willingly, were it possible, redeem them with our blood: but in the confusion of events, among the mountains of difficulties which surround us, who could be certain of always being in the right? Could we be responsible because one body of troops wanted valour, and another confidence; because one general has less prudence, and another less good fortune? Much, Spaniards, is to be attributed to our inexperience, much to circumstances, but nothing to our intention. That ever has been to deliver our unfortunate king from slavery, and preserve to him a throne for which the Spanish people have made such sacritices, and to maintain it free, independent, and happy. We have, from the time of our institution, promised him a country; we have decreed the abolition of arbitrary power, from the time we announced the re-establishment of our Cortes. Such is, Spaniards, the use we have made of the unlimited power and authority confided to us; and when your wisdom shall have established the basis and form of government most proper for the independence and good of the state, we will resign the authority into the hands you shall point out, contented with the glory of having given to the Spaniards the dignity of a nation legitimately constituted. May this solemn and magnificent assembly be productive of efficacious means, energy, and fortune; may it be an immense inextinguishable volcano, from which may flow torrents of patriotism to revivify every part of this vast monarchy, to inflame all minds with that sublime enthusiasm which produces the safety and glory of nations, and the despair of tyrants; and yourselves, noble fathers of the country, to the elevation of your high duties, and Spain exalted with

you to an equally brilliant destiny, shall see returned into her bosom, for her happiness, Ferdinand VII. and his unfortunate family: shall see her sons enter on the path of prosperity and glory which they ought henceforth to pursue, and receive the crown of the sublime and almost divine efforts which they are making.

Marquis of ASTORGA, President. PEDRO DE RIVERO, Sec.-Gen. CITY JUBILEE ADDRESS TO THE KING, NOV. 1. 1809. To the King's most excellent Majesty:

The humble and dutiful Address of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council assembled: "Most gracious Sovereign: We, the lord mayor, aldermen, and commons, of the city of London in common council assembled, approach your majesty's sacred person with our most lively and unfeigned congratulations on the recent anniversary of your majesty's accession to the throne of these realms: with joy and gladness we hail the day on which your majesty entered into the fiftieth year of your majesty's reign, not only over the persons, but in the hearts of your majesty's subjects. When it pleased the almighty Ruler of Princes to place the sceptre in your majesty's hands, the brave, free, and loyal people, whom your majesty was ordained to govern, received with pleasure your majesty's first declaration to the great council of the nation, that, "born and educated a Briton, the peculiar happiness of your majesty's life would ever consist in promoting the welfare of your people, and your majesty's resolution to maintain our most excellent constitution, both in church and state, with an assurance that the civil and religious

rights of the subject were equally dear to your majesty with the most valuable prerogatives of the crown." We experience and acknowledge the blessings of this security to our religion and laws, and that great charter of liberties which, in virtue of the glorious Revolution, your majesty's illustrious house was chosen to defend. Through the lapse of nearly half a century, your majesty has proved yourself, on every occasion, unwearied in the maintenance and practice of all the principles so graciously pledged. It is a proud subject for your majesty's faithful citizens of London to record, that in the midst of all our unexampled struggles, your majesty is enabled to say, now, as at the commencement of your majesty's reign, that your majesty can see with joy of heart the commerce of these king doms, that great source of our riches, and fixed object of your majesty's never-failing care and protection, flourishing to an extent unknown in any former war. Deeply impressed with gratitude to Almighty God for the innumerable blessings he has been pleased to pour down upon this highly-favoured nation, and more particularly for his wonderful and great goodness, in having continued his divine protection to your majesty until this joyful period, we, your majesty's faithful citizens of London, have implored heaven to accept our fervent prayers of praise and thanksgiving, and to continue that same providential care and protection to your majesty for many years yet to come. Believe, Sire, that it is the warmest wish and most fervent prayer of your majesty's citizens of London, that Providence may long continue to this nation so distinguishing a mark of divine favour, and that in the fulness of time,

when your majesty shall be called from your earthly to a celestial crown, the memory and example of so beloved a sovereign may secure to a grateful people the imitation of your majesty's virtues, in the successors of your royal house, till time shall be no more.

