Ebro,and dashing forward with great celerity in separate columns, took the Spanish posts at Logrono and Colahora, threw the whole country into alarm and confusion, and cut off the communication between the armies respectively under the command of general Blake and general Castanos.

In a series of actions from the 31st of October, the army under general Blake was driven from post to post; from Durango to Guenas; from Guenas to Valmaseda; from Valmaseda to Espinosa. In a strong position there, the Gallician army made a stand, in order to save its magazines and artillery, in vain. After a brave resistance, continued for two days, they were obliged to retreat with precipitation. During the conflict at Espinosa, a detachment was sent against the last retreat of the Gallicians, Reynosa. At break of day, 11th of November, they were suddenly attacked on both their right, left, and centre. They were forced to consult their safety by flight; throwing away their arms and colours, and abandoning their artillery. General Blake, with the remains of his broken army, took refuge in Asturias. What remained of the corps of the marquis of Romana, that had formed part of the Gallician army, fled first to St. Andero, and afterwards to Asturias. The Spaniards were pursued closely by marshal Soult, duke of Dalmatia, the van of whose army entered St. Andero on the 16th. The bishop of St. Andero took refuge in an English frigate.

In the mean time the Estramaduran army, under the command of the count Belvedere, a young man, was permitted without oppo

sition, by a stratagem similar to that which had drawn general Castanos to the left bank of the Ebro, to advance to Burgos, of which he took possession without resistance. Here the French fell on him with superior numbers and routed his army, after a gallant resistance for twelve hours, and almost annihilated it. The count, with the small remains of his army, fled to Lerma, and from thence to Aranda.

The French, having routed and dispersed the armies of the northof Spain, and of Estramadura, next fell on the central army under Castanos; and an engagement ensued at Tudela, 23d November, which fixed the fate of the campaign. It is thus described clearly, intelligibly, and, we doubt not in the least, faithfully, in the eleventh bulletin of the graud French army. "On the 22d of November, at the break of day, the French army began its march. It took its direction to Calahorra, where on the evening before, were the head quarters of Castanos. Finding that town evacuated, it marched on Alfaro, from whence the enemy had also retreated. On the 23d, at break of day, the general of division, Lefevre, at the head of the cavalry, and supported by the division of general Morlat, forming the advanced guard, met with the enemy. He immediately gave information to the duke of Montebello, who found the army of the enemy in seven divisions, consisting of 45,000 men, under arms, with its right before Tudela, and its left Occupying a league and an half, a disposition altogether faulty. The Arragonese were on the right, the troops of Valencia and New Castille in the centre, and the three divi

sions of Andalusia, which general Castanos commanded more especially, formed the left. Forty pieces of cannon covered the enemy's line.

"At nine in the morning the columns of the French army began to display themselves with that or der, regularity, and coolness, which characterise veteran troops. Situations were chosen for establishing batteries, with sixty pieces of cannon; but the impetuosity of the French troops, and the inquietude of the enemy, did not allow time for this. The Spaniards were al ready vanquished by the order and movements of the French army. The duke of Montebello caused the centre to be pierced by the division of general Maurice Matthews. The general of division Lefevre, with his cavalry, immediately passed on the trot through this opening, and by a quarter wheel to the left, enveloped the enemy. The moment when half the enemy's line found itself thus turned and defeated, was that in which general le Grange attacked the village of Cascante, where the line of Castanos was placed, which did not exhibit a better countenance than the right, but abandoned the field of battle, leaving behind it its artillery, and a great number of prisoners. The cavalry pursued the remains of the enemy's army to Mallen, in the direction of Saragossa, and to Tarragona, in the direction of Agreda. Seven standards, thirty pieces of cannon, twelve colonels, three hundred officers, were taken. Four thousand Spaniards were left dead on the field of battle, or driven into the Ebro. While a part of the fugitives retired to Saragossa, the left wing of the Spanish army

which had been cut off fled in disorder to Tarragona and Agreda. Five thousand Spaniards, all troops of the line, were taken prisoners in the pursuit. No quarter was given to any of the peasants found in arms. This army of 45,000 men has been thus beaten and defeated, without our having had more than 6000 men engaged. The battle of Burgos had smitten the centre of the enemy, and the battle of Espinosa, the right; the battle of Tudela has struck the left. Victory has thus struck as with a thunderbolt, and dispersed the whole league of the enemy."

