Star.
London, England, 1830-09-02 00:00:00

have been kept, you know, Spaniards—you who had so much to deplore
in the Fix succeeding years. Prisons choked up with victims ; tribunals
overturned, to substitute in :their place sanguinary commissions; your
representative.* entombed in dungeons, and together with other patriots
condemned, without trial, without hearing even, by the mere orders of the
King, to death, or other punishments even more severe than death itself;
perjnry and calumny encouraged ; the most infamous informers loaded
with favour and reward ; the ferocious Inquisition re-estanlislied •
torture renewed; your deserving defenders treated with contempt ; and
many of them reduced to famime and nakedness ; the kingdom, go-
verned by Camarillas, waging war against each other; the glory and
consideration which we gained with so much cost in the preceding strug-
gle, lost in one moment ; Spain held as nothing, and excluded from the
consultations of Europe • the public sale of the favours of the Govern.
ment ; scandalous dilapidation ; unlimited corruption, and universal
misrule • such were the gifts you received from one who protested that
be desired to govern you as a father.
At length the nation grew weary of so much suffering, and raised her
voice against despotism. What other country has had such just cause
to do so ? Nevertheless, ever generous, loyal, and moderate, it cried
out only against the vices of Government, preserved the greatest respect
for the person and legitimate authority of the King, and stained by no
excess that memorable change. Your oppressors, terrified by the na-
tional clamour, again attempted to deceive you, and again offered to
assemble the ortes : but it was too late : they are now too well known.
The nation proclaimed the institutions, which had been overthrown by
force and perfidy, and the King, united with her, confessed that he had
been deceived, adopted and swore fidelity to them, and commanded them
to be observed.

In vain self interest endeavours to persuade the world that this rising
was confined to a few troops.
The repeated though unsuccessful attempts which were made previous
to 1820, plainly show what the national feeling was; and that feeling
was afterwards strongly marked by the fate which attended some bodies
of military, who were either destroyed or besieged, by superior forces,
without hope of succour, when the provinces simultaneously rose in the
most distant parts of the kingdom, and demanded the constitution of 1812.
What the real wish of the nation was is sufficiently evident from the
joy with which the King's proclamation was received, from the seal and
order with which the people proceeded to elect their deputies, and from
the enthusiasm which accompanied the opening of the Constitutional
Cones. In the midst of those Cortes you beheld the Monarch once
more swear fidelity to your laws, in the face of OOD and man, and de-
clare that that day had been the object of hie must fervent wish...
What coercion can it be said compelled "hat act, when he experienced
none but sentiments of love and gratitude front the Cones, and applause
and benedictions from the work ? The King being then in the enjoy.
ment of perfect liberty, all European Powers again recognized the re.
stored government ; atol we, generous and confiding. either burying in
oblivion all the evils we had suffered in the six preceding years, or not
attributing those evils to the King, placed the most unlimited confi-
dence in his words and oaths, while our oppressors experienced from
those they had oppressed nothing hut generosity. tier they were ready to
sacrifice every thing for the sake of concord, and the salutary principles
accoaling to which we were again to be governed.
Then a bright period of tranquillity and happiness broke upon Spain;
and the Cones, cordially uniting with the king's Government, were
constantly, indefatigably, and zealously employed in bettering your
condition, and in preparing a most gratifying prospect for the future.
But the King, Spaniards, was not, like you, sincere in the oaths he
had taken ; and wi bout firmness, if they were opposed to his wish to
refuse them ; or freaness, if the re-established laws anywise displeased
hint, to attempt their reformation in the regular way, he chose the ig.
noble and fatal part of duplicity. Again, but in secret, the ene-
mies of the public weal, and the lovers of arbitrary power, gained
an ascendancy over him, and began to disturb the union be-
tween the reformers of the State, embarrass the proceedings4of
the Cortes, and frustrate the beneficial effects of the laws they
were enacting. While the Monarch, too, ostensibly manifested
a cordial adhesion to those laws, multiplied :spontaneously, and
even officiously, securities for his good faith, and freely authorised all
the acts of Government, he was secretly conspiring, as you now well
know, against them, and exciting civil war—provoking excesses en pur-
pose to stigmatize them as the effects of liberty and endeavouring, by
every means, to introduce disorder into the public administration. The
same hand which was thus stirring up rebellion, also signed the orders
for persecuting and puniehittg those who were embroiled in it ; and he
who purposely originated dissension, afterwards affected to complain of
it. Such conduct, as might naturally be expected, irritated the minds
of the people. Discontent increased in proportion as foul machina-
tions were employed, and the faction, whose prosperity is public
calamity, went about exciting discord throughout the kingdom,
spreading, in all directions, the foulest calumnies, alarming the
conscience of some, destroying the just loyalty of others, and
making us, who were not and ought not to be otherwise than brothers,
look on each other as an enemy. You, Spaniards, were witnesses of the
execrable means employed by these men, and how their blood-thinti-
nets, even when conquered, was augmented in proportion to the mode-
ration and clemency of their conquerors. You were witnesses how-in-
dustriously rebellion was excited, and with what scandalous daring-the
very palace of the head of the government was besieged. You were
also witnesses of the atrocious baseness with which, upon the defeat of
a deserving corps to which every species of seduction had been offered,
ha chief corrupters delighted to sex it punished, and even derided it in
its misfortunes.

