The Sun.
London, England, 1808-10-24 00:00:00

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LI'RICE ;;;O:PNC•

SP~II A'.

JUSTI:2ICATION TO THE srANlsn NATIO- OF THE
CONDUCT O,F THE CAPTAIN-GittiERAL OF ANDA".

LUSIA TOWARDS DUPONT AND THE. GTHEit.

FRENCAI GLN.ERALS.
Having repeatedly received anonymon letters-
from various dines of Spain,'and even tram Madrid,
insisting ttat nay honour and the national juitic4
and service' required the extermination of DoroNT
acid • the Dther French Getiel'als ; some adding
also, that this .bloody sentence should have, been
executed upon all the :prisoners ; I deem it
incumbent Upon me to avow the reasons which-
led rite not to accede to such cruel desires,_ and
to oppose vigorously their being carried iutd e&t. -
cution.-

." I confess that the first of these ananymous
tern, by their bad writing and coarse style, appeAred
to, me to proceed frdm persons low,' ignorant, mil
habituated to crimes, who delight only in the ethision
of hUman.hlood ;
,hut, at the same time, the ele.etnt.
stvleand the consistent reasoning employed in others •
of those letters, Coevinced me that those opinjons
were- adopted, by persons not without in'formiition
and education : so that I could not but douht the
justness of my own notions; being so oodesite to
theirs. But I shall no;w state them' simply; th...t
they may be duly apprecieted•by all,
" In the first place, I do not execute, or desire
to execute, the supreme power ; and it was t he Juut.l
of Seville, which, for weighty reasons; riot fit for the
pphlic ear, suspended the transportation of Dupos-e
and the other French Generals. I 1-pd only to obey ;
for it •is not, in my charader or manner of thinking
ever to resist a constituted authority, winch can on-
ly occasion civil dissentions, Coe greatest evil a natiol
can softer, and which I shall never spare any saCri.!
floes to avoid.
But independently of this substantial reason for
my cotione , iow Could I ever
_adopt so-atrociook
VeligCaffee,.ad which must draw after it such me--
lancholy and horrible consequences ?
" If 'Mot AT; DUPONT; JUNOT—if the 'troops
they cornanlnd have committed rakes, robberies, and
murders,_titid have violated the temples, these eels
have been committed either without or with the or-
ders-of their Sovereign. In the 'first case, he will
punish them ; " -and in the second, if we punish
them, noti,catching the,perpetrators in the fat, and
punishing violence by violence, but after they have
surrendered theirarms-on the faith of a capit_i
tda:iontio,t •
granted by-the only legitimate authority, in t In; case
NAPohEON wo"uld 'not fail to exercise the right of
retaliation, and consequently all those would be the
victims of his rage whom his base ,policy d
wish to preserve. The sanguinary executions which
would follow, would make the whole nation bitter-
ly lament, even-those included who had demanded'
the punishment of Duroti'r. Every one would Say
then, I no doubt, 4 You, MORLA, with your
yetrs, Study, and experience, ought. to have fore=,
seen the -melancholy re ult of our- wishes ; how
could you accede to them? lid you. not perceiee
that they were produced by the'disgusting asped of
French atrocities, and the continual declamations Of
an unthinking- populace, who are unable to com-
bine, who see not the tendencies of thifigs, and aro
always guided by Erst impressions? If you foresaw
this, you were a traitor ; it not, you we * a fool.'
It is this want of combining ideas, :111., habit- of
giving way to first impressions, which ucLasion the'
popolace, and, most of all, the women, to treat the,
prisoners ill in all wars : not being themselves expos-
ed to reprisals, they do not foresee-what the enemy,
may inflid'upoti the brave and *honourable soldier
who defends them. But they who are themselves
exposed to suffer the cruelty, of the enemy, are
themselves generOus and humane. Our champions
of Laylen, who had faced the Most violent attaCk's
of ,the.enemy—who saw their companions dead be-
fore them, or uttering their last -groans—who were
covered with their own blood,' and had been eye-
witue.,ses of the depravity and iniquity of the ene-
my : no sooner had Duenst and his army thrown
down their arms, than theSe very men laid aside
their anger, furnished them with wagons,
_and
magnanimously fed them with their own hands.
This is the cited; produced by the idea.of being. ex-.
posed to a similar situation. But .on the contrary,
people removed from the seat of war—they who are
exempt from military duties, and who avoid them
and fly from them through pusillanimity—they en-
deavour to display the valour which -they have nor,
by bravaJoes and by canvassing military operations,
giving it to be understood that in them are to
thund more skill and valoUrp; these are they, wl.>
feeling the valour of a hangman, wish to-supply 11:s
plike, by exterminating those Whom their generous
countrymen have conquered ; being eager to execu'e
those whom military force has_vanquiShed. Thee
'too are the persons. who, on the present occasien,
'have-stripped the vanquished ; net, in the:noble de-
sign of furnishing the Stair: with the mon.s of col,-
Ainu•ing 'the, war., nor w ith the just inteatioti of
turning the plunder lawfnl but
to appropriate to themseiveslthe booty, in defiance
...of all laW and prObity.
Happily it Only the lowest of the populace
who in this respeet depart from the CharaCterisiic
nobleness and generosity of the Spanish 'Peoplq. Not
insult the vanquished, not to avenge injuries on _
:the fallen, arid to ,forgive the, prostrate; are .vinnes
.itide4ble, On the,,,Spanish heart. • It is. only rou:ed
vice, the wretchedness resulting frO) the worst of
edneaiion, and the grossest stupidity, _which are
.able to etEtee
On the contrary, since the intro;buaion of .the
Christian religion,andtheciviliiation spread by that
luminous torch of divinity over she seled of man-
kind—after having recognized the precept, to Nee
our: enemies, all .the nations which have obeyed it, -
have laid aside the cruelties and barbarities practised
in_War before that time. To be massacred, mutilat-
ed, or
.enslaved, was then the common- fate of