been and T; T~,' '. surgent arrrsv, If all grades, crew up to a brigadier.' This measure *a* afterwards approved of by the vice-I.oy himself. Cal!rja soon after re• ceived from the Cadiz Regency, the grade of mariseal del Campo, and the viceroy the cross of Charles 111. as remunerations fur this di►tin• guished service. " In the action of Zamora, all the prisons rs were also put to the sward. " Fe!hi, deputy in the Cortes for Lima, speaking therein on the pm posed mediation of England, observes, 'that in t.rder to prove the ty ranny with which the inhabitants of Mexico are treated, it wonid suf fice to present sonic of the measures, daily taken by the governors in that country:' Ile adds, '1 will here only inflator& the 2il and 11th ar ticles of the proclamation issued by Brigadier llt,ii Jose dt la Cruz, cu the i3d February, 1811. Article 2, imposes the punishment of death, on all persons of every class and condition, who within ta enty•lrot.r hours, da not deliver up all the arms of which they may be vissessed, including axes and knives. To forbid any one to carry on their per sons even a small knife, has been before •een ; but to deprive people of knives for their domestic use, under the penalty of death, is what even Murat did not du at Madrid, ur has been before heard of. Article 11, orders that a tenth of all the inhabitants shall be shot, of whatever town or city that Lay he known to have given provisions to an insurgent, or where any intercutirse had been had with them, even betwuei , a father and Nis son : ' and, 'if thus,' subjoins the deputy, ' a faithful father at•-• tempts to bring back a wandering son, is he on this account to die ? Well and gird ; but is it net the extreme of barbarity, that tor this same reason the tenth of a whole town is to be shot ? ' " This same General Cruz, thirsting as it were for blood and des truction, had silently burnt the town of the Trapuarri, iw which the in surgents had resisted his attacks, and made a public parade of shout ing six priors's ; in short, wherever he went, indiscriminate murder, fire, and desolation, followed his footsteps. The prisoners who were not put to the sword, in cold blood, were sent to perish in the dungeons of Mexico, or in those of St Juan de Ulna. ' Captain Blanco, in July, 1811, announce', that as soon as he entered Matehuala, and the insurgents saw they were attacked on all sides, and the havoc made amongst them they fled into the fields, but his troops eager fur blood (encarnizada) pursued, till they found no more to pursue.' " Don Caetano Quintero, 79th August 1811. says, 'that in the at. tack of Amuledras, w hick laird two hours, nu quarter was given' " Commandant Villuescuss, 21st December, 1811, observes that the rebels of San Ignaci headed by an ancient dficer, hoisted a fag of truce, and their thief Lieutenant Hernandez, having expressed a desire to parley with Fontatio, Chief of the Opata Indians, a Spanish soldier named Manuel Ranshez, feigned lie was the person, assuring 'Fernandez, that if he would advance in front of the lines, he would do the same.' On their meeting, Hernandez was treacherously mur dered. General Cruz, in his letter to Hidalgo, 28th February, 1811, sap that many thousands of men, taken by the king's troops, were then groaning, in prisons, waiting their last end.' Yet few were taken in the field of bat►le, or otherwise apprehended, they Wing, in genera!, shot or hung on the spot. " General Calleja, from Zitaquaro, which be had just taken, after a stout resistance, writes the viceroy, that he sei(i make it disappear fma the face of the earth ; and in conformity to this resolve, be issued a pro clamation, whose articles, in substance, are as follows : " 1. That all the property, public or private, belonging to the in habitants of this town and jurisdiction, shall be confiscated to the crown, and the Indians deprived of t h eir privileges. " 2. Likewise the property of all those Spaniards, who have joined is the insurrection, or were absent when the king's troops entered. " b. This faithless and criminal town, that three distinct times has resisted the arms of the king, being to be rowed up, burnt and, des troyed, the inhabitants of every age and sea shall leave it withid sic days. " 5- All the individuals and families who may leave this town, shall have a certificate, bearing their name, descent, number of each, and day of their departure, it being well understood, that whoever way be •