These incendiaries, finding how important they were to overturn •
system of government supported by its own legitimacy and merit, and
by the great majority of the nation, did not hesitate to commit the most
horrible crime that could be perpetrated towards a country,—a crime
the most abominable in the eyes of all men, who have the least idea
of national honour and independence—namely, to appeal to the armed
intervention of a foteign power, and instigate it to invade the Spanish
territory.
Let us not awaken resentment by bringing bacleto recollection the
conduct which other Oevernn:ents pursutd towards us. It is well
known, and the world has already judg.d it. The obligations to us, by
which they were recently bound, the positive acts of recognition of our
system, the most solemn treaties, the first principles of the laws of na-
tions, the most indisputable tights of the whole people--the very same
tights which have now been recognizsd in a much greater degree
with respect to Grecce.—all was merged in hatred of our li.
berty, which had offended. which had wronged no one. Money
was prodigally scattered about to involve us in a civil war;
every kind of machination used to affix on us the imputation
potation of having caused dissension • and, finally, a foreign army,
without first declaring war, invaded peaceful and innocent Spain. That
army, invited by Spaniards, had its vanguards or auxiliares formed of
Spaniards, and your very King, at the moment of calling upon you to
take up arms against the invaders, secretly urged them to advance,
keeping you at the same time in a defenceless state, sent forth vows for
your disasters, and omitted nothing to cover the national banners with
ignominy. Oh ! eternal blot in our history ! How deeply ought we
not to blush for having lived in such. a time !

