AMIDST all our declarations in favour of the lights of the age, and the extraordinary influence of the press, and the extension of journals in diffusing correct ideas on every subject of policy, foreign and domestic, it may be doubted, whether there is to be found in the whole history of human delusion, not even excepting the benighted ages of Papal despotism, or the equally dark era of Napoleon's tyranny, an example of ignorance so complete and general, as has prevailed in this country, for the last seven years, as to the affairs of Spain. While a contest has been going on there during all that period between constitutional right and revolutionary spoliation; while the Peninsula has been convulsed by the long protracted conflict between legal government and democratic despotism; while the same cause which has been supported since 1830 in Great Britain by the arms of reasoning, eloquence, or influence, has there been carried on with the edge of the sword; while for the last four years, a struggle has been maintained by the Basque mountaineers for their rights and their liberties, their hearths and their religion, which history will place beside the glories of Marathon and Salamis, of Naefels and Morgarten: while an heroic Prince and his heroic brothers have borne up against a load of oppression, foreign and domestic, in defence of legal right and constitutional freedom, with a courage and a skill rarely paralleled in the annals of military achievement, the great bulk of the English nation have looked with supineness or indifference on the

VOL. XLI. NO. CCLIX,

glorious spectacle. They have been deceived, and willingly deceived, by the endless falsehoods which the revolutionary press and the holders of Spanish bonds spread abroad on this subject, they have been carried away by the false and slanderous appellations bestowed on Don Carlos, they have been mystified by a denial of his clear and irresistible title to the throne, they have not duly considered the stern and inexorable necessity which compelled him to abandon the humane system of warfare which he at first adopted, and retaliate upon his enemies the atrocious and murderous rule of war which they had so long practised against him and his followers; and by their su pineness permitted the royal arms of England to be implicated in the most savage crusade ever undertaken in modern times against the liberty of mankind, and a band of brave but deluded mercenaries, to prolong to their own and their country's eternal disgrace a frightful conflict between sordid democratic despotism, striving to elevate itself on the ruins of its country, and the free-born bravery of unconquerable patriots.

We take blame to ourselves on this subject; we confess ourselves implicated in the charge which, through all the succeeding ages of the world, will attach to the name of England, for its deplorable concern in this heroic conflict, which will go far to obliterate the recollection of all its memorable exertions in the cause of freedom. The calamity is not the defeat sustained at St Sebastian or Hernani: not the disgrace of English regiments being

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routed and driven back at the point of the bayonet in shameful confusion; these stains are easily wiped out: the national courage, when brought into the field in a just cause, will soon obliterate the recollection of the defeat which was sustained in supporting that of cruelty and injustice. The real disgrace the calamity which England has indeed to mourn, is that of having joined in an alliance to beat down the liberties of mankind; in having aided a selfish, execrable band of murderers and plunderers to oppress and massacre our faithful allies; in having combined with France, in defiance alike of the faith of treaties and the rules of international law, to deprive a gallant prince of his rightful inheritance; in having sent out the royal forces of England, under the old flag of Wellington, to aid a set of cutthroats and assassins, of robbers and plunderers, in carrying fire and sword, mourning and despair through the valleys of a simple and virtuous people, combined in no other cause but that for which Hambden bled on the field and Sidney on the scaffold.

"Wo unto those," says the Scripture, "who call evil good and good evil; for theirs is the greater damnation."

It is in this fatal delusion in the confusion of ideas produced by transposing the names of things, and calling the cause of despotism that of freedom, merely because it is supported by Urban despots-and that of freedom slavery, because it is upheld by rural patriots, that the true cause of this hideous perversion, not merely of national character, but even of party consistency, is to be found. We are perfectly persuaded that, if the people of England were aware of the real nature of the cause in which they embarked a gallant but unfortunate band of adventurers; if the government were aware of the real tendency of the quasi-intervention which they have carried on, both the one and the other would recoil with horror from the measures which they have so long sanctioned. But both were deluded by the name of freedom; both were carried away by the absurd mania for the extension of democratic institutions into countries wholly unprepared for them; and both thought they were upholding the cause of liberty and the ultimate interests of Great Britain, by supporting a band who have proved themselves to be the most selfish, corrupt, and

despotic tyrants who ever yet rose to transient greatness upon the misery and degradation of their country. But, while we thus absolve both the government and the country from intentional abuse of power in the deplorable transactions which both have sanctioned, there is a limit beyond which this forbearance cannot be extended.

