Star.
London, England, 1809-12-18 00:00:00

PROCLAMATION OF THE SUPREME JUNTA.

" SPANIARDS !-Our enemies announce, as posi• j
tively certain, a peace in Germany, and the circum-
stances which accompany this notice give it a cha-
racter of truth, which leave little room for doubt.—
They already threaten us with the powerful reinforce-
ments which they suppose to be marching to corn-
plete our ruin ; already, proudly elated with the fa-
vourable aspect which their affairs in the North have
assumed, they insolently exhort us to submit to the
clemency of the conqueror, and tamely bow our necks
to the yoke.
What unheard of insolence ! unparalleled ef-
frontery ! which posterity will scarcely believe, not-
withstanding the testimony of public records. Thus
do these barbarians dare to impute to us the calami-
ties which this country has suffered from their scan-
dalous aggression, and thus make us responsible for
those which are about to befal us anew, should we
prolong our resistance. But when have we ever seen
the innocent victims accused of the ferocity with
which the inhuman tyrant sacrifices them ? These
declaimers very soon forget, when their armies en-
tered
Spain, how they entered—what posts they oc-
cupied—what was the signal of combat which they
gave--and the whole series of gratuitous and unpa-
ralleled atrocities which they committed against us.
I3ecause in .heir own degraded hearts they find nothing
but servile submission when they are feeble, and inso-
lent atrocity when they are strong, they, forsooth,
imagine that the Spaniards, equally destitute of the
support of native fortitude, will renounce their just
and lofty expectations. Who has told them that our
virtue was to be assayed by so low a standard ? They
may, perhaps, throw greater obstacles in our way. T-
- will redouble our efforts to surmount them.—
Our toils, our dangers, will be augmented. We shall
acquire the greater glory.
.‘ No ! slaves of Bonaparte, waste not your time in
practising kacknied artifices, which, at this time of
day, can deceive nobody. Speak out frankly, and
say, l Because we think ourselves the Most powerful
we arc resolved to be the most wicked of mankind.'
This language, however barbarous the sentiment
which it conveys, would be consistent and intelligible.
But do not attempt to persuade us that the abandon-
ment of our just rights is wisdom, and cowardice
prudence, Though your iniquitous aggression has
placed us between ignominy and death, what alter- '
native can you expect a magnanimous nation to
adopt, except that of defending itself to the last extremi-
ty, rather than consent to so disgraceful a submission ?
Rob, murder, waste, and destroy : that you have
been doing for these twenty months past ; but with
what effect, you well know ; and so also do the pro-
vinces you occupy ; where, in proportion to the in-
juries you inflict upon them, increases the insuperable
aversion they bear towards you, the eternal rancour
and implacable revenge with which they incessantly
swear to pursue you. .

To yield !LAre these sophists really aware of
the advice which they are giving to a people the most
jealous of their honour of any nation upon the face
of the globe ? After such admirable efforts, such in-
credible successes, it would be an act of infamy, for
which no precedent can be found in the pages of our
history, to fall down at the feet of the crowned slave
that Bonaparte has sent us for a King ? And for
what should we do so ? That, from the midst of his
impious orgies, the pimps and parasites who offer him
adulation, and the impure prostitutes who accompany
him, he may point nut with his anger the temples
which are to be burnt, the manors which are to be
partitioned among his odious satellites, the virgins
and matrons who are to be dragged to his seraglio,
the youths who are to be sent off as a tribute to the
French Minotaur !

Think not, Spaniards, that the Junta thus aa.,
dresses you to excite your valour by the arts of lan-
gaage. 'What occasion is there for words, when
things speak for themselves with such persuasive ener-
gy ? Your houses are demolished, your temples laid
in ashes, your fields ravaged, your families dispersed,
or hurried to the grave. Shall we have made so many
sac..ifices, shall the flames of war have consumed one
half of Spain, in order that we should shamefully
abandon the other half, to that much more destruc-
tive peace which awaits it at the hands of the enemy?
Surely nobody can be the dupe of the insidious pa-
rade of reform which the French hold forth in their

