Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

in slavery and oppression. Would you rather die defending the robberies and impieties of a perfidious traitor, than shedding your blood in defence of your church, your nation, and yourselves?—Soldiers ! ye that have been the first in raising the standard of the nation, carry into your camps, virtue, religion, and the manners of your forefathers. With such qualities they overcame innumerable armies. If among the chiefs who lead you to the theatre of glory and honour, you should perceive any treachery, abandon them, and choose others more worthy of your cause.—Soldi ers Twelve millions of inhabitants are observing you and envying your glory; nay, even France herself pants for your triumphs and success.

INSTRUCTION.

From the Supreme Junta of the Govern ment, to all Cities and Towns, to be executed with the utmost promptitude.

1. In cities and towns consisting of 2000 or more house-holders, a junta shall be established, which shall superintend all arrangements, and shall be obeyed by all the inhabitants; and in places of smaller size, the ayuntamientos shall hold the place and perform the functions of the juntas.-2. It is ordered, that with the concurrence of the ayuntamiento, clergy, prelates, priests, nobles and other persons so assembled, a junta of six be formed to receive orders from the supreme junta, and correspond therewith, and in every particular act under their authority; and the inhabitants and the corregida are required to obey them in their office, and every thing thereunto appertaining.-3. It shall be the duty of this junta to enlist the inhabitants from the age of 16 to 45, first, such as volunteer their services, and then all the secular inhabitants of the aforesaid age; to form them in companies, to assign them respectable persons for captains, lieutenants, and ensigns, with full power to name serjeants and corporals, which they will proceed to do with all possible dispatch.-4. They will instruct the towns of their districts, and even those of the neighbouring districts, to submit to the same regulations, enlistments, and appointments, and to advise the junta thereof without delay.5. For the present, each company shall remain in its district, but the junta is empowered, if it think fit, to call together the enlisted companies in the other towns. 6. The junta will name a confidential person to administer, under its direction, the funds which must meet the expences of the present occasion.-7. These funds shall be raised

by orders of the junta to all corporations and rich individuals, and over and above a subscription shall be opened. that all the inhabitants may contribute in proportion to their zeal for their king and country, and the urgent necessity of the cause.-8. To these funds shall be added patriotic loans of money, to be afterward repaid in full; and it is expected from the public spirit of the inhabitants, that there will be no occasion for forced loans, or any other proceeding, which, though it might be violent, would still be justifiable by the necessity of the case-9. This proclamation (bando) shall be printed and published by this supreme junta, and shall be placarded and circulated in all places.-10. All the mag strates and public functionaries are for the resent confirmed in their respective offices.-Seville, 29th ·May, 1808.-D. JUAN BAUTISTA ESTELLER, Sec. 1. D. J. B. PARDO, Sec. 2o.

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF PORTUGAL.

PORTUGUESE,-Your lot is, perhaps, the hardest ever endured by any people on the earth. Your princes were compelled to fly from you, and the events in Spain have furnished an irrefragable proof of the absolute necessity of that measure.You were ordered not to defend your selves, and you did not defend yourselves. Junot offered to make you happy, and your happiness has consisted in being treated with greater cruelty than the most ferocious conquerors inflict on the people whom they have subdued by force of arms, and after the most obstinate resistance. You have been despoiled of your princes, your laws, your usages, your customs, your property, your liberty, even your lives, and your holy religion, which your enemies never have respected, however they may, according to their custom, have promised to protect it, and however they may affect and pretend to have any sense of it themselves. Your nobility has been annihilated, its property confiscated in punishment of its fidelity and loyalty. You have been basely dragged to foreign countries, and compelled to prostrate yourselves at the feet of the man who is the author of all your calamities, and who, by the most horrible perfidy, has usurped your government, and rules you with the sceptre of iron. Even now your troops have left your borders, and are travelling in chains to die in the de fence of him who has oppressed you, by which means his deep malignity may ac complish his purpose, by destroying those who should constitute your strength, and by rendering their lives subservient to his

