the common oppressor, yet in fact they would, even France herself not excepted, contribute assistance in an indirect and passive manner, by obliging him to employ a great part of his armies, in watching and keeping them in subjection.

The principal towns and seaports of Spain, isolated from one another, by vast distances, were not all of them to be occupied by an invading army, however numerous. In the interior, and particularly the north of Spain, the ground, in many parts, is hilly and broken, rising into lofty mountains, with defiles here and there, and in some places, even towns inaccessible to artillery. The plains of the two Castilles and Estramadura, are scarcely less favourable to invading armies, than the rugged regions that separate them from the rest of Spain. The excessive heat of the climate, and the contagion of intermittent fevers, would be more fatal to an army of strangers, than detachments of natives. The French would have to encounter a great scarcity of provisions and forage, and a difficulty of transporting these from one place to another.

In other countries Buonaparté had supplied his magazines from the depots of the countries he invaded, improvidently suffered to fall into his hands. In Spain, no such depots were to be found. Out of evil some times arises good. In former times there had been in every village in Spain small granaries, called positos, where the farmers were obliged to deposit every year a certain portion of their harvest as a security against famine. In the last war with Portugal go

vernment had drained those positos for provisioning the army, sent against Portugal in 1801, and failed in its promise to replenish them. Nor could the farmers ever be persuaded to confide thereafter any portion of their grain or forage to the public granaries.

The Spaniards, of proper age, might form themselves at first into small bodies, and take every advantage to be derived from local knowledge: and when they should be under the necessity of quitting one district or province, they might retire to another. They could break up roads, cut down bridges, intercept convoys and intelligence, fall on the enemy on his flanks; and in short, harass him in all possible ways, without allowing him a moment's repose by night or day. By degreessmaller would be organized into larger masses, and duly trained until their local and raw militia should become equal, at length, to a regular army. It was a fortunate circumstance, that the Spanish armies had always been recruited upon limitedservice; by whichmeans there were spread over all the provinces of Spain veterans who had been trained to arms, and who could now train others. Nor was it the least favourable circumstance to the cause of the patriots, that both their kings, the old and the new, with their courtiers, and so many suspicious characters, were dancing attendance in the antichamber of king Joseph, at Bayonne.Add to all these favourable circumstances, that the Spaniards were patient under hardships and privations, and many of them accustomed to make long journies on foot. СНАР.

lation; who could reason more coolly, or on some occasions, giving loose to all his sails, rush on his object with greater ardour. But in his conduct towards Spain he betrayed the common weakness of being unhinged by a long continued flow of success. To the emperor of the French, king of Italy, protector of the confederation of the Rhine, and mediator of the republic of Switzerland, it was plainly a matter of indifference what individual collected the revenues of Spain for the benefit of France; except that a prince of the house of Bourbon might have been expected to collect those of America for some years longer: whereas a change of dynasty could not fail to endanger that great source of supply, by inciting those provinces to pursue their own interest and greatness, in obedience to the very dictates of nature, by asserting their independence.

*

It is true, as above observed, that the guilty mind of Buonaparté could never be at peace, while such a crown as that of the Spains and the Indies, rested on the head of a Bourbon. But the impetuous haste with which, after a long scene of successful treachery, he threw off the mask of friendship, and in violation of all that is most sacred among men, seized the persons of the royal family, was indefensible on any ground of policy.

He might have gained his end by means, though more leisurely, more secure. He had gained a complete

ascendancy over the mind and conduct of Ferdinand; as is fully proved by every act of this prince when raised to the throne, and particularly by his journey to Bayonne. The power and influence of Buonaparté, in his character of ally and mediator, with so many French troops in Spain, which might be reinforced on various pretences, was unlimited. It was in his power to occupy Cadiz, Carthagena, Ferrol, St. Andero, and other ports, and thus to cut off all regular and sure communication with England. By bestowing as a gift, on Ferdinand, the throne of his ancestors, he might have degraded him in the eyes of his subjects, compelled him to become, like his father, the miserable instrument of French rapacity, and ultimately like him to abdicate the throne for the safety of his person. In a word, he might have pursued any conduct but that which mortally wounded the pride of every Spaniard, and which every Spaniard considered as a personal insult. It must, however, be admitted, that the explosion of indignant patriotism, which burst forth at the same moment in all the provinces of Spain, was more than Buonaparté, or any one could have expected. It seems to have astonished even the Spaniards themselves.

The junta of Seville looked upon it to be," as it were, the inspiration of heaven, and little short of miraculous." And this, by the bye, may serve, in some degree, as an apology for the duke of Infantado, and the other Spanish nobles, who accompanied Ferdi

nand

nand to Bayonne. They might have thought that all attempts to oppose Buonaparté would be of no avail, and tend only to involve the country in calamity and ruin.

