faithful subjects, and of the pernicious doctrines which Spanish agents were disseminating on all sides-resolved to put an end to a state of things which constituted a common reproach, and which menaced with destruction all thrones and all ancient institutions, in order to substitute impiety and profi-. gacy. France, intrusted with so sacred an enterprise, has triumphed in a few months over the efforts of all the rebels of the world, collected for the misery of Spain upon her classic soil of fidelity and loyalty. My august and well-beloved cousin, the Duke d'Angouleme, at the head of a valiant army, a con queror throughout all my terri tories, has rescued me from the slavery in which I pined, and restored me to my constant and faith ful subjects. Replaced upon the throne of St. Ferdinand, by the just and wise hand of Providence, as well as by the generous efforts of my noble allies, and the valiant enterprise of my cousin the Duke d'Angouleme and his brave army, desirous of applying a remedy to the most pressing necessities of my people, and of manifesting to all my real will in this the first moment of my recovered liberty, I have authorized the following decree :- Art. 1. All the acts of the Government called Constitutional (of whatever kind and description they may be), a system which oppressed my people from the 7th March, 1820, until 1st of October, 1823, are declared null and void, declaring, as I now declare, that during the whole of that period I have been deprived of my liberty, obliged to sanction laws and authorize orders, decrees, and regulations, which the said Government framed and executed, against my will. 2. I approve of every thing which has been decreed and ordered by the Provisional Junta of Government, and by the Regency, the one created at Oyarzun, April 9, the other May 26, in the present year, waiting, meanwhile, until, sufficiently informed as to the wants of my people, I may be able to bestow those laws, and adopt those measures, which shall be best calculated to secure their real prosperity and welfare, the constant object of all my wishes. You may communicate this decree to all the Ministers. (Signed by the Royal hand.) DON VICTOR SAEZ. Port St. Mary, Oct. 1. (Supplement to El Restaurador of the 16th October, distributed gratis in Madrid.) Representation of the City of Corunna against the Chambers, and in favour of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition. "The Ayuntamiento of the most noble and most loyal city of Corunna, the capital of the kingdom of Galicia, with a voice in Cortes, now addresses your Serene Highnesses, to make known their own sentiments and the sentiments of the inhabitants of the town which they represent. More than three years of oppression, and all the cruel vexatious experienced during the siege the town has sustained, were incapable of stifling, or even lessening their love for their religion and their King. During the latter days of the siege, the peaceable inhabitants were exposed to every kind of insult from the rebels. Exorbitant exactions excessive labour on the fortifi cations cations and, finally, a multitude of assassinations, are the benefits conferred by the malignants; but these acts only rendered them greater objects of abhorrence, without at all changing the sentiments of the Corunnians. It was surely by a miracle that this city at length recovered its liberty on a 21st day, having lost it on another 21st. Without doubt it was the pleasure of God Almighty, that those chains which were imposed by the anarchic faction on the 21st of February should be broken on the 21st of August. But we now breathe freely; and to secure peace and tranquillity, it is only requisite that the measures necessary for exterminating the numerous sects, and which prudence and the general welfare dictate, should be immediately adopted. "Vain would be all that has been done, if, because the ringleaders of the mischief are put down by the armies of the Most Christian Louis XVIII., no fear were to be entertained for their farther progress; but as they never cease to conspire, it is necessary to take proper precautions. Proud and stiff-necked, they even now return scorn for the benignity with which they have been treated; and their audacity gives reason to apprehend that they are meditating the means of again involving us in civil war. Their hopes are founded on the kind of Government which they openly pretend is to be established, and which being in its nature very much like that just destroyed, they will find in it liberty, the inevitable cause of our misfortunes. Therefore this Ayuntamiento hasten to unite their voice to that of the magistracies of so many other towns of Spain, in order to manifest their fidelity to the august captive Sovereign, and to oppose every innovation, since by innovations we have suffered so much. "The rebels being compelled to be silent respecting their Jacobin Code, still endeavoured to hold up that kind of government for which one of the Secret Societies has greatly laboured during this fatal period that is to say, a Government of Chambers. Thus they mean to enslave us anew; for, that Government being similar to the one destroyed, they will in the end make it the same. They would cover themselves with the will of the nation; but that has been well demonstrated. What did not the inhabitants of the towns of Spain do, when the liberating army entered? They were all eager to present themselves before it, and to receive it with the joy of captives relieved from dungeons; and their expressions were no other than these Live Religion! Live the King! and Live the Laws of our Fathers!' These enchanting words succeeded to the highly seditious, which the perfidious men employed during the period of their domination; and these words clearly prove that the Spanish people have no other wish than the preservation of their holy religion, the sovereignty of their Lord Dou Ferdinand VII., and the wise institutions of their ancestors. Those who publish the contrary are not ignorant of this, since, to convince them of it, it is sufficient to refer to the almost innumerable representations on the same subject from the towns of Spain to your Serene Highnesses. "Not only is the wish, but the character and the habits of the Spanish Spanish nation are also opposed to such a Government. The seditious still have arms in their hands in various parts, which they will have to surrender on your orders; but their secret labours will last longer than their power, since they have long been accustomed to obey those persons whom they consider authorised to do every thing by the disorganizing principle of the sovereignty of the people. There never will be an end to parties; hatreds will eternally exist, and Spanish blood will again be shed by Spaniards, if there again be permitted the liberty of public discussion in an assembly whence