sions of Andalusia, which general Castanos commanded more especially, formed the left. Forty pieces of cannon covered the enemy's line.

"At nine in the morning the columns of the French army began to display themselves with that order, regularity, and coolness, which characterise veteran troops. Situations were chosen for establishing batteries; with sixty pieces of cannon; but the impetuosity of the French troops, and the inquietude of the enemy, did not allow time for this. The Spaniards were al ready vanquished by the order and movements of the French army. The duke of Montebello caused the centre to be pierced by the division of general Maurice Matthews. The general of division Lefevre, with his cavalry, immediately passed on the trot through this opening, and by a quarter wheel to the left, enveloped the enemy. The moment when half the enemy's line found itself thus turned and defeated, was that in which general le Grange attacked the village of Cascante, where the line of Castanos was placed, which did not exhibit a better countenance than the right, but abandoned the field of battle, leaving behind it its artillery, and a great number of prisoners. The cavalry pursued the remains of the enemy's army to Mallen, in the direction of Saragossa, and to Tarragona, in the direction of Agreda. Seven standards, thirty pieces of cannon, twelve colonels, three hundred officers, were taken. Four thousand Spaniards were left dead on the field of battle, or driven into the Ebro. While a part of the fugitives retired to Saragossa, the left wing of the Spanish army

which had been cut off fled in disorder to Tarragona and Agreda. Five thousand Spaniards, all troops of the line, were taken prisoners in the pursuit. No quarter was given to any of the peasants found in arms. This army of 45,000 men has been thus beaten and defeated, without our having had more than 6000 men engaged. The battle of Burgos had smitten the centre of the enemy, and the battle of Espinosa, the right; the battle of Tudela has struck the left. Victory has thus struck as with a thunderbolt, and dispersed the whole league of the enemy."

By the battle of Tudela the road was laid open to Madrid. On the 29th of November, a division of the French army, under the command of general Victor, duke of Belluno, arrived at the pass of the Sierra Morena, called Puerto. It was defended by 13,000 men of the Spanish army of reserve, under the orders of general San Juan. The Puerto, or narrow neck of land forming the pass, was intersected by a trench, fortified with sixteen pieces of cannon. While a part of the French advanced to the Puerto by the road, with six pieces of artillery, other columns gained the heights on the left. A discharge of musketry and cannon was maintained for some little time on both sides. A charge made by general Montbrun, at the head of the Polish light horse, decided the contest. The Spaniards fled, leaving behind them their artillery and standards; and, as the French Bulletin states, their muskets: but this, from subsequent events, appears not to have been truth.

Advanced parties of the French cavalry appeared on the 1st of De

cember,

cember, before Madrid. At this period, the inhabitants of this city were busily employed in raising palisades, and constructing redoubis, breathing a determined spirit of resistance. The enemy was beaten back from certain gates several times: but on the third, they were in possession of the gate of Alcala; and also of the Reteiro, the reduction of which place cost the assailants very dear, in the loss, it was computed, of near 1000 men in killed and wounded. The junta then hoisted a white flag. The people of Madrid pulled down the flag, and persisted in their design of defending the city; but this enthusiasm soon began to subside, for want of leaders to keep it up and to direct it. And when they learnt for certain that the French were fortifying themselves in the Reteiro, they began to retire to their respective houses.

During the night of December the 3d, a Spanish officer who had been taken prisoner in the affair of Somosierra, brought a message from general Berthier, summoning for the second time Madrid to surrender. The Marquis of Castellar, captain general of Castille, sent in answer a letter to Berthier, demanding a suspension of hostilities, that he might have time for consulting the superior authorities. But there was no need or use in this. The superior authorities, who appear plainly to have had a secret correspondence with the enemy, had already come to a determination on the subject. Madrid was undoubtedly given up through treachery. When intelligence that the French had forced the passage of the Sierra Morena reached Madrid, a council was held, at which the honourable

Mr. Stuart, the British envoy at Madrid, was present. Don T. Morla took the lead, and expatiated at great length on the hopeless state of affairs; and urged the necessity of immediately capitulating for Madrid. When he sat down, another councellor rose, and reproached Morla for his proposal. He said that this advice was more suited to a minister of Joseph Buonaparte, than to one of king Ferdinand. Two days after this discussion, Don T. Morla, together with the prince of Castel Franco, to whom the defence of the capital had been committed by the supreme junta, sent a dispatch to Sir John Moore, describing the formidable Spanish force that was assembled at Madrid; and pressing him to advance, with all possible expedition to the capital. If Sir John Moore had not possessed, in an extraordinary degree, circumspection, penetration, and firmness, the solicitations of the traitors, and those too of Mr. Hookham Frere, minister plenipotentiary from his Britannic majesty to the supreme junta, but a wretched minister of war, would have thrown him and his little army completely into the hands of the French.