Still our foreign and domestic enemies would not have gained
much success from their confederation, had they not, by corrupting
some, and seducing or deceiving others, succeeded in disuniting almost
all ; and had not three generals, to whom had been confided the national
Idefence, been guilty of the most perfidious treason. The constitutional
Government being thus embarrassed, and its authority nullified by so
many misfortunes, dispossessed at last of territory, without an army or
resources of any sort ; having at its head a King, who was its greatest
enemy, was, by the irresistible. force of circumstances, obliged to dis.
solve itself; in order to avoid the disgrace of vilely treating with the in.
vadcrs. We were sold, sacrificed—but not conquered. Those who
raised the song of victory should alone blush at their triumph, and hold
down their heads in shame at the recollection of the artifices they used
against us.
At last those laws which, though not perfect, served to guarantee':
our rights, were thus scandalously subverted. And what has been sub-
stituted in their steal, unless it be the power of violating every decree '
and every law ? The monarchs who united against our constitution,
when they interfered, spoke to us not of destroying, but of refonnin g
it. What measures have they taken with the King since absolute power
was put into his hands, to induce him either to reform the constitu-
tion, or to establish another more suitable ? Repeatedly, and in the
most solemn manner, the chief of the invading army declared in the
name of his government, that far from coming to restore despotism,
they came to assist us in obtaining a more free and stable govern.
went. " The wishes of his Monarch," he said, addressing ours,
" were, that by the convocation of the old Cortes, he should
guarantee to his people order, justice, and good government ; to conso-
lidate which France and her allies will do all In their power."—(Duke
of Angouleme's letter to the King, August 17, 1823.) To the na-
tion he promised, in express terms, that " the King should imme-
diately grant a constitutional government, in harmony with the
welfare of the state and the intelligence of the age—s govern-
ment, not by Cones with separate estates, but by an equal re-
presentation in all the provinces. The interest of France, he pro-
tested, required that this kind of government should be established
in Spain for her tranquillity and repose."—(olficial conferences
of the Duke of Angouleme and Generals Bourdesoulle and Ouille.
minot (authorized by the Duke) with General Maya, the King's
Plenipotentiary, at Puerto de Santa Maria, September 7, 1823.)
flow have all these formal pledges been fulfilled? The results whien
you have attained so dearly will show better than3any thing what was
the real object of the fatal interference. Those results show what a na.
tion has to expect who trusts to foreigners foe the cure of her mis-
fortunes. To deprive Its of liberty, they interfered in the internal affairs
of an independent nation, which did not meddle with the government of
others. When they saw us once more beneath the yoke, they aban-
doned us to the mercy of despotism and an insane faction, and never
thought of interfering to alleviate our oppression. it is usually regarded'
as a crime in subjects to seek to save themselves, and to obtain laws
calculated to ensure their welfare; but when their sovereigns are a
calamity to them,—when they are reduced in the state to which Spain
is,—when, Instead of chiefs and fathers, they are tyrants and rum
cutionersr—then it is believed that all extras vanishes in the prerogatives
of the throne.

Do you hope for relief hom the Government ? It is the Government
which has caused your misfortunes, and which takes delight in oppres-
sing you. At a former period, six years' experience defeated all your

