The National Register.
London, England, 1808-12-11 00:00:00

TIM NATIONAL REGISTER.

" man comedy, taking Ina elderly consort by the hand,
" and addressing her in these touching words :—Mariu
" Louisa, we will retire to one qf' the provinces, where ice
" will pass our drys in tranquillity ; and Ferdinand, who
" is a young man, will lake upon !aimed' the burden of the
44 government. The innocence of the galleries might per-
"" baps tolerate ihis trait of Bucolic sublimity ; but there
" is no pit in Europe that would endure it even in a play."•
• Such are the sensations which the simple unaflected narra-
tive of Don Pedro Cevallos produced in the s‘riters of the
Edinburgh Review—a narrative, which, to the honour of
Englishmen. excited such universal pity and indignation in
this country—this narrative, which exposes the successful
machinations of a dark, intriguing, remorseless ruffian,
against the unfortunate Royal Family of ripain,by which they
were deprived in a moment of throne and liberty, and their
lives placed at the discretion of a capricious sanguinary
tyrant; by which they were flung from the summit of
earthly grandeur to the lowest stage of human misery and

degradation. This narrative excites no !:‘yinpathy, no in.

asa•ar.avr•• • _ _ _
dignation, no horror in the Reviewer ; but with the moss

•s"--- -
sovereign defiance of moral and social obligations, with
the most supreme contempt of what others thought or felt
on the occasion, he notices it with no other intention than
to gratify the worst and basest passions of the human
heart, and to expose the excesses, rancour, infatuation,
and inconsistency of mere party-writers. A little reflection
might have taught them that. their sarcastic insinuations
tended to repress the zeal of the public in support of a
cause, which thoy acknowledge themselves is so closely
connected with the security and happiness of this country.
This acknowledgment points out, in the clearest light, their
total want of principle, and their indifference, not only to
the ultimate success of the Spaniards, but to the future
security of the British islands.
They could not certainly have the cause of the Spaniards
at heart, when they resorted to the most unwarrantable
and unfounded allusion., to render the principal and most
ostensible.actors odious and contemptible, and the sangui-
nary catastrophe itself a sutoject of derision and pleasantry.
Let us suppose even that t!,. it attack on the candour and
integrity of Cev ailos and his associates were as just as it is
unprincipled anti iniquitous, and we will entreat them to
explain their motives for making it ; for they must have
known that it injures the common cause, and contributes,
however minutely, to weaken the confidence existing be-
tween the two countries. The triumph of virtue, or the
promotion of the reciprocal alvantage of the !two cona•
tries, could not have been their object, for they cannot be
ignorant that facts might exist, the exposition of which
could offer the most vital blow to the interests of society.
This was unquestionably one of that kind, and when we
consider that the men they have been calumniating are
now flying before a ruthless, savage invader, we cannot
but execrate the cold unfeeling pride, and the dogmatic
obduracy, which induced these Reviewers to deprive; as
far as lay in their power, these generous fugitives of the
only stay they will perhaps soon have under Heaven—the
sympathy and veneration of Britons. i'nprincillcd and un-
feeling dogmatists while \on are ranting and declaiming,
without exposing your property or persons, about freedoo,

and rights, those men, whom you basely asperse, are risk-
ing fortune, life, and country, in their defence. This is
fact, and the best refutation of your malevolent impu-
tations.