The public mind was in a state of fermentation ever since the horrid 2nd of May, and commotions and tumults had arisen in divers places; but it was not until the gazette of Madrid, May 20th, had proclaimed throughout the land the abdication of the Spanish crown by Fer. dinand VII, in favour of the emperor of the French, that there was a great and general explosion. The publication of the gazette was quickly followed up by the anniversary of St. Ferdinand, the tutelar saint of the prince, May 27th, which awakened all the sensibility of an ardent, devout, and honourable nation. It was on that day that the insurrection broke out in most places.

The history of Spain for what remains of 1808, after the close of the month of May, naturally divides itself into three periods: First, that previous to the forma tion of the central juntas; secondly, that during the government of the central juntas; and, thirdly, that under the supreme and central junta.

The events of the first of these periods, which was but very short, or rather merely transient, were, as usual, in similar cases, for the most part, the effects of popular passion. Don Miquel de Saavedra, captain general of the province of Valentia, where the insurrection first started, who attempted to oppose the views of the insurgents, was put to death. The insurgents then demanded, that all the goods belonging to the French should be declared to be

forfeited, and their persons secured in the citadel. A few days thereafter they dragged the crew of a French ship, which had been pursued by an English frigate, and sought refuge on the Spanish coast, to prison; and on the 14th of June, in a fresh paroxysm of rage, massacred them. At Cuenca, the corregidor and the intendant were thrown into chains, and carried off by a party of peasants. The governor of Carthagena was murdered. General Truxillo, governor of Malaga, was murdered at Grenada. His body was dragged through the streets, cut in pieces, and afterwards burnt. The French consul at Malaga, Mornard, and some French merchants of that place, were secured on the 4th of June, from the fury of the people, in the Moorish castle of Gibralforo. A great quantity of arms and ammunition taken from an English privateer in 1800, had been lodged in a warehouse in the suburbs, to be sold. On the 20th of June a report prevailed that this magazine had been purchased by the French consul, for the use of the French army. The people of Malaga marched to the castle, and notwithstanding all the remonstrances of the deputy-governor, and resistance of the guard, burst into the castle, pierced their victim with a thousand daggers, and burned his dead body in a bonfire made of the furniture and some wrecks of the consul's house. The depôt was broken open, and all that it contained destroyed. All this was done in spite of every effort on the part of the municipal government of Malaga to prevent it.

The tumult was at last quelled by a singular expedient. The dean

and

and chapter fell on the contrivance of a procession, to thank God for their deliverance from the oppressor. The multitude immediately joined the procession, and tranquillity was restored. The governor of St. Lucas Barameda, was massacred. At Jaen, the peasants murdered the corregidor, and plundered the town.

Similar scenes were exhibited in Estramadura and the Castilles. At Badajoz, the insurrection broke out May 30th, and was in an instant matured. The palace of the governor was assaulted. The insurgents demanded arms, to be enrolled, and formed into a regular body. The government, with the bishop, appeared at the balcony, exhorting the multitude to retire; but in vain. They overpowered the guard of the palace, rushed in, seized the governor, and dragged him as far as the Palm-gate, where with knives, and sticks, they déstroyed him.

At Čadiz, May 29th, the people rose against the lieutenant-general Solano, Marquis Del Socorro, captain general of the province of Andalusia, and governor of the city of Cadiz. The marquis, with the Spanish troops under his command, had been recalled for the purpose of covering the flight of Charles IV from Aranjuez to Seville. At Madrid, he formed an intimate and confidential connection with Murat, and general O'Farrel, an Irishman in the Spanish service, but drawn over to the side of the French. From the moment that a design was conceived to resist the progress of the French in Spain, every eye was turned to Andalusia, admirably fitted, by its situation, for co-operation with the English, and possessing the harbour

of Cadiz, and the founderies of Seville. Cadiz was divided, though unequally, by a French party and the Spanish patriots. The former consisted of French merchants and Frenchclerksinthecounting-houses, with Le Roy, the French consul at their head; and admiral Rosilly, with the other officers of the French fleet, which had been moored in the harbour of Cadiz ever since the battle of Trafalgar. The latter was composed of almost all the Spaniards, the English merchants, and others also, for there were some of other nations.

While the patriots with their allies entered into a correspondence and concert with sir Hugh Dalrymple, governor of Gibraltar, the English admiral Purvis, and general Castanos, commander of the Spanish camp at St. Roch, for the purpose of acting against the common enemy according to circumstances, the French party kept up a correspondence with Madrid. Solano came in post haste to Cadiz, and thundered forth proclamations against all who should have any correspondence with the English forces, while a strong detachment from the main army of the French at Madrid was on its march to Cadiz. An immense number of people, May 29th, conducted by Spanish officers and certain merchants of Cadiz, assembled around the governor's palace, at Chulana, a village in the vicinity of Cadiz, demanding, with loud cries, "arms and ammunition." Solano appeared at the balcony, and in a long speech tried to persuade the people that the power of the emperor of the French was altogether irresistible, and that, if they should attempt resistance to his will by force, they would only precipitate