The Sun. — 1809-08-11 (London, England)

THE  • OFFICIAL 'ARTICLE., PROM 7'HE MADRIb oAitilE; .ii/Lt 17.  If war be a disorder inseparably attached to the social state; civilization and more enlightened Views have disarmed it of its most fatal consequences. It has, in consequence, assumed a less sanguinary appearance among the nations who profeSs the Christian religion=--a religion fraught with charity, lote, and benevolence. The captive; seized on the field- cif battle no longer dreads indignities perpetrated'hy former azi,ti—no longer shrinks with terror at the prospect 01 chainS and slavery at a distance frorri his home, still more terrible than death triumphal car drags him bound to its wheels; no public. Sale rednces him to a level with the bilue, to serve an unpitying master, crushed beneath, the weight of toils and cruelties. Prisoners now experience the kindness due to misfoitune. -Separated for 1 while from their families, the well-Uunded hope that peace will shortly restate them to their habitation and their friends, allays their grief and'oheers their captivity.  Ever since the establishment 'of a standing force in the heart of ,every European State, civilized nations have bound theniSelves' to employ regular troops alone, 'and not tumultuous crowds of insubordinate peasants, unable to support the attack of a welt-disciplined-and experienced enemy, in the decision of. their differences: Whatever the causes of the war may be, in order to diminish its calamities, it is. agreed that the peaceful inhabitant of the country shonid be respelled ; that only strong places and citadels should be defended; and that a fruitless opposition made in villages and open. towns cab htive no other aim than to effe& the ruin of their inhabitants by the destru6tion of their goods and property. In a word, to conquer, and not to destroy, is now the sole acknowledged end of war. Until the_ present times, _this lawful mode of warfaze had been the only one pradised,by the Spaniards, in the bosom of their own Peninsula, as well as in foreign countries.' Murder had never stained the reputation of their warriors.—But n 4-; satisfied with the common evils of war, and ti dreadful consequences of anarchy, which they alone have produced, those who have hurried.their countrymen into the present war wish to give-it a character of ferocity which appals humanity, and which scarcely equalled even among savages, covers its thors with indelible shame.  The abnegation of every humane feeling, and hatred for their own country, can alone have led the Junta of Seville to issue the order d.tttd the 4t h of January of the present year, which dooms every Spanish village that sha►i nut oppose the passage of French troops to the flames.  The laws of war, according to all the writers on that subject, especially the celebrated Marquis de Santa Cruz, in his Commentaries, authorise an hostile General to raze every village which, although not fortified nor garrisoned, pretends to resist, or where any of his soldiers has been murdered. Thus the death of a single [pan would caUse the destruction of hundreds, or at least, would legitimate plunder, and all the excesses which a peaceful conduct could, and ought to have prevented. • This decree, however, is not more pernicious than that issued by the same Junta, which authorises the formation ‘of companies' of robbers', or landpirates. file Spaniards have already experienced the effeets of such organizations. What man, who still feels the impulse of honour; will ever debase himself by such service ? Wretches; the scum of the population of the country; smugglers, and depredators torn or escaped from their prisons, and even convicts, whom society ,had chained, to secure its tranquility, so. far from entrusting to their hands the care of its defence—such are the heroes with whom these companies are-filled. It iseVident that such decrees 'spring ffom despair and powerless rage alone. The authors of the war are conscious that the whole of Spain will finish .by acknowledging. King Joseph I. for its, laWful Sovereign. They know, that had the decision depended on the valour of armies, it would have long since 'been given in his favour. It is in order to delay that happy moment, that they have recourse to measures as extraordinary as they are cruel, ,and which.can only be attended with the extermination of all thine in whose hands they have , placed the dagger and the swore. _ _