universe, that the intentions of his majesty the emperor are to render his holiness incapable of fulfilling his sacred duties, by dispersing his senate, and overturning the church establishment, and removing from him those persons most dear to him, thereby depriving him of the only consolation which remained to him in the exercise of his apostolical functions, already on the decline.

The pope is not only the bishop of Rome, as hath been so improperly asserted, but he is at the same time the head of the catholic church, and in that character, he

holy see can recover the real possession, when it may please the true and faithful God, who fights for justice, and who hath inscribed on his garments and forehead, THE KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF

LORDS.

Spanish Declaration of War against the Emperor of France, Napoleon the First.

Ferdinand the Seventh, King of Spain and the Indies, and in his Name the Supreme Junta of both.

and coadjutors from the different nations of the earth. In fact, since the commencement of Chris. tianity, the clergy of Rome have been always composed, not only of Romans, but of individuals from all nations, as is evident from the number of strangers admitted amongst the clergy of Rome, and who, during the first four centu. ries, ascended the chair of St. Peter. All these motives justify the grief of his holiness, who protests against a law, which spares not even distinguished ecclesiastics, chosen to assist him in his labours for the church of God. His holi. ness, at the same time, strongly protests, in the face of all the earth, against the usurpation of his states. He solemnly declares it to be unjust, vain, void, and of no avail; that it never can truly af. fect the imprescriptible and legitimate rights of sovereignty and possession of his holiness and saccessors for ever; and if force shall deprive him of his possessions, he is determined to maintain the integrity of his rights, because the

of the emperor Napoleon the First, has violated towards Spain the most sacred compacts-bas arrested her monarchs-obliged them to a forced and manifestly void abdication and renunciation; has behaved with the same violence towards the Spanish nobles whom he keeps in his power-has declared that he will elect a king of Spain, the most horrible attempt that is recorded in history-has sent his troops into Spain, seized her for. tresses and her capital, and scattered his troops throughout the country-has committed against Spain all sorts of assassinations, robberies, and unheard of cruelties; and this he has done with the most enormous ingratitude to the ser vices which the Spanish nation has rendered France, to the friendship it has shown her, thus treating it with the most dreadful perfidy, fraud, and treachery, such as was never committed against any na. tion or monarch by the most bar. barous or ambitious king or people. He has, in fine, declared that he will trample down our monar.

chy,

his majesty will make further efforts in support of so just a cause. His majesty has also ordered me to declare to your excellencies, his rea diness to extend the same succour to every other part of the Spanish monarchy which may be animated by the same spirit of the inhabitants of Asturias, as well as his ma. jesty's sincere desire to renew those ties of friendship which subsisted so long between the two nations, and to direct his united efforts against any power which may evince hostile intentions against Spain, as well as Great Britain. I recommend to your excellencies to communicate, as soon as possible, to the junta, the manner in which his majesty has received the proposals trans mitted by your excellencies. A vessel has been got ready at Portsmouth, to carry any person you may think proper to dispatch....I beg your excellencies to accept the assurances of my high consideration, (Signed) GEO. CANNING.

Proclamation of the Supreme Junta

SEVIL

at Seville, 29th May, 1808. EVILLE could not resist the impulse of her heroic loyalty, of which she has set the example in all ages. The king, to whom we all swore allegiance with emo. tions of joy, unprecedented in history, has been decoyed from us. The fundamental laws of our mo. narchy are trampled under foot; our property, our customs, our wives...all which the nation holds most dear, is threatened with im. minent danger. Our holy religion, our only bope, is doomed to perdi. tion, or will be reduced to mere external appearances without support and without protection. And

all this is done by a foreign power, not by dint of arms, but by deceit and treachery, by taking advantage of our good nature, and by con verting the very persons who call themselves the heads of our government, into instruments of those atrocious acts; persons, who, either from the baseness of their sentiments, from shameful fear, or pethaps from other motives, which time or justice will unfold, hesitate not to sacrifice their country. It therefore became necessary to break the shackles, which prevented the Spanish people from displaying that generous ardour, which in all ages has covered them with glory; that noble courage, with which they have always defended the honour of the nation, their laws, their mo narchs, and their religion. The people of Seville joined accordingly the 27th May; and, through the medium of all their magistrates, of all their constituted authorities, perfectly united, and of the most respectable individuals of every rank and description, this supreme council of government was formed, invested with all necessary powers, and charged to defend the country, the religion, the laws, and the king. We accept the heroic trust; we swear to discharge it, and reckon on the strength and energy of the whole nation. We have again proclaimed Don Ferdinand VII. our king; again we swore allegiance to him, swore to die in his defence---and this was the signal of happiness and union, and will prove so to all Spain. A council of government had scarce been formed, when it violated the most sacred laws of the realm. A president appointed without any authority' whatever, and who, had he