hopes, and no: six more years have again defeated them. Do yeu look
for relief from Ilte foreign powers ? They have interfered only to in.
jure you ; and now sonic take pleasure in your misfortunes, while the
rest view them with indifference or cold pity. An oppressed nation
should never look for effectual and disinterested aid out of her own ter.
ritoty : never can an independent people, without dishonouring and
compromising their political existence, allow their grievances to be cured
by foreign hands.
Let us, then, under the blessing of GOD, save ourselves, for nothing
can now save us but our own efforts. The nation has ban brought to
the brink of ruin, and it is its natural right to endeavour to escape.
Oppressed, unhappy, and robbed of the guarantees which the laws con.
cede to her, it is her undeniable right to resist, and to seek the meansof
recovering the old laws. and liberties, of which violence and iniquity have
deprived her. A faction hostile to the country surrounds the King, and'
constitutes or directs his government. This faction closes the ears of
the monarch to our outcries, and will not allow us to obtain any redress
from the throne. We have therefore no other alternative than to rise
against that faction, in order that the King may listen to us, and that
the representatives of the people being freely assembled, as the rights
and grievances of the nation require, may grant and establish, legally
and prudently, whatever may be found proper for the general welfare.
In doing so, we ate authorised by reason, justice, and urgent neces-
sity, and moreover by the principles acknowledged in Spain in remote
ages, the examples which our ancestors have transmitted to us, and
the laws of the kingdom.
An express compact existed between our ancestors and their King,by
which it was stipulated that if he did not defend their rights they might
choose another Monarch ; aml they, in swearing allegiance to him, de-
dared that they would obey him while lie governed them well,aad (f not,
no. Because King Suintilla governed them ill, they banished him and
his family front the kingdom, and gave the crown to Sisenando, in the 4th
concilio or national junta, held at Totals in 663; it was solemnly de-
creed, with Me e.tribent of the people, that "neither that Prince, his
wife, nor children should ever return to the country, or be restored to
the honours of which for their iniquities they had been deprived, and
that as they had been banished from the throne and the kingdom.
as also they should forfeit what they had acquired at the expense of
the unfortunate, and should have only what they might obtain from the
commiseration of the new King." " For many unlawful and violent
acts, deaths, imprisonments, the levying of unjust taxes or tributes,
and many other deeds displeasing to Gon, and contrary to justice and
law, and injurious to the kingdoms, committed by the King Don
Alonzo X.' that 3lonarch was, by a formal sentence of the Cones
of Valladolid, in 1282, deprived of the royal authority. It was de-
creed that he should merely retain the title of King, but that the
government should be consifned to his son Don Sancho, to whom the
government and the administration of justice were committed, and to
whom were delivered the fortresses and all the royal revenues.—
Because Juan 11. called French troops into the kingdom, to aid
I ' in a civil war, Catalonia declared him to be "a public enemy."
Because Henry IV. did not listen to the voice of the nation, " which
demanded that he should redress the grievances which the people suf-
fered, that he should amend his own way of life, and the manners of his
household, and reform the government of his kingdoms," the Cones of
Avila, in 1463, determined that he should be " deprived of the crown,
deposed from the government, and degraded from the royal dignity raid
insignia, with the solemnity which reason and the ancient custom of
the kingdoms demanded." Our history presents frequent in.
stances of the Spaniards having combined, and openly taken up arms
against the King, when he abused the power, which, as our
laws declare, " was given him only for the common good ;"
when lie forgot the obligation which the laws imposed upon
him " to be more watchful of his people's welfare than his own—to
love and honour the great, the middling, and the low—to mair.tain con-
cord among his subjects, and to be the dispenser of justice, giving to
each one his right. (lAw 9, tit. H. partida 2.) There Is not in
Spain a more ancient and authorized custom than this necessary
rising of the people to repress despotism when it infringes the
national laws. There is at this day In our codes a law by
which we arc expressly empowered " to treat as a tyrant even the lcgi.
timate monarch who abuses his power by efforts to render his subject
weak and timid, by caching discord amontr them to such a degree that
they cannot trust each other,—who Lbours to render them poor,
crushing thepowerful and destroyieg the wise—who: prohibits in his
States associations and deliberative assemblies of the people, and who
seeks counsel and security for his person rather from foreigners than
from the natives of the country." (Law 10, tit. 8, partida 2.) When
a Prince abuses his authority in the manner above stated, the said law
expressly declared the people "might call him tyrant," and that the
sovereignty, " being turned from right to wrong," was converted from a
legal and just government, which it had been, into an oppressive and il-
legitimate power. Nevertheless, while resolving to be the first to raise
the national cry, we do not propose to name another monarch or to ad.
vise that the above examples should not be followed.