•
Proclamations. The Tartar, who governs them, has
decreed that Spain shall have neither industry, nor
commerce, nor colonies, nor population, nor any po-
litical representation whatsoever. To be turned into
a vast and solitary sheep -walk, in order to breed
flocks which shall supply the French manufactures
with our valuable wools ; to form a nursery of hu-
man beings, to be hurried away to slaughter; mise-
ry, ruin, degradation in every part of the Peninsula:
—such is the fate to which he consigns the country
the most favoured of HEAVEN of any upon earth!—
But should our apathy even go so far as to induce us
to abandon interests so highly valuable, could we ever
consent to the total destruction of that holy religion
in which we were born, and which, in all our pro-
ceedings, civil and political, we 'have sworn to pre-
serve ? Shall we, then, abandon the interest of
HEAVEN, and the faith of our fathers, to the sacrile-
gious derision of a frantic banditti ? And shall the
Spanish nation, celebrated in every quarter of the
globe for their fervid piety, forsake the sanctuary,
which, for seven successive centuries, and with the
loss of thousands of warriors, our ancestors defended
against the impious ferocity of the Saracens ? Were
we to so act, the victims who have fallen in this me-
morable contest, would lift up their heads from their
graves, and say to us—' Perfidious, ungrateful
wretches ! Have we fallen an idle sacrifice ? Is our
blood of no estimation in your eyes ?' No ! brave.
fellow-countrymen, now no more, rest in peace, and
let not that agonizing solicitude disturb the repose of
your sepulchres. Your glorious example has taught
us our first and greatest duty, and we are perfectly
convinced that the peace which we ought to seek is
not behind but before us. It is through war and com-
, bats, it is by valour and noble daring, that we have
' to procure that tranquillity, that repose, of which
those traitors have despoiled us. Do we fear death ?
Many of our companions have already met it, and
sealed with their blood the solemn oath which all of
us have taken. Who can fly from it ? Who shall
dissolve that alliance of glory and danger to which all
of us are subject. Our country is laid waste, and we
I are insulted, and treated as a vile herd of cattle,
which are bought and sold, and slaughtered when
our master pleases. Our King—Spaniards ! Would
you have infused into your hearts that ardour and
1 energy which lead to victory ? Remember the vile,
' the treacherous manner in which this abominable
1 usurper tore him from our arms. He called himself
' his :11y, his protec:or, his friend ; he pretended to
give him the kiss ef peace, but his embraces are the
lo ds of the serpent, which twine round the innocent
victim, and drag him captive to his cavern. A per-
fidy unknown to civilized nations, and scarcely prac-
i ti el among tLe most barbarous, was reserved in store
1 for our unfortunate Monarch. Behold, condemned
1 to groan in solitude, surrounded by guards and spies,
the idolized object of your hopes ; him whom you
destine to the glory of the Throne, that he may go-
vern you with benevolence and justice. See him in-
cessantly fixing his streaming eyes upon his country !
; Hear him, amidst the anguish of his sufferings, im-
I ploring the valour of his beloved Spaniards, and call-
ing upon them for liberty or revenge.
" There is no peace—there can be no peace in this
1 state of things. That Spain should be free, was, and
still is, the universal wish of the nation : or that it
i may become an immense desart, one vast sepulchre,
where the accumulated carcases of French and Spa-
niards shall exhibit to future ages our glory and their
ignominy.
" But fortune is not so inimical to virtue as to
Ileave to its defenders only that melancholy alterna-
tive. It is written in Heaven, and the history of all
ages attests the fact, that the people who are decidedly
attached to their liberty and independence must ulti.
mately establish them, in despite of all the artifices
and all the violence of tyranny. Victory, which is
so frequently the boon of Fortune, must be the reward
of fortitude and constancy. What but these defended
the small republics of Greece from the barbarous in-
vasion of Xerxes ? What protected the capitol when
assailed by the Gauls ? What preserved it from the
arms of Hannibal? What, in more modern times,
rescued the Swiss from German t 3 ranny, and gave
independence to Holland, notwithstanding the great
power of our ancestors ? What, in fine, inspires at
present the Tyrolese with such heroic resolution, that,
though surrounded on every side by enemies, and
abandoned by their protectors, they take refuge in
their rocks, and on the summit of their mountains,
and hurl defiance and defeat on the battalions of the
conqueror of Dantzic ?
" Let us, bravely, imitate their example ; our
situation is the same : we are animated with the same
ardour, and should support ourselves with the same
hopes. The GOD of armies, for whom we fight,
will protect us, and in reward for the unshaken for-
titude with which we have encountered adversity,
will finally conduct us through all the dangers that
surround us to the throne of independence.
" Spaniards, the Junta announces this to you
frankly, that you may not for a monient be ignorant
of the danger which threatens your country ; they
announce it to you, with confidence that you will
shew yourselves worthy of the cause which you de-
fend, and of the admiration of the universe; they
announce it to you, because appointed to the sacred
duty of saving the State, and, convinced that it is the
unanimous wish of the Spaniards to secure their free-
dom at every risk, they will make every possible effort
to expel the enemy.
44 When the storm rages, the most valuable trea-
sures must be thrown into the sea to save the vessel
from sinking, Perish the man whose selfishness can
render him wanting in his duty, or induce him to
conceal what is necessary to be distributed among
his brethren for the common defence!—Perish a thou-
sand times the wretch who can prefer his own interest
to the delivery of his country ! All such the state
will severely punish. Our enemies omit no means
which can be employed for our destruction, and shall
we neglect any which can conduce to our preserva-
tion ! There are provinces which have driven out
the enemy from among them ; and shall not those
who have not yet suffered from such a scourge, sacri-
fice every thing to preserve themselves from it ? Our
brave soldiers endure the rigours of winter, and the
scorching heats of summer, and nobly encounter all
the dangers of battle ; and shall we, remaining
quietly at our homes, forgetful of their incalculable
fatigues,lthink only of preserving our wishes, -and re.
fuse to resign even the least of our luxurious enjoy.
mitts i
N The victory must be ours, if we continue aud

