Since the year 1812, more than one Diplomatic Document attests the generous solicitude which the several Courts of Europe have constantly manifested in behalf of Spain. They applauded the noble perseverance with which her intrepid people resisted a foreign yoke. They rendered homage to their wisdom, when they rallied round a constitutional throne, the dearest interests of their country;-the interests of her independence. Finally, from the period when PROVIDENCE restored Ferdinand VII, to his people, they never failed to acknowledge that solid institutions could alone secure on its basis the ancient Spanish monarchy.

The Allied Sovereigns did more. In the course of long conferences, relative to the differences with Rio de la Plata, and to the pacification of the Colonies, they let it be sufficiently understood, that, these institutions would cease to be a means of peace and happiness, if, instead of being granted by kindness, as a voluntary concession, they should be adopted by weakness as a last resource of salvation.

Let us investigate, on the other hand, the great transactions which established the European alliance.

What is the object of the engagements that were renewed on the (3d) 15th of November, 1818?

The Allied Monarchs had just then obliterated the last traces of the Revolution in France; but that Revolution seemed ready to produce new calamities.

The obligation of the monarchs was, therefore, and their design was, to prevent that, bursting from the same horizon, the same storm should a third time desolate Europe.

Nevertheless, as if the alarms which were then excited by the state of France, and which it still excites, were not sufficient-as if governments and nations entertained but slight doubts with respect to its future condition, it was necessary that the genius of evil should select a new theatre, and that Spain, in her turn, should be offered up as a fearful sacrifice. Revolution has therefore changed its ground; but the duties of Monarchs cannot have changed their nature, and the power of the insurrection is neither less formidable, nor less dangerous, than it would have been in France.

In unison, therefore, with his Allies, his Majesty cannot but desire to see granted to the Peninsula, as to its trans-marine Provinces, a Government which he considers as the only one that can yet justify some hope in this stage of calamities. But in virtue of his engagement of the (3d) 15th of November, 1818, his Majesty is bound to mark, with the most forcible reprobation, the revolutionary measures set in action to give new institutions to Spain. Such is the twofold idea which is found developed in the annexed answer, which the Cabinet of Russia has made to the Chevalier de Zea, by order of his Imperial Majesty.' The Emperor does not doubt that his august Allies will approve its contents, and perhaps they have already addressed similar sentiments to the Court of Madrid. The same wishes may, in fact, have inspired the same language, and convinced them, like his Majesty, that crime must always yield pernicious fruit: they have, doubtless, deplored as he has, the outrage which has recently tarnished the annals of Spain. We repeat it, this outrage is deplorable. It is deplorable for the Peninsula ; it is deplorable for Europe; and the Spanish nation now owes the example of an expiatory deed to the people of the two hemispheres. Till this be done, the unhappy object of their disquietude can only make them fear the contagion of her calamities. Nevertheless, amidst all these

This refers to the "Note of the Imperial Russian Ministry to the resident Spanish Minister."

elements of disaster, and when so many motives combine to afflict the real friends of the welfare of nations, may a better future still be looked for? Is there any wise and redeeming measure, whose effect may be to reconcile Spain with herself, as well as with the other Powers of Europe?

We dare not affirm it: for experience has taught us to consider almost always as an illusion, the hope of a happy event. But, if we might trust the calculations which personal interests would seem bound to indicate; if it were permitted to presume that the Cortes would consult the interest of their own preservation, it might be believed that they would hasten to extirpate, by a solemn measure, all that is culpable in the circumstances which accompanied the change of the Administration in Spain. The interests of the Cortes are here identified with the interests of Europe. The misled soldiery who protected, may to morrow assail them; and their first duty towards their Monarch, towards their country, and themselves, seems to be, to prove that they will never consent to legalise insurrection. These are hopes which would not appear to be without some foundation. The Emperor, however, is far from cherishing them; and if he admitted the possibility of a result so useful, he would make it depend upon the unanimity which might manifest itself in the opinion of the principal Powers of Europe, as to the act by which the representatives of the Spanish people ought to signalise the opening of their deliberations. This unanimity, always so powerful when it takes the character of an irrevocable deed, will perhaps carry conviction to the minds of the most eminent ministers of his Catholic Majesty; and the Allied Courts would seem to have an easy means of impressing upon their language such an imposing uniformity.

Their Ministers in France have hitherto treated, in their name, with a Plenipotentiary of the Court of Madrid. Can they not now present to him, in common, observations, the summary of which follows, and which would recal to the Spanish Government the conduct, as well as the political principles, of the Allied Monarchs ?

"The Monarchs," would the five Ministers say, "have never ceased to entertain wishes for the prosperity of Spain. They will always entertain them. They have desired that in Europe, as in America, institutions conformable to the progress of civilisation, and to the wants of the age, might procure to all Spaniards long years of peace and happiness. They desire the same at this moment. They have wished that all these institutions should become a real blessing, by the legal manner in which they should be introduced. They now wish the same.

