To valour, constancy, and firmness, the Spanish Nation will be indebted for conquest, liberty, and the esteem of other Nations, and, above all, for that strength, which is the real and only basis for Diplomatick Relations. Seville, 24th April, 1823.

NOTE.

EVARISTO SAN MIGUEL.

The desire of satisfying the question of an honourable Deputy, put in the Session of yesterday, the 23d, as to whether France, of itself, or through the medium of any other Power, had made any propositions to Spain, after the suspension of the Diplomatick Relations between the two countries, and the consideration that the explanation of this matter may be the means of removing errors of perhaps great importance, have induced me to make an addition to my Memorial, which will leave no doubt on this subject, and to enter into details, which I did not, on drawing it up, think sufficiently interesting.

I have stated that His Majesty's Government communicated to the English Cabinet Official Copies of the Notes received from the Four Continental Powers, and of the answers returned to those Notes, explaining the just grounds on which it was thought proper, under such delicate circumstances, to act on the occasion; it at the same time protested against all right of interference in its internal affairs, and expressed a hope that Great Britain would interpose its good offices to avert a rupture which might produce fatal results. The English Government, desirous on its part to preserve the peace of the Continent, did in fact endeavour to prevent the War from breaking out; and, as the French Government made the alleged vices in our Constitution a pretext for War, England manifested a wish that we should offer something which might serve as a basis for Negotiation. But what proposition could the Spanish Government make under such circumstances? Modifications in the Constitution! To propose any to the Cortes would be self-degradation, after having, in the memorable sittings of the 9th and 11th of January, witnessed so unanimous and solemn an approbation of its conduct towards the Four Continental Powers of the Holy Alliance. The Government, therefore, adhered to its first declaration, and would not render itself guilty of the most absurd inconsistency.

Whilst Great Britain was taking the steps in favour of peace, which, as has been stated, were fruitless, the Spanish Government was shown two or three communications made to Sir William A'Court;

-one by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Canning, and the others by the English Ambassador in France. In the former, the English Minister stated, that it would be impossible that his endeavours to prevent the War could have a favourable result, while we made no concessions on our part which might serve as bases for the mediation:

the other two were Copies of Despatches which the English Ambassador in France had transmitted to Mr. Canning, in which he related conversations he had had with the Viscount de Chateaubriand on the point in question.

The undersigned Secretary of State does not perfectly recollect the contents of these three communications, which were read to him by Sir W. A'Court, by order of his Cabinet, without being accompanied by any Note, and of one only of which he has an extract in his office. He can only state that the propositions put forth in them were:

1. That the Constitution should be declared to be given by the King, from whom it should emanate as from its true source.

2. That the Council of State should be appointed by the King, and should participate in the Legislative Authority.

3. That it should be declared that the time for making reforms in the Constitution had arrived.

4. That the Deputies of the Cortes should in future possess the property required by the Constitution ;--and some others, which I do not recollect.

In the communications of Mr. Canning to Sir W. A'Court, no mention is made of the first of these four modifications.

These communications, verbally made and brought forward in an indirect and vague manner, could, according to the view of His Majesty's Government, make no change in the question; in the first place, because the alterations in the Constitution which they involved were altogether contrary to what had already been manifested in the most publick manner to the Cabinets of the Holy Alliance. 2dly, Because these alterations are also contrary to the solemn declarations made by the Cortes in the sittings of the 9th and 11th of January. 3rdly, Because the propositions were not made in a manner suitable to matters of such high importance. And 4thly, Because the vague manner in which the Viscount de Chateaubriand had declared himself, carried with it all the character of the bad faith of the Government of the Tuileries, of which Spain has already received so many proofs.

For these weighty reasons, and others which it is not necessary to state, His Majesty's Government was of opinion that they might overlook the insinuations which had been made; and, supposing that the documents would always preserve the confidential character with which they had been invested, the Government did not enter into the subject in the memorial drawn up on the state of our Diplomatick Relations. But now that malignity wishes it to be supposed that France has made new propositions; that these propositions have been rejected; and that the inopportune tenacity of the Spanish Government had in part been the cause of the invasion by the French army, it is proper to make known to the Cortes, that the new propositions are the same as the old ones, which had been rejected, because they

related solely to changes in the Constitution; that the Government would not degrade itself by such a course of inconsistency; that the Government is also of opinion that any reform which the Congress might thus make in the Fundamental Code, would appear to be wrested from it by terror and force; and finally, that vague hints, indirectly thrown out by a Government which had given so many proofs of bad faith, which has insulted the Spanish Nation, and which has invaded our soil, bringing a vanguard for its army composed of factious enemies of the country, do not deserve to be listened to.

In the mean time, while the French Government was thus ambiguously expressing itself to the English Ambassador, it publickly announced that it was going to deliver Spain from her Revolutionary Oppressors; and while we were still in full peace, in the middle of February, a French Ship of War captured and carried into Martinique the Spanish Merchantman Veloz Mariana, which was bringing to the Peninsula 3,000,000 of dollars belonging to Merchants. On the consideration of this, and a thousand other equally contradictory proceedings on the part of France, the Cortes must be fully convinced that the conduct of the Government could not, in such dangerous circum. stances, be other than it had been; that consequently, acting as duty and honour dictated, its conduct in publick and private was the same; and that if the Ministers could have had any doubt of the propriety of their conduct, their conscience must have been tranquillized in consequence of the patriotiek and sublime enthusiasm displayed by the Cortes in the Sittings of the 9th and 11th of January, and by the innumerable congratulations which on that account have been presented to the Congress and the Government, by so many respectable Bodies of the Monarchy. Seville, April 24th, 1823.

