The National Register. — London, England, 1812-08-23 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL - REGISTER. No. 243. I, Cur Ming , Constitution, anti tabu. PUBLISHED AT NO. 357, STRAND, CORNER Of EXETER 'CINIANOZe PRICE 9d. We had long acted as principals in Portugal, and as aux iliaries in Spain. The consequences of this conduct were manifest. Portugal was freed from her invaders, and Spain entirely over-run ; her armies were destroyed, and her for tresses taken. The responsibility of this woeful difference, however, rested on other hands. In Portugal our career was unobstructed by national prejudices, and we had not to conquer the esteem and the affections of the people, before we were allowed to defeat their enemies. In Spain, we had to contend with far more powerful opponents than the French—the jealousy of the Government, and the pride and bigotry of the nation. They received our supplies of cloth ing, arms, and ammunition ; bus, although daily experience taught them their inability to preserve even those articles, which they lost as soon as they encountered the French, and still less therefore to redeem single-handed the indepen dence of their country, they long disdained to follow the encouraging example of the Portuguese, and either rejected our co-operation on land, or suffered it with reluctance.' It was clear that such a system of counteraction most prove fatal to the cause of Spain, and that its defence must either be abandoned,or carried on with encreased forces by her allies, since her own armies were unable to maintain their ground. But how could we insist, without incurring the danger of totally alienating the popular mind from us, on the adop tion of measures, which, although calculated to promote the welfare of the nation, were viewed with mistrust and fear by those whom they were intended to relieve ? Their urgency, it is true, was daily growing more apparent. All the strong places in Catalonia had fallen ; Badajoz haci been shamefully surrendered, Asturias re-occupied, and Va lencia had capitulated with an army of 20,000 men within her walls. Cadiz, and a few towns on the eastern coast, though still possessed by the patriots, were besieged, or open to the enemy, and no Spanish force remained sufficiently numerous to form, or to bear the appellation of, an army. Yet, at such an extremity, when self-exertion had ceased, the same national dislike to the employment of allied troops, continued to preva# What could dispel such self-destruc tive blindness ? Were prejudices to be any longer respected? Lord WELLINGTON had reached the Spanish frontiers after the total liberation of Portugal. He saw the sunken state of the country, and the cause of emancipation abandoned. to a few guerilla leaders, brave and active, but at the head of inconsiderable numbers, thinly scattered over the northern provinces of Spain. A nation, which had three years before, in the effervescence of her patriotism, sent upwards of three hundred thousand volunteers to the field, now lay slumber ing under the yoke. He felt himself armed with the means, not merely of breaking her sleep and exciting her to a new feverish effort, to ha followed by deeper dejection, but at L -~ - ~ . SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 1812. POLITICAL DIS2UISITION. VIEW OF THE SPANISH CAMPAIGN. The opening of the Russian war had lately attracted every eNe towards the north, and notwithstanding the advance of our armies in Spain, the Peninsula had ceased to be the focus of public attention and public hope. The military strength of Europe seemed marshalled on the opposite banks of the Niemen, and its magnitude, the importance of the cintest, 'and the skill and celebrity of, the commanders engaged in it, portended no less, in the opinion of man kind, than the final decision of its fate. Gloomy expecta tion sat weighing the former fortunes of war, and antici pating future defeats. The retreat of the Russians within their antient territory, the uprising of Poland, !ike Minerva from the bead of Jupiter, ready armed for battle, the storm slowly gathering on the Swedish shore to burst on NAPO LEON'S rear, all united to hold the mind in painful suspense and anxiety, and Spain, her arduous struggle, and the ex ertions of her allies, were almost forgotten. The veil thus drawn over them is now removed. The blaze of British triumph has lightened the world, and restored the Peninsula to its pre-eminent importance. It is now seen, that on its fields alone true fieedom can be gained, for there only free men fight. The issue of the contest in the north may give a new master to the Continent, and Trench may be suc ceeded by Russian despotism; the complete success of the Spanish cause must abolish all despotic power. In the north, the slaves of NAPOLEON contend with the serfs of Russia, and whosoever conquers, the condition of the people must be servitude. In Spain, a whole population, disciplined and' encouraged by British freemen, struggle, under their guidance, not for the restoration of an arbitrary Sovereign, hut for the emancipation of their country from a foreign yoke, the liberation of their lawful Prince, and the esta blishment of a limited Monarchy. Hence success must plant a portion of British freedom on the Continent, where, having once taken root in a fruitful soil, it will progressively spread over the face of the earth, and restore to mankind the legitimate use of its rights. Our Constitution will then be. come a legislative model, not only, as in former years, to be admired and envied, but to be adopted, or rather imitated with the modifications which circumstances may render ne cessary. We shall then cease, it is true, to be the only nation blessed with the enjoyment of freedom ; but the sa tisfaction of having contributed to the general happiness, and the gratitude of mankind, will more than repay us for the sacrifice of our pride. It now remains to examine how far the accomplishment of that great object, which depends entirely on the ultimate success of the Spanish cause, has been advanced by the operations of onr arid!. Vol. V. No. GO.XLIIL \ s