times solicitous to promote the public welfare, and to procure the best alliances and means to secure a successful issue of our undertaking: let the laws reign, and all arbitrary proceedings be avoided. The most enlightened and civilized people upon earth disgraces itself by demanding the death of any individual. The field of battle, where force is repelled by force, authorises alone the effusion of blood, which is otherwise

illegal. The sovereign himself is not master of the life of an offender, unless he has forfeited the same by the laws of his country. These laws prohibit, in all countries, even among the most barbarous nations, sedition, and disturbances of every description: we are bound to obey and respect them. This is the only means to secure a successful issue of the contest in which we are engaged, and not to offend either against the God of Hosts, or the sovereign whose sacred rights we have sworn to defend. In order to avoid an unnecessary multiplication of publications, I now address the French who reside in this city. The supreme council has used towards you the utmost lenity and respect: After having taken the oath of fidelity to the Spanish nation, you are permitted to remain in this country, and your property is respected.Grateful for this valuable blessing, you should not be vipers, which destroy the bosom that gave them shelter. On the contrary, you are bound to shew the utmost loyalty and respect for a government which treats you in so generous a manner. By such conduct you will not only avoid the odium of the good inhabitants of this town, but also obtain their love. Should you act otherwise, dread their justice: they will punish with

the utmost rigour, and without the least mercy, even meetings which you may hold among yourselves, and disloyal expressions which you may make use of, in opposition to our cause. Should any one of you be so far devoid of reason as not to respect it on account of its equity and justice, he will fall a victim of his wickedness or pride.. MORLA.

Address of Gen. Morla to the People of Cadiz, 15th June, 1808.

The commotion, more or less violent, which has taken place in the whole peninsula of Spain, has been of eminent service to rouse us from the state of lethargy in which we indulged, and to make us acquainted with our rights, our glory, and the inviolable duty which we owe to our holy religion and our monarch. We wanted some electric stroke to rouse us from our paralytic state of inactivity: we stood in need of a hurricane, to clear the atmosphere of the insalubrious vapours with which it was loaded. Fortunately, the only antidote which could save us, has proved efficacious. It is, however, necessary to know, that if the use of heroic remedies be continued, after the good effect which was expected from them has been obtained, they destroy, annihilate, and kill that excessive efforts bring on indirect debility, which is worse than direct weakness, because the very principle of strength is emaciated. Hence it is, that although the popular ferment which has pervaded all the provinces has been of considerable use, yet, if not checked, it will produce a state of putrefaction, or, in other words, prove extremely destructive. It is necessary to return to order, and to have confidence in

the magistrates, who, from their knowledge, studies, and experience, are able to deliberate, combine, and determine, as circumstances shall direct. Without the most intimate knowledge, the wisest are liable to err: and how can a mob possibly steer clear of errors, which is mostly guided by the cries of women and boys? -But not restricting myself to this city, I really believe that all these observations are perfectly useless, because the inhabitants of this city are more enlightened than any other, on account of their trade and intercourse with other nations. There are but few idiots in this city, who are merely guided, as it were, by instinct; and much smaller is the number of those who, from their vicious habits, can only exist in confusion and disorder. These few have been joined by others of the neighbouring districts, who neither enlist for the honourable and glorious service in which we are engaged, nor apply themselves to reap the plentiful crops with which Providence has been pleased to bless us. These are the men who have not looked for any other employment than that of disturbing the peace and tranquillity of this place, and of preventing the rest of the inhabitants, nay, the magistrates, from performing their duty. They are well known. Unless they amend their conduct, and all foreigners withdraw to their different habitations, they will certainly be punished. Well-disposed persons will be obliged to take up arms; they who are not able to bear arms will be employed for other purposes; and boys neglected by their parents, and women who raise the hue and cry, shall be punished. The troops, the whole town, the sword of justice, and, above all, God himself, who a

