ment of mistrust or jealousy, can inspire in our Cabinet an idea in opposition to the welfare of Spain. The House of Austria has only to turn to the annals of its own history to find the most powerful motives of attachment, regard, and good-will towards a nation which may with just pride recall those centuries of glorious memory in which her sun of grandeur never set-towards a nation which, pow. erful in respectable institutions, hereditary virtues, religious sentiments, and in love to her Kings, has rendered herself illustrious in every age by a patriotism always loyal, always generous, and very often heroic. During a period still recent, this nation astonished the world by the courage, devotion, and perseverance, which she opposed to the ambitious usurper who endeavoured to deprive her of her Monarch and her laws; and Aus. tria will never forget how useful was the noble resistance of the Spanish nation at a time of great danger for herself.

It is not to Spain, either as a nation or as a power, that can be applied the severe language which is dictated to his Imperial Ma jesty by his conscience and his love of truth: it applies only to those who have ruined and disfigured, and who persist in prolonging her sufferings.

On meeting his august Allies at Verona, his Majesty the Emperor has had the happiness again to find in their counsels the same tutelary and disinterested dispositions which have constantly guided his own. The tone of the despatches which will be addressed to Madrid will vouch for this fact, and will leave no doubt of the sincere anxiety of the Powers to serve

the cause of Spain, by demonstrating to her the necessity of pursuing a different course. It is certain that the grievances which oppress her have lately augmented in fearful progression. The most rigorous measures, the most hazardous expedients, can no longer give authority to her administration. Civil war rages in several of her provinces; her relations with the greatest portion of Europe are deranged or suspended; and her relations with France have even assumed so problematical a character, as to justify serious disquietude respecting the consequences which may thence result.

Would not such a state of things justify the most fatal forebodings?

Every Spaniard, who knows the real state of his country, ought to feel that, in order to burst the fetters which now bind the Monarch and his subjects, Spain must terminate that state of separation which has been the result of late events. The relations of confidence and sincerity must be reestablished between her and the other governments, relations which, by guaranteeing on the one hand her firm intention to associate herself in the common cause of the European monarch, may, on the other hand, furnish the means of estimating her real will, and of rejecting every thing calculated to pervert and restrain it. But to attain this end, it is especially indispensable that her King should be free, not only as regards that personal liberty which every individual may claim under the reign of the laws, but that liberty which a sovereign ought to enjoy in order to discharge his high vocation. The King of Spain will be free from the moment that he shall

have the power of putting an end to the evils which afflict his subjects, of restoring order and peace in his kingdom, of surrounding himself with men equally worthy of his confidence by their principles and talents; and, finally, of substituting for a regime acknowledged to be impracticable even by those whose egotism or pride still attaches to it, an order of things in which the rights of the monarch shall be happily blended with the real interests and legitimate views of all classes of the nation. When this moment shall arrive, Spain, wearied by long sufferings, may flatter herself with re-entering into full possession of the advantages which Heaven has allotted her, and which the noble character of her inhabitants insures to her; then will she be restored to those relations which unite her to all the European Powers; and his Imperial Majesty will congratulate himself upon having nothing left to offer her but the wishes which he entertains for her prosperity, and all the good services which he may have it in his power to render to an ancient friend and ally.

You will, M. le Comte, make of this despatch a use the most appropriate to the circumstances in which you may find yourself on receiving it. You are authorized to read it to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as to give him a copy should he ask it.

Despatch from the Count de Bernstoff to the Prussian Chargé d'Affaires at Madrid, dated Verona, November 22, 1822.

Sir,-Among the objects which fix the attention and demand the anxious solicitude of the Sovereigns

and Cabinets assembled at Verona, the situation of Spain, and its relations with the rest of Europe, have occupied the first place.

You know the interest which the King, our august master, bas never ceased to take in his Catholic Majesty, and in the Spanish nation.

This nation, so distinguished by the loyalty and energy of its character, illustrious from so many ages of glory and virtue, and always so celebrated for the noble devotion and heroic perseverance which made it triumph over the ambitious and despotic designs of the usurper of the French throne, possesses claims too venerable and too solid to the interest and regard of all Europe, to permit that its Sovereigns can view with indifference the miseries that actually oppress it, and those with which it is menaced.