such incendiary maxims flow, and if, instead of completely casting down the pride of those who seek for our ruin, a new field be opened for their intrigues. "The habits and the inclinations of the Spanish people are in complete opposition to any Government of this kind. Content to obey the paternal regulations of their kings and lords, they never wish to make laws, and we assert that it would be to pervert them from their nature to compel them to the contrary practice. The people would become the sport of the rebels, who, governing their popular elections as they have already done, would without doubt labour directly to destroy the altar and the throne. The Spaniards who propose chambers are evidently enemies of both the altar and throne; for in general they are the very same men who shed the blood of the Ministers of Heaven, and plunder its churches. What is it possible, that those anarchists, those infamous demagogues, those perfidious men who have so often attempted the life of 6 their Sovereign, can remain unpunished, and be allowed to mock upright and loyal Spaniards? God forbid! Corruption has penetrated every class to such a degree, that it is certain there would be parties in both chambers; and we, perhaps, should not be long in seeing some malignant deputy who would dare to say, that the intention of those who constructed the Jacobin code was nothing else than to teach the Spanish people to behold with indifference a mosque erected by the side of a church.' Here the freedom of customs and libertinism would be completely sanctioned, but that is what would be above all things most shocking to the Spanish character. The zeal of Spaniards for the Catholic religion has been so fully demonstrated, that it is impossible to doubt it for a moment: their blood has flowed to preserve it, and they will shed the last drop of it rather than allow themselves to be deprived of so invaluable a blessing-a danger to which they would be exposed by a Government with chambers, in consequence of seductive speeches. Let us repress, then, and, if necessary, exterminate men who are so pertinacious; and, to avoid the contagion, let us re-establish the institutions which experience has proved to be the best calculated for the preservation of religion. "The Ayuntamiento have thus come to the religious part of their representation. Nothing is so fit to render men contented as the regulation of their conscience; and accordingly the observance of the law of Jesus Christ is the best means of teaching obedience to all those laws which emanate from the supreme civil power, respect to every authority, and the fulfil ment Pre ment of all social duties. serve, then, in all its purity, the Holy Catholic religion, by eradicating errors, and teaching its true principles. The first of these great objects will be obtained by re-establishing the holy tribunal of the Inquisition, and that, and nothing but that, is capable of producing such salutary effects. The experience of more than three ages has fully demonstrated that Spain, by maintaining that impregnable bulwark in her bosom, maintained her adored religion unstained by the frightful tints of heresy, and at the same time kept herself free from the wars that desolated other countries. The Inquisition, by placing a strong wall between heresy and Spain, prevented the country from suffering injury, because in it the depository of its faith was preserved pure. Besides, that holy tribunal is what the impious most fear; against it their envenomed pens have been employed during the three years of libertinism; but its very shadow dismays them, and consequently it is impossible not to perceive that it is of all things the best calculated for exterminating errors. All the declamations of the malignants against so holy an institution deserve no attention, since the sacrifices which they pretend to have been made of innocent persons, exist only in their imaginations, and, were even all they assert granted, on a comparison with other tribunals, our Holy Inquisition would be found to have the advantage. But this is not the place for a dissertation on that point. It is sufficient for the Ayuntamiento to point to the reasons which induce them to solicit the re-establishment of that bulwark of religion. "The errors which have been introduced once exterminated, it then will be necessary to consider how future generations may be imbued with religious and truly patriotic maxims, since thus will be raised up men decidedly lovers of their religion and their King. Education must therefore be intrusted to the most zealous and spotless teachers, since, on the first elements of instruction, depends the future happiness of individuals and nations. The innovating philosophers were well convinced of this truth; and under that conviction, one of the most distinguished among them declared that it was indispensable for them to get an ascendancy over the minds of youth. On that account they exerted themselves to overthrow that establishment which throughout nearly all Catholic Europe was intrusted with the important duty of instruction-namely, the Society of Jesus. It is well known what reproaches and sarcasms were vomited against that order on its extinction, and on the expulsion of its members from different countries. But it is precisely since that respectable body was extinguished, that there has been a rapid diffusion of the ideas hostile to the altar and the throne, which at length caused the convulsions which we have witnessed. most effectual remedy must then be that which opposes the greatest obstacle to innovators in propagating their notions. Accordingly, to restore the Jesuits, and confide to them the instruction of youth, would be to give a final blow to that ill-omened sect, which has inflicted so much evil upon us. The "Deign, then, to attend to the representation of the inhabitants of this city, represented by its Ayuntamiento. Ayuntamiento. Do not permit any kind of innovation in our Government, nor suffer our beloved Sovereign to be deprived of any of the prerogatives sworn to him by the kingdom, on his ascending the throne. Re-establish the HOLY TRIBUNAL OF THE FAITH, that the impious may be struck dumb and put to flight, and return no more to propagate their pernicious principles. Finally, consign the education of youth to the Society of Jesus, to perform that duty in the same manner as before its extinction, in order that our tranquillity may thus be lasting. "Please to receive the tribute of the most cordial demonstrations of the respect of this Ayuntamiento, who never cease to pray that the Almighty will speedily deliver our beloved Sovereign from his captivity, and preserve for many years the lives of your Highnesses, of which the nation has so much need. "Corunna, in the Ayuntamiento, September 10, 1823. (Signed by) ANDRES DE CASTRO, And the other Members of the |