forget the duties of his charge, the Regency will be under the necessity of exercising its power in fulfilling the duties intrusted to it. This spirited and decisive proceeding, however, was ineffectual to restrain the actions of a representative of that authority which during so many ages had maintained a successful contest with civil governments; and we learn from a subsequent manifesto of the Regency, that the nuncio affirmed in a note" that he could not but believe that he was under an indispensable obligation to act as he had done in quality of legate of the Pope, and in fulfilment of the dufies of his ministry; that though he wished nothing more than the peace and tranquillity of the kingdom, and it was contrary to his character to intermeddle in other subjects than those belonging to the duties of his legation, yet in ecclesiastical matters he was obliged to engage in that correspondence and communication which was required of him by his office." He added, "that if his conduct in corresponding with the reverend bishops, and acting as he had before done, gave offence to the Cortes, they might act as they thought proper relatively to himself, as he believed his behaviour would merit the approbation of his holiness." In a letter of the 9th of May the nuncio persisted in the same sentiments, and said, that the greater part of the bishops, even-those who were resident at Cadiz, had made known their opinion on this subject, in the hope, that as legate of the Pope, he would Take the part which he should judge proper; that he had therefore been induced to give his advice and instructions as he had done to the prelates and chapters, and that he should pursue the same conduct whenever similar subjects should come in question. Thus, perhaps very conscientiously, did Senor Gravina follow the same track with the Beckets of old in supporting the authority of the Roman see against that of the supreme civil government in a country; demonstrating the uniformity of principle by which that vast machine of ecclesiastical power is actuated. The Regency appears to have been reluctant to come to extremities and declare open hostilities with such a power, but its reputation and authority were compromised; and at length, on July 7th, after having heard the opinion of the Council of State, a note was sent in its name to the nuncio, acquainting him that a passport was sent to him for leaving the kingdom, and that his temporalities in it would be occupied. He was further informed, that in consideration of his dignity, and in order that he might perform his voyage commodiously, a national frigate should be prepared to carry him whithersoever he might choose to go. The nuneio however preferred going to Portugal in a vessel provided by himself; and thus was terminated this delicate affair, in a manner honourable to the firmness of the Spanish government. What was the impression made by the transaction upon the nation at large, it would be interesting to know, but we do not possess the means of acquiring such information. Although Although the splendid services of the Marquis of Wellington, and the necessity of bringing the Spanish armies into a state of effectual operation, had caused the appointment of his lordship to the high post of captain-general and commanderin-chief of the troops of Spain, yet symptoms had on different occasions appeared of that national jealousy which naturally attends upon a foreigner placed rather by circumstances than by good will in an office of great authority and trust, and his lordship's patience and moderation had more than once been exercised by the contradictions he had experienced. At length, the recall, by the Regency, of General Castanos from the army, under the pretext of employing him as a counsellor of state, obliged Lord Wellington to break silence, and address a public letter to the Spanish secretary at war, Don Juan O'Donoju, dated from Huarte, July 2d. It begins with referring to the alleged reason of the removal of General Castanos, namely, becanse he was not at the head of the 4th army which the Regency had entrusted to him; and it enters into a particular explanation of the causes which occasioned his employment elsewhere, not at his own suggestion, but that of Lord Wellington himself, who expressed a high esteem for this officer, as one who had served his country in close union with him during the last three years, without a single difference of opinion between them in any matter of moment. The removal of Gen. Giron from his command without any motive assigned, is another subject of complaint. His lordship pro ceeds," Your Excellency also knows, that this is not the first instance in which that contract, formed with so much solemnity, and after such mature deliberation, has been violated; and no one can be more fully aware than yourself of the inconveniencies which thence result to the good of the service. Your Excellency is equally well acquainted with my natural disposition, and my wishes to continue to serve the Spanish nation, as far as my abilities extend: but forbearance and submission to injuries so great, have their