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his arms, if it be not equally guarded against his arts and machinations? Be assured that what he cannot obtain he will endeavour to destroy; and that what he cannot effect by force he will seek to accomplish by means of an alliance. That pestilent disturber of nations shall never exercise any power at sea while England exists. This ally and friend will protect the Spanish flag in all parts of the world, at sea and at land, provided that we are united among ourselves. The complete union and integrity of the Spanish monarchy is not of more importance to that power than it is to us. The province that should wish to separate itself from this great body, would be the enemy of all, and by all abandoned. Its own strength and resources would be consumed, and its hopes annihiJated. The Regency, with paternal solicitude, invites you to unite more firmly than ever with the mother country. Connected as we are by blood, religion, and a political system, it is the interest of both to add to these ties a national representation in the Cortes for the purpose of consolidating the common safety and prosperity of the whole."

Such were the pretensions, views, and arguments of both sides on this momentous question. The inhabitants of Spanish America were also, in a proclamation issued at Madrid, March 22,1810, addressed by king Joseph. He called them his dear subjects, and invited them to sub. mit, and partake in the blessings of his just and paternal govern ment. But if they should not have a mind to do this, he coun

selled them to have nothing to do with the rebellious and perfidious Junta, who, as well as the English, had nothing in view but to deceive and plunder them; and declare themselves free and independant of all nations in the world.

Joseph also sent emissaries for the promotion of his interests, by intrigue, into the Spanish provinces through North America, The council of Regency, aware of these machinations, sent orders to the public authorities in Spanish America, not to admit any one from the North American frontier, without the most satisfactory passport. A gentleman arrived from the Havannah at Liverpool, August 1, writes to his friend in London as follows: "In coming round the Moro, we saw ten thousand people surrounding a gallows, on which was suspended one of Joseph Buonaparte's emissaries to Mexico, Don M. R. Alemany Pena, a young man of twenty years of age, belonging to one of the first families in Mexico, who was returning from college in Spain. He had accepted of four or five hundred blank commissions from Joseph for governors, generals, admirals, and other office-bearers, to be filled. up at pleasure."

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In most of the provinces juntas were formed by the leaders of the people for carrying on the government, according to the views taken by the respective districts of their relations to the mother country. In all the authority of Ferdinand VII. was recognized; but not in all of these, that of the Regency of Cadiz, or, in other words, Ferdinand, represented by that coun

cil.

The governments that submitted to the Regency, considered those who did not as rebels. In the estimation of the Revolutionists, the mere name of Ferdinand VII. was a mere phantom. To pay respect and homage to this, nothing but mockery. There could not be any real loyalty, it was said, without obedience to those by whom the king, during his captivity, was legitimately represented. Commissioners were sent from Porto Rico, Mexico, New Mexico Cuba, Spanish Guiana, Monte Video, and the juntas, or governments of some other districts, to the Regency of Cadiz, with assurances of their attachment and zealous co-operation with the Regency in support of the monarchy in all its members or branches. But by far the greatest portion of the Spanish part of South America adoptedthe principles, andfollowed the example of the Caraccas. The inhabitants of those fine countries were divided into two parties -the Loyalists, and the Independents; and their dissensions fermented into flames of civil war.

Into these a general sketch of the History of Europe does not enter, and still less into the various internal affairs, civil and political, of ultra-marine regions Occupying so large a portion of the surface of the globe. All these will furnish superabundant matter for the historians of America; and they may, there is every reason to suppose, become more interesting to the enlightened part of the world than those of an old country, losing its energy with its liberty, and in comparison of nascent, active, and ardent states, effete and torpid. Yet the revo

lutions in South, as those in North America, refer to Europe for their origin, and re-act on Europe in their results. These general causes and consequences it is proper and necessary to notice in a History of Europe.