triumphs, and to the savage glory to which he aspires.-Spain beheld your slavery, and the horrible evils which followed it, with mingled sensations of grief and despair. You are her brother, and she panted to fly to your assistance. But certain chiefs, and a government either weak or corrupt, kept her in chains, aud were preparing the means by which the ruin of our king, our laws, our independence, our liberty, our lives, and even the holy religion in which we are united, might accompany yours, by which a barbarous people might consummate their own triumph, and accomplish the slavery of every nation in Europe--our loyalty, our honour, our justice, could not submit to such flagrant atrocity! We have broken our chains-let us then to action. We have armies, we have chiefs, and the universal cry of Spain is, " We will die in defence of our country, but we will take care that these infamous enemies shall die with us."--Come then, ye generous Portuguese! unite with Spain to die in defence of your country. Her banners expect you; they will receive you as brethren infamously oppressed.The cause of Spain and of Portugal is the same distrust not our troops-their wishes are the same as your own, and you may reckon upon their courage and their strength as a part of your security.--You have among yourselves the object of your vengeance-obey not the authors of your misfortune-attack them they are, but a handful of miserable panic-struck men, humiliated and conquered already by the perfidy and cruelties which they have committed, and which have covered them with disgrace in the eyes of Europe and the world! Rise then in a body, but avoid staining your honourable hands with crimes, for your design is to resist them and to destroy them-our united efforts will do for this perfidious nation; and Portugal, Spain, nay all Europe, shall breathe or die free like men.--Portuguese,-Your country is not in danger-it is already gone -unite, unite, and fly to restore and to save it

Seville, May 30, 180S.-By direction of the supreme Junta of government, -DON JUAN BAUTISTA ESTELLER, Sec. 1°. DON JUAN BAUTISTA PARDO, Sec. 2°. DECLARATION OF WAR

Against the Emperor of France, Napoleon the First.

France, under the government of the emperor Napoleon the first, has violated towards Spin the most sacred compacts— has arrested her monarchs-obliged them to a forced and manifestly void abdication and

renunciation; has behaved with the same violence towards the Spanish nobles whom he keeps in his power-has declared that he will elect a king of Spain, the most horrible attempt that is recorded in history -has sent his troops into Spain, seized her fortresses and her capital, and scattered his troops throughout the country-has-committed against Spain all sorts of assassinations, robberies, and unheard of cruelties; and this he has done with the most enormous ingratitude to the services which the Spanish nation has rendered France, to the friendship it has shown her, thus treating it with the most dreadful perfidy, fraud and treachery, such as was never committed against any nation, or monarch, by the most barbarous or ambitious king or people. He has in fine declared, that he will trample down our monarchy, our fundamental laws, and bring about the rain of our holy catholic religion.-The only remedy therefore for such grievous ills, which are so manifest to all Europe, is in war, which we declare against him. In the name therefore of our king Ferdinand the seventh, and of all the Spanish nation, we declare war by land and sea against the emperor Napoleon the first, and against France; we are determined to throw off her domination and tyranny, and command all Spaniards to act hostilely against her, to do her all possible damage according to the laws of war, to place an embargo upon all French ships in our ports, and all property, and effects, in whatever part of Spain they may be, whether belonging to the government or to the individuals of that nation. In the same manner we command, that no embarrassment, nor molestation be done to the English nation, nor its government, nor its ships, property, or effects, nor any individual of that nation -We declare that there shall be open and free communication with England, that we have contracted, and will keep an armistice with her, and that we hope to conclude a durable and lasting peace.-Moreover we protest, we will not lay down our arms till the emperor Napoleon the first, has restored to Spain our king Ferdinand the seventh, and the rest of the royal family; has respected the sacred rights of the nation, which he has violated, and her liberty, integrity, and independence. With the same understanding and accordance with the Spanish nation, we command that the present solemn declaration be printed, posted and circulated, among all the people and provinces of Spain and America, that it may be known in Europe, Africa and Asia. -Given in the royal palace of Alcazar at Seville, this 6th of June, 1808.-By order

P

of the Supreme Junta of Government.MANUEL MARIA AGUILAK, Sec. JUAN BAUTISTA PARDO, Sec.

