The National Register. — London, England, 1814-05-29 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. allianomagail ia4ligalawle than follow the pillar of fire,__placed for Our direction, by these lettered luminaries. Our philosophy is plain anal intel ligible : we love freedom,but we likewise love reason ; and we esteem the law of the land as founded on the law of God mere than the ravings of Anarcharsis Clootz, the ilephisms of Paine, or the refined mysticisms of Condor , cet, however embodied or expressed by their more re cent disciples. We must not be understood as warring with such en quiries as enlarge the sphere of our acquirements, or that contribute to social elevation of mind. We speak not of that divine Philosophy which softens while it enlightens, and, eradicating the narrowness of sy stems, gives a tone of universal benevolence to the mind—and " round a holy calm diffusing" , fraternises the-affections with a common compact. "La vraie philosophic n'est point la mere des doctrines empoisonnees que repandent les faux sages." She is felt only through our reasons, and the raciOnations of experience are equally the test of her accomplishments, and the secret of her durability. SPANISH SI A l'E PAPER. THE KING. Since the period when Divine Proviitenee, in consequence of the spootaneous and solemn _resignation of my august fattier, placed me on the throne of my ancestors, of which the kingdom took the oaths to me as heir by its procorators assembled in the Cortes, ac cording to the law and custom of the Spanish nation, practised from the most remote periods; and since that happy day on witieh I mitered the capital amidst the most kincese demonstrations of affection and loyalty with which the people of Madrid came out to receive me, this display of love towards my royal person tuakilig a deep impression on the French hosts, who, tinder the clink of friendship, had advanced as tar as that city, being a pres4ge of what that heroic population would one day perform for their King and for their linoor, and giving that example %Odell the other parts of the kingdom have nobly tollowed : since that day, I determined in my royal.mind to reply to sentiments so loyal, and to satisfy the great obligations which a King is umder towards his subjects, to de dicate my whole time to the discharge of such august functions, and to repair . the evils which the pernicious influence of a favourite had caused in the preceding reign: My first labours were directed to the restoration of various magistrates and other persons, who . b been arbitrarily removed from their functions ; but the difficult State of ISLIP', and the pet tidy of Btionaparte, from the cruel 'effects of which I wished, by proceeding to Bayonne. to preserve my peo ple, scarcely allowed time for more. The Royal Family being as sembled there, an atrocious attack was perpetrated on the whole of it, and particularly on my person, unequalled in the history of civil ized nations, both in its circumstances and in the series of events 'ltalia took place there; and the sacred law of nations being them lidolated in the highest d4gree, I was deprived of my liberty, strip ped:4kt the government of my kingdoms, and conveyed to a palace with my very dear brcifitee and uncle, which served as a sort of ho nourable prison fur about six years. Amidst this affliction. I had always present to my mind the love and loyalty of my people, and the consideration of the endless calainities to which they were ex posed formed a gteat part of my griefs; inundated as they were with enemies, nearly destitute of all 11.1tam:•0t resistance. w i t h out . . Icing, and vvithnut a “overnment previously established, which might put in motion antrunite at its voice the force of the tuition, • direct its impulse,- and avail itself of the resources of the state, to combat the _forces which simultaneously invaded the Peninsula, aid had treacherously got possession ()fits prinaipal fortre , .:•es. In this iamentabie situation; as the only remedy that remained, 1 is. toned, As well as I Could while surrounded by force, the decree of the bth of May 14308, addressed to the Council of Castile, and, in de fect of it. to any other board or audience 'that might be at liberty, in order tibia the Cortes might be convoked, who had only to em ploy themselves on the spur of the moment, in raising the taxes dud supplies mem:nary for the defence of the kingdom, remaining MAY 29. permanent for other events which might occur; but this my Royal Decree ontintunately was" not known then ; and .although it was afterwards known, the provinces provided for the same oliket, a: soon R 4 the heemints leached them of the cruel tragedy pet peirated in Madrid on the memorable '2d of May, by the Chief of the Fr: nehi troops, through the instrumentality of the Juntas which th e y crea t e d. Next took place the glorious battle of BaIlen; the French fled as far as Vittoria, and