Excellentissimo Senor General Dupont, I was never capable of bad faith or dissimulation, and hence I wrote to you on the 8th instant with the candour which is peculiar to me ; and I feel myself obliged, in consequence of your yesterday's reply, to repeat, in substance, what I had then the honour to say to your excellency, as that which must certainly be adhered to. Neither the capitulation, nor the approbation of the junta, nor the express command of our beloved king, can render that possible which is in itself impossible. "We have neither vessels nor the means to procure them, for the transportation of your army. What better proof is necessary, than that we retain here the prisoners of your squadron, because we have not the power of transporting them beyond the continent? When General Castanos promised to obtain passports from the English for the passage of your army, he could only oblige himself earnestly to request it: He has done this. But how could your excellency believe that the British nation would accede to this, certain that you would instantly carry on the war on some other point, or perhaps on the same? I am persuaded that neither General Castanos nor your excellency ever thought that the capitulation would

be executed. The object of the first was, to relieve himself from embarrassment, and that of your excellency to obtain conditions, which, though impossible, would do honour to your surrender. Each has obtained what he desired, and now the imperious law of necessity must be obeyed. The national character does not permit us to treat the French otherwise than this law prescribes. We cannot use reprisals. Your excellency obliges me to utter truths which cannot but be bitter. What right has an army to demand the execution of impossible articles of capitulation, which entered Spain professing friendship and alliance, imprisoned our king and the royal family, plundered his palaces, assassinated and robbed his subjects, ravaged his towns, and deprived him of his crown? If your excellency is not desirous to draw upon you more and more the just indignation of the people, which I am labouring so much to repress, cease to advance such inadmissible pretensions, and endeavour, by submission, and a suitable behaviour, to weaken the strong sense of the atrocities you recently committed at Cordova. Your excellency may be assured that my object in making this intimation to you is no other than your own welfare. The unreflecting vulgar only wish to return evil for evil, without weighing circumstances. I cannot omit declaring your excellency answerable for the fatal results which may proceed from your repugnance to that which is inevitable. The orders given by Don Juan Creagh, and communicated to your excellency, are those of the supreme junta, and are indispensible, under the actual circumstances. To retard their execution would alarm the people, and occa

sion inconveniencies. M. Creagh has already informed me of an occurrence which makes me exceedingly upon my guard. What an effect must it have upon the people to know that a single soldier was carrying away 2580 livres Tournois! This is what I had to reply to your excellency's note, and I hope that this will be my last answer to such points: Remaining, in other respects, desirous to serve you, being your sincere and obedient servant.

Cadiz, 10th August, 1808.

No. 32.-Answer of the Captain General of the Province and Governor of Cadiz, to the Letters of General Dupont, on occasion of what took place on the 13th inst. at the Port of Santa Maria.

Excellentissimo Senor General Dupont, It is with extreme surprise that I received your excellency's letter of yesterday, in which you make a demand of the equipages, money, horses, and various commodities belonging to you and the general who accompanied you, which the populace of Santa Maria plundered and destroyed. Invoking the principles of honour and probity for the restitution of YOUR PROPERTY, the horrible excesses (your excellency continues) committed by this people have made me sigh, zealous as I am of the glory of Spain !!!

Certainly I have been hurt at their conduct; not because I thought the action in itself bad, but because it implied, on the part of the people, a distrust of their government and magistrates; because they took the administration of justice into their own hands; because it might have happened, that, when enraged, they might assume the vile and horrid employment of executioners; pollu

ting themselves with the blood of the disarmed, and throwing a shade over the glory of their fellow-patriots, by shedding the blood of those they had pardoned in the field of Mars. These are, in fact, the causes of my concern and displeasure. These were the reasons which induced me to write to Col. Don Juan Creagh, to propose for the safety of your excellency, and the others who accompanied you, that your equipage should be examined, and deposited before you left Lebrija; that your excellency should spend the night at Xerez; and that a regiment should be put under arms at Puerto, to suppress any insurrection, where, from the confidence of the governor, there were no troops armed. I therefore wrote to your excellency, that submission and a prudent demeanour could alone save you from the rage of the people. But it never was my intention, and still less that of the supreme junta, that your excellency and your army should carry out of Spain the fruit of your rapacity, cruelty, and impiety. How could your excellency conceive this possible? How could you imagine us to be so stupid and senseless? Can a capitulation which speaks only of your equipage give you a property in the treasures which your army has accumulated by means of assassinations, cruelty, and sacrilege of the most horrid kind, at Cordova and other cities? Is there any reason or right which requires that faith, or even humanity, should be observed towards an army which entered the kingdom of a friend and ally un- · der false and ridiculous pretences, seizing perfidiously its beloved and innocent king, and all his family, and extorting from him renunciations, which can never be executed,