"This last consideration will convey to the Ministers of his Catholic Majesty, with what sentiments of affliction and grief they have learned the events of the 8th of March, and those which preceded it. According to their opinion, the salvation of Spain, as well as the welfare of Europe, will require that this crime should be disavowed, this stain effaced, this bad example exterminated. The honor of such a reparation appears to depend upon the Cortes. Let them deplore, and forcibly reprobate, the means employed to establish a new mode of Government in their country, and, in consolidating an administration wisely constitutional, let them adopt the most vigorous laws against sedition and revolt.

"Then, and only then, the Allied Cabinets will be able to maintain friendly and amicable relations with Spain."

These observations, urged in common by the representatives of the five Courts, would, from thenceforth, demonstrate to the Spanish Ministry the conduct which the Allied Governments would observe, in case the conse quences of the 8th of March should perpetuate, in Spain, trouble and anarchy. If these salutary councils be listened to; if the Cortes offer to heir King, in the name of the nation, a pledge of obedience; if they suc

ceed in establishing, upon durable bases, the tranquillity of Spain, and the peace of Southern America, the Revolution will have been defeated, at the very moment when it thought to obtain a triumph.

If, on the contrary, alarms, perhaps too reasonable, be realised, at least the five Courts will have discharged a sacred duty; at least a new occurrence will have developed the principles, indicated the object, and displayed the scope of the European alliance.

The Emperor awaits the answer of the Courts of Vienna, London, Berlin, and Paris, to the communications which his Ministers have addressed to him on this subject. He informs them that the present Memorial is the instruction which he has caused to be despatched to all his Ministers on the subject of the affairs of Spain.

NAPLES AND AUSTRIA.

(OFFICIAL PAPER.)

The Secretary of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the King of the Two Sicilies, to His Highness Prince Metternick, Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs to the Emperor of Austria.

Naples, Oct. 1.

HIS MAJESTY the King of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, after having renewed in the face of the national parliament his solemn oath to observe the new compact which has united in one the interests of his august dynasty and of his people, deems it his first and most important duty to adopt the proper measures which may contribute to consolidate his work, and to guard it from the attacks which false political combinations or ill-founded prejudices might excite against it.

On this account His Majesty has ordered the undersigned Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to make without delay to his Highness Prince Metternich, Minister of State, of Conferences, and of Foreign Affairs, to the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the following communication:

From the moment that the King determined to second the unanimous wishes of his people, in adopting for his states the Constitution of Spain, one of his first cares was to make known to the Cabinet of Vienna-the only Cabinet with which he had engagements-the circumstances which had given occasion to this event; and to assure it, at the same time, that it could not introduce any change in the relations of amity and good understanding which happily subsisted between the two courts.

Prince Cariati was intrusted with this honorable mission; but all his efforts to execute it were unsuccessful, the Austrian Ministry having declined, under different pretexts, all explanation on the affairs of Naples. A fatal prejudice had taken possession of its counsels, and it declared against our political reform before even it could form a just opinion of it, and almost on the first rumor of it which reached Vienna.

Anxious to enlighten the Imperial Court of Vienna on the true state of our affairs, the King hastened to write himself to his Majesty the Emperor, his august nephew and son-in-law. Duke Nicolas of Serra Capriola was commissioned to present the royal letter to his Imperial Majesty, and to announce to the Austrian Ministry the destination of the Duke of Gallo to the embassy at Vienna, in room of Prince Ruffo, who, by an inexcusable disobedience to the orders of his government, had forfeited the confidence of his Sovereign and of the nation. Unhappily the mission of the Duke of Serra Capriola had no better success than that of Prince Cariati. He did not obtain permission to see his Imperial Majesty; he was told that the Emperor did not think himself bound to reply to the King's letter, which he had received on the supposition that its contents were of a nature purely

confidential. Orders were at the same time dispatched by the Austrian Ministry to the frontiers of the empire, commanding the Duke of Gallo to discontinue his journey to Vienna.

This Ambassador, who was provided with a credential letter from the King, and with other confidential letters of his Majesty to the Emperor, was in fact obliged to stop at Klagenfurth; and having addressed remonstrances to the Austrian Ministry against a treatment as unhandsome as it was irregular, Prince Metternich answered him by a note, dated the 2d of September last, that in consequence of a revolution which saps the foundations of the social edifice, and threatens at once the safety of the thrones, of acknowledged institutions, and the tranquillity of nations, his Imperial Majesty would be acting in contradiction of the principles which he had invariably made the rule of his conduct, if he accepted the mission with which the Duke of Gallo was intrusted.