An event the most deplorable has subverted the ancient basis of the Spanish monarchy, compromised the character of the nation, and attacked and poisoned public prosperity in its very sources.

A revolution, which sprang from military revolt, has suddenly broken all the bonds of duty, overthrown all legitimate order, and dissolved the elements of the social edifice, which cannot fall without covering the whole country with its ruins.

It was thought possible to replace this edifice, by extorting from a Sovereign already despoiled of all real authority and of all free will, the re-establishment of the Constitution of the Cortes of the year 1812, which, confounding all elements and all power, and assuming only the single principle of a permanent and legal opposition against

against the government, necessarily destroyed that central and tutelary authority which constitutes the essence of the monarchical system.

The consequences have fully made known to the Spanish nation what are the fruits of so fatal an

error.

The revolution,-that is to say, the letting loose of every passion against the ancient order of things far from being stopped, checked, or modified, has developed itself in a manner at once rapid and terrifying. The government, powerful and paralysed, had no longer the means of either doing good or preventing evil. All its powers were found concentrated, accumulated, and confounded, in one single assembly; this assembly presented only a conflict of opinions and views, of interests and of passions, in the midst of which propositions and resolutions of the most heterogeneous kind were constantly produced, resisted, or neutralized. The ascendancy of the fatal doctrines of a disorganized philosophy could not but augment the general delusion, until at last, as might naturally be expected, every notion of sound policy was abandoned for vain theories, and every sentiment of justice and moderation sacrificed to the dreams of fallacious liberty. From that moment, institutions, established under the pretence of offering securities against the abuse of authority, became merely the instruments of injustice and violence, and the means of covering this tyrannical system with an appearance of legality.

Without the slightest hesitation, the most venerable and sacred rights were abolished; lawful property was violated; and the Church was stripped of its dignity, its pre

rogatives, and its possessions. It may be thought that a despotic power, exercised by a faction only to the injury of the country, would soon have fallen to pieces, if delusive declamations from the tribune, ferocious outcries from the clubs, and the licentiousness of the press, had not kept down public opinion, and stifled the voice of that sound and reasonable part of the Spanish nation, which Europe was well aware formed an immense majority. But the measure of injustice was filled, and the patience of faithful Spaniards appeared at length to be exhausted. On all sides discontent burst forth, and whole provinces became the prey of civil war.

In the midst of this dreadful agitation, the sovereign of the country was seen reduced to an absolutely powerless state, deprived of all liberty of action and of will, a prisoner in his capital, separated from all his faithful servants who still remained attached to him, loaded with insults and contumely, and exposed, from day to day, to attempts which, if the faction did not provoke them, at least they had retained no means of preventing.

You, Sir, who have witnessed the origin, the progress, and the consequences of the revolution of the year 1820, can testify that there is nothing exaggerated in the picture of it which I have thus rapidly traced. Things have now reached that crisis, that the Sovereigns assembled at Verona at length feel themselves compelled to inquire what are now, and what will hereafter be, the nature of their relations with Spain.

It might have been hoped, that the dreadful calamity with which Spain was attacked would have experienced

perienced crises of a nature calculated to bring back that ancient monarchy to an order of things compatible with its own welfare, and with relations of friendship and confidence between itself and the other states of Europe. But this hope has been hitherto frustrated. The moral state of Spain is at the present moment such, that her relations with Foreign Powers must necessarily be doubtful and uncertain. Doctrines subversive of all social order are openly preached and protected. Insults, directed against the principal Sovereigns of Europe, fill with impunity the public journals. The revolutionists of Spain disperse their emissaries, in order to associate with themselves, in their pernicious labours, whatever conspirators may be found in foreign countries against public order and legitimate authority.

