The National Register. — London, England, 1815-01-22 00:00:00

AN. eg. Havannah, which has always iemained tranquil and content: we are enabled to state that nothing but the personal influ ence f Admiral Apodaca, and the concessions he was obliged to make, kept the people down, when it was known that the Constitution was destroyed in Spain, the old system of degradation restored, and orders were received to close the ports. The Governor dared not suspend commerce, which still continues, possibly.till the garrisons of the island arc strengthened. In our intercourse with Spain, much as we hive had to struggle against prejudice, illiberality, and a certain obliquity of intellect, we cannot but feel an interest for a people to whose cause we have been so long allied ; nor can the most indifferent fail to' regret, that the result of a revolution, filled wi►t► many interesting traits, is a return to a degrada tion worse than tint before experienced. If Spain has gained much by our military interference, from our politics, a ,d from the intercourse of our political agents, she has learnt nothing ; nor throughout the country is there a ves tige of any thing unconnected with military operations, for which her inhabitants can he thankful to us. Whether this is owing to the ignorance or a want of adroitness on the part of those employed by the British Government, or a certain fatality that attends all our interferences abroad, certain it is, that new demonstrations of odium daily appear against us in the Peninsula, and we arc sorrytl say, this is also fast get ting over to the transatlantic provinces. England, then, stands exposed to the loss of the affec tions and good will of both ; and the time is now come for her to judge which it is best to retain, and which to forego. It is only recently that the important question of the dissen sions of Spanish America has received any shape whereby the public may judge of what has occurred there, since the COW - mencement of the revolution of Spain, but every thing our leisure has enabled us to examine, amply testifies that the conflicts of Cortes and Pizarro are renewed. In the mean time a fund of energy is displayed by the Spanish Americans, which, from what we have seen in Spain, we were not altogether prepared to expect ; and time, that great arbiter of political calculations, will fully evince that they are firmly resolved never again to be plunged by slavery and despair, into that same degradation out of which they have been seeking to emerge, and vetich has unhappily fa:len to the lot of their European brethren. Nations indeed cannot be expected to submit to laws which do not promote their securi:y and happiness; what then have they to expect from Spain ? Even there the independence of Spanish Ame rica ha; now a host of partisans, for all the liberates, as well as the friends of the lost constitution, conceive that Ferdi nand deserves this as a reward of his conduct. Monarchs hold their sceptres by virtue of a sacred contract. and they are certainly answerable for the consequences of its infrac lion. If Spanish America is then possessed of its rights, (and in Spain only in the 19th century, could it be supposed that seventeen millions of people have none), and these rights have b een tramp l e d to the ground, Ferdinand and his agents Alone are answerable for the consequences, but whatever be our political bonds with Spain, certain we are, that the people of England, whets ail the facts are before them, will • never approve of the continuation of a that made a contempt for useful labour the-basis of its controul, and founded its sway on those principles which are alOne de structive of society. • Spain has hitherto governed her ultra marine proviuccs through Magistrates of avowed venality, and by means of unjust and rapacious administrators, and if fo r these abuses no red, ess has been had in the eyes of the world, the oppressed and aggrieved Columbians of the South are justified in their proceedings, and stand acquitted in their attempts to break aconnection that mutual con i venience alone might otherwise have rendered necessary. Lamentable as are the fatal effects of all revolutions (and as far• as we are able to judge, that of Spanish America is of a most bloody nature), this seems the only means left to the_ people to effect their object. and ra i se themselves to the de served rank of freemen. At length they have obeyed the dictates of a noble impulse so becoming to men of spirit urged to recur to arms in defence of just rights, and every arrival from the various sections of that extensive country, brings advises, not only of the general ferment spread throughout, but also of the success with which the exertions of the new government arc crowned. Even the Madrid Ga • :elle, the only solitary channel through which the people of Spain now learn what is passing among them, can no longer disguise sentiments of alarm and despair ; and the manner in which the vaunted expedition from Cadiz has lingered, to which the merchants look as a forlorn hope, proves the ina bility of the Spanish Government to adopt a measure of cm responding energy and activity. Events, consequently, of the greatest magnitude may be expected in all the sections of Spanish America ; and from the interest th:v must naturally excite in the British public, it is our intention to lay before them, from time to Gine, such documents as may point out the stages of the revolutions, their tendency, and the results that may be expected from them. Among the other papers . we have received from Car. thagena, via Jamaica, we have considered the answer of the General Congress of New Granada to the Spanish General, Montes, Govei nor of Quito, as particularly deserving of n tice, and it shall therefore be inserted in our next, CADIZ EXPEDITION. • All public and private adviccs concur in 5 tati3g the ex treme.difficulty the Ministers of Ferdinand VII. experience to complete the necessary equipments for the Cadiz Expe dition, destined against one of tl►c insurrectional mints of Spanish America ; a difficulty so great, that many partisans of the Crown begin - to despair of the armament ever getting afloat. Ferdinand may now at feast perceive, that by totally destroying a representative and popular Government, he has also destroyed the energies of Spain; for during the exict. ence of the Cortes, besides the exertions made against the French, considerable armaments had been fitted out against the Ultramarine Provinces, in all amounting to At least 15,000 men, in which extreme readiness v.'as alWays dis played. NVhat then arc we to think of the hopes of Spain to regain the whole of Spanish Aritcrip', already revolu- THE .NATIONAL REGIS' . • r • ~~i~