We find many misrepresentations in the Spanish gazettes of that time, and are at a loss in some instances whether to set them down to the account of folly, or a traitorous desiga to lull the Spaniards, prone to be so lulled, into a state of false security and inaction. After general Blake had officially notified to the central junta, about the middle of October, that the army he had been able to collect amounted to, no more than from 22 to 23,000 men; we find it stated in the Madrid gazette of October the 21st, that 70,000 men

had

had passed through the town of Lugo.—At Madrid, November the 23d, was published the following proclamation, “Spaniards, the central junta of the government of the kingdom, after having taken all measures in its power to defeat the enemy, who, continuing his attacks, has advanced into the neighbourhood of Sornosa, addresses you for the purpose of putting you on your guard against the intrigues with which the perfidious agents of Napoleon endeavour to alarm and deceive you, by increasing the number of the enemy's troops, who hardIvamount to 8000 men, according to the report of the general whom the janta has charged with the defence of the important post of Guadarama." The letter of the marquis of Castellar, sent to Berthier in the morning of the 4th, produced a peremptory summons to surrender immediately. In the evening of the same day, Don Thomas Morla and Don Bertrando Yriate waited on Berthier, and were introduced by him to Buonaparte: who told them, with a stern countenance, and in a decided tone of voice, that if the city did not tender its submission by five or six o'clock next morning, it would be taken by assault, and every one found with arms in his hands put to the sword. The Spanish troops in Madrid were sent off in the dead of night, by the gates of Segovia and Tudela.

Buonaparte, with affected magnanimity, extended his clemency to the degraded deputation from the junta. To conceal their concert with high, and at the same time to gratify his splenetic humour, be cunningly taunted Morla for his former perfidy in breaking the capitulation with Dupont. "The English," said he "are not renowned

for good faith: but having agreed to the convention of Cintra, they observed it." Morla's fortune and military rank were preserved to him. The same indulgence was shewn to his associates, who having joined him in betraying their country, did not disdain to live under the protection of the usurper. Morla, in a circular letter addressed to the Andalusians, endeavoured to draw them over to the side of king Joseph; who, he told them, was a man of great mildness and humanity of disposition.

Buonaparte addressed a manifesto to the Spanish nation, in which he promised them all good things if they received Joseph for their king sincerely and with all their heart.-If not, he would put the crown on his own head, treat them as a conquered province, and find another kingdom for his brother; for God had given him both the inclination and the power to surmount all obstacles.

The troops that had fled from the Puerto, or gate of Guadarama, having arrived, on the 3d of December, almost under the walls of Madrid, demanded with loud cries to be led to its defence. Their commander, Count St. Juan, who opposed so dangerous an attempt, was massacred.

Though the prerogatives of nature may be often neglected for ages, in the progress of time and events they are asserted sooner or later. Long had men of general views and speculation regretted that so fair a portion of the globe, so abundant in all the necessaries and even luxuries of life, and so well situated for the commerce of the world, as South America, should he suffered to languish under a shortsighted system of tyranny and op

pression,

pression. The grand interest excited by the state of Spain in 1808, was, the consideration that it would in all probability sever the mother country from the colonies, and open a new theatre on the other side of the Atlantic, that would change the politics and improve the condition of the world. The balance of Europe being overthrown, it was a consolation to look to a balance on a grand scale: a balance of the world. It was not indeed the contemplation of a magnificent order of affairs that at first aroused the Spanish colonies to the exercise of their faculties, but that ardent devotion to the monarch, by which the Spaniards are particularly distinguished, and indignation against his cruel and perfidious oppressor. But it was easy to foresee, that the great Spanish continent in America with the adjacent isles, forced into a situation in which it was under a necessity of governing and acting for itself, would never return to such a state of dependence and dejection as that under which it had laboured for centuries, even though king Ferdinand should be restored to his throne, which became every day less and less probable.

