The National Register. — London, England, 1808-05-08 00:00:00

r7.`.'44,11C7', "" • 7T, "74 , 4'-: • AL REGISTER:. Our fling, conOtitution, ant) Lab* 9 I t THE NA'T'ION. = PRICE 84. No. 19. SUNDAY, MAY 8, 1808. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. Numern. NINETEEN. ON TIIE INSURRECTION IN SPAIN. In these times it has become a matter of difficulty to form even a conjecture as to the probable result of any great political event. The Emperor of the French has so long been in the habit of causing the most extraordinary changes in the most sudden manner s sometimes by his in trigues, sometimes by his arms, and sometimes U111)111'1- tirily by the AM which his measures produce upon the mind: of neighbouring nations, that our political sagacity 11 , ..; now become a bye-word, and our calculation is but the cast of a die. The regions of ambition F cern no where imp:sable to him he treads no known road, he seeks no b..nitto track ; but strikes through all the obstacles of im peding nature, and profits by the Ni cr y hindrances that hostile caution may oppose to his career. Knowing . then how much his ambition seeks, and know ing that what his ambition seeks his genius procures e we cannot flatter oursf4ves with the hope that much benefit v ill arise to this country from the late insurrection in Spain. It lips become exceedingly difficult to decide with any ra tional confidence, upon the cause of this insurrection : and to him who is absolutely ignorant of causes, all future effects must appear envelopexl in darkness and doubt. Den Manuel Godoy, who has long been the creature of France, 14as been loaded with disgrace : and vet the interest of the French appears to have suffered in no single particular. It has been supposed on the other hand that this Don lanted Godoy is nothing but the instrument. of Bona parte's ambition, who for the sake of still further securing his interest with the French Court, has consented to un dergo a temporary degradation in his own country : and it even has been believed by many speculators, that he advised the King of E i pain to emigrate only in order that the vacancy of the throne might afford lo the French Em peror an excuse, however specious, for seizing the royal power. This opinion is corroborated, we must confess, by the general tenor of Don Manuel's conduct ; for if ever there was a person adapted by his address and by his disre gard of virtue, for all the corrupt p rp es:!s of an ambitious employer, such a person is apparently this . Spaniard. He studied the military science each in lit, and enti•rfAl irto the Body Guards. He was presented by one of his rela tions to the Queen, who, pleased with the eleg:mce o:This Cerson, procure,for him a commission of iwportanee. ount Florida Lianea, who was .at thai t 'tic Ine Prime ,Minister, discovering that he had a ,;re , :t k%imledge of the politics of Foreign Courts, very SOOK began to treat him with distinction s. and Use , tanaur of the King presently mate* hion.a Grandee, Duke of A letLa, and Comma neer in-Caief of all the armies of-Epain. Oa the zac dis r -2 of the • No. XIX.--14,. .~~{. Prime Ministers Godoy became the agent of the peace be tween France and Spain, and the memory of this event was perpetuated by his assumption of the title of Prince of the Peace. But all this was not sufficient to complete his almost unexampled good fortune : the King granted hini the hand of the daughter of the infant Don Louis, and he became allied to be Blood Royal. The general report of this man's character is, that he was proud, yet venal, ava ricious, and yet dissolute a woman of the name of La Tudo lived with him as a mistress. sow, although ex alted situation almost universally exposes men to the shafts of envy, and though in the defamation of the Prince of the Peace motives of interest, as well as of malice might easily be supposed to weigh heavily with the minds of his ene mies, yet we have always been inclined to think that amid all the shamelessness of slander, and amid all the in accuracy of common fame, there is generally some so r t of reality, some foundation of truth, however narrow, on which the towering fabric of falsehood must rear itself. An old proverb says, that there is no smoke without some fire : and it seems not unreasonable to believe, after making every allowance for the enmity and selfishness of a hostile faction, that. Don Manuel Godoy is one of those designing, supple, ambitious, statesmen, who, bred by the unnatural heats of a nation, feed upon foulness, and riot in the cor ruption that surrounds them. Such a man appears to be an instrument peculiarly well-suited for the purposes of Bonaparte : and until the ultimate developement of the French plans shall have manifested the fortune of Godoy, we shall have little ground for condemning as absurd the ideas of those, who maintain the probability of a collusion between the Emperor of France and the Prince of the Peace. On the other hand some persons have supposed. that tho insurrection has had for its object the complete de.! rctci:‘,T) of the French influence in Spain : that the noldeq, wear.; of a yoke so oppressive and so dishonourable, have t!"- termined to govern for themselves : and that the persons who have succeed:al to places of poser are likely, from the principles which they have always professed, to oppose the schemes offionaparte with all their heart and might. But is it not possible that reasoners who go so far for the motives of human action, and seek in one country for a cause to which they trlnV ascribe the effects that they be held in another, deceive themselves by the extent of their sagacity, and by shooting beyond the mark, commit 24 material an error as if their wit had fallen short of its destination ? ror our own parts, we venture to suggest another hypothesis on this question, which appears to i:i to afford a mneh more simple and satisfactory explanation of the recent events. than either of the suppositions before stated, although we are far deelaring those former suppositions to be absurd, and although we confess that our own view or the case affords very little room for that sublimity of speculat;on and range of conjecture with vs h;ch thz public is so often amused by our cotemporary writers. 7.7 ~ • ._..+ ... k. •••• : .. • _ ow 1 ~~