Star.
London, England, 1815-11-01 00:00:00

SPJIM.

MADRID, OC CORER. ts.
When every body believed that the dismissal midi
banishment of the principal Counsellors, who, it was
supposed, directed the King in his measures of seve-
rity against the Patriots' would have some influence
in mitigating the fate of the Litter ; when nothing
was talked of but the putting an end to the persecu-
tion, and even the idea was current that the Cortes
would be re-assembled, the subjoined Decree has
just undeceived us of this error—a Decree, which,
for its arbitrary and despotic nature, is worthy of the

worst times.
The Government, not satisfied with the conduct
of the first Commission nominated for trying the
supposed State criminals, replaced it by another,
which, also, not gratifying its thirst for vengeance,
has been dismissed, and, in its stead, the one men-
tioned in the Decree has been created ; from which
is exptcted c.,,nplete submission to the orders which
may be dictated to it, it having fried the charges
against the Patriots of Corunna much to the satis-
faction et Government, which the latter, last year,
placed under its jurisdiction. Iris also a circum-
stance well deserving of note, that one of the Judges
who compose it was a spy of the French, during the
invasion of the Peninsula.
This decree, it will be seen even on a slight exami-
nation, describes as guilty, persons who have not.
been tried ; deprives them, in cases where the king
may so direct, of the resource of appeal, which the laws
of Spain grant even to the roust criminal; acts at
nought the periods which these laws prescribe, in
order to deprive the prisoners of their defences and
exculpatory proofs, it being ordered, that all the
coinsts shall 1w finished within six (a.mks or two month:,
after they have lasted more than eighteen months ;
and, in a word, the sentences which the new Judges
must pronounce, are prescribed to them, while, in
order to impose upon the unwary or the ignorant,
some pompous quotations of the laws of the Novi:-
1;mo Recopacicn are resorted to, s itich laws have
either no relation to the point in question, or are dia-
metrically opposite to the measures adopted. One of
the things mentioned in the decree, capable of irri-
tating even the coolest man, is its talking of .4 com-
binations which were formed to destroy my monarchy,
I openly attacking the rights of my sovereignty," &c.
And who is it that indulges in such expressions ?
A King, who while his people were abandoned to
the foreign armits of an usurper entered into engage-
ments with that usurper, both at Bayonne and VA-
lenoy ; and who, while the nation was fighting,
powerfully assisted by Britain and the other Allied
Powers, was felicitating Napoleon on his victories
And to whom are these contumelious expressions ad-
' dressed ? To patriots, who set the first example of
continental resistance to the usurper ; to patriots, who
so energetically co-operated in the cause of the salva-
tion of Europe ; to men, in short, who made such
efforts to place him on the throne of Spain, which he
had renounc..d, at the same time advising the nation
to submit to the usurper. What combinations, what
conspiracies are- those so emphatically announced ?
Can they have any possible existence, when, after
eighteen months' investigation, it has been impossible
to find the least trace of them, notwithstanding that,
in cases of this nature, the laws of Spain prescribe,
that the declaration of a single witness constitutes
proof ? The true conspiracy is fanaticism and the
spirit of vengeance, vertigos which possess the Spa-
nish Government, and cause it to act in a direction
contrary to justice, and to its true interests. The
Decree in question is as follows :
DECREE.
In oriYer that the business at my councils may suffer no Idly
from the want at the Ministers whom I thought proper to nem&
nate for the Commis.ina of State, created to decide-all prosecu-
twos, grounded on the occurrences of the unfortunate by-peat pe-
riod, I order that the said Ministers who compose it, cease their
and that each unite himself to that Chamber of Council
to which he belongs; and I appoint in their stead, as Judges of
the said Commission, the Ale:aides of my Household and Cour4
Don Francisco Xavier Vaginae. Varela, and Don Jose Alma*
Valdenebre, under the Presidency of my Captain-General of this
Province, ezoncrating dont from attendance In the Chamber of
Alcaldes during the time they shall remain io this Commission.
And to give an unequivocal proof of the benignity of my bears
towards the unhappy fate of all those under trial and their
notwithshuiding the penalties which they have incurred
by Law std, tit. I, lib. 3, Law Ist, tit. 7, and Law Sth, tit. I
lib. 12, of the Nivissima Recopdacton • I order, that, taking into
consideration the len imprisonment they have undergone, they
be treated with all the consideration that may be compatible
with the due adminicratiou of justice, imposing on those who
shall appear really guilty the penalties of banishment, privation
at employments, and fines, corresponding to the quality, weigh:,
and circumstances of the crimes and abuses which they may have
committed in their political conduct; and if any turn on; to be
innocent that they be forthwith set at liberty. I order, in like
manner, that, upon those who shall be convicted of having been
the chief heads of the combination which were formed to destroy
my monarchy, openly attacking the rights of my sovereignty and
wounding my royal reputation, be inflicted the punishment which
they have Incurred by their crimes, according to the laws of the
kingdom • consulting me in such cases, Through the medium of
my Capt;in.gencral, as Pri-si lent, by address ng to me directly
the sentences which they shall pronounce, before making them
public for my sovereign smolution thereon.
" In like manner, l order that upon their meriting my Royal sp.
probation, no resent of appeal shall be admitted from It, unless I
Haim 4c to determine otherwise; sod it is also my pleasure that,
In artier that these crindicals may not suffer too touch, all the pro-
secutions be finished within the period of sift weeks or two months
at the farthest, rtophius !runt this day or whisk the eclautdaskin
lastala4—hladrld,Qcteber 10,1016.