The central junta, in conformity with the uniform intentions of the central juntas, declared that the colonies in Asia and America should not be considered as dependent provinces, but enjoy all the privileges of the metropolis and mother country. This was also declared in the new constitution framed for Spain by Buonaparte.

In the Canaries, in Mexico, and the Floridas, Cuba and the other islands, and throughout the whole of South America, every Spaniard, as if animated by the same soul, breathed the same sentiments of devotion to the king and detestation

of the monster who wished to usurp his throne. The vengeance of many, as is natural in burning climates, would have been wreeked on unoffending individuals of the French nation. In the Floridas the French were so apprehensive of falling victims to the vengeance of the Spaniards, that they fled with their effects into the territories of the United States. But the modera tion, wisdom, and justice of men in authority, restrained the fury of the populace. The proclamations of the Spanish governors in the colonies; for sense, reason, and justice" equal those of old Spain, and for a fervent eloquence, perhaps even exceed them. The proclamation of Marcius Somernelos, commander in chief of the land forces, and governor of the isles of Cuba, in a proclamation 18th of July, exhorts the natives to repress the natural impetuosity of their character, and to let the peaceable French who had sought an asylum amongst them from oppression, find protection. The marquis of Villa Vicensis, commander in chief of the marine, in one of the same date, says, "Let us swear that if every Spaniard in our mother country should fall, which ought not and cannot be feared, Spain, notwithstanding this, shall not cease to exist. Is not this country also Spain? Are not we also Spaniards? And shall not Ferdinand VII. and his successors reign over us?-Remember!-The French in Cuba are not mercenary assassins! Not servants or subjects of Napoleon." General Linieres, governor of Buenos Ayres, a Frenchman, in his proclamation upon the state of affairs, after recommending concord, said, "Let us imitate the example of our ancestors in this happy land, who wisely escaped the disasters

that

that afflicted Spain in the war of the succession, by awaiting the fate of the mother country, to obey the legitimate authority occupying the sovereignty." Hostilities were every where else declared against France, and the most liberal and prompt contributions remitted to the patriols in Old Spain. This year the French were driven out of the islands of Porto Rico, Deseada, and Morie Galante.

The great affairs of Europe in 1808 are exhibited in the contest between Spain and Portugal, with their ally Great Britain, on the one part; and the ruler of France, aided by his vassal princes and kings, on the other. The annals of other countries sink almost into provincial history. What is most prominent and important in the history of Spain, Great Britain, and France, during that period, has been seen in the present narrative. To what concerns France, however, it may be proper to add, that in the begin ning of the year Buonaparte, as a preparation for the farther extention and consolidation of his empire, annexed to France, and took possession of the military posts of Kehl, Wesel, Cassel on the Rhine, and Flushing. It was probably with similar views that he established and endowed a Greek bishoprick in Dalmatia. The state of the French empire in its internal as well as external relations, as exhibited by the ministers of Buonaparte, will be found in another part of this volume *. Such papers, notwithstanding their false colouring and misrepresntation of facts, disclose the spirit and views

of government. The most remarkable article in the statement is the creation of hereditary nobility, which is declared to be essential in a hereditary monarchy. The main drift of Buonoparte, in his internal regulations, seems to be to root out all memorials of liberty, and to establish in France a despotic government, a military costume, and a military spirit. Sweden in the beginning of the year might have made her peace with France and Russia. The king, with the general voice of the nation, chose a braver, but more impolitic part. After the basest attempts on the part of the Russians, tutored, it would seem, in the school of their allies the French, to seduce the Swedish nation from their allegiance to their king, and their duty to their country, † and a rapid succession of the most sanguinary battles, where the Swedes were bending, and ready to fall, never to rise again, under the overwhelming power of Russia, the Swedish government signed a convention on the 7th of November, by which Finland, the granary of the kingdom, was virtually given up to Russia. The heroic king of Sweden was not deserted in this extremity of fortune by his ally, Britain. Å naval force under admiral Keats drove the Russian squadrons into their ports, where they were held in a state of blockade. A land force of 10,000 men, under the command of Sir John Moore, was sent in the month of May to assist Sweden, against a combined attack from Russia, France, and Denmark. On the 17th of May, this army reached Gottenburgh,