This result of our shameful intervention to oppress the free, and aid the murderers in massacring the innocent, is now fixed and unalterable, and in no degree dependent on the future issue of the contest. What that may finally be, God only knows. It is possible, doubtless, that the weight of the Quadruple Alliance-the direct intervention of France-the insidious support of England-the exhaustion of a protracted contest-and the extirpation of the population capable of bearing arms in the Basque Provinces, may beat down these heroic mountaineers, and establish amidst blood and ashes, anguish and mourning, the cruel oppression of the Madrid democrats in the lovely valleys of Navarre : —“ Quum solitudinem fecerunt, pacem appellant." In that case, the interest of the struggle will be enhanced by its tragic termination; the sympathies, the indignant sympathies of mankind in every future age, will be with the unfortunate brave;-like the Poles or the Girondists, the errors of their former conduct will all be forgotten in the Roman heroism of their fall. They will take their place in history, beside their ancestors in Numantia and Saguntum, who preferred throw. ing themselves into the flames, to the hated dominion of the stranger; and the Saragossans or Geronists in later days, who perished in combating the formidable legions of Napoleon, or the gallant patriots, who, with Kosciusko, shed their last blood, when the grena diers of Suwarrow were storming the entrenchments of Prague, and the Vistula ran red with Polish blood. Or it may be, that Providence has reserved a different destiny for these gallant patriots, and that on this, as on so many previous occasions, the God of battles will bless the righteous side. In that case, their struggle will form one of the most animating periods in the page of history-one of the bright and consoling spots in the annals of human suffering, to which the patriot will point in every succeeding age as the animating example of successful vir

tue, at the recital of which the hearts of the generous will throb, so long as valour and constancy shall be appreciated upon earth.

We speak thus warmly, because we feel strongly-because we sympathize from the bottom of our hearts with the cause of freedom all over the world. But we are not deluded, as so many of our countrymen are, who never look beyond the surface of things, by the mere assumption of false names. We have learned from our own experience, as well as the annals of history, that tyranny, plunder, and oppression can stalk in the rear of the tricolor flag, and urban multitudes be roused by a ruthless band of sordid revolutionists, to their own and their country's ultimate ruin. We have learned also from the same sources of information, that hearts can beat as warmly for the cause of freedom, and arms combat as bravely in its defence on the mountain as on the plain, in the sequestered valley as in the crowded city, under the banners of religion and loyalty, as under the standard of treason and perfidy. We yield to none in the ardent love of liberty; but what we call liberty is the lasting protection of the rights and privileges of all classes of the people, not the trampling them under foot, to suit the fanciful theories of visionary enthusiasts, or the sordid speculations of Stock Exchange revolutionists. We look around us, and behold liberty still flourishing in the British Isles, after a hundred and fifty years' duration, under the banner of religion and loyalty, despite all the efforts of infidel democracy for its destruction. We cast our eyes to the other side of the Channel, and we see freedom perishing, both in France and Spain, after unheard-of calamities, under the ascendant of a revolutionary and freethinking generation. Taught by these great examples, we have learned to cling the more closely to the faith and the maxims of our fathers, to see in the principles of religion and loyalty the only secure foundation for real freedom; and to expect the ultimate triumph of constitutional principles, not from the sudden irruption of blood-thirsty fanatics, or the selfish ambition of rapacious democrats, but the gradual and pacific growth of a middling class in society, under the protecting influence of a durable Government.

