The Sun.
London, England, 1822-10-18 00:00:00

ART. VII.-MILITARY ATTITUDE OF FRANCE.

In the speech delivered by Lotus XVIII. at the opening
of the last Session of the Chambers, it seems to have been
formally declared, that the troops assembled in the Pyrennees
had no other object than the execution of sanatory mea-
sures.- The,repeated assurances of peace and good understand-
which have been given to us in the official correspondence of
that Government, corresponded with this statement. But at the
same time it has been observed, that the chiefs of the Spanish
conspiracies arrange in France their plans of aggression
and hostility ; that France has given a reception to the factious,
who found no other means of evading the active and well-directed
pursuit of the national forces ; that in France these factidus
bands have been enabled to make preparations which could not
easily have been effected without the permission of the Govern-
ment of the country, and which must have required such large
sums of money as could not wholly have been derived from
Spain ; and finally, that the French Government has given
orders for assembling in Bayonne, Toulouse, Perpignan, and
other parts of the frontier, a considerable foice of artillery and
infantry, and a vast store of provisions, greatly exceeding what
could for a length of time be required for the supply of the pre-
sent number of troops and fortresses. Thus, whatever may be
the protection or connivance which the conspirators against our
present system have experienced from France, and whatever
may be the intentions of the French Government, Spain, ob-
serving these facts, and prudently conjecturing as to the possi-
bility of the views of the Holy Alliance, must not abandon her
fate to .the will of foreigners, or to uncertain contingencies. Cir-
cumstances require that Spain should provide against every
event, and that for this end, and in order to appear on the
political stage of Europe with the respectability due to hei cha-
racter, the military resources mow at the disposal of the Govern-
ment should be augmented.
ART. VIII.-rRESENT MILITARY ATTITUDE OF POR-

TUGAL.

The millitary stale of Portugal is reduced tO its minimum,
for the seine reasons which dictated the reduction of the Spanish
permanent armed, force ; and on those points of her frontier
which comeimmediately in contact with ours, those troops only
are maintained which are necessary for the preservation of order,
and the custody of the places. Thus nothing is to be feared
from Portugal; on the contrary, it is rather to be presumed that
the Government of that kingdom will always be ready to fur-
nish to his Majesty, in case of extremity, every assistance it
can afford.
ART. IX.-PRESENT MILITARY ATTITUDE OF ENGLAND
AND MOROCCO, AS FAR AS REGARDS GIBRALTAR, THE
NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CEUTA, AND THE AFRICAN POS-
SESSIONS.
With regard to the fortress of Gibraltar, England retains

Of all the districts which border cn France, the fifth is that
which has longest been infested with factious banditti. This
has been owing to the instigations..hf the quondam General
Egnia,and other perverse Spaniards, who, resiiiing in Bayonne,
have employed themselves in intrigues for keeping the adjoin-
ing provinces in a state of rebellion.
But since the month of April last, at which time it appears
the plan for subverting the Spanish Government began to be
pat in motion, the activity of thoSe traitors has been much
more open and mischievous. They have recruited banditti for
invading our territory ; they have made purchases of arms,
clothing, and horSeS, for the same purpose. They hate been
supplied with treasures, the source of which it is easy to conjec-
ture, and which have not all proceeded from the Peninsula, to
meet those expenees, and to foment and maintain the insurrec-
tion in the provinces.
Nevertheless, the insurrection in the fifth district has nothing
in it to excite alarm. There have been moments when it was
more active, but it,is now reduced almost to a nullity. The
operations of the factious have had no determined object—their
plan has merely been to excite every where commotions. The
ringleader appears to be Quesada, though always *dependent
upon Eguia. They have been unable to form any system of
administration or government, because they-have never held
possession of any territory
.in this district. , They have, how-
ever, in pursuance of their usual plan, organized a superior
Junta at had, a place situated in the midst of frests,. close' to
the French frontier which they have fortified with artillery,'
and which forms a kind of base for their operations. 'This. is
the only point they possess in the whole Of this district.; but it
is one in which they place much interest, as it contriliutes to
enable them to intercept the public correspondence.

ART. XI.-ATTITUDE OF THE' INSURGENTS OF TEE

SIXTH MILITARY DISTRICT, AND THE CONTIGUOUS

PROVINCE OF CATALONIA.
This district was in the beginning the most tranquil of the
three which border on France, but the faZtious.Who roamed
about its territory soon succeeded in exciting, dicord. Slight
commotions took place in the months of May and Jane, but in
the month of July there appeared symptoms of a general in-
surrection—the consequence of the operations in Navarre and
Catalonia, the loss of Seo de Urgel, the taking of Marella, and
the affair of Siguenza.
But' the most important occurrence. of that month was the loss
of Mequinenza. in the month of August, the re-conquest of
Mequinenza was seriously contemplated, but the excursion of
the Trappist from Catalonia to Navarre, _and his return with
Quesada to 'Catalonia, required the continued attention of all
the troops in the district.. At present_ the province of Cala-
tayud is tranquil, as is also that of Saragossa. In the province
of-Huesca, the insurgents have fortified a. point. They have
obtained several triumphs in this quarter, which have lately
been augmented by the defeat of pact of the column of Ta-
buenea. The character of the insurrection in this district is
less serious than in the other two which adjoin France, because
the country is less accessible to foreign instigation, and because
there always has been since the'beginping a disposition to stifle
the commotion. The disturbances have always been excited by
factions from other districts. ,The insurgents possess no forti.
fled point in *e territory except Mequinenza, and there is no
information of their having organized any. system of adMinis-
tration, or of their having formed a governing junta.

ART. XII.-ATTITUDE OF THE INSURGENTS OF THE 7TH

_
:NIILITAR'Sr DISTRICT.
Inthis district the insurrection has assumed so decided and
formidable an aspect, that the Government has determined to
establish in it an army of operation. The disturbed state of
Catalonia is the more remarkable, for, until the beginning of
the present year, there appeared no symptom of insurrection in
that part of the country, and the principal towns, such as
Barcelona, Reus, Tarragona, Manresa, Mataro, &c., were alway s
distinguished for a truly constitutional spirit ; and the revolu-
tion here is the more to be feared, as the mountainous nature
of the country is in an extraordinary- degree favourable to re-
sistance.'
If the revolution were general in the; th district, there would

.on, some (Alter points public tranquillity, has been tempo.
ratify disturbed, but as speedily- re-established. The greatest
evil produced by these latter commotions has been the inter-
ruption of public correspondence for a few days. The Go-
vernment has, however, re-established the communications.
This is a succinct picture of the present insurrection in the
different provinces• of the Peninsula, and from it may be de-
duced two consequences most flattering to the cause of liberty :
let, That the army is the firmest support of that cause ;-
2,11 y, That among tfiose devoted to it is to be numbered the
rnosecw.lightened, the most industrious, and the most wealthy
part of the Spartis'a nation.