had

had any lawful title, hastened to forfeit it. In addition to his being a foreigner, which was a legal ob jection to his promotion, he acted with the utmost duplicity, and cooperated for the destruction of the very monarchy, from whom he received his appointment, and of the laws, which alone could sanction his authority. Under these circumstances we could not restrain our loyalty, and much less could we violate the sacred engagements, which we had before contracted, as Spaniards, as subjects, as christians, as freemen, independent from all foreign authority and power. Nor could the authority of the first tribunal of the nation, the council of Castile, check or controul our exertions. The weakness of that council became obvious from the wavering and contradictory proceedings it adopted. The most momentous and most critical situation in which the nation ever hath been placed, and in which the council should have displayed that heroic firmness with which numberless motives and its own honour compelled it to act. The order tamely to submit to, and circulate, and obey the act of abdication in favour of a foreign prince, was a consummation of its weakness, perhaps. of its infamy, for that act was evidently void and illegal from want of authority in him who made it, because the monarchy was not his own, nor was Spain composed of animals subject to the absolute controul of their rulers; his accession to the throne was founded on his royal descent, according to his own confession, and on the fundamental laws of the realm, which invariably regulate the hereditary succession, and with regard to which the council is not

invested with any other power, than the sacred duty to enforce their observance. It is void on account of the state of violence and oppression in which it was made, and which is far more evident than the abdication itself; it is void, because the published act of abdication of king Ferdinand VII. and of his uncle and brother, was made in the same state of violence and compulsion, as it expressly declared, in the very act of abdication; it is void, because many royal personages, possessed of the right to claim the crown, have not relinquished that claim, but preserve it entire. Add to this the horrid treachery which has been employed to sacri fice and degrade the Spanish nation. It is to our alliance, and our sacri fices, that the French are indebted for what they call their triumphs; France withdrew our gallant troops from their native land, and sent them to the most distant countries; she made them fight for her interests, without having any occasion for them, for the obvious purpose of weakening us, and despoiling us of our strength. Her armies afterwards entered Spain, under continual professions of an anxious de sire to promote our prosperity, and under the pretext of co-operating in expeditions against an enemy, of whom no farther mention is made. The people, by a generous effort, prevented the departure of their king, a measure which the French should have hailed with shouts of joy; but far from so doing, they kept a profound silence with regard to that departure, and what is still more, converted it into a motive to oppress us. France affected to perceive divisions in the nation which did not exist; the Spanish nation X 2

baving

having never been more united in the love and defence of its king. The latter was decoyed into the French territory by deceitful insi. nuations and professions; with a degree of generosity, of which perhaps there does not exist a prece dent, the king, with implicit reliance on those vain professions, threw himself into the arms of the French, who with the basest treachery, unprecedented in the annals of civil ized nations, made him their prisoner, treated him in a manner the most disrespectful, and forced him to the deeds of horror, which all Europe has witnessed with astonishment, and every Spaniard with indignation and the most poignant grief. In a manner equally deceit. ful they invited the royal parents to their country, and compelled them to unjust and illegal acts; acts which must hand down their me. mory to the latest posterity branded with disgrace; they also dragged away the rest of the royal per sonages, to whom their tender age would have proved an inviolable shield, even among the most barba. Tous nations. The French ruler summoned the spanish nation before him; he chose such deputies as best suited his purpose; in a despotic manner of election of other deputies, appointed to deliberate in a foreign country on the most sacred interests of the nation, while he publicly declared a private and respectful letter, written to him by Ferdinand the Seventh, at the time when he was prince of Asturias, a criminal performance, injurious to the rights of sovereignty, although the same foreigner, who now affects to consider it as an offence, perhaps induced him to write it. It is, in. deed, a heinous offence, it is rebel

lion, when an independent nation` submits to the controul of a foreign prince, and discusses in his presence, and under his decision, its most sacred rights and public welfare; and neither Seville, nor any Spaniard, will lower himself to a degree of disloyalty and meanness, which could induce him to a rebellion so atrocious, that even slaves would scorn to disgrace themselves by deeds of infamy like this. He has resorted to many other indecorous means to deceive us. He has distributed seditious libels to corrupt the public opinion, in which under the strongest professions of respect for the laws, and for religion, he insults both, leaves no means un tried, however infamous they may be, to bend our necks under an iron yoke, and make us his slaves. He carries his audacity and deceit the length of assuring the public, in one of his libellous publications, that the supreme pontiff and vicar of Jesus Christ approves and sanctions his proceedings, while it is notorious, that in sight of all Europe he has despoiled him of his dominious, and forced him to dismiss his cardinals, in order to prevent him from directing and governing the whole church, in the manner sanctioned by our godly Saviour Jesus Christ.-Spaniards, every consi deration calls on us to unite and frustrate views so atrocious. No. revolution exists in Spain; or did we declare against any power; our sole object is, to defend what we hold most sacred, against him, who, under the cloak of alliance and friendship, intended to wrest it from us, and who, we have reason to fear, will despoil us, without fighting, of our laws, our monarchs, and our religion. Let us, there

fore,