The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-07 00:00:00

SPAIN.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CORPORATION
OF MADRID TO THE PEOPLE OF SPAT N.

The Constitutional Corporation of Madrid, which had
the merit of commencing the movement of the capital
on the 18th of September, followed by the rising of the
whole nation, believe that the time has coma for ex-
laming their conduct and their motives. In two
memorable documents they have been denounced trai-
tors and rebels—it therefore becomes necessary to re-
trace the history of events, in order to demonstrate
where the treason and perjury have existed—where
the loyalty and the patriotism. While facts are re-
cent and known to all, there can be little danger of
deception or misrepresentation ; but the time may
come when malice and imposture may seek to calum-
mate the characters of individuals, and to stigmatise
perhaps the most brilliant moment of our regenera-
tion. A simple narrative will suffice for our purpose.
The events which have just taken place are nothing
more than the consequence of the blind and stupid po-
licy by which they were provoked. Men suffer long,
but not for ever ; and it is a lamentable error to sup-
pose that they forget the injuries they feel in silence ;
that they are content because they arc passive ; that
they arc broken down and degenerate because they are
patient. Their wrath is always the more terrible the
more it has been suppressed ; and after days of tears
and suffering, come those of decision and of vengeance.
Ours has beau the generous vengeance of magnanimous
breasts ; and the sanguinary enemy, who was preparing
punishments and exile for us, has not received from us
the slightest injury or insult. Noble example ! which,
like many others, will lee lost, or repa;.d by fresh attacks
of ingratitude and malevolence.
The people beheld the system of reaction which in
contempt of them threateaed their liberties, and saw
approach the melancholy end which awaited them ;
entrusted the direction of public affairs to persons of
doubtful principles, if not to men openly hostile to the
noble cause which, at the cost of so many sacrifices, was
sustained by the nation ; dissolved a Cortes which gave
securities and inspired confidence in all ; forced and falsi-
fied the national will in a new election in the most scan-
dalous manner, for the purpose of forming a new Legis-
lature, the majority of which could only serve to destroy
the national independence, and to act as a body of re-
serve to despotic power, authorising and consecrating its
usurpations ; our fundamental law attacked in pr jets,
the execution of which would have rendered our consti-
tution a sorry jest, and our liberties an empty name. In
these facts., in short, was traced the outline of what
awaited us, and forged the chains for galling the brave
arms which had but just secured a disputed and vacil-
lating throne. A thousand other reasons inspired these
fears, to entertain which was not levity, nor to feel
alarmed by them timidity. The history of past disap-
pointments came to confirm our existing apprehensions.
No one can forget, for the characters imp revved upon
the memory of misfortune are imperishable, that after a
fearful stri:gle of six years with the great captain of the
age, for the purpose of casting out from our soil an
enemy who had perfidiously invaded it, and to rescue
from slavery a monarch who voluntarily embraced it,
this very monarch signalised his return to a country still
reeking with blood by a decree, which opened the way
to proscription and the dungeon, in reward, no doubt,
of his re-occupation of an empire which he had lost, and
of a throne which be had abandoned. Our liberties
perished, and a nation of heroes soon became a land of
sorrow, and the patrimony of tyrants and informers.
Six years of mourning and misfortunes passed over
us then, during which the measure of the crimes of our
oppressors and of our own sufferings was exhausted.
Again free in 1820, we gave up ourselves to illusions
_
and confidence, inspired by the constant protestations offidelity of the Crown to the charter sworn to but In
the mean time the most abominable intrigues were
hatched, and the scheme of a hundred thousand Then
of a neighbouring nation coming to destroy our institu-
tions was at length realised, and the nation converted
to one great prison, with a scaffold erected in every
Own. Such was the faith kept with us—such the
proofs of sincerity and constancy continually preached
to us.
After a decade of oppression and miseries, the, sceptre
passed to the hands of a new sovereign, and with the