We make these remarks, too, in the

full knowledge of the hideous massacres which have so long disfigured this unhappy war-having before our eyes the Durango decrce, and the Carlist executions; and yielding to none in horror at these sanguinary atrocities, and the most ardent wish for their termination. We make them also, agreeing with the Standard, that if this frightful system had begun with the Carlists, or had even been adopted by them under the influence of any other cause than the sense of unbearable executions of a similar kind previously suffered by them, and begun by the Revolutionists, and the overwhelming necessity of mournful retaliation, not only would their cause be unworthy of the sympathy of any brave or good man, but that Don Carlos himself would be a monster unfit to live." But admitting all this, we see it as clearly proved as any proposition in geometry, that this execrable system began with the Spanish democrats, and them alone, and was never resorted to by the Carlists, till years after they had suffered under its atrocious execution by their enemies; and the Carlist valleys were filled with mourning from the death of old men, women and children, murdered in cold blood by the democratic tyrants who sought to plunder and enslave them. And in such circumstances, we know that retaliation, however dread. ful and mournful an extremity, is unavoidable, and that brave and humane men are forced, like Zumalacarregui, to sentence prisoners to be shot, even when the order, as it did from him, draws tears like rain from their eyes. Unquestionably none can admire more than we do the noble proclamation of the Duke of York in 1793, in answer to the savage orders of the Directory to the Revolutionary armies of France to give no quarter. None can feel greater exultation at the humane conduct of the Vendeans, who, in reply to a similar order from their inhuman oppressors, sent eleven thousand prisoners back, with their heads merely shaved, to the Republican lines. But it belongs to the prosperous and the secure to act upon such generous and noble principles;-the endurance of coldblooded cruelty, the pangs of murdered innocence, the sight of parents and children slaughtered, will drive, and in every age have driven, the most mild and humane to the dreadful, but unavoidable system of retalia

tion. We know that the Vendeans themselves, despite all the heroic humanity of their chiefs, were forced in the end to retaliate upon their enemies the system of giving no quarter. We know that Charette, for the two last years of his career, found it impossible to act on any other principle. We go back to the annals of our own country, and we see in them too melancholy proof, that even in the sober-minded, or it may be, right thinking inhabitants of the British Isles, a certain endurance of suffering, and the commencement of a cruel system of war by one party, will at all times drive their antagonists into a hideous course of reprisals. Have we forgotten, that in the wars of the Roses, quarter was refused on both sides by the contending armies, for nine long years; and that eighty princes of the blood, and almost all the nobility of England were put to death, and most of them in cold blood, by the ruthless cruelty of English armies? Have we forgotten, that utter destruction was vowed by the Scottish Covenanters against the Irish auxiliaries in Montrose's army; and that they carried their vengeance so far, as to drown at the bridge of Linlithgow even their innocent babes? Have we forgotten the cruel atrocities of the Irish Rebellion, or the firm retaliation of the indignant Orangemen? Seeing then that a certain extremity of suffering, and the endurance of a certain amount of cruelty by intestine opponents, will, in all ages, and in all nations, even the most moderate and humane, induce the dreadful necessity of retaliation, we look with pity, though with poignant grief, on the stern reprisals to which Don Carlos has been driven, and earnestly pray that similar civil discord may long be averted from the British Isles; and that we may not be doomed by a righteous Providence, as we perhaps deserve, to undergo the unutterable wretchedness, which our uncalled for and unjust support of those who began the execrable system of murder, has so long produced in the Spanish peninsula.

In attempting to make amends for our hitherto apparent neglect of this interesting subject, we rejoice to think that the materials by which we can now vindicate the righteous cause, and explain to our deluded countrymen the gross injustice of which they have been rendered the unconscious instru

ments, have, within these last few months, been signally enlarged. First, Captain Henningsen's animated and graphic narrative enlisted our sympathies in favour of the gallant mountaineers, beside whom he drew the sword of freedom. Next, Mr Honan's able and well-informed work unfolded still more fully the nature of the contest, and the resources from which the Basque peasantry have maintained so long and surprising a struggle in defence of their privileges against all the forces which have been arrayed against them. Then Lord Caernarvon's admirable disquisition on the war, annexed to his highly interesting tour in the Portuguese provinces, gave to the statements of his excellent predecessors the weight of his authority, the aid of his learning, and the support of his eloquence. Though last, not least, Mr Walton has taken the field with two octavo volumes, which throw a flood of light on the real nature of the contest now raging in the Peninsula, the objects of the parties engaged, the claims of the competitors to the throne, the consequence of the triumph of the one or the other on the future interests of religion and freedom, the cruel severities to which the Carlists were subjected by their blood-thirsty enemies before they were reluctantly driven to retaliation,