Here follows a series of arguments founded on the history and an-
cient laws of Spain, to prove that revolt, under circumstances of the
infraction of these laws by the King, is justifiable. They then declare
they do not propose to re-establish the Constitution of 1812; because
they are yet uncertain whether the nation may consider it the most
suitable. The manifesto then goes on to explain that no tax can be
levied, unless sanctioned by the Cortes. They declare, that they
desire a Alonarchical Government ; but one founded on justice, wire
institutions, and the affections and pod of the people. The manifesto
goes on in an eloquent appeal to Spaniards of all opinions to join unani-
mously to effect that object which is cf so much Importance to them all.
' It says :—" The sacred call of national independence, rightful liberty,
and good government, which should excite in all but one sentiment, di.
recta us to gather under the same standard. Heroes of patriotism, and of
loyalty in the war of independence, behold for what your blood has been
spilt ! Fetters and contempt have been your share; and the
blackest ingratitude has blasted your glory !—But you will .not
allow the murderers of PoiLtra and LACY—the tigers who tortured
to death the unfortunate IMPZCINADO—to outrage you any longer.
Lovers of Liberty !—unanimously endeavour to recover it, renouncing
all extremes, and every idea of inaccessible perfection. Those who en-
slave you are the assassins of Rricio. The best way of avenging him
is—by making that sacred cause by which he was sacrificed, triumph.
Royalists !..—we also are Royalists; we, like you, wish for a King;
but we wish, as you no doubt do, that he should govern
us welL You men, whose religious seal the malignant abuse,
to make you believe, that those who wish the good of the public,
are impious, judge, by their conduct, the calumiators and the calum-
niated. From the fury, depravity, and abominations you have wit-
nessed, learn now where the real impiety exists ; and contribute to drive
from our country those who, even in the name of religion, disgrace it.
Nra 'dards ! we leave to the decision of the nation, freely assembled,
the questions which have hitherto divided us." We feel that we are al-
most committing sacrilege, in thus attempting to abridge this truly no.
ble appeal of a brave people. We have on this occasion confined ourselves
to the most striking passages, under the duty we feel not to exclude from
our columns, this day, other matter, which becomes more immediate object
of curiosity and deep interest. We shall, however, not tall in giving as
remainder, when a convenient opportunity occurs. The conclusion,
however, is essential ; it is as follows :

Wherefore the Directing Junta of the Insurrection constitute.* it.tlf,
for the present, the Provisional Regency ; so that, until the nation is
assembled, a Government may not be wanting to execute the laws and
preserve public peace; for the King, being in the power of a faction
which rules him, is incapable of governing. This provisional regency
decrees that all Spaniards, as soon as they become acquaintc . with the
present declaration. shall cease to obey and acknowledge as the Govern-
ment that pottier which, in violation of all lawful obligations, is exercised
in the King's name by a few uninitious men, who arc the enemies of the
public welfare. It is also enjoined, that in every town in the kingdom, in
all the corps of the army, and on board all toe ships in the fleet, the
' Provisional Government of the natio.) snail be solemnly proclaimed as'
soon as it is made known, so that all may obey it according to law. The
directing junta also ordains that, until the meeting of a national con-
grow, there shall be no change in the system at present existing fur the
administration of justice and finance, in the military service, in the mu-
nicipal government of towns, and other branches of the state, nor in the
interior regulations of those provinces which have particular laws. The
only changes shall be the reforms of abuses winch the public welfare
demands. It is declared, that the internal Government which is esta-
blished shall be merely provisional, only held and exercised on behalf of
the nation, to whom it is to be responsible for, and to render account of,
all its operations.
To enable the Spaniards to recover their lawful rights in the exercise
of their internal government, it is the urgent recommendation of the Di-
recti Junta, as it will also be of the Provisional Government, that
they should live in peace and amity with the Governments of all other
nations,religiously fulfil the engagements and treaties they have contracted
with them, and seek to strengthen, as far as possible, their reciprocal,
commercial, and political relations fee the advantage of all. ALL the public
authorities are enjoined, under the most rigid responsibility, to devote
the utmost attention to the maintenance of tranquillity and public order,
and the generals, chiefs, and officers in the army and navy, are urgently
required to establish and preserve, among their inferiors, that
salutary discipline without which power is null or prejudicial To all
Spaniards concord and respect for the laws is once more recommended.
Mould despotism oblige us to have recourse to urns, that despotism
must answer foe the blood that may be shed. May Gnu deign to
bleu our enter but if, in his high decrees, k should be otherwise'
ordained, It is batter to perish with tite satisfaction of having made this
attempt, than to continue to live in slavery and ignominy.

M. de Chateaubtiand has sent in his resignation as Minis-
ter of State, and has resigned his pension of 12,000 francs, which was
his by right ass peer of France.