HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



167 



that they had not the general inte- 

 rest in contemplation so much as 

 they pretended. From the very 

 commencement of their authority, 

 they strove by all means to acquire 

 the exclusive management of the 

 public revenue. They employed 

 the national funds in commerce, 

 the profits of which were to be 

 appropriated to their own private 

 use ; and in this course they 

 deemeditthebestpolicynottopress 

 the execution of what was com- 

 mitted to their charge. The most 

 pitiful speculations in the manage- 

 ment of the national funds the duke 

 had been made acquainted with 

 from the mouths of several of the 

 members: the destitute state of 

 his army was witnessed by the 

 whole world ; but a whole month 

 had passed, without the smallest 

 effort on the part of the Junta to 

 relieve them. " Who," said the 

 duke, " would believe that the 

 Junta of Cadiz should detain in its 

 hands a hundred pieces of cloth, 

 in the hope that, by the manage- 

 ment of the public revenue, they 

 should gain, and put in their own 

 pocket three reals per yard." 

 This was a fact that the duke 

 knew to be certain, and which the 

 Junta would do well to remember, 

 in order to moderate a little the 

 noise with which they vaunted of 

 their patriotism. 



This mercenary and venal spirit 

 has brought on the ruin of states 

 once flourishing. That the same 

 spirit should threaten so loudly the 

 extinction of a new political order 

 of affairs in its very commence- 

 ment, is afact that seems to be sin- 

 gular and unprecedentedin history. 



The Junta of Cadiz, on seeing 

 this manifesto, wrote a letter to 

 the duke of Albuquerque, dated 



the 12th of January, 1811, in 

 which they treated the duke as an 

 impudent calumniator, and an 

 enemy to the public welfare and 

 to his country. Yet they had no- 

 thing that they could think plausi- 

 ble to allege against the duke, so 

 far was his character above all re- 

 proach, but that his manifesto 

 was dictated by a spirit of ven- 

 geance. " Considering yourself," 

 said they, " to be in safety, you 

 have exhaled your venom, without 

 any regard to the fatal conse- 

 quences that might have followed; 

 It would have been better for your 

 excellency to have said at once, 

 ' My heart sickens and pines at 

 the sight of my own insignificancy 

 in the presence of virtue, where 

 no regard is paid to my rank, and 

 where I am considered as nobody, 

 though I alone could do every 

 thing.' You cannot expect any 

 other answer to your publication 

 than, that your impostures shall 

 vanish before clear and irresistible 

 light. The Junta, therefore, is 

 contented with citing you before 

 the august appearance of the na- 

 tional congress." The letter was 

 subscribed by all the individual 

 members of the Junta. 



The Cortes pronounced sentence 

 in favour of the duke, and trans- 

 mitted their resolution on the sub- 

 ject, Isia de Leon, Jan. 14, 1811, 

 to the secretary of the war depart- 

 ment, to be communicated to the 

 council of regency. They de- 

 clared that the duke of Albu- 

 querque, and the army under his 

 command, had deserved well of 

 their country by their services, 

 and particularly by covering the 

 accessible points of the Isla and of 

 Cadiz. It was therefore the will 

 of the Cortes, that the duke of 