CONNECTION WITH ENGLAND.

Don ALVARO FLOREZ ESTRADA, Procurator General of the Principality of Asturias, made the following Proposition to the Supreme Council.

The general council of the principality of Asturias do not delay a moment in making known to the public the daily proofs they receive of the friendship of the English government and nation, who in order the better to enable it to supply all our wants, have promptly sent to this capital a military committee, composed of three officers of distinction, who, this morning, presented themselves before the supreme council, not only to assure us, that all the supplies and succour which we pointed out to them, might be daily expected in our ports, but also to offer in the name of their government, to this principality, and to the rest of the Spanish nation, all other assistance we might stand in need of; to send us troops, money, arms, ammunition, and other warlike stores, and to make a common cause with us, in order that we might be able to repel and destroy the common enemy. That generous nation deserves the utinost gratitude on our part; but as it offers its protection to all the provinces which defend the good casue, it will know on the other hand, how to employ all its power against those provinces, wnich, guided by a pernicious selfishness or apparent timidity, are forgetful of their duty, in the present critical circumstances in which the country is placed, do not endeavour in imitation of the real patriots, to defend the glorious cause, and shake off a disgraceful yoke. The supreme council think it right to declare to the public, that they felt the liveliest emotions of gratitude and respect, when they heard the commissioners give them the assurance, that it was their anxious wish to shed the last drop of their blood fighting with our brethren, in defence of the common cause. ALVARO FLOREZ ESTRADA.Oviedo, the 30th June, 1808.

And it having been resolved, that the preceding proposition be printed and circuJated through all the districts of the principality, we communicated it also to you for your information. God keep you many years in his holy guard.-IGNACIO FLOREZ VALDEE. JUAN ARGUELLES TERAL, Representative and Secretary.-Oviedo, the 30th June, 1808.

FRENCH FLEET AT CADIZ.

A Dispatch, together with inclosures, from Major-General Spencer, Cadiz, June 12,

[ocr errors]

My Lord, The French squadron, con. sisting of five sail of the line and a frigate, having placed themselves in a defensive position, in the channel leading to the Caraccas, and out of the reach of the works of Cadiz, and having refused to listen to any terms, I have great satisfaction in reporting that the Spanish gun and mortar boats, and the batteries erected for this purpose, on the Isle of Leon, and near Fort Louis, commenced hostilities against the French ships, at three o'clock in the afternoon of the 9th, and the firing continued without interruption on both sides till night. It was renewed on the part of the Spaniards on the morning of the 10th, and partially continued till two, when a flag of truce was hoisted by the French, but the terms proposed being inadmissible, the Spaniards intend to recommence hostilities with an additional battery, to the eastward of Fort Louis, consisting of thirty 24pounders.Admiral Purvis and myself wished to have co-operated in this attack, but the Spaniards, feeling themselves confident in their own force, have declined our offers of assistance. -The Supreme Council of Seville have nominated commissioners, and applied last night for passports, and a frigate to convey them to England, and they are also equally anxious to send feluccas with dispatches to South America-Information. having been received that a small French corps was assembling at Tavira, with a view of entering Spain by the River Guadiana, we have been requested to proceed against this corps, and either to attack them on the coast, or endeavour to prevent the further prosecution of their plans against Spain. I accordingly propose to sail immediately for this object, Lord Collingwood approving of it.-Admiral Purvis had already detached three ships of war off the mouth of the Guadiana, and has offered every other necessary assistance, which Lord Collingwood has since confirmed.

Letter from General Morla, Captain-General of Andalusia and Governor of Cadiz, addressed to their Excellencies Adm. Purvis and Major-General Spencer.

