sian messenger was allowed to proceed on the 22d to London. It was the object of Buonaparte in this overture to lull the British goverument into a neglect or delay of sending assistance to Spain, and to excite a distrust of England in her allies; for, as to any effect that professions and pacific dispositions on the part of Buonaparte might have on the minds of the French people, they had become stale and altogether effette. It was proposed, by the overture to his Britannic majesty, to enter into a negotiation for a general peace, in concert with his majesty's allies, and to treat either on the basis of uti possidetis, or on any other basis consistent with justice. The king professed his readiness to enter into such a negotiation in concurrence with his allies; in the number of whom he comprehended the Spanish nation. In the reply returned by France to this proposition of his majesty, the Spanish nation was described by the appellation of the "Spanish Insurgents;" and the demand for admitting the existing government of Spain, as a party to any negotiation, was rejected as inadmissible and insulting. A declaration, therefore, by his majesty, was published on the 15th of December, concluding as follows," His majesty deeply laments an issue by which the sufferings of Europe are aggravated and prolonged.

But

neither the honour of his majesty, nor the generosity of the British nation, would admit of his majesty's consenting to commence a negotiation by the abandonment of a brave and loyal people, who are

contending for the preservation of all that is dear to man, and whose exertions in a cause so unqestionably just, his majesty has solemnly pledged himself to sustain *."

While the army of France lay in active on the Ebro, and the passes into the mountainous province of Biscay, and Buonaparte was employed in averting danger to his cause on the side of Germany and Russia, the provincial juntas had leisure to resolve themselves into one supreme and central junta.

The situation of the Spaniards, when their country was assailed by the intrigues, the treachery, and the arms of France, was without example in their history, unforeseen by their laws, and in op. position to their habits. In such circumstances, it was necessary to give a direction to the public force, correspondent with the will and sacrifices of the people. This necessity gave rise to the juntas in the provinces, which collected into themselves the whole authority of the nation, for the purpose of expelling the common enemy, and maintaining internal order and tranquillity. But as soon as the capital was delivered from the invaders, and the communication between the provinces re-established, it be came practicable, as well as neces sary, to collect the public authority, which had been divided into as many parts as there were provincial governments, into one centre from, whence the strength and the will of the nation might be called into ac tion. A supreme and central junta, formed by deputies nominated by the respective juntas, was installed

at

at Aranjuez, on the 25th of September. The president per interim was the venerable count Florida Blanca. Among the members we find two other distinguished names, viz. Don Francisco Palafox, one of the deputies from Arragon, and Don Melchior de Jovellanos, one of the two from Asturias. After hearing mass, which was celebrated by the primate of Laodicea, also archbishop, and one of the members of the junta for Seville, the following oath, administered on the holy Evangelists, was taken by all the deputies "You swear by God, and all the holy Evangelists, and by Jesus Christ crucified, whose sacred image is before you, that in the exercise of the supreme and sovereign central junta, you will defend and promote the conservation and advancement of our holy, Catholic, Apostolical, and Roman religion; that you will be faithful to our august sovereign Ferdinand VII. and that you will maintain his rights, and his sovereignty. That you will concur in the support of our rights and privileges, our laws and customs, and above all those, concerning the succession of the reigning family, according to the order established by the laws aforesaid. In short, that you will give your vote for every measure calculated for the general good, the prosperity of the kingdom, and the amelioration of its customs. That you will observe secrecy in all cases where secrecy is proper. That you will protect the laws against all malevolence, and prosecute their enemies, even at the expence of your life, your personal safety, and your

fortune."

The formula of assent was, "I swear this." The following sen

tence was subjoined: "If you do. this, may God help you. If not, may he punish you, as having sworn in vain, by his holy name." The subscriber said, Amen.

After a solemn Te Deum, the deputies walked between two lines of troops, to the royal palace, a hall of which was consecrated to their sessions. An immense multitude of all ranks and descriptions of persons, that had assembled to see this ceremony, giving way to the most ardent enthusiasm, made the air resound with the cry of Viva Fernando Septimo.

On the opening of the gates of the palace, that had been so long shut, the sad solitude of the magnificent mansion of their kings, and the recollection of the epoch at which, and of the reasons for which the gates had been shut, drew tears from every eye, and an universal cry of vengeance against the authors of so profound calamities and such pungent sor

rows.