Signed by order of the court,

HENRY WOODTHORPE." To which address his majesty was pleased to return the following most gracious answer:-" I thank you for this testimony of your zeal and affection for me and my government. It has ever been my anxious care to maintain the rights and privileges of every class of my subjects; and it is a great satisfaction to me to reflect, that, in the midst of all our unexampled struggles, and notwithstanding the duration of the wars in which, for the safety of my people, I have been engaged, the commerce and manufactures of my city of London have been carried to an extent unknown at any former period."

They were all received very graciously, and had the honour to kiss his majesty's hand. After which his majesty was pleased to create. the lord mayor a baronet, and conferred the honour of knighthood on William Plomer, esq. alderman.

our

the favourable aspect which their affairs in the north have assumed, they insolently exhort us to submit to the clemency of the conqueror, and tamely bow our necks to the yoke. No, servants of Buonaparté! [the address afterwards continues,] placed as we are by your baseness, between ignominy and death, what choice would you wish a brave nation to make, but to defend itself to the last extremity? Continue to rob, murder, and destroy, as you have done for these twenty months past; increase that incessantly eternal hatred and thirst for vengeance which we must ever feel towards you. Shall we fall at the feet of the crowned slave whom Buonaparte has sent us for a king, because he burns our temples, distributes our virgins and matrons among his odious satellites, and sends youth as a tribute to the French Minotaur? Think not, Spaniards, that the Junta addresses you thus to excite your valour by the arts of language-What occasion is there for words, when things speak so plainly for themselves? Your houses are demolished, your temples polluted, your fields ravaged, your families dispersed, or hurried to the grave. Shall we consent to the total destruction of our holy religion in which we were born, and which we have so solemnly sworn to preserve? Our country is laid waste, and we are insulted, and treated as a vile herd of cattle, which are bought and sold, and slaughtered when our master pleases. Remember, Spaniards, the vile and treacherous manner in which this usurper tore from us our king. He called himself his ally, his protector, his friend; he pretended to give him the kiss of peace, but his embraces are the folds of the serpent, which twine round the iuno

cent victim, and drag him to his cavern. Suck perfidy is unknown to civilized nations, and scarcely practised among the most barbarous. The sovereign we idolize is condemned to groan in solitude, surrounded by guards and spies. Amidst his sufferings, he can only silently implore the valour of his beloved Spaniards for liberty or vengeance. There can be no peace while these things subsist. That Spain may be free, is the universal wish of the nation. That Spain may be free, or that it may become an immense desàrt, one vast sepulchre, where the accumulated carcases of French and Spaniards shall exhibit to future ages our glory and their ignominy. But this wretched fate is not to be feared by brave men. Victory, sooner or later, must be the reward of fortitude and constancy. What but these defended the small republics of Greece from the barbarous invasion of Xerxes ? What protected the capitol when assailed by the Gauls? What preserved it from the arms of Hannibal? What, in more modern times, rescued the Swiss from German tyranny, and gave independence to Holland? What, in fine, inspires at present the Tyrolese with such heroic resolution, that, though surrounded on every side by enemies, and abandoned by their protectors, they take refuge in their rocks, and on the summits of their mountains, and hurl defiance and defeat on the battalions of the conqueror of Dantzic. The God of armies, for whom we suffer, will give us success, and conduct us through all the dangers that surround us to the throne of independence. Spaniards, the Junta announces this to you frankly, that you may not for a moment be ignorant of the danger which threatens your country; it announces it

to

to you with confidence that you will shew yourselves worthy of the cause which you defend, and of the admiration of the universe. [The address goes on to exhort the Spanish nation to submit to every privation, and make every sacrifice to save the state.] When the storm rages, the most valuable treasures must be thrown into the sea to save the vessel from sinking. Perish the man whose selfishness can render him wanting in his duty, or induce him to conceal what is necessary to be distributed among his brethren, for the common defence! Perish a thousand times the wretch who can prefer his own interest to the delivery of his country! All such the state will severely punish. Our enemies omit no means which can be employed for our destruction, and shall we neglect any which can conduce to our preservation? There are provinces which have driven out the enemy from among them; and shall not those, who have not yet suffered from such a scourge, sacrifice every thing to preserve themselves from it? Our brave soldiers endure the rigours of winter, and the scorching heats of summer, and nobly encounter all the dangers of batue; and shall we, remaining quietly at our homes, forgetful of their incalculable fatigues, think only of preserving our wishes, and refuse to resign even the least of our luxurious enjoyments? The victory must be ours, if we continue and conclude the great enterprize we have undertaken with the same enthusiasm with which we began it. The colossal mass of force and resistance which we must oppose to our enemy, must be composed of the forces of all, of the sacrifices of all; and then what will it import, that he