The inevitable effect of so many disorders has particularly manifested itself in the change of relations between Spain and France. The irritation which has resulted is of a nature calculated to create the most just apprehensions as to the maintenance of peace between the two countries. This circumstance alone would be sufficient to determine the assembled Sovereigns to break silence upon a state of things which every day threatens to compromise the tranquillity of Europe.

Is the Spanish Government willing, or is it able, to apply a remedy to evils so palpable and so notorious? Will it, and can it, prevent or repress the hostile consequences and the insulting provocations which arise with regard to foreign governments, from the position in which the revolution has

placed it, and from the system which it has established?

We conceive that nothing can be more contrary to the intentions of his most Catholic Majesty, than to see himself placed in a situation so extremely painful with respect to Foreign Sovereigns; but it is precisely because this Monarch, who is the only authentic and legitimate organ of communication between Spain and the other Powers of Europe, finds himself deprived of his liberty, and restrained in his will, that those Powers consider their relations with Spain to be compromised and deranged.

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It is not for Foreign Courts to judge what institutions would harmonize best with the character, the manners, and the real wants of the Spanish nation; but it does indubitably belong to them judge of the consequences which experiments of this kind produce with regard to themselves, and to regulate by those consequences their future determinations, and their future positions, with regard to Spain. Now, the King, our master, is of opinion, that in order to preserve, and re-establish on solid foundation, his relations with Foreign Powers, the Spanish Government cannot do less than give to these last unequivocal proofs of the liberty of his Catholic Majesty, and an adequate guarantee of its disposition, and of its ability to remove the causes of our regret and of our too just inquietude respecting it.

The King orders you, Sir, not to conceal this opinion from the Spanish Minister, to read to him this despatch, to leave a copy of it in his hands, and to request him to explain himself frankly and clearly upon the points to which it refers.

Reply

Reply to the Note of the French
Minister.

Under this date I communicate the following, by Royal order, to the Minister Plenipotentiary of his Majesty in Paris:-"The Government of his Catholic Majesty has just received a note transmitted by that of his Most Christian Majesty to its Minister Plenipotentiary in this court, au official copy of which document is directed to your Excellency for your necessary information.

"The Government of his Catholic Majesty has few observations to make on the said note. But in order that your Excellency may not feel any embarrassment with regard to the conduct which you ought to observe under these circumstances, it becomes it to manifest frankly its sentiments and resolutions.

"The Government was never without the conviction that the institutions adopted freely and spontaneously by Spain would give rise to jealousies in many of the Cabinets of Europe, and would become the object of the deliberations of the Congress of Verona. But, secure in its principles, and firm in the resolution to defend at every expense its present political system, and the national independence, it quietly awaited the result of those conferences.

"Spain is governed by a Constitution promulgated, accepted, and sworn in the year 1812, and acknowledged by the Powers which were assembled in the Congress of Verona. Perfidious counsellors would have persuaded his Catholic Majesty D. Fernando VII. not to bave sworn on his return to that fundamental code which the whole nation desired, and which was destrayed by force, without any re

monstrance on the part of the Powers which had recognized it. But six years' experience, and the general wish, induced him to identify himself, in 1820, with the desires of the Spanish people.

"It was not a military insurrection which gave rise to this new order of things in the commencement of the year 1820. The brave men who declared themselves in the island of Leon, and successively in the rest of the provinces, were only the organ of the general opinion and wish.

"It was natural that this order of things should produce discontents: that is an inevitable consequence of every reform which aims at a correction of abuses. Individuals are always to be found in every nation and in every state, who can never submit themselves to the empire of reason and justice.

"The Army of Observation which the French Government maintains in the Pyrenees is not calculated to quiet the disorders with which Spain is afflicted. Experience has proved, on the contrary, that this Sanatory Cordon, which afterwards assumed the title of Army of Observation, has only served to nourish the wild hopes of the deluded fanatics who raised the cry of rebellion in several of the provinces, by giving them a pretext for cherishing the idea of an approaching invasion of our territory,

"As the principles, the views, or the fears, which have influenced the conduct of the Cabinets assembled at the Congress of Verona, cannot serve as a rule for that of Spain, the latter abstains, for the present, from replying to that part of the instructions of the Comte

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