The National Register. — London, England, 1808-07-17 00:00:00

..-.. ,STATE PA P ER. THE NATION your httc l . to this town at half past eleven at night, to wait for further orders. The action, w hicit had been doubtful for two hours, was decided in favour of the enemy, by the precipitate 111i.rht of the wined Wit-tint:Ants, hom I found it impossible to keep in their ranks.. The or Gies bridge of Alecolea wa glorionsly defended hot!' by our artillery and the brave Lafal.. who had under his orders at Campo Mayor, 100 volunteers and provincial grenadiers. I can assure your Highness, the pas• cost the enemy upwards of 200 men in killed and wounded, an that the reneoutitre with our cavalry cost them as many. For our part, I will send positive intelligence to your Highness as soon as I receive the returns from the respective Commandant. of Corps—lo the mean while, front those in my hands, anti from what have seen, lam convinced that the number of both will not amount to thirty. (Signed) PETER AUSTIN DE ECIIEVNIZR.I. " To 11. M. S. H. FRANCIS .DE SAVEDNA, and the Supreme Board of Neville." (Signed) By Order of the Supreme Board, 66 JUAN 11.4rTISL 4 PnAno, and 66 M4.VCvEL .111. AGUILAR, Secretaries." AIItIVER OF HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL GABRIELLI, FIRST SECRETARY OF STATE TO Tile NOTE OF lIIS EXCELLENCY M. CIIAMPAGNY, ADDRESSED TO M. LE FEVRE, CHARGE D'AFF AIRES FROM THE EMPEROR OF FRANCE, DATED APRIL 19,1808. " After your Excellency had made known to the Holy Fa ther, that it was the decided wish of his Majesty the Emperor and King, that he should enter into an offensive and defensive league with the other Pt) 4 ers of Italy, as had been declared M. Champagny to the Cardinal Caprara , by note of the ;Id cur rent, the dispatch of the said Cardinal has been received, which brought the original note of the above M blister. " The holy Father, after having attentively read and consi dered the said document, has ordered Cardinal Gabrielli, First Secretary of State, to make known to your Excellency his holi ness's sentiments on its contents; beginning with that which forms the cardinal point among all the others. His Holiness has seen with pain, that even the final proposition therein con tained, of the offensive and defensive league, should be accom pauied with the threat of depriving him of his temporal domi nions in case of his mm-compliance. If worldly consideration , bad at all influenced the conduct of the Holy Father, he would from the first have yielded to the wish of his Majesty, and nut base exposed himself to suffer so many calamities; but the Holy Father is regulated alone by the consideration due to his duty and his conscience : both have prevented him from agreeing to the Federation, and they equally hinder him from consenting to the offensive and defensive league, which differs but in name; its na ture, however, does not except any Prince, to whom the Pope, according to the circumstances of the times, might. not become 10 enemy. " His Holiness feels, moreover, that this article, far from im proving, detracts from his situation. In the articles presented to Cardinal de Eagan, the Federation was proposed as alone against heretics and the English. tut this is couched in generol terms, pointing out no people as an cuemy, yet excluding no government, no nation, from the contingency of becoming one. If, then, his Holiness declined from conscientious motives to be a party to that Federation, so is he equally withheld from this league. The Holy Father would not merely bind himself to a -defence. hut to an aggression. Then would he seen the Minister of the God of Peace placing himself in a state of perpetual war fare ; then would be seen their common Father in arms against his children, and the Head of the Church exposing himself, by his own act, to a deprivation of his spiritual connections with the Catholics of those Powers against which the league wool:: make it imperative on him to act hostilely. How then can his Holiness shake off his power and natural character, and sacrifice as must be the consequence, the interests of Religion! " His Holiness, unlike other Princes, is invested with a two fold character, namely, of Sovereign Pontiff, and of temporal Sovereign, and has given repeated evidence that he cannot, b. virtue of this second qualification, enter upon engagements whic; would lead to results militating against his first and most im portant ()',nice, and injuring the religion if which he is the heat:, tire Propagator, and the Avenger. His Holiness, therefore, 454 L REGISTER. JULY 17. cannot enter into any offensive and defensive league, which would, by a permanent and progressive system, drag him into hostility against all those powers upon which ills Majesty may think proper to make war ; since the Italian States, now de pendent upon his Majesty, can never as lid taking part in such t; ars. His Holiness would consequently be