in favour of their monarch; thinking these renunciations confer a right to plunder the palaces and towns of the kingdom; and because the nation will not submit to this, proceed to profane and plunder the temples of religion, and murder the ministers of the altar, ravishing virgins, seizing every article of value they can transport, and destroying what they were forced to leave behind? Is it possible that they, when deprived of the horrid fruits of their iniquity, should have the impudence to appeal to the principles of honour and probity? My natural moderation has induced me to write to your excellency hitherto with a certain respect; but in opposition to such extraordinary demands, which are equivalent to this: "Do you sack the temples and inhabitants of Cadiz in order to indemnify me for the plunder of Cordova and other cities which the populace of the port have taken from me?" I could not refrain from drawing a slight sketch of your conduct. Your excellency will lay aside such false expectations, and congratulate yourself that the Spanish people, as I have already said, have so noble a character, that they will abstain from exercising the vile office of executioners. I shall do all that is in my power to secure your personal security, and furnish you with a regular subsistence, and use all dispatch to cause you to be transported as soon as possible to France. This is what I had to reply to your excellency, towards whom, in other respects, I profess esteem, being your humble servant I kiss your hands.

Cadiz, August 14, 1808. No. 33.-Justification to the Spanish Nation of the conduct of the Cap

tain-General of Andalusia towards Dupont and the other French Generals.

Having repeatedly received anonymous letters from various cities of Spain, and even from Madrid, insisting that my honour and the national justice and service required the extermination of Dupont and the other French generals; some adding also, that this bloody sentence should have been executed upon all the prisoners,-I deem it incumbent upon me to avow the reasons which led me not to accede to such cruel desires, and to oppose vigorously their being carried into execution. I confess that the first of these anonymous letters, by their bad writing and coarse style, appeared to me to proceed from persons low, ignorant, and habituated to crimes, who delight only in the effusion of human blood; but, at the same time, the elegant style and the consistent reasoning employed in others of those letters convinced me that those opinions were adopted by persons not without information and education; so that I could not but doubt the justness of my own notions, being so opposite to theirs. But I shall now state them simply, that they may be duly appreciated by all. In the first place, I do not execute, or desire to execute, the supreme power; and it was the junta of Seville which, for weighty reasons, not fit for the public, suspended the transportation of Dupont and the other French generals. I had only to obey; for it is not in my character or manner of thinking ever to resist a constituted authority, which can only occasion civil dissensions-the greatest evils a nation can suffer, and which I shall never spare any sacrifices to avoid. But inde

pendently of this substantial reason for my conduct, how could I ever adopt so atrocious a vengeance, and which must draw after it such melancholy and horrible consequences? If Murat, Dupont, Junot-if the troops they command have committed rapes, robberies, and murders, and have violated the temples, these acts have been committed either with or without the orders of their sovereign. In the first case, he will punish them; and in the second, if we punish them, not catching the perpetrators in the fact, and punishing violence by violence, but after they have surrendered their arms, on the faith of a capitulation, granted by the only legitimate authority, in this case, Napoleon would not fail to exercise the right of retaliation; and, consequently, all those would be the victims of his rage whom his base policy did not wish to preserve. The sanguinary executions which would follow would make the whole nation bitterly lament, those included who had even demanded the punishment of Dupont. Every one would say then, I have no doubt, "You, Morla, with your years, study, and experience, ought to have foreseen the melancholy result of our wishes: How could you accede to them? Did you not perceive that they were produced by the disgusting aspect of French atrocities, and the continual declamations of an unthinking populace, who are unable to combine, who see not the tendencies of things, and are always guided by first impressions? If you foresaw this, you were a traitor; if not, you were a fool." It is this want of combining ideas, this habit of giving way to first impressions, which occasion the populace, and, most of all, the women, to treat the prisoners ill in all wars: