1823.] Polilkal AJf airs in January. 



of general tranquillity, were led, from the 

 first moment of their assenibiiiig, to direct 

 their anxious and serious attention towards 

 an ancient monarchy, which had been agi- 

 tated uith internal commotidns during two 

 years, and which coaid not but excite, in 

 an equal degree, the solicitude, the inte- 

 rest,and the apprehensions, of otiier power?. 

 When, in the mouth of March, 1320, 



SI 



some perjured soldiers turned their arms 

 against their sovereign and their country, 

 to impose upon Spain laws wliicli tlie pub- 

 lic reason of Europe, enlightened by the 

 experience of all ages, stamped with its 

 highest disapprobation, the allied cabinets, 

 and particularly tliat of St. Petersburg, 

 hastened to point out the calamities that 

 would follow in the train of institutions 

 which consecrated military revolt, by the 

 very mode of their establishment. 'J'hese 

 fears were but too soon and too thoroughly 

 justified. They are no longer theories nor 

 principles, wliich are now to be examined 

 and approved. Facts speak aloud ; and 

 what feeling must they not inspire in every 

 Spaniard who yet cherishes a love for his 

 king and country ? What regret must be 

 experienced at the ascendancy of the men 

 who have brouglU about the Spanish revo- 

 lution? At a moment when a deplorable 

 success crowned their enterprise, the in- 

 tegrity of tlie Spanish monarchy was the 

 object of the Spanish government. The 

 whole nation participated in the wishes of 

 his Catholic majesty ; all Europe had of- 

 fered him an amicable intervention to re- 

 store for him, on solid bases, the authority 

 of the mother-country over distant regions 

 which formerly constituted her wealth and 

 her strength. Encouraged by a fatal ex- 

 ample, to persevere in lebeilion, the pro- 

 vinces where it liad already broken out, 

 found in the events of themouthof iMarcli, 

 the best apology for disobedience ; and 

 those who had yet remained faithful, im- 

 mediately separated from the mother coun- 

 try, justly afraid of the despotism which 

 was about to oppress its unfortunate sove- 

 reign, and a people whom rash innovations 

 condemned to traverse the whole range of 

 revolutionary disasters. — To the disorders 

 of America were soon added the evils that 

 are inseparable from a stale of things 

 where the conservative principles ot so- 

 cial order had been forgotten. — Anarchy 

 appeared in the train of revolution ; dis- 

 order in the train of anarchy. Long years 

 of tranquil possession, soon ceased to be a 

 sufficient title to property; the most sa- 

 cred rights were soon disputed; ruiiions 

 loans and contributions unceasingly renew- 

 ed, soon attacked both public wealth and 

 the fortunes of private individuals. As 

 was the case at that epoch, the bare recol- 

 lection of which makes Europe shudder, 

 religion was despoiled of her patrimony ; 

 the throne of popular respect; the royal 

 <lignity was outraged ; and authority was 

 Monthly Mao. No. 37S. 



transferred to assemblies where the blind 

 passions of the multitude seized upon the 

 reins of government. Lastly, and to com- 

 plete the parallel with those days of cala- 

 mity so unhappily re-produced in Spain, 

 on the 7tli of July, blood was seen to flow- 

 in the palace of tlie king, and a civil war 

 raged throughout the Peninsula. During 

 nearly three years, the allied powers con- 

 tinned to fiaiter themselves that the Spa- 

 nish character, — that character so constant 

 and so generous when the safety of the 

 country was in question, and lately so he- 

 roic when it struggled against a power 

 produced by revolution, would show itself 

 at last, even in the men who had had the 

 misfortune to betray the noble recollec- 

 tions which Spain might proudly recall to 

 every nation in Europe. They flattered 

 themselves that the government of his Ca- 

 tholic majesty, undeceived by the first 

 lessons of a fatal experience, would adopt 

 nieasures, if not to stop by one common 

 effort the numerous calamities which were 

 bursting upon them from all sides, at least 

 to lay the foundations of a remedial sys- 

 tem, and to secure gradually to the throne 

 its legitimate lights and its necessary pre- 

 rogatives; also, to give to subjects ade- 

 quate protection, and to property indis- 

 pensable guarantees. But those hopes 

 have been utterly falsified. The lapse of 

 time has only brought with it fresh injus- 

 tice ; violence has been increased ; the 

 number of victims has frightfully augment- 

 ed ; and Spain has already seen more than 

 one warrior, and more than one faithful ci- 

 tizen, hurried to the scalfold. 



It is thus that the revolution of the 9th 

 March went on, day by day, hastening the 

 ruin of the Spanish monarchy, when two 

 particular events occurred which excited 

 the most serious attention of foreign go- 

 vernments. 



In the midst of a people, to whom de- 

 volidn to their kings is an hereditary sen- 

 timent ; a people who for six successive 

 years shed the noblest blood to recover 

 their legitimate monarch ; — that monarcb 

 and his family were reduced to a state of 

 notorious ami almost absolute captivity. 

 His brothers, compelled to justify them- 

 selves, were daily menaced with the dun- 

 geon or the axe; and imperious commands 

 forbade him, with his dying wife, to quit 

 the capital. On the other hand, in imita- 

 tion of the revokitions of Naples and Pied- 

 mont, which the Spanish conspirators con- 

 stantly represent as their own work, we 

 hear them announce that their plans of 

 subversion have no limits. In a neigh- 

 bouring country they strove with unre- 

 mittiug perseverance to encourage tumults 

 and rebellion. In more distant stales they 

 laboured to create accomplices; the acti- 

 vity of their proselyfism was everywhere 

 felt, and everywhere it produced the same 

 disasters. 



M Such 