limits; and I avow that I have been treated by the Spanish government in those matters, in a manner the most improper, even simply as an individual." We are not informed of the direct result of this letter; but the name of Giron is afterwards found in active service with Lord Wellington. For a considerable time past the General and Extraordinary Cortes had been the body by whons the great business of the renovation of Spain, and the formation of its constitution, was conducted ; but the time was now arrived in which. it was to resign its authority to the Ordinary Cortes. On the 14th of September the decree of the General and Extraordinary Cortes for the close of its sittings being read, the President Don Jose Miguel Gordoa delivered an animated and eloquent oration, in which he' gave a retrospect of the wretched condition of the country at the time of the assembling of the Cortes, and a summary of what had been effected by that body towards its recovery. The following passage sketches the speak er's er's idea of the most essential benefits conferred upou the nation by the labours of the Cortes. To raise the nation from slavery to sovereignty; to distinguish and divide the powers hitherto mixed and confounded; to acknowledge solemnly and cordially, the Apostolic and Catholic religion as the only true one, and that of the state; to preserve to the Kings all their dignity, giving to them unlimited powers to do good; to give to the press all the natural liberty which the celestial gifts of thought and speech should have; to abolish the ancient Gothic remains of the feudal system; to equalise the rights and duties of Spaniards of both worlds;-these were the first steps of the Cortes in their arduous and glorious career, and these were the solid bases upon which were afterwards raised the edifice of the constitution, the fortress of liberty. O Constitution! O sweet name of Liberty! O grandeur of the Spanish nation! After the Cortes had bestowed upon us so many benefits, their insatiable thirst of doing good was not satisfied. They gave a new and more convenient form to the tribunals of justice; they settled the economical government of the provinces; they succeeded in forming a military constitution, and a plan of education and instruction truly national for youth; they organised the labyrinth of the finances; they simplified the system of contributions; and what cannot, nor ever will be heard without admiration, is, that in a period of the greatest poverty and distress they maintained, or rather created, public credit." It is gratifying to read the following passage in this patriotic effusion: Great and generous England sees her sons crowned with Spanish laurels that shall never fade; and, besides the assistance which she has lent to the common cause, has the fortune and glory of having sent the unconquered Wellington, the immortal captain of the allied armies ever triumphant." Such, doubtless, must be the general feeling of true Spaniards, whatever be the temporary jealousies and bickerings between different branches of authority. In the interval between the dissolution of the old Cortes and the assembling of the new for public business, a deputation of the former continued permanent for the purpose of watching over the constitution, and being at hand for particular events. It happened that this interference was called for by the following circumstance. The removal of the seat of government to Madrid was a question which had been several times agitated, and was made an affair of party. In this month, the report of a contagious fever prevailing at Gibraltar occasioned an alarm of the same distemper at Cadiz, and the council of state recommended to the Regency the immediate removal of all the departments of government to Madrid. The populace of Cadiz, filled with consternation, assembled in the streets, and vented their indignation against the advisers of a measure which they regarded as prejudicial to their interests, though without any violent, proceedings. The permanent depu will say, that if great and critical circumstances presented themselves, they were not superior to France and Me." To meet the exigencies of the time, an imperial decree was issued imposing 30 additional centimes to the duty for the current year on doors, windows, and patents, a double personal contribution or property tax, and an additional tax on salt. And a decree of the senate passed for the levy of 300,000 conscripts, with the preamble "Considering that the enemy has invaded the frontiers of the empire on the side of the Pyrences and the North, and that those of the Rhine and beyond the Alps are threatened." By the other decrees of the senate, the powers of the deputies of the legislative body, of the fourth series, were prolonged during the whole of the approaching session; and the direet nomination of the president of that body was invested in the emperor, who before only chose one of five candidates presented to him by it; manifest proofs of the apprehensious he began to entertain of any thing like an appeal to the people! An event more ominous to the French domination