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"chy on renovated principles, to be subservient to his irresistable power, to the end that he may introduce all the salutary reforms "we have so long fruitlessly hoped for." Several of the proclamations of the Insurgents adopt the same language; both parties promise the people the revival of their ancient popular assembly the Cortes; both promise ESSENTIAL REFORMS; both join in execrating the old government. What a farce is it therefore to be told of the glorious struggle which the Spaniards are engaged in for the defence of their former government, when the only thing in which all parties agree is-That the former government was too bad for endurance any longer!

Although we are by no means of opinion, that it may not be proper for one country to assist another in the maintaining its independence, or in recovering its liberties, yet we very much suspect whether our ministers, and their dependants, notwithstanding all their loud and pompous declamations, are influenced on the present occasion by any other than those prejudices and passions which have almost constantly been engaged in warfare against the liberties, both civil and religious, of the human race. A glance at the general system of politics adopted under most of the administrations during the present reign, will afford ample, although melancholy evidence, that a regard to the liberties of mankind has not been very predominant in the councils of this country.

In the early part of the present reign, the brave CORSICANS arose to assert their liberties against the old despotic government of France; and applied for assistance to this country: they not only met with a direct refusal, but were even in official documents pronounced Rebels. The war before last, which cost this country 150 millions, no one ever said, or ever will pretend to say was undertaken to secure the liberties and independence of AMERICA. The Revolution in POLAND presented the glorious spectacle of a King and people united in the grand project of annihilating long established abuses, and forming a free constitution. Even Mr. BURKE, notwithstanding all his violent, deep rooted prejudices in favour of old systems, could not help expressing his admiration of such a Revolution. But what was the conduct of the British ministers? They remained calm, indifferent spectators of that most atrocious attempt of the three crowned ruffians, who entered, robbed, desolated, and at length divided that devoted country. When a public meeting of the citizens of London was called at the Mansion House, by the then Lord Mayor (HOPKINS) for the patriotic purpose of assisting the Poles, and a considerable subscription was entered into, the project was frowned upon by the cabinet, and the meeting was held up as an object of ridicule in the hireling prints of the day, under the name of the Polish Diet! The Revolution in France, in which a whole people majestically arose, "broke their chains

"over the heads of their oppressors," and established a government on the only just and solid foundation, the RIGHTS OF MAN:-this glorious Revolution afforded an admirable opportunity for Britons to display their regard to the liberties of Europe. Not only the liberties of France, but the safety of her mouarch loudly called on this country to assist in bringing the great work to a happy conclusion. France turned with affection to England. "The mi"nister of LOUIS XVI. at the British court stated, and he stated "with energy, that the French nation loved the people of England, "because they are free, and therefore they wished that his Majesty, "the King of England, or any commissioners by him appointed, "should settle the question in dispute between Austria and France." This golden opportunity for Britain to distinguish herself as a friend to the peace and the freedom of the human race, as a friend to the limited monarchy of France, which she might have established, and to the monarch whose crown and life she might have preserved, was lost. The British minister, following the councils of the evil "Angel he so long had served," joined that coalition whose unprincipled efforts to crush the rising liberties, and to re-establish the ancient despotism of France, met with the success they so richly merited. The British ministry friends to the liberties of Europe! Men who had in the course of a few years, as Mr. Fox observed, “ aim"ed at a greater number of innocent lives than the tyrant HENRY "VIII. and destroyed more human beings in unjust wars than LOUIS “XIV, who had added more to the burdens, and taken more from "the liberties of their country, than all the preceding admini"strations united, from the Revolution to this day!" So far from the ministers of Great Britain being friends to the patriots, or the liberties of Spain, we are firmly persuaded, that should the Spaniards once attempt to form a governaient on the fundamental principles of Freedom; should they, following the example of France in the early stage of the Revolution, publish a declaration of the RIGHTS OF MEN, AND OF CITIZENS, establish UNLIMITED TOLERATION, overturn that fabric of superstition and wickedness the established church under which the nation has so long groaned,-we firmly believe our ministers would no longer be willing to afford them any assistance, but on the contrary, would deprecate their success.* They have no objection to assist the Spaniards with the

* Just as we had written the last paragraph, we received the Morning Post of July 28. The following extract will prove the justice of our conjectures.