all the provinces, with the capi tal, proclaimed me anew King of Castile and Leon in the metro polis, with the same formalities as the Kings my august predet es sore This is a recent fact, of which the medals struck in all parts afford densonstiative pruot. and which the people through when, I have passed since my returii from Flan ce have con fi rmed by the effusion of views, whirl' moved the sensiMility o f my heart, where they are engraeen never to be effaced. From the deputies nomi nated by the Juntas the Central Junta was formed, who exercised in my Hovel name all the pOwers of Soserei,mty, horn Sept. 1808 till Jail. 1810; in which month was established the first Council of Regency, in whom the exercise of that power continued till the 24111 of September of the same year ; on which day were installed in the isle of Leon the Cortes, called Geivral and Extraohlinary, when 104 deputies took the oaths, in which they engaged to pre. serve for nit' env dominions as their Sovereign; all which appears from the art certified by Don N. M. de Sierra. But these Coa tes, as s, mbled in a manner nev er used in Spain, even in the most arduous case , , and in the most turbulent times of the nnuorVies of K:ngs, in which the Assembly of Procurators was wont to be noire Immo tam- than in the common and oidinary Cortes, were not called the States of the Nobility anal elergy, although the Central Junto had so ordered, this Decree having been artfully concealed tiont the Council of Regency, and also the tact that the Junta had assi.med t , it the • Presidency of the Corte, a preio , ati ye of the Crown w:ach the Regency would not have letl to the decision of the Con ere-s, it it had b- en aequabited therewith. la conseqiienee of this, eve y thing remained at the disposal of the Cortes; who, on the 'rely day of their installation, mod by way of commencement to tnetr .icts, despoiled me of my sovereignty, which the same :him ties laid only a little before tickamwledgrd, ascribing it nominally to the nation, in order to appropriate it to themsehes, and then, loom such usurpation, to dictate to the nation tow' laws as they pleted. imposing upon it the yoke by which I. should receive them c.anpulsorily, in a new Constitution, which the deputies esta:dished without anthority of the provjuces, people, or joista%, and %stilton.* the knowledge of thosv provinces wnich were said to to represent ed by substitutes from Spain and the Indic-. This Consti:ution they sanctioned and published iii 18P.t. This first attack itrai the prerogatives of the throne, abusing the name of the nation, became, as it were, the basis of many other attacks which tollowt'd it ; awl in spite of the reptetnance of many deputies, perhops 01 the majori ty. they were adopted atid raised to the rank of laws. which they Palled jandamentut, by means of the shouts, threats, and violence, of those who attended in the galleries of the Cortes, MIIII which they alarmed and terrified ; and that which was in truth the won k of a faction, was clothed with the specious mask of the plural will, and ha such will.'that of a tZw seditious persons who, in Cadiz, and afterwards in Madrid, occasioned affliction to all good citizens, .made their .own to ins. These facts are so uotorious, that hare is scat eely any one who is ignorant of them ; and the very Diaries of tho Cortes furnish ample proof of them. A mode of making 1aw...) foreign to the Spanish nation, gave occasion to an alteration of the good laws under which, in other times, it was respected and happy. In truth, almost all the forms of the ancient conshtation el tile Munarciiy were innovated upon ;•and copyliig the revolutionary and oeinocratic principles of the Erma constitution of 1791, they sanctioned, not the.fundamental laws of a moderate monareily, but those of a popular gores meld, with a chief, or magistrate, their more delegated executer, and not a King, althoogli they gave lion that name, to deceive and seduce the imiyary and the natiose Utnuer the same want of liberty t'iis new Constitution was signed and sworn to ; and it is known to all• not only what passed with regard to the respt,:tahle Bishop of °reuse, but also tine punishment with which those were threatened when refused to sign awl swear it. To prepare the public mind to receive such novelties, especially those regarding my royal person and the prerogatives of the Crown, the public newspapers were resorted to as a meatus, some uf which the Deputies of the Cortes conducted, and abused the fibetiO of the press established by thean, to render the Royal power odious, giling to all the rights of Majesty the name of ikapotism—makiog King . aid Despot symmimons terms,--and calling Kings Tyrants; %%tide at the gam: , time they cruelly persecuted every one who had the firmness to contradict them, or to dissent from this revolutionary and se dltaiti.3 mode of thinking; and iu every thing democracy was affecte:!, we