take place, the prince of Peace may be banished from Spain, and I may offer him an asylum in France. With respect to the abdication of Charles IV. that event having taken place at the moment when my armies were in Spain, it might appear in the eyes of Europe and posterity that I had sent all those troops merely for the purpose of expelling my friend and ally from his throne. As a neighbouring sovereign, I ought to inform myself of all the circumstances which have occurred, before I acknowledge his abdication. I declare to your royal highness, to the Spaniards, and to the whole world, that if the abdication of king Charles be voluntary, and has not been forced upon him by the insurrection and tumults at Aranjuez, I have no difficulty in regarding and acknowledging your royal highness as king of Spain. I am therefore anxious to have some conversation with your royal highness on this subject. The circumspection which I have observed for the last month upon this point, ought to convince your highness of the support which you will find in me, should it ever happen that factions of any kind should distarb you on your throne. When king Charles informed me of the events of the month of October last, the communication gave me the greatest pain. I flatter myself that my representations contributed to the happy issue of the affair of the Escurial. Your royal highness is not altogether free from blame of this, the letter which you Wrote to me, and which I have always wished to forget, is a sufficient proof. When you are king, you will know how sacred are the rights of the throne. Every application of an hereditary prince to a foreign sovereign is criminal. The marriage of a French princess with your royal highness, in my opinion, accords with the interests of my people, and I more especially regard it as a circumstance which would unite me by new ties to a house, whose conduct I have had every reason to praise since the time that I ascended the throne. Your highness ought to dread the consequences of popular commotions. It is possible that assassinations may be committed upon some stragglers of my army; but they would only lead to the ruin of Spain. I have learnt, with regret, that some letters of the captain general of Catalonia have been circulated at Madrid, and that they have had the effect of exciting some irritation. Your royal highness knows the inmost sentiments of my heart. You will perceive that my attention is occupied by various points, which require to be finally decided; but you may be assured that I shall, under all circumstances, conduct my

self towards your person in the same manner as I have done towards the king your father. I beg your royal highness to be persuaded of my anxiety to bring every thing to a happy conclusion, and to find opportunities of giving you every proof of my atfection and esteem.. My cousin, I pray God to take you into his high and holy keeping. - (Signed) NAPOLEON. Bayonne, April 16, 1808. No. IV-Instructions furnished to his Excellency Don Pedro Labrador.

Most excellent Seignor-Your excellency is acquainted with the propositions made on the day of the king's arrival in this city, and of what passed at the conference in which I discussed them with the minister of foreign affairs. The propositions recently made by the latter, differing in some respect, but no less inadmissible, are of the following tenor:-1. That the emperor has irrevocably determined that the Bourbon dynasty shall no longer reign in Spain. 2. That the king shall cede his rights to the crown both in his own name and that of his sons, should he have any. 3. That should this point be agreed upon, the crown of Etruria shall be conferred upon him and his descendants, according to the terms of the salique law. 4. That the infant Don Carlos shall make a similar renunciation of his rights, and that he shall have a right to the succession to the crown of Etruria, in default of issue of the king. 5. That the kingdom of Spain shall henceforth be possessed by one of the brothers of the empe

ror.

6. That the emperor guarantees its complete integrity, and that of all its colonies, without suffering a single village belonging to it to be separated from it. 7. That in like manner he guarantees the preservation of religion, property, &c. &c. 8. That should his majesty refuse those propositions, he shall rentain without compensation, and his imperial majesty will carry them into execution by consent or force. 9. That if his majesty agree and demand the niece of the emperor in marriage, this connection shall be immediately secured on the execution of the treaty.-These propositions were discussed in the junta where the king presided. Į there stated my opinion, which was adopted by your excellency and the other members, and approved by his majesty who is desirous that instructions should be prepared for your excellency accordingly. Your excellency knows that promises the most flattering, and assurances the most positive, were made and given to the king by the grand duke of Berg, by the ambassa dor of France, and by general Savary, by di rection of the emperor, who said that no ob

struction would arise to his acknowledgment as sovereign of Spain; that nothing was desired hostile to the preservation of the integrity of the kingdom; and you are apprised that these representations drew him from Madrid to pay his compliments to his intimate ally, who he supposed would return with him to the capital, from the statements of those three, and where splendid accommodations were provided for the emperor. The journey of his imperial majesty was deferred; but the king, seduced by new promises, made by general Savary in the name of his imperial majesty, continued his progress to this city.-Your excellency should ask M. Champagny if the king be at full liberty, and if he be so he may return to his dominions, and give audience to the plenipotentiary, to whom the emperor may confide his powers. If not free, your excellency knows that every act is absolutely nugatory; and consequently whatever may be agreed will have no other effect than to stain the reputation of the emperor before the whole world, the eyes of which are fixed upon his conduct, and who knows what Spain has already done in favour of France.-I have shewn to your excellency the treaty of the 27th Oct. last, by which the emperor has guaranteed the integrity of Spain in the person of the king, with title of emperor of the two Americas. Nothing has intervened to destroy this treaty on the contrary, Spain has added new claims to the gratitude of France. The king has resolved not to yield to the importunity of the emperor; neither his own honour, nor his duty to his vassals, permit him to do so. These he cannot compel to accept the dynasty of Napoleon; much less can he deprive them of the right they have to elect another family to the throne when the reigning family shall be extinct. It is not less repugnant to the feelings of the king to receive, as a compensation, the crown of Etruria; for, besides that that country is under the authority of its legitimate sovereign, whom he would not prejudice, his majesty is contented with the crown that Providence had given him, has no wish to sepa e himself from his subjects, whom he loves with paternal affection, and from whom he has received the most unequivocal proofs of respectful attachment. If on account of this refusal the emperor should think fit to resort to force, his majesty hopes that Divine justice, the dispenser of thrones, will protect his just cause, and that of his kingdom.-As your excellency is deeply penetrated with these principles, and has already displayed them with

