ment, without descending to refute assertions notoriously false, and which had they been otherwise they had no right to prefer against it, confined itself to a statement of the principles which direct it principles which the legislative body loudly proclaims, which all Spaniards repeat, and which they will support with the constancy of a people faithful to their promises, and which nothing can shake while they defend their honour and independence.

It does not belong to the Cortes to inquire into the real motives of the conduct observed towards Spain by the Cabinets of Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and Petersburgh, any more than to anticipate the results of the answers returned by the government of your Majesty, but, what ever may be these motives or results, the road which the Legislative body must follow, is marked out for them by the constitution itself by the avowed and unanimous opinion of their constituents, and by the sentiment of national honour, which, being felt so strong ly by all Spaniards, must more particularly animate the assembly of their representatives.

The Cortes, in a crisis so memorable, are called upon to exert themselves, and are in fact exerting themselves, to draw closer the ties which unite them to the royal power, and to proclaim, as they do

now proclaim afresh, in the face of the nation, of the world, and of posterity, their determined resolu tion to sustain the glory and the independence of the throne of your Majesty, and of your Constitutional authority, the sovereignty and the rights of the heroic nation which they represent, and the constitution by which they exist.

The Cortes are bound to assure your Majesty, and they do assure your Majesty, that to attain so sacred an object, they are ready to decree every species of sacrifice, certain that the Spanish people will bear them with joy-with enthu siasm; and that they will resign themselves to all possible evils, rather than enter into terms with those who would pretend to taint their honour, or to attack their liberties.

Such is the declaration of the Cortes: and they hope that the national power, thus fortified by the union which exists between the throne, the Cortes, and the people, will be sufficient to impose respect on the enemies of Spanish independence and liberty-to secure, perhaps, peace, and certainly the glory of the nation to consolidate its future welfare under the empire of the constitution which governs us, and the salutary principles of which promise to our country the most flattering destinies.

The Duke D'Angoulême, Generalin-chief of the Army of the Pyrenees, to the Spaniards The king of France, by recalling his ambassador from Madrid, hoped that the Spanish government, warned of its dangers, would

return to more moderate sentiments, and would cease to be deaf to the counsels of benevolence and reason. Two months and a half have passed away, and his majesty has in vain expected the establishment in Spain of an order of things

compatible with the safety of neighbouring states.

The French government has for two entire years endured, with a forbearance without example, the most unmerited provocations; the revolutionary faction which has destroyed the royal authority in your country-which holds your king captive-which calls for his dethronement-which menaces his life and that of his family, has carried beyond your frontiers its guilty efforts. It has tried all means to corrupt the army of his Most Christian Majesty, and to excite troubles in France, in the same manner as it had succeeded by the contagion of its doctrines and of its example to produce the insurrection of Naples and Piedmont. Deceived in its expectations, it has invited traitors, condemned by our tribunals, to consummate, under the protection of triumphant rebellion, the plots which they had formed against their country. It is time to put a stop to the anarchy which tears Spain in pieces, which takes from it the power of settling its colonial disputes, which sepa rates it from Europe, which has broken all its relations with the august sovereigns whom the same intentions and the same views unite with his Most Christian Majesty; and which compromises the repose and interests of France.

Spaniards! France is not at war with your country. Sprung from the same blood as your kings, I can have no wish but for your independence, your happiness, your glory. I am going to cross the Pyrenees at the head of 100,000 French

men; but it is in order to unite myself to the Spaniards, friends of order and of the laws, to assist them in setting free their captive king, in raising again the altar and the throne, in rescuing priests from proscriptions, men of property from spoliation, and the whole people from the domination of an ambi tious few, who, while they proclaim liberty, are preparing only the slavery and ruin of Spain.