By the battle of Tudela the road was laid open to Madrid. On the 29th of November, a division of the French army, under the command of general Victor, duke of Belluno, arrived at the pass of the Sierra Morena, called Puerto. It was defended by 13,000 men of the Spanish army of reserve, under the orders of general San Juan, The Puerto, or narrow neck of land forming the pass, was intersected by a trench, fortified with sixteen pieces of cannon. While a part of the French advanced to the Puerto by the road, with six pieces of artillery, other columns gained the heights on the left. A discharge of musketry and cannon was maintained for some little time on both sides. A charge made by general Montbrun, at the head of the Polish light horse, decided the contest. The Spaniards fled, leaving behind them their artillery and standards; and, as the French Bulletin states, their muskets: but this, from subsequent events, appears not to have been truth.

Advanced parties of the French cavalry appeared on the 1st of De

cember,

cember, before Madrid. At this period, the inhabitants of this city were busily employed in raising palisades, and constructing redoubts, breathing a determined spirit of resistance. The enemy was beaten back from certain gates several times: but on the third, they were in possession of the gate of Alcala; and also of the Reteiro, the reduction of which place cost the assailants very dear, in the loss, it was computed, of near 1000 men in killed and wounded. The junta then hoisted a white flag. The people of Madrid pulled down the flag, and persisted in their design of defending the city; but this enthusiasm soon began to subside, for want of leaders to keep it up and to direct it. And when they learnt for certain that the French were fortifying themselves in the Reteiro, they began to retire to their respective houses.

During the night of December the 3d, a Spanish officer who had been taken prisoner in the affair of Somosierra, brought a message from general Berthier, summoning for the second time Madrid to surrender. The Marquis of Castellar, captain general of Castille, sent in answer a letter to Berthier, demanding a suspension of hostilities, that he might have time for consulting the superior authorities. But there was no need or use in this. The superior authorities, who appear plainly to have had a secret correspondence with the enemy, had already come to a determination on the subject. Madrid was undoubt edly given up through treachery. When intelligence that the French had forced the passage of the Sierra Morena reached Madrid, a council was held, at which the honourable

Mr. Stuart, the British envoy at Madrid, was present. Don T. Morla took the lead, and expatiated at great length on the hopeless state of affairs; and urged the necessity of immediately capitulating for Madrid. When he sat down, another councellor rose, and reproached Morla for his proposal. He said that this advice was more suited to a minister of Joseph Buonaparte, than to one of king Ferdinand. Two days after this discussion, Don T. Morla, together with the prince of Castel Franco, to whom the defence of the capital had been com. mitted by the supreme junta, sent a dispatch to Sir Jolm Moore, describing the formidable Spanish force that was assembled at Madrid; and pressing him to advance, with all possible expedition to the capital. If Sir John Moore had not possessed, in an extraordinary degree, circumspection, penetration, and firmness, the solicitations of the traitors, and those too of Mr.Hookham Frere, minister plenipotentiary from his Britannic majesty to the supreme junta, but a wretched minister of war, would have thrown him and his little army completely into the hands of the French.

We find many misrepresentations in the Spanish gazettes of that time, and are at a loss in some instances whether to set them down to the account of folly, or a traitorous design to lull the Spaniards, prone to be so lulled, into a state of false security and inaction. After general Blake had officially notified to the central junta, about the middle of October, that the army he had been able to collect amounted to no more than from 22 to 23,000 men; we find it stated in the Madrid gazette of October the 21st, that 70,000 men

had

had passed through the town of Lugo. At Madrid, November the 23d, was published the following proclamation," Spaniards, the central junta of the government of the kingdom, after having taken all measures in its power to defeat the enemy, who, continuing his attacks, has advanced into the neighbourhood of Sornosa, addresses you for the purpose of putting you on your guard against the intrigues with which the perfidious agents of Napoleon endeavour to alarm and deceive you, by increasing the number of the enemy's troops, who hardly amount to 8000 men, according to the report of the general whom the junta has charged with the defence of the important post of Guadarama.” The letter of the marquis of Castellar, sent to Berthier in the morning of the 4th, produced a peremptory summons to surrender immedialely. In the evening of the same day, Don Thomas Morla and Don Bertrando Yriate waited on Berthier, and were introduced by him to Buonaparte: who told them, with a stern countenance, and in a decided tone of voice, that if the city did not tender its submission by five or six o'clock next morning, it would be taken by assault, and every one found with arms in his hands put to the sword. The Spanish troops in Madrid were sent off in the dead of night, by the gates of Segovia and Tudela.