EVARISTO SAN MIGUEL.

CIRCULAR of the Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to His Majesty's Diplomatick Agents at Foreign Courts, protesting against the conduct of France.-Seville, 27 May, 1823.

(Translation.)

THE uniformly hostile and perfidious conduct observed by the Cabinet of the Tuileries towards Spain, from the moment in which the existing Political Constitution was established, is notorious to all. The flimsy veil, which for some time covered so much perfidy, was, without respect to publick decorum, shamelessly torn aside by the French Ministers, in the midst of a Legislative Assembly; and posterity, full of indignation, will know, by the confession of the guilty

themselves, that the Government of a Monarch who styles himself Most Christian, excited in a Peaceful Nation, its Neighbour, Friend, and Ally, the flames of Civil War, created Factions, and protected Murderers and Traitors, in violation of the faith of Treaties.

It turned the most legitimate and bloodless Political Revolution which the History of Nations presents, from the tranquil course it was pursuing, by paying vile writers to discredit virtue, sow distrust, and foment anarchy.

It calumniated the cause of Liberty, by taking advantage of those excesses, and of those convulsions, which its own intrigues and bribery had excited.

In order to prove the necessity of an impious War, and of an Invasion, the most abominable ever witnessed by Man, it overturned the bases of universal justice and the Laws of Nations, by introducing the unjust principle of the intervention of one Power in the domestic concerns of another; a principle which destroys all Independence. i tranquillity, all stability, of political society.

But these iniquitous proceedings were not sufficient to satisfy th Cabinet of the Tuileries. To satisfy the frantick Faction which dire it, it was necessary to crown them by one of those acts, which from time to time occur in the blood-stained pages of History, to the disgrace « civilization and shame of the People who tolerate it: it was necessary that a Government which loudly proclaims the maxim of the legtmacy of dynasties, and of the inviolability of Monarchical Power, as the only safeguard of the peace and happiness of Nations, should pre to the World the disgraceful and dangerous spectacle of forming, rece nizing, and protecting a body of Traitors to their Country and King who dare to style themselves the "Provisional Junta of the Gover ment of Spain and the Indies:" it was necessary that a Government affecting to combat in the name of religion, of morality, and of the pri ciples which are the ground-work of Society, should suborn perjury, excite sedition, tear asunder the bonds of subordination and publick order deprive Authority of its influence; should undermine, in short, the fourdations of the Throne it pretended to uphold, and raise unworthy sus cions of the good faith of the august Monarch who occupies it, support by the loyalty of his subjects: it was necessary that the Army of s Power, which supposes itself the most advanced in civilization, shou aggravate the terrible practices of War, in a manner hitherto unhear: of; and render it a thousand times more odious and destructive: by sending before it bands of deluded and wicked Men; by using as auxiliaries falsehood, treachery, and fanaticism; and by designedly exciting the fury of troops of banditti, in order to present itself afterwards amongst the suffering People as a beneficent liberator.

Europe, at the sight of these horrors, is silent and assentingThe weak Powers tremble, and those denominated Great Powers,

either favour the French Cabinet by approving its pernicious doctrines, or rely on the superiority of force that preserves them from their effects. But power is not eternal; and the Nation which, at one time, dictates laws to others, is, at another, the object of their contempt. Perhaps the Nations, which deprecate in theory the strange maxims of Publick Right, which it is attempted to introduce, but which forbear to impede their dangerous application, will repent, though late, of the enormous error they have committed. The successful repetition of such acts of excessive power will seem to sanction their justice; the feeble barriers will be broken down, which have hitherto protected the Independence of Nations and the balance of power; notions of publick morality will be effaced, and the light of civilization will be extinguished by the breath of barbarism.

The Spanish Government, placed at the head of a generous Nation, to support not only its own cause, but the cause of mankind in general, although torn by Foreign intrigues, will either triumph over its perfidious Enemies, or fall with glory and with honour. It would, however, be wanting in the fulfilment of its most sacred duties, if on so great an occasion, it were not boldly to raise its voice. It ought to protest, and it does solemnly protest, in the face of the World, against the monstrous Right of intervention of one Power in the domestick concerns of another, and against the perversion of the right of War, of which the Cabinet of the Tuileries has rendered itself culpable; it protests against the erection of an illegitimate and seditious Junta, as well as against any other semblance of Government, that may be substituted for it, and declares all Acts that may emanate from them null and void it denounces these iniquities to the execration of all Governments, of all Nations, and of posterity.

His Majesty commands me to instruct you to communicate this Protest to the Government to which you are accredited, to furnish a Copy of it to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, if he requests one, and to make it publick. God preserve you, &c,

JOSE MARIA DE PANDO.

DECLARATION of the Cortes, as to any Modification of the Spanish Constitution.—Cadiz, 2d August, 1823.

AMONG the various stratagems resorted to by the Enemies of Spanish Independence and honour, to destroy confidence and introduce anarchy and division of opinion, none have produced evils of such magnitude, as the impression that the Cortes were negotiating with the French Government. The memorable Sittings of the 9th and 11th