that energy with which justice arms the man of probity, and the zealous friend to his king and country, it is needless for me to detail prolix instructions for your guide, you being a minister, in whose patriotism and affection to the royal interests his ma jesty reposes full confidence.-God preserve your excellency many years.- PEDRO CE. VALLOS. (For Don Pedro Gomez Labrador). -Bayonne, April 27, 1808.

No. V-Official Dispatch from Don Pedro Cevallos to the Minister of State of the Emperor of France, of the 28th April

1808.

Most Excellent Sir,-Although the agita tion of mind. to which the whole Spanish nation would have been subject, has hitherto been restrained by what has been printed and published by the grand duke of Berg, and by all the French generals in that coun try, indicating the sentiments of peace and good understanding which the emperor of the French and king of Italy was desirous of maintaining with the king my master and also on account of the assurances which the ambassador of his imperial majesty in Madrid, the grand duke of Berg, and ge neral Savary, had given to his majesty of the approaching arrival of the emperor in the said city; on which account, the big determined to proceed to Burgos to him, to shew this public mark of his af tion, and of the high esteem he had his person-it has now become impossible longer to answer for the tranquillity of such a numerous people; especially as they are apprised that the king has been six days in Bayonne, and they have no assurance of his return to Spain. In such a state of affairs, his majesty must be anxious for the repose of his beloved subjects, and for this pur pose to return to their bosoms to tranquillize their agitation, and attend to the heavy demands of public business, as his absence would expose his people to incalculable mischiefs, which would fill his heart with the most poignant grief. This speedy re turn, his majesty promised in the most so lemn manner to his people, grounding his engagement on the assurances of the emperor, that he should shortly be restored to his country, and acknowledged to be her sovereign by his imperial majesty.-His ma jesty has, therefore, ordered me to communicate to you these observations, for the purpose of your submitting them to the consideration of his imperial majesty, whose approbation they will doubtless meet ; his majesty, my master, is ready to treat in his dominions with his imperial majesty on all convenient subjects, with such per

and

son as the emperor should be pleased to authorize for that purpose. (*)

No. VI-Royal Decree addressed to the Supreme Council of Castite ly Ferdinand VII.

Soon after the prince of Peace was arrested, frequent and earnest entreaties were made by the grand duke of Berg, by the ambassador of France, and by general Savary, in the name of the emperor, my intimate ally, that he should be delivered up to the French troops, that he might be conveyed to France, where his imperial majesty would order him to be tried for the offences. he had committed. These solicitations were generally accompanied with threats in case of a refusal to carry him off by force In Vittoria they were repeated with equal importunities; and I wishing to form the most prudent determination, consulted with the dake of Infantado and the Infant Carlos, with don Juan Escoiquiz and with don Pedro Cevallos, my principal secretary of state. This minister, on that occasion, said: "Sire, if I were to yield to my own personal feelings, I should immediately recommend the surrender of the prince of Peace. But such a sentiment ought to be stifled, and in truth I do stifle it when I contemplate the duty you owe to your own sacred person, and the obligations you are under to adninister justice to your subjects injured by don Manuel Godoy. This obligation is essential to the sovereignty, and your majesty cannot disregard it without treading under foot whatever is most respectable among men. Under this view, I think you ought to answer the emperor, informing him, at the same time, that your majesty has offered to your august parents to save him from the penalty of death, should he be capitally convicted by the council. By your compliance with this proposal, your majesty

salt of an

(*) This dispatch was not answered, and produced an effect precisely the contrary of what might have been expected in a regular course of things. The spies within, and the guards without the palace were doubled. The king for two nights, endured the inalguazil, who, stationed at the door, ordered his majesty and the infant Don Carlos to retire to their apartments The first time the insult was offered, the king complained in severe terms, on which the governor employed polite language, and manifested much disapprobation of conduct; but this did not prevent the repetition, and probably this offensive circumstance would have been repeated, had not the king abstained from going out at night.

such

will give to the world a proof of your magnaminity, to your beloved parents a proof ot your affection, and the emperor will be gratified in observing with what wisdom you discharge the demands of justice, and conciliate the expectations of his imperial and royal majesty."All approved of this salutary advice, and I did not hesitate a moment in adopting it, and proceeded to act upon it. -I communicated it to the council with the fit circumspection to serve for their information and direction; and also that they may take the most active measures to protect the houses and families of the four denounced persons-I THE KING.-Bayonne, April 26, 1808. To the president of the council. No. VI.-Letter of the King to his Father, Charles IV.

