Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/46

 the other nations of Europe may yet be secured, ami ultimately be freed from the apprehension of falling under the degrading yoke of an upstart military adventurer, an who boldly and without disguise avows his intention of reducing all nations to an obedience to his will. The principal events of the Spanish revolution are so fresh in the recollection of our readers, that it will be unnecessary to repeat them, and it would much exceed our limits to dwell upon the events which have recently taken place in that country. There can be no doubt but that there has tor many years existed among the grandees of Spain an ardent feeling for the honour of their country, and a deep-rooted indignation against that upstart favourite, the Prince of the Peace, whose base polity had reduced Spain so low as to be considered by Bonaparte as a part of his federative empire. The marching of French armies through Spain under pretence of occupying Portugal, and afterwards the treacherous occupation of Barcelona and Pampeluna by the French, opened the eyes of the Spanish nation. The tumult at Aranjuez made the old king think it prudent to abdicate his crown, and his son was welcomed to the throne and proclaimed with the greatest enthusiasm all over Spain. The treachery by which Bonaparte persuaded the royal family of Spain to meet him at Bayonne, their forced abdication, and subsequent imprisonment, the entrance of the French into Madrid, and the massacre of the 2d of May, are events fresh in the recollection of every body. The consequence has been, the simultaneous rising of all the provinces of Spain, the capture of Dupont, the defeat of Moncey, the noble defence of Saragossa, and the struggle which Spain is now maintaining against the whole power of Bonaparte.

The great success which the Spaniards had in the beginning of the war, and the defeats and losses whicb the French armies sustained in Spain, raised the public feeling in this country to the highest enthusiasm, and to a confident hope that the time had at length arrived, that would witness the overthrow of the gigantic power of Bonaparte. He was considered as already conquered, and our politicians argued, with considerable shew of reason, that if the Spanish people were able to do so much unorganized, undisciplined, and unarmed, they would be infinitely stronger after they had had six months time to be armed, equipped, and organized. They also thought, that Bonaparte had been quite intoxicated with his former successes, and that he had committed a capital error in endeavouring to conquer by force a country which he before ruled completely by his influence. Whether this last opinion be well or ill founded, must be determined by the result; but there is no doubt, that having taken the resolution absolutely to Conquer Spain, he took his measures with great craft and ability. Under the shew of marching through Spain to Portugal, he took care to seize the strong fortresses of Barcelona and Pampeluna. By fraud and treachery he got the whole royal family of Spain in his hands, and prevailed on them to abdicate their rights to the throne. He also got a number of the first personages in Spain to agree to the constitution