Spaniards! Every thing will be done for you and with you. The French are not, and wish not to be, any thing but your auxiliaries. Your standard alone shall float over your cities: the provinces traversed by our soldiers shall be administered in the name of Ferdinand by Spanish authorities; the severest discipline shall be observed; every thing necessary for the service of the army shall be paid for with scrupulous punctuality; we do not pretend either to impose laws on you, or to occupy your country; we wish nothing but your deliverance; as soon as we shall have obtained it, we will return to our country, happy to have preserved a generous people from the miseries produced by revolution, and which experience has taught us but too well to appre ciate.

Gentlemen Deputies.On this solemn day, in which the present Cortes are closed, my heart is necessarily affected by sensations of different kinds, though still they ac cord with the circumstances in which the nation is placed. On the one hand, the evils by which she is oppressed, and, on the other, the valour of those sons who de fend her, produce in my mind the natural effects of such opposite causes; and if the public calamities and the horrid abuse of my royal name by the enemies of the state, are to me matter of the deepest affliction, I likewise feel the greatest satisfaction when I contemplate the virtues by which the Spanish people are acquiring fresh claims to glory, and the conduct by which their worthy representatives have distinguished themselves during the present legislature.

Invaded as our territory is, by the most unheard-of treachery on the part of a perfidious enemy, who owe their existence chiefly to this magnanimous nation, the world beholds violated in her the rights of all countries, and all the principles the most sacred among

men.

Pretended defects in our political institutions-supposed errors in our interior administration, a feigned wish to restore tranquillity, the disturbance of which is the work of those alone who exaggerate it affected concern for the dignity of a Monarch who wishes not to be one but for the happiness of his subjects such were the pretexts of an aggression which will be the scandal of posterity, and the blackest spot of the nineteenth century. But, hypocrisy, embol

dened by her ephemeral progress, soon threw of the mask, and, dis covering all the horror of her views, no longer allows even the most duped to doubt that the only reform she aims at is, to de prive the nation of all independence, of all liberty, and of all hope: and that the dignity which she pre tends to restore to my crown, con. sists only in dishonouring me, in exposing my Royal person and family, and in undermining the foundations of my throne, to raise herself on its ruins,

With very little reliance on their forces, and on their own valour, the invaders have not been able to advance but as cowards, by scattering corrupting gold, by re curring to the vilest shifts to seduce the incautious, and by arming in their aid treason, fanaticism, ignerance, and all the passions and crimes. In opposition to such enemies, and in so disadvantageous a struggle, to those who are acquainted with honourable warfare only, the fate of arms has hitherto been adverse. The defection of a gene ral, whom the country had loaded with honours, annihilated an army, upset all plans, and opened to the enemy the gates of the residence of government, compelling it to remove to this spot; and the combined operations being thus frus trated, and our means of defence so considerably diminished, misfor tune has since succeeded misfortune, and evils have accumulated upon a generous people who least merited them.

But in the midst of these disasters, Spain preserves her magnanimous resolution, and the Cortes,

in the closest union, with my government, have ever maintained themselves such as they were in the memorable days of the 9th and 11th of January last. The serenity and wisdom of their deliberations hi therto, amidst such bitterness and danger, the confidence which their patriotism inspires, and the hatred itself with which they are honoured by the enemies of the country, are so many proofs that they have deserved well of it. Indefatigable in promoting all the branches of public prosperity, they have issued various decrees that contribute to it, as far as circumstances permit. The public credit of the nation, her finances, her army, the interior government of the provinces, agriculture, commerce, and other branches of industry, the administration of justice and the establishment of beneficence, have all been the object of the zeal of the Cortes, and all are indebted to them for considerable improvements which time will evince to a greater extent, and which I will exert myself to further, as far as depends upon the executive power.

"Gentlemen,-I feel a real satisfaction in expressing my gratitude for these important services, for the generosity with which you have attended to the honour of my Royal Family, and for the liberality with which you have furnished my Government all the means in your power to meet the excessive expenses of the state, with the least pressure upon the nation; the powers granted to this effect, by the Cortes, to the provincial deputations, as auxiliary juntas of the national defence, have increased the resources; and the patriotism of these corporations has hitherto made, and I trust, will continue to make, of such authori VOL. LXV.

ty, a use extremely beneficial for the support and increase of the defenders of the country.