The oath taken by the supreme junta, a kind of Spanish Bill of Rights, they repeated, or re-echoed in a proclamation to the Spanish nation; in which, after a variety of most judicious observations, they say,

"Let us be constant, and we shall gather the fruits of victory: the laws of religion satisfied; our monarch either restored or avenged; the fundamental laws of the monarchy restored, and consecrated in a manner solemn and consonant with civil liberty; the fountains of public prosperity pouring benefits spontaneously and without obstruction; our relations with our colonies drawn more closely, become more fraternal, and consequently more useful: in fine, activity, industry, talents, and virtues stimulated

[Q 3]

stimulated and rewarded to such a degree of splendour and fortune, we shall raise our country, if, we ourselves correspond with the magnificent circumstances that surround us. These are the views, and this is the plan which the junta proposed to itself from the first moment of its installation. Its members, charged with an authority so great, and rendering themselves responsible by entertaining and encouraging hopes so flattering, are nevertheless fully aware of the difficulties they have to conquer in order to realize them, the enormity of the weight that hangs over them, and the dangers to which they are exposed. But they will think their fatigues, and the devotion of their persons to the service of their country well paid, if they succeed in inspiring Spaniards with that confidence without which the public good cannot be secured, and, which the country dares to affirm, it merits, from the rectitude of its principles and the purity of its intentions *.

The supreme central junta was acknowledged by the council of Castille, and all the other constituted authorities in the kingdom. The junta, amongst its first acts, appointed a new council-of war, consisting of five members, the president of which was general Castanos. The other four members were Don Thomas Morla, the mar quis de Castelar, the marquis del Pilacia, and Don Antonio Buerro. In prosecution of their designs it was necessary, in the first place, to attend to the grand spring of government, the finances. Great savings were made from the sup,

pression of the expences of the royal household, the enormous sums which had been annually devoured by the insatiable avarice and profuse donations of the favourite, and the confiscation of the estates of those unworthy Spaniards who had sided and fled with the usurper from Madrid. These resources sufficed for their first operations without any new taxes on the people. The first efforts of the junta were directed to the setting in motion all the troops in Andalusia, Grenada, and Estramadura, as well as the new levies; to the transportation of Dupont's army, agreeably to treaty; and to the furnishing of the English army, that had vanquished Junot, with the means of marching from Portugal to join the Spaniards. In the midst of these cares, they sent envoys to demand succours from Britain. The forces of the patriots, including now the army of Romana, and the Spanish regi ments that had been confined in bulks of ships by Junot, were di vided into three, and disposed in suchamapuer as to form together, towards the end of October, one grand army. The eastern wing was commanded by general Joseph Palafox; the north-western, by general Blake; the centre, by general Castanos.-The number under general Blake was computed at 55,000: that under general Castanos at 65,000; and that under the orders of general, Palafox, at 20,000. General Castanos was commander in chief. Besides these there was a small army in Estramadura, and another in Catalonia. The positions of the French army remained, with some variation,

variation, on the whole pretty much the same as in August; its right towards the ocean, its left on Arragon, its front on the Ebro. It was strengthened from time to time by reinforcements from France. The design of the Spaniards was, with the right and left wings of their grand army to turn the wings of the French army, whilst Castanos should make a vigorous attack, and break through their centre. Buonaparte having ordered a levy of 160,000 conscripts, set troops in motion for Spain, and, provided for all that might be demanded by the contingencies of war, set out from Paris for Spain without waiting for an answer to the overture for a negotiation with the British government, in like manner as he had hastened to meet the Prussians, leaving lord Lauderdale to dispute with his ministers about the basis of a negotiation in the autumn of 1806. With his usual celerity, having set out from Rambouillet, October 30th, he arrived at Bayonne on the 3d of November, and on the 5th, accompanied by a reinforcement of 12,000 men, he joined his brother Joseph at Vittoria. In time of peace Buonaparte has proper persons employed to furnish him with the most correct topographical maps of different territories, on a great scale: by which means, being made acquainted by his generals with the relative positions of the opposite armies, he is enabled to give general directions, even at a great distance. The campaign had been opened according to his directions, a few days before his arrival.

It would not serve any purpose either of amusement or instruction enter into a detail of the means

to

by which the first military commander in the present, and one of the greatest of any age, at the head of a numerous, well equiped, and veteran army, accustomed to conquer, and of which the different divisions were also under the orders of the ablest generals,-it would be idle in the present period of striking events following each other in rapid succession, to detail the steps by which such a commander, with such an army, through the boldness of his tactics, the combination of his movements, and the rapidity of his marches, defeated armies scarcely yet organized, chiefly composed of new levies, without being properly equip ped, without regular supplies of provisions, and extended over too large a space of ground without sufficiently strengthening the line of their communication. Agreeably to the general plan of operations above stated, general Castanos crossed the Ebro at the three points with only a shew of resistance, and he was suffered to push forward detachments, and take possession of Lerin, Viana, Capporoso, and other French posts on the left bank of the Ebro. The French did not oppose his onward course towards Pampeluna, any farther than was necessary to conceal their own plan of operations. Marshal Moncey, the duke of Cornegliano, was directed with the left wing of the French army to advance along the banks of the Alagon and the Ebro, and instead of opposing the passage, by preseuting a weak front, to decoy general Castanos across the Ebro. The stratagem having succeeded completely, Marshal Ney, the duke of Elchingen, with his division, passing the line of the [Q4]:

Ebro,