Admiral Rossilly, as your Excellencies will observe by the annexed copy, has proposed to disarm, but upon conditions which I thought were inadmissible. Whatever may be his terms of surrender, I shall in no manner deviate from my promise; it is therefore necessary that I should have your consent, as I have already said in my first conference with Brigadier-General Smith and Captain Sir John Gore, to whom I have pledged myself with simplicity and good faith.—It will afford me considerable satis. faction to consult with your Excellencies on

all occurrences, incidents, and circumstances, conducive to our common advantage, and contrary to the interests of the common enemy. Nothing gives me more real pleasure than the absolute confidence of your Excellencies in my candour and sincerity, with which I remain your Excellencies' most affectionate and devoted servant,- (Signed) THOMAS MORLA.-Cadiz, June 11, 1808. Letter from Admiral Rossilly, addressed to Gen. Morla, dated on board the Admiral's ship. Hero Bay, of Cadiz, June 11,

1808.

Captain-General,-Obliged to defend myself on account of the inquietude inspired into the people of this province by my imposing attitude, I yesterday, in order to tran quillize them, proposed to your Excellency to quit the Bay. In case the English cannot accede to this proposal, I suggest the idea of disembarking my means of attack, and keeping my ships' companies on board; Do colours shall be displayed on my squadron. Hostages shall be given for our security, our sick, and all the French people in the province, with their national and individual property. Hostages will be equally given on my part. The refreshments, water, and provisions necessary for my squa dron, shall be provided on my paying for them, as has hitherto been done. In short, I shall demand no conditions but those which are necessary for my honour and that of the people serving under my orders, and as are compatible with the public tranquillity. Deprived by my proposal of the means of defence against the exterior enemy, I demand security against them.

Answer from General Morla to Admiral Rossilly.

Excellent Sir, Admiral Rossilly,-In answer to certain proposals and official demands transmitted by your Excellency, which, although dictated by your honour, are unquestionably incompatible with mine, as must be evident to your Excellency, I have to acquaint you, that I cannot accept any terms but an unconditional surrender, my honour and character not allowing me to depart in any way from my promises. I therefore inform you, that my orders from the Supreme Council being positive with respect to the surrender of the squadron commanded by your Excellency, I cannot enter into any conditions without previously consulting them. It is likewise my duty to consult with the English commanders, as without their consent, I cannot compromise myself. -For these reasons. I shall suspend my attack, until I have dispatched those two expresses; availing myself however of the intermediate time to prepare other means

for the attack.-Nothing opposes the individual esteem entertained for your Excellency, by your faithful servant,—(Signed)— THOMAS MORLA.-Cadiz, June 11. (To be continued)

DENMARK AND SWEDEN.-Observations on the Answer published at Stockholm to the Danish Declaration of War :-from the Copenhagen Gazette.

The king of Sweden must have little respect for his people, if he can suppose them to be so unacquainted with the events of our time, that he may be permitted to confound effects with their causes, by representing the alliance of Denmark with France as a cause of the present war, when it is to be consi dered, as all Europe knows, as a consequence of the treacherous attack of England. The king of Sweden thinks he can so blind the eyes of the Swedish nation, that he can make them believe that the war in which Sweden is engaged, is a defensive war, whereas, it is an offensive one, which it has cost the king of Sweden much trouble to procure, as he has done all in his power to kindle its flames.-The difference, the very great difference, between the policy of our government and that of the king of Sweden has been, that the former has with the greatest care endeavoured to secure to its people the blessings of peace; while the latter ap pears only to have had for his object to sacri fice the blood of his subjects, bring on the calamities of war, and to lay waste their peaceable habitations. All see with surprise the king of Sweden, whose constant restlessness, and whose false policy has extended the theatre of war so far to the north, yet represents himself as the sovereign who had offered peace and tranquillity to the Baltic and its coasts. But he has rendered his love for peace too manifest for such an offer to be confided in After having made every exertion, for a series of years, to become involved in a war, and having at length obtained his object and shewn that he knew how to enter into a war inconsiderately, and how to maintain it with fully and obstinacy after he had been compelled entirely to abandon the first theatre of his war, it was believed that true policy and regard for the welfare of his subjects would have induced him to live in peace and good understanding with his neighbours, and to find a refuge in the patience of a magnanimous people, against a storm which he himself had raised. His sense of danger on the one hand, and of his feebleness on the other, might probably inspire him with the wish to see the Baltic maintained free from a foreign fleet.—While in