obliged to become a party in them by virtue of this league. Such an engagement must begin to be acted upon by the Pope from this moment, and aeainsf any Catholic Prince ; thus waging war agaitet him with out a motive. Farther, it must be waged against all dime powers, w hether Catholic or not, who may, upon whatever grounds, be the enemies of any La:ian Prince. " Thus is the Head of the (hurch, accustomed as he is to rule his estates in peace, drVen in a moment to a state •%f warfare, offensive against hostile powers, and defensive of the othere This engagement is too r' pugnant to :he:tiered duties of his Holi • 'less. and too injurious to the interests of religion, to be entered into by the head of that r. ligion. His Holiness feels that it would be a dereliction of truth, to enter into the league : he would announce, by such a res Mitre his refusal of any accommodation any peace with the Fin : eror, and would even declare hostilities agaisst him. How con' dit ever be supposed, that his Holiness should he capable of declaring war against any power ? He has long been enduring the most h')stile treatment, and is therefore prepared to endure the thri a erred loss of his temporal dominions. " Heaven is witness of the purity of his Holiness's intentions, and the world will judge if it was possible to have conceived so extraordinary a scheme. Ataleatly•desiring to compromise, and to be in peace with his Majesty. he manifested, in his Note the '..2Sth of .lanuar) last, his compliance, as far as it was possi ble to comply ; his Majesty, however, does not practise all those condesceusions, which he might practise towards the holy See; he persists inflexibly in demanding what his Holiness neitl!er cal nor will accede to, namely. in binding him to a war, and to a perpetual and t Sugressive war, uot!er the pretence of securing the tranquillity of Ilals . What can Italy have to tear, if his Huli ness 11041 nut enter into the proposed league ? " Surrouneed as the Papal Dominiees are by those of his Majesty, no rational fear could be entertained but of the Potts ; yet his Holiness having offered to shut them during the present war against the enemies of France, and to ;amid the coast, he thus proposed to contribute as far as was in his power, without betrasine his sacred duties, to the security and tranquillity of Italy. I f. in spite of all this, his Majesty shall take possession, as he has threatened, of the Papal Dominions, respected by all, even the most powerful monarchy, during a space of ten centu ries and upwards, and shall overturn the Government, his Holi ness wifl be unable to prevent this spoilation, and can only, in hitter affliction of heart, lament the evil which his Jlajesty N ill commit in the sight of God ; trusting in whose protection, his Holioess will remain in perfect tranquillity, enjoy ing the con sciousnass of not has ing brought on this disaster by imprudesre or by obstinacy, hut :a preserve the independence of that Sove reignty ss him' lie ought to transmit uninjured to his succeseore as he received it ; and to maintain in I.; integrity that conduct may secure the universal concurrence of all Princes, 59 weessary to the welfare of religion. For this fldelits to his e t eeed ditties, his Holiness will receive consolation from the wor is of his Divine Master, ' Blessed are they who are perseetthi for righteousness' sake.' " With respect to the article relating to the dismissal of the Cardinals, his Holiness, in the complaints alleged, had no need of examining the principle of their allegiance. Presuming on that freedom sv hick the rights of nations allow to every man, to live under that sky which is most congenial to him ; presuming, an that new allegiance acquired by the domicile of many year., his Holiness remarks, that primitive allegiance cannot avail against the sacred ()lineations undertaken by the Cardinals in :he Church of ('ml, the oaths they take on receiving the purple. and their eminent office of Councillors to the Sovereign Pontiff in - his spiritual concerns ; and that, therefore, they cannot be torn from his bosom. " With resard to the cessation of the functions of the i egate, and to his departure, his Holiness could hardly have t7i,cett:d they would have been attrihnted to the Motives assigned in M. Champignv s s Note. His Holiness will repeat them once more. After having tried every method to recall his Majesty to his previous sentiments towards the Papal See, and to concert the desired reparation of so many relig ious innovations; after having endured, for such a length of time, with unsu hdued pa tienee, and with unalterable meekness, s o many outragesewn and insults; after having seen how f r u itless. were all the r , strances urged against the hostile proceedings of the French* .or-, 11Ct S., SO I the cuhl f the need on in, to thing avail ils in rple, nntiti ►t be .gate, coed ied in once =ty to wort after 71 pa- s and ! men- .•