It is a curious task, how...
The Times, 1824-11-08T00:00:00

It is a curious task, however painful, to watch the sue- cessivo writhings, plungings, and convulsive catchings, of FERDINAND VII. and his Ministers; and all for what ?-for the continuanee of a state of misery, which, to themselves at least, by every law of human nature must be the next thing to intolerable. We have beeni led to this remark by the sight of a docurAet professing to be an ordinance of tho Spanish Minister of Police, and dated Madrid, 4th of October. The articles of'this decree demonstrate con- sequences which always result from a Gorernment of which tyranny is the active principle. We do not mean the consequences upon the unfortunate people who are oppresied by it, and who are kept, no doubt, in a state of regtlar purgatory; but its efflects upon therulers, in theirown persons-on those who enjoy the Government,-who have committed perjuries and treason% to arrive at it, andl who retain it by the hourly perpetration of the mnost heartless cruelties. What is called the su- perintendence of the police, is in plain language a civil in- quisition. FOUcHE talks of it as ahumnane expedient! and if so, the legitimate Spanish Minister, M. GONZALES, has carried his hurAanity to a pitch, that immeasurably oveiteps and eclipscs that of FOUCHE and his Jacobins. Each paltry local Intendant of the police throughout Spain, is ordered to forrn and transmitto Madrid a list of all the souls,rnale andfe- male, in his Intendantcy, whomn he the Intendant, in his ti- midity, his folly, his malice, his personal vengeance, or his base ambition to make himself known at head-quarters, by superiorzcal and vigilance,may choose to say that he suspects of liberal opinions, or may choose to slander as having borne arms or office-that is, of havinu served the King of SPAIN while he was King of the Constitutional Monarchy. A per- son " reported" to be a Liberal, whether ardent or mo- dern-any purchaser of national property (the KING's bro- ther, foi instance, we presume)-any person employed, no matter how-any Deputy-any Secretary-any Magistrate, publie speaker, public writer-all-the choice of the Spa- nish nation, are to be thrown into this condemnned cell, the bureau of the general police. Then, for the practical effects of this, not one of these persons, hundreds of thousands as they must be in number, can stir a yard from their ordinary dwelling, without the eyes of the police myrmidorns being fixed upon their most innocent motions. When a passport is solicited by an individual whose name stands upon the above black catalogue, the circumstance, with a rdinute, and pos- sibly a fabricated account of his life and character-or hers, for women, as wehave seen, are included-must be sent not merely to the Central Police at Madrid, but to every petty station of that establishment thToughout the whole line of road along which the party is allowed to travel. Nay, persons on the list, however unjustly or maliciously placed tlhere, must give a good reason for going from home at all, and ample security (caution) for their good behaviour ! There is terror--there is agony of mind stamped upon every feature of such a system, the continuance of which would, therefore, be the infliction upon its authors of a degree of chastisement equaltotlheir most cnormnous transgressions. But, what is a more interesting fact, we may pronounce the continuanice of suclh a Government in Europe to be utterly and physically impossible. This progressive growth of wicKedness manifested by the reign of FERDINAND, is but the ripening of an aiugry tumoar, of which the pain and inflammation become sharper every day, until the skin bursts, and the patient recovers.