now so reluctantly pay to Napoleon himself? It were easy also to urge that the effective population of France is already so much exhausted, as not to need the depletion of a civil war, in order to render her every succeeding year less and less able to make effectual head against the military resistance of the yet unsubdued nations of continental Europe; ever seconded and aided as they have been, are, and always will be, by the resources and the valor of Britain.

Is it not therefore reasonable, after considering the heroism of the defenders of Gerona, of Saragossa, of Tarragona, and of Cadiz; after having witnessed the exploits of Vimeira, of Corunna, of Talavera, of Oporto, and of Busaco, to conclude that the whole military population of France will be destroyed, before the Corsican tyrant shall be able to subdue the peninsula? It is indeed most ardently to be desired, that Spain may be the moth which shall eat away Napoleon's Imperial robe; that she may be to France what Holland was once to her." May it please your Majesty," said Sir Francis Walsingham to Queen Elizabeth of England, "in aiding the revolt of the Hollanders, I have given Spain a bone to gnaw, which she shall grind at for forty years, but which in the end shall break her teeth."

But another important question arises as to the effect which the subjugation of Spain would have on Britain.

Before this nefarious attempt was made, Buonaparte had at his entire command all the resources of the Spanish nation, whose blood and treasure, whose fleets and armies, he employed with the utmost prodigality in the prosecution of his plans for the destruction of Britain. Allow then, for the sake of argument, that Buonaparte should ultimately conquer Old Spain, will he not then be weaker and less able to carry into effect his designs against the British, by all the men whom he shall lose, and all the property

which he shall dissipate in the contest, by the determined hatred, the reluctant submission, of the Spaniards, and the consequent necessity of always maintaining large bodies of French troops in the peninsula, for the sole purpose of keeping his new subjects quiet? Add to all this, how is he to obtain possession of the Spanish American colonies? Will he conquer them also by the mere terror of his threats; or win upon their affections by his virtue and humanity, so signally displayed in his conduct towards their brethren in Old Spain? He cannot possibly murder every Spanish patriot that opposes him; and if it be seen that Old Spain must finally yield awhile to his overwhelming force, the political and military chiefs, with their families, their property, their talents, their valor, and their influence, together with a formidable Spanish fleet, will transport themselves to the American colonies, which are already prepared to receive them by their own hearty concurrence in the revolutionary cause. See "Hints," pp. 368-413, for more detailed information respecting Spain and her American colonies.

Thus, an immense, independent empire will be reared in the new world, which, while the British navy maintains the sovereignty of the seas, may bid defiance to Buonaparte and all his armies. And if he cannot enslave these Spanish colonies, will not their political and commercial alliance with Britain render her more able to defeat his schemes of universal domination, and to protect the world from his violence and fraud; instead of bringing her nearer to the point of subjugation by his arms? If Buonaparte, with Spain and her colonies under his own entire control, could make no impression on Britain, by what miraculous process is he to conquer her, when he shall have drained the vital strength of France in reducing the peninsula to an unwilling obedience, and the Spanish Colonies shall have become an independent Empire?

Upon the great and very important question relating to the emancipation of Spanish America, a flood of light is poured out in the Edinburgh Review, Vol. 13, pp. 277-311. The Reviewer discloses a vast body of interesting facts respecting this subject, that could not be derived from any common source of information; that could indeed have been obtained, only by free and liberal access to Lord Grenville, or the late Mr. Wyndham, or some other leading statesman, who filled conspicuous offices in Mr. Pitt's administration during the first French revolutionary war; and to whom alone many of the transactions now revealed, could have been imparted, in consequence of their political relations and bearings. See also Edinburgh Review, Vol. 16th, pp. 62—102-223-253, for further information on this very interesting question.

THIRD DIVISION.

BUT without peradventure the greatest and most effectual check to the destroying career of France, is to be found in the resources and the power of Britain. This fact, however, is not yet sufficiently dif fused over the community.

More than a century has now elapsed, since a loud and frequent cry, announcing the speedily approaching national bankruptcy of Britain, and her immediately consequent political annihilation, has been heard, not only within the precincts of the British dominions, but also over by far the greatest portion of Continental Europe. Of all the nations that dread the power, and envy the superiority of Britain, France has ever been the most industriously employed in propagating the belief of the impending bankruptcy of her ancient rival. And of late years, she has increased her zeal on this head to an almost incredible height of enthusiasm and extravagance.

It was chiefly to effect this purpose, that, towards the close of the year 1800, Buonaparte ordered M. Hauterive, then his sub-minister of Foreign Relations, to write and publish the celebrated work, intituled "De l'Etat de la France, a la fin de l'An 8.” The great aim of M. Hauterive is to persuade the European world of the power, the happiness, the virtue, and above all, the universal benevolence of France; while it is called upon to give equal credence to his account of the crimes, the approaching degradation, and more particularly the impending universal bankruptcy of Britain.

It is worthy of remark, as proving how very little regard to truth is paid by the French government in

its public declarations, that this same M. Hauterive, when reminded by a very respectable American citizen, then at Paris, (in 1802) that many of the statements respecting the British finances, contained in the "Etat de la France," were inaccurate, replied“Oh! I know that well; my book is merely the discharge of a pistol in time of war-(un coup de pistolet pendant la guerre.)

In the year 1804, by the command also of Buonaparte, Arthur O'Connor published at Paris a pamphlet, called "The Present State of Great Britain." This Arthur O'Connor is an United Irishman, was tried for high treason at Maidstone in Kent (England,) and through the mistaken lenity of the British government, suffered to escape into France, where he now enjoys the distinction of being a general in the French army. O'Connor's book has been dispersed by the active and openly avowed patronage of Buonaparte, over all the Continent of Europe, with unwearied assiduity and with considerable effect. The intention of the Irish-Frenchman, is to show, "that Britain was, in 1804, arrived at a point beyond which her burdens could not be increased; that she had accumulated five hundred millions of debt altogether by means of the paper-credit system, and that every step of farther advance must be in the gulph of bankruptcy; that any continuance of the scheme must increase the depreciation of money and the price of all commodities; that she would be undersold in every foreign market; that nations fresh in the vigour of youth would profit by her decrepitude; that states which have no debts to weigh them down, would outstrip her in every competition; that her taxes would become daily less and less productive; her public funds sink in value; their interest cease to be paid; new taxes become impracticable; universal confusion and disorganization ensue, and Britain fall