[ocr errors]

Germany he wished to set bounds to the victories of the Emperor Napoleon, and used every endeavour to persuade different courts that this was his object, nor would he pledge bimself for the tranquillity and security of the Baltic from English ships. Can we place more confidence in one of these professions than the other? Can it be required of Denmark to trust the pacific promises of England? Will they be held more sacred than those given last year, at the very moment when an attack was intended? A sovereign can have little respect for the truth, who can say to his nation, whose danger and sufferings are the only consequences of an alliance with England, "I have concluded an alliance with England to obtain the means of defence for Sweden." Was Sweden then in danger? Who threatened Sweden with an attack? Against whom was this protection and aid necessary? Every Swede of sense knows, as well as all Europe, that all his losses, and all the dangers that threaten him, are the consequence of this alliance with England which no self-defence rendered necessary. Had this alliance not existed, Sweden would still have possessed Pomerania, would still have possessed Finland, and the country would not have been a prey to famine, and all the misery which war brings with it. Were all the offers actually made to the King of Sweden, which he has signi fied were made, England is much indebted to him for not accepting them; but the Swedish nation is not. And if it were prudence not to accept some of these offers, it is to be regretted that they could not induce him to depart from an alliance that must certainly have the most destructive consequences to his country.--Had the King of Sweden seen the true interest of himself and his country, the North would have preserved peace, Sweden would have still possessed Pomerania and Finland, Denmark her fleet and tranquillity, and England her honour. All these losses are the consequences of the policy of the King of Sweden. How often bas Sweden been warned by the Powers of Europe? Had we received such "warning, our fleets would have been in safety, and ready, if necessary, to guard, in conjunction with our northern brethren, the safety of our seas from the tyrants of the ocean.

THE POPE-Answer of his Eminence Cardinal Gabrielli, first Secretary of State, to the note of his Excellency M. Champag my. Addressed to M. le Fevre, Chargé d'Affaires from the Emperor of France, dated April 19, 1808.

After your excellency had made known

to the holy father, that it was the decided wish of his majesty the emperor and king,

that be should enter into an offensive and defensive league with the other powers of Italy, as had been declared by M. Champagny to the Cardinal Caprara, by note of the 3d current, the dispatch of the said cardinal has been received, which brought the original note of the above minister.-The holy father, after having attentively read and considered the said document, has ordered Cardinal Gabrielli, first secretary of state, to make known to your excellency his holiness's sentiments on its contents; beginning with that which forms the cardinal point among all the others. His holiness has seen with pain, that even the final proposition therein contained of the offensive and defensive league, should be accompanied with the threat of depriving him of his temporal dominions in case of his non-compliance. If worldly considerations bad at all influenced the conduct of the holy father, he would, from the first, have yielded to the wish of his majesty, and not have exposed himself to suffer so many calamities: but the holy father is regulated alone by the consideration due to his duty and his conscience, both have prevented him from agreeing to the federation, and they equally hinder him from consenting to the offensive and defensive league, which differs but in name; its nature, however, does not except any prince, to whom the pope, according to the circumstances of the times, might not become an enemy. His holiness feels, moreover, that this article, far from improving, detracts from his situation. In the articles presented to Cardinal de Bayan, the federation was proposed as alone against heretics and the English. But this is couched in general terms, pointing out no people as an enemy, yet excluding no government, no nation, from the contingency of becoming one. If, then, his holiness declined from conscientious motives to be a party to that federation, so is he equally withheld from this league. The holy father would not merely bind himself to a defence, but to an aggression. Then would be seen the minister of the God of peace placing himself in a state of perpetual warfare; then would be seen their common father in arms against his children, and the head of the church exposing himself, by his own act, to a deprivation of his spiritual connection with the catholics of those powers against which the league would make it imperative on him to act hostilely. How then can his holiness shake off his power and natural character, and sacrifice, as must be the consequence, the interest of religion?-His holiness, un

« AnteriorContinuar »