STATE PAPERS. 



710 



cares which I, as your general, have 

 undergone for your sakes, are the 

 reward I owe you. 



The country has not for some 

 time known your best services ; but 

 the actions of Villa Franca, Vigo, 

 Lugo, Saint Jago, and San Payo, 

 where your valour shone, must free 

 you from any stain which you may 

 seem to have incurred by your hav- 

 ing refused battles, which must have 

 been destructive ; and you have 

 rendered yourselves formidable to 

 your enemies, who have been re- 

 pulsed and conquered, when the 

 superiority of their numbers did 

 not prevent an obstacle absolutely 

 insuperable to your valour. 



Yes, brave Spaniards, in viewing 

 you this day, I have no longer that 

 serenity of mind with which I be- 

 fore ever met you. I am no longer 

 your general. His majesty has call- 

 ed me to occupy a place in the Su- 

 preme Central Junta. Had not this 

 been his irresistible will, nothing 

 should have separated me from you, 

 nor made me renounce the right I 

 have to participate in your future 

 victories, under the command of 

 your new chief, and the generals 

 who command you, Pieceive, sol- 

 diers, the last word of your gene- 

 ral, and accept the love and pater- 

 nel gratitude of your countryman 

 and companion in arms. 



The Marquis de Romana. 



Royal Decree, dated Seville, Sept. 1. 



His majesty would neither fulfil 

 his own wishes, nor the hopes of his 

 people, if, at the same time, when 

 he labours to free the country from 

 the oppression of its tyrant, he did 

 not make every exertion to correct 



the vices which exist in the interior 

 administration, and to raise this 

 magnanimous and generous nation 

 to the high degree of splendor 

 and power to which it is entitled by 

 the fruitfulness of its soil, the be- 

 nignity of its climate, the extension 

 of its coast, and the possession of 

 its rich colonies. Among the ob- 

 stacles which have constantly oppos- 

 ed the progress of agricultural indus- 

 try ai)d commerce, the first place is 

 held by the contributions, called 

 Alcabalas, Cientas, and Millones, 

 imposts, which obstructing the in- 

 terior circulation, and pressing une- 

 qually on the productions of the 

 land, on manufactures, and, in ge- 

 neral, on all objects of commerce 

 not only have banished from our 

 unfortunate country that liberty 

 without which there can be neither 

 arts, cultivation, nor commerce, 

 not only have rendered odious the 

 fiscal administration, and even in- 

 dustry itself, but, which is more, in- 

 flicting on it incurable wounds, have 

 ever been only a feeble resource for 

 supplying the necessities of the 

 state. Observat ion and experience 

 have shown their prejudicial eftects; 

 the people have cried out for a re- 

 medy ; the decline of our manufac- 

 tures, and the mercantile system 

 unanimously embraced by all the 

 nations of Europe. But though the 

 government knew these defects and 

 reformed them partiall}', these re- 

 forms were a new vice, which only 

 still more embroiled the system. At 

 length the time is arrived when good 

 principles shall triumph over ignor- 

 ance, and the nation which has ap- 

 peared great and majestic in the 

 eyes of all Europe by its valour and 

 its virtue, shall be so also by the li- 

 berality of its principles, and the 

 goodness of its interior administra- 

 tion. 



