New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-02-23

ness, she had become one Of the weakest, most
eperysted and most enslayed among European
nations.
From this state Of torpOr and gradual disco
luton she was aroused by the rough grasp OF
Napoleon. That magnificent viIlain--not con-
tent thar the Spanish COurt should De hi' mos
Obseqaious yassal, giving him without consider
alton an empire in America, and sscrInc'ns her
feet and what little reputation for military ca
pacity still remained 10 her in Sighting ais Dat
ties in DEMONSTRATED TO steal the throne
from under bis Bourbon implements, and' 0!
series of audacious stratagems and unmeasured
periuries. be succeeded in Turing them out OF
their kingdom into France, where ne promptly
threw off the nask and consigned them 70
prison. decreeing their perpetual expulsion
from power and the transfer OF their kingdom
TO bis 0gn brother, Joseph. When the
astounded Spaniards began to comprehend the
bewildering drama passing so swiftly before
their eyes, they learned that their Royal Fam
lily was in exile and in chains, their fortresses
and their capital in the possession Of French
armies, and all the immense power OF their
machinery Of government in the hands OF a
foreign despot and worked through hrs crea-
lures toward the complete conversion Of their
kingdom into an appendage Of the Napoleonlc
Empire.
The Nation needed no call 70 arms. With
out concentration, without government, with
out leader, without money. without discipline,
IL commenced a warfare which has rendered
the word Guerilla an admontion to despOts
and bugle.note Of hope to oppressed nations.
Half.arrned squads of the rudest peasants and
muleteers, each led by monk or herdsman, and
hastily gathered from the fields or the villages,
threw themselves upon the French regiments
in every defile, and while they were generally
defeated, and lost many more men than their
martial and disciplined adversaries, their in
cessant attacks gradually melted away armies
which had borne the terror Of the French
name from Venice to the Vistula, and sounded
the glory Of Napoleon from Cairo to Austen
litz Combining ultimately with the British
forces under Wellington, they rendered most
important if not brilliant services in driving
the French from Badsjoz across the Pyrenees,
and thus effacing from their soil, in his own
blood, the last foOtstep Of the invader.
In this protracted and desperate struggle
the Spanish nation had been compelled TO
govern itself, so far as any government was
possible amid their distractions. The monarch
in whose name they acted was voiceless
prisoner in the hands of their great enemy.
All the monarchcal machinery, 50 far as it
continued to exist, was also welded in behalf
Of the enemy. IL became absolutely neces-
sary to appeal to the Nation itself in the cleo
ton Of a COrtes, representing in some rude
way, so much of the Kingdom as was not absc-
lutely under French dominion, and censtitut
ing Junta, or Executive Council, for the
more immediate and fsce exercise of supreme
power The great superiority of this plan of
government over the old and wretched ma
chinery ofDespotsm, commended it at once
to every liberal mind, as not merely suited TO
the emergency, but as desirable and beneicent
after the emergency should have passed away;
and accordingly in the very crisis ofthe great
struggle for National existence, the Cortes
framed a permanent Constitution of Govern
ment, based on the limited Monarchy Of Great
Britain, and agreeing with it substantially in
its principles and provisions.
The year 1914 SAW the War triumphantly
ended, and Ferdinand VII. restored to his
throne, amid the enthusiastic acclamations ola
loyal aud trusting though somewhat enlightened
people. But cheers and congratulations,
though grateful to the heart of their object, do
not change the nature of scoundrel. Such
Ferdinand was, in all his works and ways, his
impulses and inclinations. Braying him ia
mortar would not have taken the perfidy and
villainy out of him, any more than seven years
confinement In French prison did. He re-
turned as thorough despot as any Of his an-
cestors had been Hating the Constitution
which he was obliged TO accept, but which he
intended from the first 10 subvert hating all
who had been instrumental in its formstion
hating above ali those whose eminent services
during the War had commended them 10 the
hearts Of their countymen and rendered them
serious obstacles TO the reestablishment Of
despotism. by force and fraud, by pcrady aud
usurpstion, he soon contrived to nullify or
override the Constitution. restoring despot.
ism as absolute as any Sultan Mshmoad or
Gar Nicholas could desire The Nation bore
until iorbearance became baseness, then raj.
lied aud peacefully reestablishd the Constitu-
ton, Ferdinand again swore fdelity-lying,
as usual--and secretly dispatched entreatiestc
the Holy Alliance that they would come 60 his
rescue. AFrench army of one hundred thou