228 ANNUAL REGISTER, 18lO 



the influence of turbulent and am- 

 bitious individuals, blind-folded 

 by those political maxims and 

 doctrines, which in the end con- 

 verted those whopropagated them 

 in France, into the slaves of the 

 tyrant Napoleon. Those unex- 

 pectedproceedings filled the minds 

 of the Spaniards, who had to the 

 present moment struggled, with 

 hearts of bronze, to preserve the 

 liberty and happiness of the whole 

 Spanish race and name, with the 

 greatest grief and alarm, that it 

 had become necessary to draw the 

 bonds that united them all more 

 closely than ever. Spain, heroic, 

 though unfortunate, had her eye 

 fixed on her happy provinces be- 

 yond the seas; and the govern- 

 ment on whom the common care 

 of all had devolved, hoped that 

 the Spanish inhabitants of that 

 hemisphere would regard so abo- 

 minable an example with detesta- 

 tion and abhorrence ; quash, and 

 confound it with their own hands, 

 and obliterate all remembrance of 

 it. The government of Spain in 

 all its branches, exercising au- 

 thority in the name of the king, 

 would exert all their power for 

 maintaining a respect for the laws, 

 good order, and justice, and pre- 

 serving that union, concord, and 

 fidelity, which had subsisted for 

 so many ages. It had been said 

 by the agitators in the colonies, 

 that Spain was not free, but under 

 the dominion of strangers. Never 

 had the holy war in the peninsula 

 been more alive or more extended 

 than at the present moment. The 

 national resentment, hatred, and 

 vengeance had never been more 

 envenprned than since the time of 

 the enemy's irruption into Anda- 

 lusia. The earth seemed to pro- 



duce patriots in arms. The Spa* 

 nish soldiers had become veterans 

 from the reverses they had suffer- 

 ed, from experience, and from the 

 new dicipline that had been pre- 

 scribed by necessity. And what 

 was the force that had preserved 

 Spain, and still preserved it, 

 amidst a war so terrible, a contest 

 so unequal ? The unity of the 

 sovereign power generally ac- 

 knowledged, and a concert of in- 

 dividual wills in defence of so just 

 a cause — the hopes of the tyrant 

 to establish his domination in the 

 peninsula rested solely on that of 

 disuniting the integrant parts. It 

 was union that he dreaded in. 

 Spain: it was union that he aimed 

 to destroy in America. Who, in 

 the Indies, could doubt the legiti- 

 mate authority and existence of 

 the government representing Fer- 

 dinand VII. which was not only 

 obeyed in Spain, but acknow- 

 ledged by the King of Great Bri^ 

 tain, the King of the two Sicilies, 

 the Prince Regent of Portugal, 

 the Ottoman Porte, the Emperor 

 of Morocco, and the other powers 

 of Barbary. Yet a band of tur- 

 bulent demagogues, under the 

 pretence, that there was not any 

 common centre of government in 

 Spain, had proclaimed their inde- 

 pendence; thus breaking the eter- 

 nal bands that had united Spa- 

 niards in every part of the world. 

 As to their offer of fraternity, it 

 was intended thereby only to ren- 

 der their designs less detestable- 

 He whom Europe calls the tyrant 

 of the continent shall never be 

 the tyrant of America, unless you 

 open the door to his perverse de- 

 signs by dissolving our union. 

 But what will it signify, that your 

 happy country escapes the fury of 