• • •
I conclude the great enterprise we have undertaken
with the same enthusiasm with which we began it.—
The colossal mass of force and resistance which we
must oppose to our enemy, must be composed of the
forces of all, of the sacrifices of all; and then what will
it import that he pours upon us anew the legions with
which he has been successful in Germany, or the
swarm of conscripts he endeavours to drag from
France. With 80,000 less troops than we now have
we began the war ; it was begun on his side with two
hundred thousand more. The experience we have
obtained in two campaigns, and our very desperationf
will consign these hordes of banditti to the same fa't
which the former have suffered. If some of the Mo-
narchs of the North have consented to become the
slaves of this new Tamerlane, and at the expence of
ages of infamy have purchased a moment's respite
till their turn shall come to be devoured, what is that
to us, a great nation, resolved to triumph or perish ?
When we, twenty months ago, armed against tyran-
ny, did we ask their cousent ? Did we not enter into
the contest single-kanded ? Did we not, for one cam-
paign, maintain it single-handed ? Europe, when
she first heard of it, refused to believe it. When she
saw it, she looked upon it as a sudden and ephemeral
meteor ; and even now, contemplating the effects of
our constancy and our magnanimity in the midst of
our reverses, she considers it as a phenomenon, a
prodigy, in the series of political events. Let her
continue to behold us, she ought, with admiration,
or, if it must be so, with terror. We are deficient in
none of the means necessary for our defence. Our
connection is daily drawn closer with America, to
whose assistance, equally well-timed and generous,
the Mother Country is so deeply indebted, and in
whose zeal and loyalty is centered a great part of our
hopes. We are resolved to perish or triumph. The
alliance we have contracted with the British nation
continues, and will continue, That nation has la-
Inked for ti its blood an i its treasures, and is inti.
tied to our gratitude, and that of future ages, Let
the machinations of intrigue, or the suggestions of feat
prevail with weak governments, or misled cabinets ;
let them (and welcome !) conclude Treaties of Peace,
illusory on the part of him who grants, and disgrace-
ful on th( of those who - them Let all

those who have returned to France, an estimate rriv,
be formed of the incredible number of I•'renchrre;..
who have perished by the hands of the despised Spa.
niards. _

AMERICA.

BOSTON, NOVEMBER 14.

Captain Fraser, arrived at Charleston froth Saint
Pierre, Martinique, which he left on the Ist October,
ini;)rms, that preparations were making at Marti-
nique for an attack on Guadaloupe.
NovEmr.Ea 17.—We are informed that obr Go.
vcrnment has received dispatches from Mr. Pinckney,
dated October 5, and from Mr. Armstrong, as late
;it September 20. By the letters from Mr. Pinckney
it appears, that he expects no alteration in the mea-
sures of Britain towards this country will be brought
about by the late change in the Ministry. Indeed, it
is merely a change of men, not of measures. Mr.
Armstrong's dispatches hold out no favourable pros-
pect respectin& our differences with France. On the
whole, we think Mr. Madison will have nothing to
jay before the Congress which can cheer the gloomy
prospect now before bur merchants.