The National Register. — London, England, 1809-11-12 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. it is of almost inestimable advantage. We bail it as a good omen of the ultimate success of that brave and injured people. Their efforts have been hitherto misrepresented, and their character misunderstood. Prejudice and folly, party spirit and ignorance, have taken the pencil alter nately, and having daubed a caricature, ushered it to the world as a perfect likeness of the Spanish nation. It is a duty incumbent upon every honest writer, and every ho nest man, to expose this gross imposture, and rescue the character of that injured country from the indecent out rages, which some cotemporary prints here at home, vieing with the Paris Journals, have offered to her govern ment, armies, institutions, and manners. The Spaniards, in order to insure success to the noble cause they arc nobly contending for, only wanted arms, officers of experience, and habits of discipline. Their courage was nevercalled in question. Their devotion to their soil, their government, and captive Sovereign ; their invincible sense of the trea chery, ingratitude, low cunning, and rapacity of the enemy, were visible to every man not willfully blind, or perversely ignorant. These qualities enabled them, under every dis advantage, to oppose, for eighteen months, the disci plined and numerous armies which the tyrant had succes sively detached, for their subjection. With regard to men and things there is no other accurate standard of judgment than comparison. If we compare the resistance made in the Peninsula, with that which the veteran armies of Aus tria and Prussia offered to the same enemy, we shall be able to appreciate the exertions of the Spanish Patriots. They have now maintained their independence, for more than a year and a half, contending with all the disadvan tages of a very defective military system, incompetent leaders, and, perhaps, incompetent Government. Their courage and their patriotism enabled them to sustain this arduous contest, and supported them during all its reverses. But a change incalculable in its consequences, and decisive, we trust, of their fortunes, has imperceptibly introduced itself into their armies: they have been beiten into dis cipline, and they may boast like CZAR PETER, of having learned the art of war, from those dreadful defeats, which, at the time, were regarded as the death-blow of their free dom. They were only stunned, and, ANTEUS like, rose from the parent earth, with renovated vigour. Another salutary innovation is likewise perceptible,—time and opportunity have developed those talents, which con stitute a capacity to command and they may now boast of possessing Officers of merit and intelligence. The Duke del PAagnie, who obtained the late victory, learned the art of war under Moactu, and served under that Ge- tieral during his memorable retreat in the year 1796. BAL. LASTEROS 9 who now commands the Gallician army, enjoys the highest estimation amongst his countrymen, and pos sesses the reputation of being a very intelligent, brave, and enterprising Officer, BLAKE enjoys and merits the same character ; and YENZGAS, who commands the army . in La Mancha, possesses experience, and unites boldness with caution in his operations, Whatever be the result of this memorable contest,—whether the tyrant succeed, or not, in his nefarious project,—the Spaniards have already per formed enough, to command the esteem and sympathy of every man•who Wes free um, virtue, and courage. _ Ttl The Peace, concluded between France and Austria, has been published with the usual formalities at Paris ; and the conditions communicated, through the medium of the papers. to the French people. There was no extraordib nary assemblage of the Senate convened ; no orators upon this occasion tort open anew the scars of the vanquished, by the insolence of their declamation ; or flattered the national vanity, and the pride of the tyrant himself, by a pompous enumeration of the victories which conquered this Peace. No : every thing was performed with a de gree of modesty and simplicity, which would remind us of the unostentatious grandeur of the Si artamms ; but which we were not prepared to sec revived in time French capital. Let us, if possible, account for this cham;e in the tone and manner of the vainest and most insolent in dividual breathing. There are few of our Readers, who do not recollect the menaces hurled by BUONAPARTE against the Empercr FRANCIS, after the first advantages he had gained at Ecmuhl, and ,in the neighbourhood of Ratisboa. There are few, we believe, who at that time did not anticipate the fulfilment of these threats. In proportion as the ty rant advanced, in his rapid march, towards the Austrian Capital, his presumption and bravadoes seemed to . increase; and, previous to his arrival there, he addressed the welt known Proclamation to the Hungarians, in which he in vited them to assert their independence, and cheese a King of their own. All these things occurred before his ar rival at Vienna. He had not bee in that capital a week, when a complete revolution was perceptible in his lan guage. Instead of re-commencing his youthful trade of Jacobin, and exciting Subjects to rebellion against their lawful Sovereign, he thought it more adviseable to look for success to the resources of his military genius. Not a single deputy, poor . or rich, noble or vassal, arrived in the mean time from Hungary, to solicit the protection of NA rocEore ; though the country was completely open, and the subjection of the Austrian Empire already anticipated in every part of Europe. What a noble and deserved cc logy does this single circumstance confer upon the loyalty and magnanimity of the Hungarian People ! What a mor tification must it have been at the same time to the wretch who had the meanness to tamper with their fidelity ! The Hungarians remained the same great and good peep!a they were at the death of Charles VI. when his illustri ous daughter appealed to their protecting arm against the. persecution of her enemies. Who has not read their /1/0-. riamur pro rege nostro, Maria Theresa I Who ever read it,. that did not feel admiration and tenderness for those gem_ rous magnates ? On the approach of a more terrible (mem% the Hungarians have once more re-asserted their character for courage and loyalty ; and their conduct, as well as that of the other provinces, during the late campaigno.is the best reply to the savage sarcasms, which s(nee brutal, stupid wretches, in this country, were molt to indulge in, dnrii g the late campaign, against the subjects of the Emper or FRANCIS. In this age of desolation, rapine, disorder, amid revolution, it must afford the friend of order and huma., nity a vast source of consolation, whenever he recall th e conduct displayed by the Austrian people in general, during ',.." -r ; . NOV. 12. I