"A brave and high-spirited nation, jealous of its honour, which it looks upon as interwoven with the preservation of its national government and institutions, and determined to maintain both unimpaired, exhibits a most animating spectacle to the degraded and depressed sovereigns and "nations of the continent. This is not the revolutionary madness that "begins with the destruction of every thing ANCIENT, VENERABLE, and

blood and treasure of this country: but for what purpose? To get rid of King JOSEPH, and to re-establish King FERDINAND. The Monarchy of Spain, as appears by the answer to the city address, is the only object they care for.

But it is not only the liberties and independence of Spain, but that of all Europe which now, we are told, animates the breasts of our patriotic ministers, and their patriotic hirelings!- "We have "maintained single-handed (says the Morning Post) a most arduous " contest against France, and against the world, for the deliverance of the universe! That deliverance, we trust, is now at hand, "and every nation feels it is to Britain ALONE that the merit of "it is due! Every where, indeed, is the name of Great Britain worshipped with veneration and love, and the conduct of the "British ministry, in this crisis of the fate of Europe, will form the "brightest page of the splendid annals of Britain !. "A sympathy so decisive and sincere in the sufferings of oppressed "nations, on the part of the only people that have hitherto stood "between the infamous tyrant of the continent, and universal despotism, will not be inoperative upon the intrepid spirit of the "other nations of the continent, at present subject to the galling "yoke of the base Corsican. The example of Spain, and the "gratuitous but unlimited assistance and co-operation of Great "Britain, will open the eyes of other nations to their present abasement, and animate them to the generous resolution of emanci"pating themselves by one simultaneous effort from a tyranny, "which is no 'less the offspring of their own pusillanimity and "distractions, than to the fortune of the vile upstart adventurer, "who lords it over them with such relentless, indiscriminate, and undistinguishing fury."

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We are not however so overpowered by these wonderful effusions of patriotic newspaper eloquence, as to be prevented from inquiring -Where are the nations which are the victims of the " galling yoke, "the relentless, indiscriminate and undistinguishing fury of the vile' upstart adventurer, the base Corsican," and who are sighing for a restoration of their old free and happy governments? If we attend to plain truth, it will appear that there is scarcely a country which has been subjected to the arms of this "base upstart," in which the inhabitants are not at least as well off as they were under their former tyrants; and the people will prove themselves besotted fools if they spill their blood merely to exchange one master for

"eminent in society, with a view to the elevation and power of its lowest "members. But the inferior part of the community, wedded to their old " establishments, and anxious to secure them from external violence or "internal treasons, give that support and nourishment to the higher "classes, and their government, which the nature of civil society and the "duties of their station require.

another. We should indeed be happy to find one grand insurrec tion take place, not only throughout the continent of EUROPE, but of ASIA likewise. Were the people every where to demand a free constitution, in which their property, their liberties, and their lives, were committed to the guardianship of free representative bodies; were those bands of military slaves, standing armies, annihilated; were the people themselves to be their own defenders; were they determined no longer to be treated "like silly sheep, first fleeced “and then led forth to slaughter," in wars, if not just, yet necessary to the accomplishment of projects of ambition,--we should indeed hail such a glorious insurrection, and consider it as the happy forerunner of the deliverance ofa blind, ignorant, and enslaved world! But of what consequence is it,-Who governs such an empire as RUSSIA, whose peasantry are transferred or sold, with the domains and the cattle from one lord or petty tyrant to another? The same may be said of various other empires: kings and ministers may quarrel and fight as long as they please; but till the people possess liberties worth fighting for, their wisdom is to remain quiet spectators of the turmoils of those who are called, not very correctly, their betters.