Buonaparte, with affected magnanimity, extended his clemency to the degraded deputation from the junta. To conceal their concert with him, and at the same time to gratify his splenetic humour, he cunningly taunted Morla for his former perfidy in breaking the capitulation with Dupont. "The English," said he "are not renowned

for good faith: but having agreed to the convention of Cintra, they observed it." Morla's fortune and military rank were preserved to him. The same indulgence was shewn to his associates, who having joined him in betraying their country, did not disdain to live under the protection of the usurper. Morla, in a circular letter addressed to the Andalusians, endeavoured to draw them over to the side of king Joseph; who, he told them, was a man of great mildness and humanity of disposition.

Buonaparte addressed a manifesto to the Spanish nation, in which he promised them all good things if they received Joseph for their king sincerely and with all their heart.-If not, he would put the crown on his own head, treat them as a conquered province, and find another kingdom for his brother; for God had given him both the inclination and the power to surmount all obstacles.

The troops that had fled from the Puerto, or gate of Guadarama, having arrived, on the 3d of December, almost under the walls of Madrid, demanded with loud cries to be led to its defence. Their commander, Count St. Juan, who opposed so dangerous an attempt, was massacred.

Though the prerogatives of nature may be often neglected for ages, in the progress of time and events they are asserted sooner or later. Long had men of general views and speculation regretted that so fair a portion of the globe, są abundant in all the necessaries and even luxuries of life, and so well situated for the commerce of the world, as South America, should be suffered to languish under a shortsighted system of tyranny and op

pression

pression. The grand interest excited by the state of Spain in 1808, was, the consideration that it would in all probability sever the mother country from the colonies, and open a new theatre on the other side of the Atlantic, that would change the politics and improve the condition of the world. The balance of Europe being overthrown, it was a consolation to look to a balance on a grand scale: a balance of the world. It was not indeed the contemplation of a magnificent order of affairs that at first aroused the Spanish colonies to the exercise of their faculties, but that ardent devotion to the monarch, by which the Spaniards are particularly distinguished, and indignation against his cruel and perfidious oppressor. But it was easy to foresee, that the great Spanish continent in America with the adjacent isles, forced into a situation in which it was under a necessity of governing and acting for itself, would never return to such a state of dependence and dejection as that under which it had laboured for centuries, even though king Ferdinand should be restored to his throne, which became every day less and less probable.

The central junta, in conformity with the uniform intentions of the central juntas, declared that the colonies in Asia and America should not be considered as dependent provinces, but enjoy all the privileges of the metropolis and mother country. This was also declared in the new constitution framed for Spain by Buonaparte. In the Canaries, in Mexico, and the Floridas, Cuba and the other islands, and throughout the whole of South America, every Spaniard, as if animated by the same soul, breathed the same sentiments of devotion to the king and detestation

of the monster who wished to usurp his throne. The vengeance of many, as is natural in burning climates, would have been wreeked on unoffending individuals of the French nation. In the Floridas the French were so apprehensive of falling victims to the vengeance of the Spaniards, that they fled with their effects into the territories of the United States. But the moderation, wisdom, and justice of men in authority, restrained the fury of the populace. the populace. The proclamations of the Spanish governors in the colonies; for sense, reason, and justice equal those of old Spain, and for a fervent eloquence, perhaps even exceed them. The proclamation of Marcius Somernelos, commander in chief of the land forces, and governor of the isles of Cuba, in a proclamation 18th of July, exhorts the natives to repress the natural impetuosity of their character, and to let the peaceable French who had sought an asylum amongst them from oppression, find protection. The marquis of Villa Vicensis, commander in chief of the marine, in one of the same date, says, "Let us swear that if every Spaniard in our mother country should fall, which ought not and cannot be feared, Spain, notwithstanding this, shall not cease to exist. Is not this country also Spain? Are not we also Spaniards? And shall not Ferdinand VII, and his successors reign over us?-Remember!-The French in Cuba are not mercenary assassins! Not servants or subjects of Napoleon." General Linieres, governor of Buenos Ayres, a Frenchman, in his proclamation upon the state of affairs, after recommending concord, said, "Let us imitate the example of our ancestors in this happy land, who wisely escaped the disasters

that