My honoured Father and Lord-Your majesty has admitted that I had not the smallest participation in the proceedings at Aranjuez, intended, as is notorious, and as your majesty knows,not to disgust you with your throne and government, but to maintain both, and not to abandon the vast multitude whose maintenance depends upon the throne itself. Your majesty also told me that your abdication had been spontaneous, and that if any one should attempt to persuade me it was otherwise, I should not believe them, for it was the most pleasing act of your life. Your majesty now tells me, that though your abdication was certainly an act of your own free will, you nevertheless reserved in your mind a right to resume the reigns of government when you should think proper. I have therefore inquired of your majesty, if you were disposed to resume your sceptre, and your majesty has replied that you neither would return to the throne or to Spain. Notwithstanding this, your majesty desires me to renounce in your favour a crown, conferred upon me by the fundamental laws of the kingdom, on your free resignation of it. To a son who has always been distinguished for his love, respect, and obe dience to his parents, nothing that can require the exercise of these qualities can be repugnant to his filial piety, especially when the discharge of my duty to your majesty, as a son, is not in contradiction to the relation I bear, as a king, to my beloved subjects. In order that both these, who demand my highest regard, may not be offended, and that your majesty may be pleased with my obedience, in the present circumstance, I am willing to resign my crown in favour of your majesty, under the following limitations-1. That your majesty will return to Madrid, whither I shall accompany you and

ག མིར འི

VOL. XIV. No. 17.]

641]

Sir

SUMMARY OF POLITICS. CONVENTION IN PORTUCAL. Hew Dalrymple is arrived. He landed at Portsmouth on Tuesday last, the 18th instant; and, if I am rightly informed, his reception was not a bit more favourable than that which the citizens of London lately met with at St. James's. The reader knows, that Portsmouth abounds in government dependents of various sorts and sizes; yet, Sir Hew had to pass through hisses more loud and general than ever assailed the actors of a damned play. It is said, that so great was the indignation and so violent the apparent intentions of the populace, that it was thought necessary to surround the General with men, armed with pistols and words. This was but a scurvy reception for a commander of an expedition; and, I must say, that I give the populace but little credit for it, seeing how silent they have been upon former occasions, when a simi

lar feeling

was called for. Sir Hew Dalrymple is looked upon as a man without powerful friends. Therefore it is that he is assailed. It is base to complain of him without, at the same time, complaining of those, whose example he has followed as closely as circumstances would permit. There is, it seems, to be a meeting in the County of Hants; but, no address, or petition, will have my vote, unless it point at all those, whose deeds have brought disgrace upon the arnis of England. Sir Arthur Wellesley came to Plymouth, and he had the discretion not to make any great poise upon his landing. He snugged it in, in the Plover sloop, and of he went, as fast as post-horses could take him, to that place where one man is not known from another; and where a man may walk about and be Fidden at the same time. This must, how

upou

ver, have been a little mortifying to the used to enter Calcutta. He must, Ligh Wellesley. It was not thus that he hurrying out of the wherry, at Plymouth, in order to bundle himself into the post-chaise, have looked back, with longing eyes, to the

1642

triumphal arches in India, and to the hur dreds and thousands of gilded barges, that used to attend him and his high brother, in their excursions upon the rivers of " our jˆ "empire in the East." I dare say, that he began to wish himself back again in that country of glorious wars;" in that country where we always come off victorious; in that country where we are great conquerors; in that country where there are no Frenchmen to fight against; in that country where there is no "licentious press, and whence any man, be he who he may, is liable to be transported, at a moment's warning, if he dare to print or speak any thing displeasing to the Commander-in-Chief. If the late Convention, or one like it, had been made in that country, no man would have dared to utter even a whisper of disapprobation. In a country so situated as to its laws, it is very easy to be a great commander. The newspapers, and all the things printed in that country, are, before they are struck off, taken to a person appointed by the ruler, who strikes out with his pen all that he disapproves of, sometimes inserting other words in the stead, and, in short, leaves not one word, even in the advertisements of books, or of any thing else, that he thinks will be displeasing to the Governor General. Oh. what a fine thing it is to be a hero in that country! But, I think it may be as well for us not to expose ourselves to the contempt of the world by talking of the

ry" which our armies acquire in India, especially now that we have seen one of these Indian heroes pitted against a general of France.--Nobody has inquired, how Sir Arthur, bow the "Chevalier du Bain,” who beat "6 Monseigneur le Duc d'Abrantes 66 en persoane; how this gallant geniteman came to come home, how he came to quit the field of glory. Nobody has made this inquiry, and yet it is an inquiry very necessary to be made. We were told, that one great object of the Convention was, to gain time; to get our army, as soon as possible, into "the passes of the Pyrenees,"