612 
every censure, on this and all occasions, 
ought to bg estimated, not by its terms, 
They 
ought, therefore, to value their revolution 
but the character of the censor. 
and all its institutions, in the inverse pro- 
portion in which they displease the masters 
of slaves. : é 
After the experienced mischiefs of a 
similar course of proceedings, in the in- 
stance’ of France, the genius of evil could 
not have acted more perversely than these 
despots, They well know, by examples in 
their own courts, that every country con- 
tains abundance of willing slaves ; that en- 
tire classes crouch to power; that tens of 
thousands, rather than labour honestly and 
independently for their subsistence, seek it 
from the smiles of courts, and hence they 
know, that, to denounce a new and unfixed 
government, and hald out the prospect of 
foreign support, are calculated to arm one 
part of a nation against another, and the 
certain means of producing action and re- 
action, civil war, and other evils, which 
ihey then would most impudently as- 
cribe to the new government and its prin- 
ciples. 
Thus it was in France, and so from simi- 
lar causes and materials it seems likely to 
be in Spain and Portugal. Nothing could 
be more benign and philosophical than the 
principles and objects of the French Revo- 
jution. The King yielded, and all was 
harmony ; till encouraged by foreign mani- 
festoes and assembling armies of despots, 
he thought proper to flee from his capital 
towards the frontiers, leaving behind him 
a manifesto in the tone of the foreign ones, 
in which he, declared that for two years 
he had played the hypocrite. For this 
treachery he was not punished, and might 
have remained a king with as much power 
as any king ought to possess, but in the 
same bad spirit he assembled bands of 
traitors and mercenaries in his palace, and 
the 10th of August, at Paris, was the 7th 
of July at Madrid.» To secure the nation 
agaiust the repetition of such treachery, 
the National Convention was convened ; 
Blaquiere’s Spain and Spanish Revolution. 
and, doubtless, in concert with the pre- 
paratious at the Tuilleries, the Duke of 
Brunswick, at this crisis, made his ap- 
pearance at the head of an unnecessary 
foreign army, and issued his wicked mani- 
festo against the friends of liberty in 
France. To kill, or be. killed, became, 
herefore, the alternative of the denounced, 
and all the real or supposed friends of the 
foreign: despots, speedily fell vietims of a 
popular frenzy, which nothing could con- 
troul, till the country was out of danger. 
France in consequence became an arena of 
blood, an armed nation, and a volcano, 
which yomited its fires on all countries. 
Similar causes working on similar mate- 
rials must produce like effects, 
Seeing the danger as well as the, igno- 
miny of retreat, is it likely that the braye 
and intelligent patriots of Spain will sub- 
mit themselves to the experienced mercies 
of Ferdinand? Such not being their pro- 
bable course, the despots have thrown 
down an apple of discord, calculated. to 
lead to the same severity against real or 
suspected traitors, as took place in France. 
Spain is not France in numbers or position, 
but, as the principles of Spain are enter- 
tained by ten times the population of Spain, 
out of Spain the consequences of those 
manifestoes are obyious. Whether the re- 
sult prove ultimately good or evil, will 
depend on the character of military com- 
manders. But for the personal ambition 
and compromising policy of Napoleon, the 
manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick might 
have enfranchized all the nations of Europe, 
though without Napoleon’s genius, France 
must have succumbed in 1799. Let us hope, 
however, that Europe may, hereafter, pro- 
duce its Washingtons and Bolivars, and 
then, either in this, or the next age, the re- 
cognition of the principles of British and 
Spanish liberty, may become the social test 
of civilization among the human race. 
We live in momentous times! Three 
centuries ago the Reformation awakened 
in mankind a sense of principles till then 
smothered by feudality and priestcraft. 
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