The Junta of Caraccas had very naturally represented their situation and designs to the British governor of the island of Curacao, so near the entrance into the gulph of Venezuela, soliciting his countenance and protection. The governor did not hesitate to enter into a friendly correspondence with Caraccas; but, in circumstances so new and important, required instructions from home for the direction of his conduct. It was necessary for the British government, at this crisis, to make a public declaration of the system on which it was to act with regard to the Spanish colonies: and the earl of Liverpool, secretary of state for war and the colonies, wrote a letter, June 29, 1810, to the governor of Curacao, Brigadier general Lidyard, in which he stated, that "it was the first object of his majesty, on being acquainted with the revolution in Spain, to second the efforts of so brave and loyal a people for maintaining the independence of the Spanish monarchy in all parts of the world. In conformity to these sentiments, and the obligations of justice and good faith, his majesty must discourage every step tending to separate the Spanish provinces in America from the mother country in Europe. If, however, contrary to his majesty's wishes and expectation, the Spanish state in Europe should be condemned to sub

mit to the yoke of the common enemy, whether by real compulsion, or a convention that should leave only the shadow of independence: on the same principles his Majesty would think it his duty to afford every kind of assistance to the provinces of America that should render them independent of French Spain, open an asylum to such of the Spaniards as should disdain to submit to their oppressors, regard America as their natural refuge, and preserve the remains of the monarchy to their lawful sovereign, if ever he should recover his liberty. It was a satisfaction to his Majesty to learn by papers he had received, that what had passed in Caraccas, was in a great measure owing to the erroneous impressions they had received of the desperate state of Spain. These being removed, the inhabitants of Caraccas * would be disposed to renew their connections with Spain, as integral parts of the empire, on

their being admitted to take their place in the Cortes of the kingdom.".

Nothing could be more prudent than this conduct of the British government in a situation so new, delicate, and difficult.

A copy of lord Liverpool's letter was communicated to the Council of Regency at Cadiz, and published in all the Spanish newspapers.

A strong suspicion was entertained by the Independents, as a Portuguese army, 10,000 strong, had been sent in March to the frontiers of the Spanish colonies, that there might be a secret negociation for enforcing the pretensions of the princess of Brazil to the whole country between the Porana and La Plata, in exchange for the islands of Madeira and St. Catharine. But this apprehension was quieted by a letter from lord Strangford, British minister at the court of Brazil, to the Junta of Buenos Ayres.

The noble Secretary should have said not Caraccas, but Venezuela, of which the city of Caraccas is the capital. The province of Caraccas was only one member of the confederation of Venezuela, as above noticed (p. 225). In our common books of geography, and particularly in the last edition of Pinkerton's Geography, the names of provinces are generally confounded with those of the department, or political division to which they belong, and vice versa; which cannot fail to occasion much equivocation and much embarrassment to English readers of newspapers and other periodical publications, who are guided by common compilations about geography. The grand political divisions of Spanish America are, four viceroyalties and five general capitanias, or principalities, independent of the viceroys. The four viceroyalties are, Mexico or New Spain, New Grenada, Peru, and Buenos Ayres. The five states, independent of these, are Cuba, Porto Rico, Guatemala, Venezuela, and Chili.

CHAP. XV.

Marriage of Buonaparte with the Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria. -Addresses from all Quarters, and Festivities on this occasion.—Cha- ; racter of the new Empress.-French troops pour into Holland.-Treaty between Napoleon and Lewis Buonaparte.-Infringed by the former.Lewis abdicates the Throne of Holland in favour of his eldest Son.Farewell Address of Lewis to the Dutch.-The Character and Conduct of Lewis contrasted with that of his Brother Lucien.-Conference between a Commissioner from Holland and the Marquis Wellesley, British Secretary of State, on the Subject of a Maritime Peace. Annexation of Holland, and all the Territories between the Elbe and the Ems to the French Empire-And of the Valais.-New Measure for recruiting the Naval Force of France.-Population of the French Empire.-Annexation of Hanover to Westphalia.-Extension of the French Conscription Laws.- Various Modes in which Buonaparte rivetted the Chains in which he had bound the French.-And Means by which he provides for his personal safety.-His Rage against English Commerce-Curbs the Priesthood at Rome.

