The National Register.
London, England, 1808-12-18 00:00:00

Imw

• I

THE

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18,

No. 51..

POLL ricAL DISQUISITION.

NUMPAII, FIFTI.

SPAIN AND BRITISH CO-OPERATION.

The subjugation of Europe, after the peace of Tilsit,
seemed to be accomplished. The most enlightened men of
the last century considered such an event as impossible.
However, after the science of war and government had
been carried to a point. of perfection they bad never before '
attained, this chimera, which had disturbed so much the
imaginations of our countrymen during the reign of King
William, and was considered only as a political bug-bear
during the greater part of the last century, has received
form and existence in our days. Those who attempted to
prove the impossibility of such an occurrence, made no
difficulty, however, in acknowledging, that were such an
event to occur, it would be one of the greatest evils-that
ever befel society ; as nothing could produce it hut joine
violent concussion in the moral and political world. This
part of their prediction has been justified t And the French
revolution, which changed a community devoted to habits
of peaceable industry, into a nation of armed men, pre-
ceded and prepared this system of subjugation.
This revolution, which gave birth to so many crimes,
and engendered such distinguished talents, produced, at
last, a man, who united in his own person all the atroci-
ties and genius generally produced by such memorable
occurrences. his prudence, his ambition, his dissimula-
tion, his profound knowledge of the military art, his in-
difference to religious or moral restrictions, his plausNiity,
were only inferior to his good fortune. Such an individual
in any country, or any age, at the head of a government
restricted by laws and salutary customs, would afford the
neighbouring states just cause for terror and alarm ; but
at the head of a community violently transformed into
nation of soldiers, over whom he exercises the most un-
limited controul ; whose collected will, talents, mental and
personal strength, are absolutely and unconditionally at
his disposal, whenever he wishes to employ them ;—sach a
man, sovereign arbiter over the lives and fortunes of such
a people, is, unquestionably, the most porteatious appa-
titiou ever recorded. The utmost range and exertions of
public and private virtues, are scarcely adequatieto protect
the must powerful states from sinking under his ascen-
dancy ; and for one that has the fortune or virtue enough
to escape, ten are sure to succumb.

An universal monarchy, with all its excesses and t3'ran•
nical restrictions,
.was considered by even the most ardent
and independent spirits as unavoidable, long before the
peace of Tilsit. They drew this conclusion from the
monstrous apparition we have alluded to : and nations, in
consequence of reiterated disasters, and fruitless attempts
to oppose any resistance to this overwhelming torrent,
1111)".ght oll!y of averting its rage by •tiinely and voluatary
►9f. •

.

-

.',w"~!~

Our Bing, elonOtititticin, atria Latul. •


1808. PRICE 84.

submission. Then the situation of Europe became truly
desperate; and any attempt to rouse it from its degrada-
tion, was resisted by men most at erse to this monstrons
debasement, because they despaired of finding in any mos
Bern community, N iri ue or euergy enough to do it with
successs and failures rendered the evil more comprehensive
and irremediable.
Such was the discouraging and desperate vspect of public
affairs *t the commencement of this very scar. The de-
spoudeucy of the good and the patriotic in every part of
the Continent excluded even .a faint ray of salvation ; and
excommunicated by the arrogant conqueror within our
insular limits, we thought only of protectnig oursches•
Then occurred, in the midst of the universal gloom, one
of those unhoped for events, which baffle calculation;
and, as If to prove the weakness of political reasoning, it
happened in a country where, from two centuries of mal-
administration and the most inveterate abuses, regeneration
and vigour were considered impossible. This Finset] iusurrec-
tion of a people, so long sunk in natural decripitude, to
revenge the insult offered to their national independeoct„
is too sublime an occurrence to require elaborate commen-
datiOn. It is enough to say, it shook to its very founda-
tion that colossal system of spoliation, whose duration
and stability were thought superior to ordinary resistance
and modern energy. The clash was heard on our shores:
and we answered it with mingled shouts of astonishment
and applause.
'['he insurrection of the Spaniards was spontaneous as
well as unanimous; and the people of this country dis-
playedjaa union of wishes for their instantaneous support,
which proves how highly sensible they were to the recipro4
cal advantages it secured. Parties forgot their animosities,
ambition its selfishness, and sectarists their prejudices, and
the subjects of the United Kingdom hastened to the throne,
to assure his 'Majesty of their perfect acquiescence in the
most vigorous and efficacious measures iu support of so
great and good a cause. The sympathy and enthusiasm
spread through all the orders of society ; and it any one
did exist, so dead to moral feelings, and indifferent to the
happiness and dignity of his species, as to attempt to damp
this ebullition of national patriotism, he was indignantly
reproved for his selfishness and apathy,
The first efforts of the Spaniards justified the warm in-
terest we manifested in their behalf ; and in less than three
months they exterminated one half of their invaders, and
drove the remainder, who fled like miserable Ingitittes to
the foot of the Pyrenees. These great exertiolta, this glo
rious success against a formidable army, who arrogated, in
consequence of former exploits, the title of invincible, be•
gat in the converors too much confidence, and, conse-
quently, a momentary relaxation; though their high prin-
ciples lost not a particle of their first energy. Ths
removal also of the most distinguished moniberil of the
provincial Junta's from the immediate scene of their Who-
' enee, and the ill advised resolution of depriving those who
r !mained, of their political weight, unfortunate'', re:arded
too efforts of that hi4h-spirited community. The invadatk
~ • .

e,

. • -.1e,•