and the frightful consequences which have resulted, and must continue to result while it endures, from our iniquitous co-operation with the cause of oppression. All these momentous topics are treated in the volumes before us with a clearness, temper, moderation, and ability which leave nothing to be desired, and render them by far the most important work on the affairs of the Peninsula which has yet issued from the European press. When we see the ability and candour, the courage and energy, the learning and eloquence, which, unbought by the gold of the Stock Exchange, uninfluenced by speculations in Spanish bonds, unsolicited by the rewards of a deceived democratic and commission-granting Administration, is thus generously and gratui tously coming forward from so many quarters at once in defence of the cause of religious truth and independence, we recognise the revival of the spirit of Old England; we indulge a hope that the press, like the Thames water, may yet work off its own im

purities; and we are ready to take our humble part in so good a cause, and bear with equanimity the torrent of abuse with which the servile writers of the Treasury, or the hireling scribes of the Stock Exchange, will assail our endeavours to give greater publicity than, in a selfish and engrossed age, they might otherwise obtain to their all-important disclosures.

From the statements proved, and documents brought forward, in Mr Walton's work, it is manifest,-1. That the constitution of 1812, so long the darling object of democratic contention in the Peninsula, and now the avowed basis of its government, is an ultra-republican system, which never obtained the legal consent of the nation, but was merely imposed on their countrymen for their own selfish ends by a knot of urban democrats at Cadiz, who at that unhappy period, when four-fifths of the country was occupied by the French armies, had contrived to usurp the powers, not only of sovereignty, but of remodelling the state. 2. That it is not only utterly unsuitable to the Spanish people, and necessarily productive of (as it ever has produced) nothing but plunder, massacre, and democratic oppression; but is of so absurd and ill-considered a character as even, if established in England, amidst a people habituated for centuries to the exercise of freedom, would tear society to atoms in six months. 3. That, from experience of the devastating effects of this ultra-radical constitution, and the sordid cupidity of the democratic agents whom it instantly brings to the head of affairs, the great majority of the Spanish nation, almost all who are distinguished by their patriotism, principle, or good sense, are decidedly opposed to its continuance; that though often established by military violence or democratic intrigue, it has ever fallen to the ground by its own weight when not upheld, as it now is, by powerful foreign co-operation; and that at this moment, if this co-operation were really withdrawn, it would sink to the dust in three months, with all its accessaries of democratic spoliation, royalist blood, and universal suffering, never more to rise. 4. That the democratic party, since the time that nine-tenths of the nation had become the decided enemies of their usurpation, fell upon the expedient of engrafting the maintenance

of their cause upon a disputed succession to the throne,-prevailed on Fer dinand VII., when in a state of dotage, to alter the law of royal succession in favour of his infant daughter,-got together the farce of a Cortes, to give their sanction to the illegal act,-and have since contrived to keep her on the throne, as a mere puppet, to serve as a cover to their revolutionary designs, despite the clearly proved voice of the nation, by filling the army and all civil offices with their own creatures, and maintaining an usurped and hateful usurpation by the aid of urban democracy, foreign co-operation, and stock-jobbing assistance. 5. That the title of Don Carlos to the throne is clear, not less on the legitimate principle of legal succession, which we were bound, in the most solemn manner, by the treaty of Utrecht, to guarantee, than on the liberal principle of a violation of the social contract, and a trampling under foot all the rights and privileges of the people, dissolving the title of a sovereign, how well-founded soever in itself, to the supreme direction of affairs. 6. That the frightful system of murdering the prisoners was first introduced by the revolutionists; that it was carried on with ruthless severity and heartless rigour by them for years before it was imitated by the Royalists; that they have repeatedly made endeavours, both publicly and privately, to put a stop to its continuance, but always been foiled by the refusal of their savage antagonists. 7. That the English auxiliaries, both under General Evans and Lord John Hay, lent their powerful aid to the Revolutionary party, not only without the English Government having made any effectual stipulation in favour of the abandoning that atrocious system of warfare, but at a time when, without such aid, the war was on the point of being brought to a glorious termination by the freeborn mountaineers of Biscay and Navarre, and have thus become implicated, through the fault or neglect of their government, in all the woful consequences of a continuance of the struggle. 8. That the stand made by the Basque provinces is for their rights and their liberties, their privileges and their immunities, enjoyed by their ancestors for five hundred years, asserted by them in every age with a constancy and spirit exceeding even the far-famed resolution of the Swiss