THE

HE divorce of Josephina from the emperor Napoleon, which was conducted with great dignity and decorum,* was a prelude, as might well be imagined, to a second marriage. Buonaparte, on the 27th of February, announced, by a message to the senate, that he had dispatched on the 25th his cousin, the prince of Neufchatel, to Vienna, to demand for him the hand of the archduchess Louisa Maria, daughter of the emperor Francis II. according to a contract that had been made, and of which the conditions were to be laid before them. The ceremony of marriage, in which the archduke Charles received the hand of his niece, as the representative of

Buonaparte, was performed on the 11th of March. This was a grand source of amusement in a great variety of ways, both to the volatile French, and the stiff and formal German nations: the feasts, the balls, the shows, the poetry, and the addresses and other pieces in prose, to which it gave birth, were endless. From Vienna to Compiegne, the road by which the princess passed, seemed to be strewed with flowers. Paris leaped for joy. It was at first generally, indeed almost universally imagined, that she was an unwilling, though resigned victim to the preservation of her family from farther humiliation, if not total ruin. Another virgin of Gilead, tobedient to the call of filial reverence and

See Vol. LI. (1809) pp 805-811.
+ Daughter of Jephtha. Judges, chap. xi.

duty! no such thing. It soon appeared how much of the blood of Lorraine flowed in her veins. She was gay, lively, and almost playful, and delighted with her conquest over a man who had conquered the world.

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But while the face of France and its dependencies seemed to be brightened up with joy, the friends of humanity and wellwishers to established monarchies and the old order of things, deplored the humiliation of Austria, and execrated the servility of the fallen Archduke Charles! The sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis, scarcely cost more tears to assembled Greece, than that of Louisa Maria to the usurper of the throne of France France, of which so near a relation perished, at so late a period, was the murdered queen.

Intimation had been made by Buonaparte in the beginning of December, 1809, of an intended change in Holland, by which it would become a part of the French empire to which indeed it naturally belonged, as it was nothing else but an alluvion of the Rhine, Meuse, and the Scheldt, the great arteries of the empire.* By this time numbers of French troops had begun to glide imperceptibly into Holland, till at last it was occupied by a French army of 40,000 men. The Exchange of Rotterdam was converted into a stable for French cavalry. This

was a virtual or real annexation of that country to the French empire. Yet Buonaparte appears at first to have been willing that it should possess a nominal indepen

dence, and his brother wear a nominal crown. A treaty was made with Lewis, whereby Holland, on the left bank of the Waal, was to be annexed to France. An army of 18,000 men, including 3,000 cavalry, partly French, and partly Dutch, was to be distributed at all the mouths of the rivers, along with officers of the French customs for the prohibition of all trade between Holland and England: the whole to be paid, provisioned, and clothed by the Dutch government. Though the treaty did not authorize the presence of French custom-house officers but upon the banks of the sea and at the mouths of rivers, or their interference in any other measures than those relating to the blockade, and declared that the French troops should remain only on the coast, detachments of French soldiers, accompanied by custom-house officers, spread themselves over various parts of the interior. About the middle of June, 20,000 French troops were assembled in the environs of Utrecht. On the 29th of that month, the king of Holland received official information, that his majesty the emperor insisted on the occupation of Amsterdam, and the establishment of the French head-quarters in that capital.

Under these circumstances, Lewis, July 1st, resigned his rank and royal dignity in favour of his eldest son, Napoleon Lewis, and of his brother, prince Charles Lewis Napoleon. It was stated in the deed of abdication, that her majesty the queen, being of right, and according to the constitution,

* See Vol. LI. (1809) Hist. Eur. p. 240.

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