its attention. We may add to these means, the succours which are now given with so generous a hand, and will be hereafter granted us by the English nation. But it is incumbent on us, that these succours which have been so opportunely given, and so gratefully received, and the effects of which have been so beneficial, should be hereafter recognised and recompensed with the reciprocity and decorum which become a great and powerful nation. The Spanish monarchy ought not, in this respect, to be placed in a state of inequality and dependence upon its allies.

The produce of these means will certainly be great, but at the same time it will be slow, and for that reason insufficient for the urgent necessities of the state. Are they sufficient to furnish for a time the ordinary supplics, discharge the immense debt which will be incurred, and maintain the formidable army which is to be kept on foot? But the junta will, in case the manifold events and force of circumstances should exhaust the treasury, have recourse at once to the nation with the confidence which its ardent patriotism ought to inspire, and the necessity and notoriety of the sacrifice. For evils so extraordinary as the present, remedies as extraordinary must be applied; and as the government judges it to be one of its obligations to give an exact account to the nation of the application of the re sources and funds which it is about to administer, it has no fear that its demands will be disregarded through distrust, or be detested as arbitrary.

Thus much with respect to the defence of the kingdom, and the

means of effecting it, the most urgent concerns and the first in the order of time which the junta has under its care. But, Spaniards, there are others as necessary and primary as that, without attending to which the junta would fulfil but half its duties, and which is the great reward of your enthusiasm and sacrifices. Political independence is nothing without felicity and interior security. Turn your eyes to the time when oppressed and degraded, ignorant of your own strength, and finding no asylum against your evils, cither in the institutions or in the laws, you held foreign dominion less odious than the wasting tyranny which internally consumed you. The do. minion of a will always caprici. ous, and for the greater part unjust, has, for your calamity, lasted long enough in Spain: your pa tience, your love of order, and your generous loyalty, have been long enough abused; it is time that the voice of the law only should begin to command, founded on ge. neral utility. This was the desire of our good and unfortunate mo. narch; this was the path he point. ed out, even during an unjust cap tivity to which a perfidious traitor reduced him. Country, Spaniards! ought not to be a vague and a vain name to you: it ought to import in your ears and in your heart the sanctuary of the laws and customs, the theatre for talents, and the re ward of virtue.

Yes, Spaniards, the great day is drawing near, when, according to the uniform desires of our beloved king, and of his loyal people, the monarchy will be established on solid and durable bases. You will then possess fundamental laws,

which will be beneficial, friends of order, restrictive of arbitrary power; and these being re-esta blished, and your genuine rights being assured, you will rejoice to behold a monument worthy of you, and of the monarch who is to watch over the preservation of it, blessing, amid so many calamities, the share which the people will have had in its erection. The junta, which holds in its hand the supreme direction of the national forces, in order, by all means, to assure its defence, felicity, and glory; the junta, which has already publicly acknowledged the great influence which a nation ought to have in the government, which alone, and without any assistance, has done every thing in the name of the king and for his cause; the junta solemnly promise to you, that you shall possess that country which you have invoked with so much enthusiasm, and defended, or rather conquered, with so much va lour.

- Until the military operations, slow at first, in order better to secure a happy result, shall furnish the opportunity and repose necessary for the grand and solemn reunion which it announces to you, the government will take care pri. vately to discuss and to examine the projects of reform, and the institutions which ought to be pre. sented for the national sanction. Without instruction, or knowledge, or data, the majestic work of legis. lation is the result of a blind and unstable will, and as such, exposed to error, inconsistency, and contempt! Wise Spaniards! you who devoted to the investigation of the social principles, unite the love of humanity to the love of country,

and instruction of zeal: this con cern is yours, the happy execution of which is so necessary. The junta, instead of rejecting your council, desires and seeks it. The knowledge and illustration of our ancient constitutional law; changes, which, in their re-establishment, they ought to undergo from the difference of circumstances; reforms which are to be made in the civil, criminal, and commercial codes; projects to meliorate public education, which, among us, is so greatly in decline; a system of regulated economy for the better distribution and collection of the national revenue; all these claim your attention, and form a vast series of problems and objects of meditation, in which you may ma. nifest your talents and your ac quirements. The junta will form from among you different commit. tees, each intrusted with a parti cular department, to whom are to be freely addressed all writings on matters of government and admi. nistration, in which may be discussed the different objects which claim the general attention; so that each contributing by his exertions to give a just and enlightened direction to the public opinion, they may enable the nation to establish solidly and tranquilly its internal felicity.

The Spanish revolution will thus be distinguished by characteristic features, altogether the reverse of those which were scen in the French revolution. That began in the wretched internal intrigues of courtiers; ours, in the necessity of repelling an unjust and powerful aggressor: in that there were as many opinions concerning the forms of government as there were

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(Signed) 70

No. I. Letter from count Nicholas de Romanzoff to Mr. secretary Canning, dated Erfurth, 30th September-(12th October), 1808.-Received Oct. 21st.

(Translation.) SIRI send to your excellency

a letter which the emperors of Russia and France write to his majesty the king of England. The emperor of Russia flatters himself that England will feel the grandeur and the sincerity of this step. She will there find the most natural and the most simple answer to the over ture which has been made by admi. ral Saumarez. The union of the two empires is beyond the reach of all change, and the two emperors have formed it for peace as well as for war. His majesty has commanded me to make known to your excel. lency that he has nominated plenipotentiaries who will repair to Pas ris, where they will await the an swer which your excellency may be pleased to make to me. I request you to address it to the Russian ambassador at Paris. -The plenipo. tentiaries named by the emperor of Russia will repair to that city on the continent to which the plenipo. tentiaries of his Britannic majesty and his allies shall have been sent. In respect to the bases of the negociation, their imperial majesties see no difficulty in adopting all those formerly proposed by Eng land, namely, the uti possidetis, and every other basis founded upon the reciprocity and equality which ought to prevail between all great nations. I have the honour to be,

COUNT NICOLAS DE ROMANZOFF

His excellency Mr. Canning, &c. t

No. 2.-Letter from his majesty the emperor of all the Russias, and Buonaparté, to his Majesty, dated Erfurth, 12th Oct. 1808: Received Oct. 21st.Translated from the original French.

SIRE, The present circumstan ces of Europe have brought us to gether at Erfurth. Our first thought is to yield to the wish and the wants of every people, and to seek, in a speedy pacification with your majesty, the most efficacious reme dy for the miseries which oppress all nations. We make known to your majesty our sincere desire in this respect by the present letter. The long and bloody war which has torn the continent is at an end, without the possibility of being re newed. Many changes have taken place in Europe; many states have been overthrown. The cause is to be found in the state of agitation and misery in which the stagnation of maritime commerce has placed the greatest nations. Still greater changes may yet take place, and all of them contrary to the policy of the English nation. Peace, then, is at once the interest of the people of the continent, as it is the inte rest of the people of Great Britain. We unite in entreating your majes. ty to listen to the voice of humani ty, silencing that of the passions; to seck, with the intention of ar. riving at that object, to conciliateall interests, and by that means to preserve all the powers which exist, and to ensure the happiness of Eu. rope and of this generation, at the

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