"I likewise return thanks to the Cortes for the unlimited confidence which they have reposed in my government, authorizing it, of its own accord, and by means of its principal agents, to adopt some extraordinary measures which the present state of the nation induced me to propose as indispensable. If it really is indispensable that, in such critical times, the executive power should be sufficiently strong to prevent any machinations, and secure public tranquillity, my government never will, therefore, lose sight of the respect due to the liberty of the Spaniards, but en deavour to requite a confidence so gratifying, by acting, as hitherto, with the greatest moderation and economy.

"The position in which the events of the war have placed my Government, has produced an interruption in the communications with several of the agents of foreign Powers; but there is no reason whatever to think that this momentary interruption can dis turb the relations of friendship and alliance that subsist between Spain and those cabinets.

"Particular circumstances which might expose the honour of my government have induced me to order, as a provisional measure, that my chargé d'affaires should withdraw from Lisbon.

"Nevertheless, the ties subsist untouched by which two nations are united, whose evident interest it is to live together in peace and harmony: and the commercial intercourse has continued uninterrupted.

"In the interior, every thing suffers from the fatal effects of a L*

desolating war, and the most beneficent laws and measures cannot produce favourable results in the midst of such disasters. Divine Providence is pleased to try us in all ways but I trust, gentlemen, that at last it will grant a triumphant issue to the justice of our cause. If the treason of some has done for the invaders what they could not expect from their own efforts, the country has still left many heroes who remind the French army of the Spaniards of 1813. If some governments, who are inimical to liberty and light, have conspired against us-if others have forsaken us from a nearsighted policy-all nations behold their interests connected with ours, and are ardent in their wishes that in this struggle we may be vic torious.

"Gentlemen Deputies,-Then rest, for the present, from your laudable labours, and reap, from the esteem of your fellow-citizens, the fruits which you so richly deserve. Endeavour to inculcate on their minds the necessity of their all uniting around my constitutional throne and of discord and unfounded distrust disappearing from amongst us. Let the constitution be our only motto, national independence, freedom and honour our only wish, and unmoved constancy be ever opposed by us to misfortunes which we have not merited. My government shall cease to exist before it take any step contrary to the oaths by which it is connected with the country, or to what is required by the honour of the nation, and the dignity of my crown; and, if circumstances shall require it, it will seek, in the extraordinary Cortes, a safe harbour for the vessel of the state. In such case, I will assem

ble them, always depending upon their zeal and patriotism, and jointly we will travel in the path of glory, until a peace be obtained at once honourable and worthy of Spaniards and of myself."

ANSWER of the PRESIDENT of the CORTES, to the KING'S SPEECH.

"Sire,-The Cortes of the Spanish nation, on terminating their ordinary sessions, could wish to congratulate your Majesty and themselves on the tranquil enjoyment of the beneficent institutions by which we are governed. But, in reality, as your Majesty has just observed, treacherous aggression has scattered over this nation all the evils of an atrocious war, in which fanaticism, the vices and ignorance of the aggressors are obstinately struggling against the virtues, the honour, and the illumination of the offended. In such a situation, the noble resolution of upholding the contest, so as either to vanquish or perish with glory, is worthy of Spanish breasts.

"And what pretexts have they chosen for hostilities that will ever be the scandal of the civilized world? To protect religion, and maintain the prerogatives of your Majesty's throne, through a reform in our constitution. But religion is not protected by the violence of the superstition of the barbarous ages; nor are the throne and person of your Majesty defended by exposing them to universal disrepute, by the excesses which are committed in the abuse of your Majesty's name. Above all, foreign legions, with arms in their hands, do not intend to reform the constitution of any country, but rather endeavour the destruction of its liberty, and the violation of