in Europe, and more auspicious to the cause of political freedom, than any which had hitherto occurred, was the Revolution in Holland, declared about this time. Nothing could be more repugnant to the manners and sentiments of the people of the United Provinces, or more fatal to their interests as a trading nation, than their annexation to the French empire; and though inability to resist had awed them into submission, it cannot be doubted that a rooted abhorrence of the yoke im posed upon them was the prevalent sentiment of the Batavian community. In the month of February a conspiracy had been discovered at Amsterdam, for the purpose of subverting the existing government, in which a few obscure persons attached to the house of Orange were engaged; but the punishment of the conspirators had suppressed the project in its infancy. At length, apparently from no previous concert, but as the result of a sudden burst of public feeling, roused to action by the arrival of the allied troops on the Dutch frontier, on the 15th of November, the people of Amsterdam rose in a body, and with the old cry of Orange boven, universally put up the Orange colours, and proclaimed the sovereignty of that illustrious house. The populace displayed their hatred of the French by burning the watchhouses of the custom-house officers, and three of their vessels ; and one of the officers was killed in the scuffle, but this was the only life lost on the occasion. The example of Amsterdam was fol lowed by the other principal towns of the provinces of Holland and Utrecht. The French authoritieswere dismissed without injury, and a temporary government was proclaimed in the name of the Prince of Orange, composed of the most respectable members of the old government, especially of those who were not employed by the French. On the 16th an administration was organized for Amsterdam under the direction of the armed burghers, and many of the leading citizens took upon themselves the care of preserving good order. Similar measures were a dopted dopted at the Hague, Rotterdam, and other places. The intelligence of these events was brought over on the 21st to London, by the Baron Perponcher and Mr. James Fagel, deputed by the provisional government to inform the Prince Regent and the Prince of Orange of the revolution which had taken place. They waited on the latter at his house in Harley-street, and invited him in the name of his countrymen to come and put himself at their head; a call which he readily obeyed. A cabinet council was immediately summoned, at which bis Highness was present; and the unanimous resolution was taken, of affording instant aid to the Dutch patriots with all the force that the country could furnish; and never was a political measure adopted in which the English nation more heartily or universally concurred. On November 25th the Prince of Orange embarked at Deal, for Holland, on board his Majesty's ship Warrior of 74 guns, accompanied by the Earl of Clancarty. So unpremeditated had been the revolutionary movement of the Dutch, that no regular military force was at hand to support the hazardous enterprize of abolishing an organized domination; and although the French troops in the country were upon low establishment, there was nothing but an half-armed populace to oppose them. Their commanders seem however to have been struck with a panic by the suddenness of the change, Gen. Bouvet marched out of the Hague at the head of 300 soldiers, mostly Germans, who, when they had proceeded about twelye miles, hoisted the orange cockade, severely beat Vol. LV. their commander, and joined the patriots. It was, indeed, impos sible in the present state of the European public to foresee how far defection from the French usurped authority might proceed. The evacuation of Amsterdam and Rotterdam was equally precipitate; and the armed douaniers, who seem to have formed the chief military force, were glad to escape in safety from places where they were peculiar objects of detestation. The first foreign aid that arrived to give confidence to the revolutionists was a body of 300 Cossacks, which presented itself before Amsterdam on the 23d of November, and was admitted into the city on the following day. The remaining French, shut up in the old townhouse, thereupon surrendered; and the Cossacks, with a party of burghers, took possession of the fort between Amsterdam and Haarlem, which surrendered by capitulation. These Cossacks were the forerunners of the Russian army under General Winzingerode, who, on entering the Dutch territory, issued a proclamation calling upon the people to rise in support of the good cause; and marching along the Yssel by Zwoll, Zutphen, and Deventer, reached Amersfort on the 23d, whence he dispatched his Cossacks. On the 24th the French, whose main force was posted at Gorcum, having recovered their spirits, made a general advance upon Amsterdam, Woerden, and Dordrecht. The attack upon Amsterdam was repulsed, the assailants losing five pieces of cannon. The body which advanced on Dordrecht, being opposed by. the armed burghers and the gun-boats, was driven back with |