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

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

allianomagailia4ligalawle
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. without
. .

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 they
created. 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 confirmed by the
effusion of views, whirl' moved the sensiMility of 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 Coates, as-
s, mbled in a manner never 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