But, although the editors of our ministerial prints are expressing their sanguine hopes that a new war may be re-kindled throughout Europe, we rather hope and believe, that there will be no new wars of KINGS; no such wars as the continent has been too long accustomed to. We read a very fine sentiment, although on rather an awkward occasion; in the speech of a French senator, when presenting his project for the uniting of Tuscany with the French empire."The time indeed is passed in which it was believed that people "were made for Kings, not Kings for the people." If this should happily prove to be the case, the people will no longer fight for Kings, but for the maintenance of their own liberties and independence: but then they must be in the real enjoyment of those inestimable blessings. Let the sovereigns of Europe, therefore, act like wise men discerning the portentous signs of the times; and following their own duty and interest, impart to their people privileges worth preserving. Let the precious spark of freedom fanned into a flame, spread throughout Europe; and the name of NAPOLEON and the arms of France will cease to terrify.

The common council of the city of London have, with their usual zeal, addressed his Majesty, or rather his ministers, thanking them "for their great, decisive, and magnanimous measures adopted respecting the Spaniards." These wise men of Gotham seldom meet without exposing themselves to ridicule. We lately had occasion to notice the contradictory proceedings in two successive meetings held within the course of a week, at one of which they voted an address to his Majesty, expressive of their felicity in enjoying the

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British constitution unimpaired; and at the other, an address to the House of Lords complaining of the serious injuries which the constitution had received owing to the increased mfluence of the crown, &c. What are the "great, decisive, and magnanimous mea"sures" alluded to, these city wise-acres have not condescended to state. The mover of the address Mr. Deputy QUIN, in his philippic against the French Emperor, discovered all the deep reading of a city orator. "The conduct of the French despot towards Spain, (he observed) was without example or record in the an"nals of the world. He had explored the pages of ancient lore, he had resorted to the history of the darker ages, when the traces of "past civilization vanished hefore the desolating triumphs of cruel "and ferocious and sanguinary barbarians; he had consulted the re"cords of more recent revolutions and vicissitudes, but in no case "was he able to find any transaction, which for fraud, perfidy, and atrocity, could bear comparison with the' unprincipled and ne"farious conduct of the French despot towards Spain!"-Al¬ though we cannot enter the lists with so learned a citizen, yet, without "exploring the pages of ancient lore, or searching the history "of the darker ages," we suspect we may find instances in the history of more modern periods, which for "perfidy, fraud, and atro"city," almost equal any of those we find in the career of the "French despot." We have already had occasion to glance at the plunder and division of POLAND; in which so many thousands of men, women, and children, were (particularly at WARSAW and PRAGUE) massacred in cold blood. The Duke of BRUNSWICK'S famous manifesto on entering France, in which he threatened to give up the inhabitants of Paris to military execution, and to destroy the city, not leaving one stone on another, will be had in everlasting remembrance. Was the Deputy so bewildered in "the pages of learned "lore," as to have lost sight of the deeds recorded in the pages of British history during the past twelvemonth? Are the atrocities committed off COPENHAGEN-the proclamation threatening the innocent and unoffending inhabitants with, "every species of devastation"— the city in flames, the shouts of victors at the horrid crash of falling churches the plunder of the arsenals, and the robbery of the fleet--Are the transactions in the EAST INDIES, in which so many provinces have been depopulated, and so many Princes deposed and murdered,-Are all traces of these " damned deeds" entirely erased from the brain of the deputy? Has he amidst all his vast reading, overlooked the remark of Mr. BURKE respecting the English:-" The moment they passed the Cape, they unbaptised themselves; and when "they landed in India, they became something like the Upas tree "that blasted and destroyed every thing that came within its per"nicious influence?" No! Criminal as is the conduct of the French Emperor in many instances, there is a sort of climax in crime which