pours upon us anew the legions with which he has been successful in Germany, or the swarm of con scripts he endeavours to drag from France? The experience we have obtained in two campaigns, and our very desperation, will consign these hordes of banditti to the same fate which the former have suffered. If some of the monarchs of the North have consented to become the slaves of this new Tamerlane, and at the expense of ages of infamy have purchased a moment's respite till their turn shall come to be devoured, wè are resolved to perish or triumph. The alliance we have contracted with the British nation continues, and will continue. That nation has lavished for us its blood and its treasures, and is entitled to our gratitude, and that of future ages.[The address thus concludes]— Here was drawn, never to be sheathed, the sword of eternal hatred to the execrable tyrant; here was raised, never to be lowered, the standard of independence and justice. Hasten to it all ye who wish not to live under the abominable yoke, ye who cannot enter into a league with iniquity, and ye who are indignant at the cowardly deser. tion of deluded princes, hasten to us. Here the valiant shall find opportunities of acquiring true honour; the wise and virtuous obtain respect, and the oppressed find an asylumour cause is the same, the same be our danger, the same our reward. Come hither, and in despite of all the arts, and all the power of this inhuinan despot, you shall witness how we will render dim his star, and be ourselves the creators of our own destiny.

(Signed)

THE ARCHBISHOP OF LAODICEA, President. PEDRO DE RIVER, Secretary.

BRAZILS.

PORTUGUESE GOVERNMENT. Decree of the Prince Regent of Por

tugal, dated Rio Janeiro. Governors of the kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, friends! I, the Prince Regent, send unto you greeting, as unto those whom I love and prize. It being my principal care to secure, by every means possible, the independence of my dominions, and to deliver them completely from the cruel enemy who so inhumanly, and contrary to the good faith of treaties, has invaded the states of my crown in Europe, and has never ceased making upon them the most unjust war; and as it is, on the one hand, acknowledged that, in such a difficult crisis, nothing can more contribute to the defence of the kingdom than a government composed of a small number of individuals; and as, on the other, it is indispensable to preserve with my ancient and faithful ally, the king of Great Britain, not only the best understanding, but likewise to prove to him, in the most evident manner, that my intentions are not different from those by which he is animated in the promotion of the common cause, that his Britannic Majesty may continue, in the same efficacious manner, to succour Portugal and the whole of the Peninsula; and as it cannot be doubted that this glorious purpose, which I so ardently desire to effect, can only be attained by the most extensive, firm, and reciprocal confidence; and his Britannic Majesty having made known his principles on this subject, and what he judges will most contribute to a happy result, and is most essential to the defence of the kingdom and of the Peninsula; I have seen fit to order that you shall be immediately reduced to the number of three, or two gover

nors, having a deliberate vote on all objects of the public administration, and that these shall be-the Patriarch Elect of Lisbon, the 'Marquis das Minas, and the Marquis Monteiro Mor, president of the board da Consciencia e Ordens, Don Francis Xavier da Cunha e Meneze, performing the function of president of the Privy Council, to which place he is appointed by the present decree. It is further my pleasure to direct you to acknowledge Sir Arthur Wellesley as Marshal General of my armies, as long as he shall continue in the command of the allied Portuguese and English forces, taking then his rank over Marshal Beresford, as commander-in-chief; and as soon as he shall have been recognized as such, you will invite him to all the sittings of government, in which matters come under discussion which concern the organization of the army, or important determinations, whether financial or others, which it may be necessary to adopt for the defence of the kingdom and, of the whole Peninsula: taking his opinion and advice on all subjects of that nature; and should he be absent in such cases, and not be able to assist at your deliberations, you are to apply for his advice in writing, if possible, giving him full information on the subject under discussion, in order that he may be perfectly acquainted with your decision and determination of matters of the above description. In this manner the affairs of government shall be conducted with the utmost energy and harmony, as long as unfortunately it shall not be possible to conclude a permanent and general peace. His Britannic Majesty will thus be convinced that it is my earnest wish to eradicate the general voice of difference of opinion between the powers who make

common