The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-09-16 00:00:00

SPAIN AND POLAND.

—Nee—
• -New the thunder of war is discharging its yindie-
- tee bolts from t':e shores of the Wolga to those of,
Tag„., ; from the Ar-hieelaeo to- the krauts
Verse; and es ~palm and Volendare the primary ob.
40tItttofi dispute bet teen thetonteading and woe-in-
•fficting posers, a Calm mid dispassionate enquiry
• Into.the causes whit'' fed to the invasion ,of those
4.isigtiettps, will, we trnst,..he Both entertaining and
tesirt.clive to oer, iteadoet. W hen PteltEß Pau (;.' a eAT
Nlted Or rather half:humanised, the
barisarians of the North, he taught them,' by his
-emotions of warfare, that the more they advanced
loath, the more they esceped from the horrors Orthe
tees. en plans and frightful wilds of Moscow : hence
jthe eternal propensity in the-breasts of the,Ruseians
.to invade the fertile plains .of Poland. ;This king.
dam, from being naturally defenceless, and from its
'lnternal division and commotions, occasioned by its
elective monarchy, presented a fairer field for the ex.
ereise of their marauding spirit than any other neigh.
.touring State. But they found a. barrier to their ans.
bition and thirst for plunder, in the corresponding
a abition and thirst of conquest on the Fart of the
Emperor of Curtateaty and-King of Peusst t. These 1,
two potent Powers, equally jealous of each other,and
equally desirous of possessing Poland Kith the Russian
G eternment itsel ceded as a check upon the latter, and
up 'r each other; and France, for the purpose of foster-
ing and keeping up their mutual jealousies, and of
preventing their power from growing and gaining a
correspnedieg consolidation, acted as a check upon
the ethei three. interest directed her to maintain
the independency of Poland, lest her own should be
endangered b. its ruin. Thus France, to keep up
the ha arse of power in the North, and to prevent
her own inviting clime from being inandated with its
,hordes, considered the independence of Poland as
lattf.imnunt with her own. Bot when France, through
her own internal commotions, lost, for a moment,
the power of protectieg her, Poland fell a prey
to her savage and aineitintis neighbours; and though
&Witted up her hands. to England, and supplicated
in thetteelerest strains her aid, Eigland torned
adler', ear to her ;bleier, and, instead °fiddle& lent
her hand, by-subsidizing the invaders, to comp' to
the ruin of the distressed. Thus France was amp -
fated of one of her political limbs, by losing her
preponderance ie 'he Yeah ; and by the overthrow
of the !loose of doves:se she had lost her family
Whence in Spain ; wnich loss, and that which she ;
Sustained by the dismemberment of Poland. all
her victories, up to tne Treaty of Amiens,
Marl not been sh:o to replenish. It is not our ,
intention to freeze the genuine nobleness and sym-
pathysirg teeriereess of the Reader's soul, by leading
toroogh t'.e Moody labyrinth of the French Rs. ,
volution, the dark recesses of which have been rca.
dered sill more ;living by the horrid light emitted
from the rolling columns of i•der-al dames ; nor to
offend his eyes, by presenting to his view the frightful
portraiture of her numberless domestic conflicts : tut-
4ce it to say, that the workings of this extraordinary
event have dragged from the depths of obscurity a
man riot less extraordinary ; and, after being armed
with Imperial power, he has given new impulse to the
vast mareiee, and enlarged its sphere of action...-
He knew that the most splendid throne in Europe
had seen crushed to atoms, and that his own exalted
fort uoto,, had been raised upon its ruins. lie;
knew, elide a branch of the once great family
whom tao had superseded, retained the sway of a

pais,ant empire, that his own power would be in

crefstant danger of being overturned. These eensi.
Aerations, and the loss of the balance of power in
the North, which France had sustained by the sub-1
jugation of Poland, determined NAPOLLON, when op- '
portunity offered itself, to establish a branch of his
own family upon the throne of Spain, as that would
also facilitate his designs upon the British Empire, if
our Government should continue to war agiinst his
authority. But though NAPOLEON'S eye was fixed
as steadily upon the coneurst of Spain, as the needle ;
is towauls the north, yet hp could not create
circumstances to give him a colourable pretext for i
earryin his plan into execution ; for these he had
to wai., end he found them in the corruptiou
and folly of the S.,:anish Court; and in the exercise
of injustice towards the Spanish nation by the firi-
dish (;oternment, in seizing their Plata ships, while
the two nations were at peace. Imbecility, and not
friendship, 'gave France a prepontlerance in the Coun. :
of SAin ; and England, by Seising the treasure
of the latter, cemented the then apparent union be.
Sweets the two Crowns ; and enabled France to
search the troops of ;pain to aid in controlling our
, •
coarnerce on the shores of the Baltic. It had long
been known to all enlightened politicians, that the
Throne et cpain tottered beneath the weight of its
Own imbecility and its crimes ; but it was not known,
till the 30th of October, tfit)7, that it also trembled
vender tho treason of its successor, of which cir-
onmstance we were informed by a Proclamation,
bearing
.date, froth Caances THE FOURTH, its
then reigning Monarch ^;
a man equally 46 sinned
against, as sitinieg ;" and who, by submitting to be
governed by wicked Councillors, had perpetuated
upon his people all the suffering engendered by his
predecessors:, and had added numberless of his own.
l'ortugal 174 the object on which to rivet the atten-
tion o the.devernment of Spain : she bad conquered
It in 158% end lost it main in the struggle with the
Portuguese; in kupport of their liberty, in-155404
b he ever looked; Upon kas a Rob dismembered.