Star. — 1818-05-18 (London, England)

REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA.  " FIIANCINCO ANTONIO Zr*, President (ad inlerun j of the Council of Government, Head of the Finance Department, Intendant-General of the Armies of the Republic, &c. &c. to the Chiefs, Officers, and Soldiers of the Brigade of Artillery, and the four British Regiments under the banner of Venezuela. " Welcome, welcome, illustrious defenders of freedom ! come to the arms of your brethren, and to the bosom of your new country I Our brave mariners go out to receive you at a distance from our coasts, and the hero who commands them, a foreigner like yourselves, can testify to you whether we know how to appreciate the valiant of all countries, who come to join in the glorious cause of our independence. " This cause is worthy of you—it is the cause of liberality and industry, of the arts, and of commerce. It is the cause of social relations, and consequently of all nations and men. It is more particularly so of your nation, which, more active, industrious, and commercial than the rest, ought to feel an interest in seeing Spaniards, the greedy usurpers of one half of the globe, now be compelled to restore it back to the human race.  " This act of justice ought rather to have belonged to enlightened Cabinets th in daring individuals; but whence is that strange fatality that still allows Europe to respect a Government that has had the stupid insolence to insult her, by the re-establishment of the Inquisition and its homicidal institutions, in the very face of the London Society, the Institute of Paris, and a hundred Academics and Universitiec.— Posterity with difficulty will believe that civilized Europe has borne with such a Government in her ho • som—a Government prodigal of blood and horrors ; one that still murders and hangs, as in the days of Pizarro—that cuts down, burns, devours, devastates, and in the delirium of preserving its insensate dominion, would end by depriving commercial nations of the precious fruits of our continent, and ourselves of the productions of their manufactures and skill. " There is no other close to so many evils than that of our independence. The independence of America is now one of the wants of the entire world, and the most delightful day for humanity will certainly be that on which it is acknowleiged. This memorable event will form the most brilliant period of history. A new intellectual movement--a new impulse given to industry and the arts—to agriculture and trade— a thousand new productions America will then offer to Europe, and in return a thousand new inventions Europe ill oar to America. Such will be the consequeaces of our indepeaslence, and such the friendly bonds that 5..:11 unite the New to the Old World, instead of the barbarous chain that now links it with Spain alone. This chair. let us at once break over the head of that same Government ; and then even let Spain herself, also free as we are, participate in these advantages, and be reconciled to the human race. " Such is the sublime enterprize in which as individuals you have engaged with us, and to which we are led on by a Chief full of glory and virtue, generous, magnanimous, at all times patriotic, at all times the citizen, and at all times the best friend of the defenders of our liberty. Fly to his arms, follow him on his victorious march, heed not your own prospects and those of your children, for this he has himself provided, and alone bearing in mind the beautiful and grand idea of liberating the Columbian world, rush with us on the Spaniards, and driving them from our territory into the Antilles sea, let us prove what can be done by an army of friends, Englishmen and Venezueleans. (Signed) "