We must confess that the more we reflect on these phrases, the less can we comprehend their meaning, especially when we weigh attentively and candidly the events that have taken place in Naples. Because the King, free in his palace, in the midst of his council, composed of his ancient ministers, formed the resolution of satisfying the unanimous wish of his people, by granting them a system more adapted to their necessities, more conformable to the knowledge of the age, and which he would have granted them earlier, had not their desires been concealed from him, the Čabinet of Vienna imagines that the social edifice is sapped to its foundation! When the legitimacy of the rights of the reigning family has been loudly proclaimed, guaranteed, and confirmed by the general wish of the nationwhen this nation has shown, from the first moment of its political change, the most profound veneration and the most absolute devotion to the King and Royal Family, it is pretended that the security of thrones is menaced? When it is universally known that we have carried, even to scrupulosity, the respect for the rights, independence, and institutions of other nations, having refused to intermeddle in any manner whatever with the affairs of Benevento and Ponte Corvo, though those States are hemmed in (enclaves) by the kingdom, and the inhabitants addressed to the King the most urgent requests to be re-united to the monarchy of the Two Sicilies-and when, in literally executing a burthensome stipulation which extraordinary circumstances had imposed upon us, we pay with the greatest exactness, to Prince Beauharnois, the five millions of frants which the government had engaged to supply to him-it is maintained that acknowledged institutions and the repose of nations are endangered!

Fortunately the facts just stated are too notorious to be doubted, and the Cabinet of Vienna has not even for a long time been able to dissemble their acknowledgment. Therefore, in the confidential explanations which his Highness Prince Metternich has had with the Prince de Cimitile, he attacked us with other arms. According to the opinion of his Highness, the Carbonari were the sole instigators of the events that have happened at Naples; they forced the King's inclination and the majority of the nation, excited the army to rebellion, and proclaimed a defective constitution, which offers no guarantee of stability.

Such are, in short, the new grievances which the Austrian Minister urges to the Prince de Cimitile against our political reform. Let us examine them with calmness and without bitterness.

Whenever a sect or any faction obtains any concession by force, it is in the nature of things that sooner or later an opposition is formed and augmented, and at times acquires even the ascendancy of the triumphant party. In our country, on the contrary, far from perceiving the smallest trace of dissension, nothing is seen but a perfect unison of sentiment, principles,

and desires. Unbounded devotion to the King, and his august dynastyinviolable attachment to the constitutional system-a resolution to defend it to the last extremity: such is the profession of faith of all the inhabitants of the Two Sicilies. We do not except the inhabitants of Palermo, whose difference of opinion arises from other points of less general interest; with the exception of what has taken place in that quarter, no violence nor the slightest re-action has disturbed the tranquillity of the kingdom. The orders of Government are respected; justice is impartially administered; the taxes are paid; the discipline of the army is maintained; individual liberty, that of opinions, is full and entire; and if an exaggerated zeal for the public good at first caused a few aberrations, they soon disappeared at the firm and paternal voice of Government. The elections for deputies to Parliament, that infallible thermometer of public opinion, would alone suffice to prove that the nation is animated with one single sentiment-that of its own welfare. Men distinguished for their virtues, services, and talents, have been chosen, from one end of the kingdom to the other, to represent the nation. No disparity of opinion was displayed in these selections. The best citizens obtained the preference. Is there still wanting an incontesta ble argument that it was not a sect which operated our political reform ? Those who were the foremost to cry out for a new system-those, in short, whom report had proclaimed as the promoters of our political change were not elected. Can it be believed that if a sect had brought about this change, as it is insinuated, that sect would not have insisted that its chiefs should figure among the representatives of the nation? A still stronger argument against the opinion endeavoured to be inculcated on Europe, that the Government is here at the mercy of a faction, we will bring forward from the great example of moderation and long amity which we have given to civilised nations, by permitting the Austrian legation and consulship to exercise freely their functions in this country, whilst at the same time our Ambassador was obliged to stop at Klagenfurth, and our Consul was dismissed from Milan without the slightest ceremony, and on the interference of the Police. Had the Government been less strong in itself-had it been ruled by a faction whose passions are always impetuous-would it have been able to restrain the effects of the national pride, justly irritated at such a treatment?

As to the defects imputed by the Austrian Minister to the Spanish Constitution, we will in the first place observe, that no foreign power has the right to call either good or bad that system which an independent Sovereign has thought proper to adopt for his own states. But if one wishes to judge of the stability of governments by the institutions which direct them, it is certainly no longer a problem in this age, whether this stability can be more easily obtained by an arbitrary or constitutional system. The charter of Spain may have its defects, undoubtedly, but its principles bear the stamp of reason and of all the virtues. The nation, moreover, has too great an interest to perfect its institutions, not to apply its attention to the modifications which it may suppose convenient to adapt to its wants the new system by which it is governed, inasmuch as the act of the King's proclamation left to the national Parliament the right of proposing any such modifications. The Cabinet of Vienna may rest therefore secure on this point; for we have it greatly at heart to give to our system all the stability susceptible in the undertakings of men, convinced that the first merit of a constitutional government is that of fortifying the state against the commotions occasioned through despotism or licentiousness; and the wisdom of men commendable for their qualities, whom the nation has chosen as their representatives, seconded, moreover, by the rectitude and paternal sentiments of the King, is a sure guarantee of the tulfilment of what we have here advanced.