The National Register.
London, England, 1815-10-08 00:00:00

THE NATJONAL REGISTER.

Some individuals at this period were more forward than
others ; hut one would tell you, he was impelled by the offi-
cers and soldiers; another would say that his troops aban-
d 'ned him, and that they (bagged him along in their impe-
tuosity ; or, if you were to seek the conviction of a principal
agei t, either you would discover none but those who were
innocent, or you would find thousands of accomplices.
What could you reply to this objection 1 That the throne
ought to have preserved France from the return of Buona-
parte, at leaq as much as France ought to have preserved
die throne from it.

4. Those who were honoured with the confidence of the
Monarch, and who were infamous enough to betray him, are
for ever dishonoured in public opinion. After the procla-
mation of the King, they jught to be surrendered to justice
by the Chambers. There are difficulties in conciliating all,
in pacifying all, immediately; but time, moderation, and a
wise dispensation of honours and employments, will have all
the success that can be desired. If it is not in the power of
the best of Kings to restore the country all at once to that
state of happiness and prosperity, from which it has long been
declining, at least his experience, his knowledge, and his mo-
detation, will bring back that tranquillity and political union,
which are the images of happiness and source of all pros-
pet ty.

“The Sovereigns will be faithful to their promises; they
have hitherto shelved themselves the tutelary deities of the
earth; they must wish to complete, from disinterested motives
and solely for the repose of the world and the welfare of
human nature, the noble task which they have imposed upon
themselves, and posterity will never repeat their names with-
sit mespect and without benediction.”

OCT. 8.

toter, and to give life and motion to the nation, by in•
creasing its commerce and its prosperity. Warned by the
lessons of experience, persuaded that the good will, and the
most excellent intentions of the best Kings are insufficient,
since, when alone, and without support, they are wont to
be the sport of perverse counsellors and wicked favourites,
they would not have the monarchy af.,in become the prey
of new Olivarezes and Godoys, but thrt, founded upon sta-
ble laws conformable to our ancient usages, and to the pro-
gress which the science of Government has made in Europe,
the security and the felicity of thestate might be reconciled
with those of individuals, and the rights of individuals with
the prerogatives attached to the King.
Such, Spaniards, are our desires; our deputies, the faith-
fultorgans of them, secured them by means of wise decrees,
which we have all of us sworn before God and man to fulfil
and to obey, thus confirming our rights, giving new
strength to those of the monarch, and recognising the holy
religion of our fathers as the only religion of the state. In
the midst of the disgusts which the misfortunes of a deso-
lating war must occasion, in the midst of the opposition which
the reform of abuses must produce, we have enjoyed internal
tranquillity; no parties have arisen to revolutionize the
state; no proscriptions to alarm and afflict families; calm
and composed we began to enjoy the fruits of rational liberty,
and we felt only that gentle and agreeable motion which is
the life of nations, so that our independence being secured
by the valour and the efforts of our brave soldiers, and civil
liberty confirmed by the regulation and decrees of our
Cortes, nothing was now wanting to our wishes and our hopes
but the return of our captive Monarch; by that the na-
tion avenged the insults it received from a foreign power,
with that our illustrious warriors hoped for the recompence
of their services, and the execution of so many decrees of
the Cortes in their favour, and to which their exploits gave
them so just a title; with that return, the good hoped that
the executive power acquiring the energy which it ought to
possess, and which only a King can give it, every deviation
might be avoided, which the Spanish revolution might have
suffered in time, by consolidating the reforms adopted, and
making those variations which experience and the situation
of Spain and of other nations might shew to be necessary.
We were in daily hopes of this happy event. At length King
Ferdinand entered our territory, directing his steps to Ma-
drid, amidst the benedictions of the good, who hoped every
moment to hear of his entrance into his capital, where, in
union with our Deputies, they thought they already saw him
employed on the felicity of his subjects, confirming some
decrees, giving other new ones, and altering those which, by
common consent, it should be thought necessary to modify
or change; they despised the reports that were soon circu-
lated, that the King did not swear to the constitution, nor
approve of any thing that had been done during his ab-
sence; they attributed this to the bad intentions of inter-
ested persons, and though they saw the King surrounded
by those whose folly, or treason, had drawn him to Bayonne,
placed him in the bands of his enemies, and delivered up
the nation to all the evils of anarchy; they believed that,
instructed by the severe lesson which experience had given
him, he would not suffer himself to be misled by his mis-
taken and pernicious counsellors; but the habitual influence
which they had exercised over his mind from his infancy,
having more power over him, he listened to them anew,
again followed their counsels, and with them again plunged
the nation and himself into an abyss of misfortunes, such as
we, so much at our expense, have felt for above a year.
From these wretched Counsellors proceeded the de-
crees for the destruction of the Cortes; from them the re-