STATE PAPERS. 



739 



hereby promrse that justice shall be 

 done you. 



Manifesto, Jixing the days iuhen 

 the General Cortes of the Spanish 

 Monarchy arc to be convoked 

 and held ; dated Royal Alcazar 

 of Seville, Oct.2S. 1809. 



Spaniards! — By a combination 

 of events as singular as fortunate, it 

 has seemed good to Providence, 

 that in this terrible crisis you shall 

 not advance a step towards inde- 

 pendence without likewise advanc- 

 ing one towards liberty. A foolish 

 and feeble tyranny, in order to 

 rivet your fetters and aggravate 

 your chains, prepared the way for 

 French despotism, which, with the 

 terrible apparatus of its arms and 

 victories, endeavoured to subject 

 you to a yoke of iron. It at first 

 exhibited itself, like every new ty- 

 ranny, under a flattering form, and 

 its political impostors presumed they 

 should gain your favour by promis- 

 ing you reforms in the administra- 

 tion, and announcing, in a consti- 

 tution framed at their pleasure, the 

 empire of the laws. 



A barbarous and absurd contra- 

 diction, worthy certainly of their in- 

 solence. Would they have us be- 

 lieve that the moral edifice of the 

 fortune of a nation can be securely 

 founded on usurpation, iniquity, 

 and treachery? But the Spanish 

 people, who were the first of mo- 

 dern nations to recognize the 

 true principles of the social equi- 

 librium, that people who enjoyed 

 before any other the prerogatives 

 and advantages of civil liberty, and 

 knew to oppose to arbitrary power 

 the eternal barrier directed by jus- 

 tice, will borrow from no other na- 



tion maxims of prudence and po- 

 litical precaution ; and tell tnose 

 impudent legislators, that they will 

 not acknowledge as laws the arti- 

 fices of intriguers, nor the mandates 

 of tyrants. Animated by the ge- 

 nerous instinct, and inflamed with 

 the indignation excited by the per- 

 fidy with which you are invaded, 

 you ran to arms, without fearing 

 the terrible vicissitudes of so un- 

 equal a combat, and fortune, sub- 

 dued by your enthusiasm, rendered 

 you homage, and bestowed on you 

 victory in reward for your valour. 

 The immediate effect of these first 

 advantages was the re-composition 

 of the state, at that time divided 

 into as many factions as provinces. 

 Our enemies thought that they had 

 sown among us the deadly germ of 

 anarchy, and did not advert that 

 Spanish judgment and circumspec- 

 tion were always superior to 

 French machiavelism, Withoutdis- 

 pute, without violence, a supreme 

 authority was established ; and the 

 people, after having astonished the 

 world, with the spectacle of their 

 sublime exaltation and their victo- 

 ries, filled it with admiration and 

 respect by their moderation and 

 discretion. • 



The central junta was installed, 

 and its first care was to announce 

 to you, that if the expulsion of the 

 enemy was the first object of its at- 

 tention, the inferior and permanent 

 felicity of the state was the prin- 

 ciple in importance : to leave it 

 plunged into the flood of abuses, 

 prepared for its own ruin by arbi- 

 trary power, would have been in 

 the eyes of our present govern- 

 ment, a crime as enormous as to 

 de'i ver you into the hands of Buona- 

 parte ; therefore, when the turbu- 

 lence of war permitted, it caused 

 3 B 2 to 



