It is, indeed, melancholy to reflect on thefe things, when we' confider how glorious would be the effects of the liberation of Spain. There is no occafion for describing, in this place, the more obvious confequences of fuch a triumph, in permanently weakening the power of France, overcoming the terror of her name, and extending both the political and commercial influence of England. We are rather difpofed at prefent to view another lefs expofed part of the picture, and to contemplate the effects of the ftruggle upon the caufe of civil liberty; and we do fo the rather," that a part of thofe good confequences are likely to enfue from the glorious efforts already made, although it should terminate unfuccessfully.

The refiftance to France has been entirely begun and carried on by the people in Spain. Their Kings betrayed them-fled, and rushed, with the whole of their bafe courtiers, into the arms of the enemy. Their nobles followed; and it is painful to reflect, that fome of the most distinguished of this body, after attending Ferdinand to Bayonne, returned in the train of Jofeph, and only quitted his fervice when the univerfal infurrection of the common people drove him from his ufurped throne. The people, then, and, of the people, the middle, and, above all, the lower orders, have alone the merit of raifing this glorious oppofition to the common enemy of national independence. Thofe who had fo little of what is commonly termed intereft in the country,-thofe who had no ftake in the community (to fpeak the technical language of the ariftocracy),-the perfons of no confideration in the ftate,-they who could not pledge their fortunes, having only lives and liberties to lofe, the bulk-the mafs of the people,-nay, the very odious, many-headed beast, the multitude-the mob itfelf-alone, uncalled, unaided by the higher claffes,-in defpite of thefe higher claffes, and in direct oppofition to them, as well as to the enemy whom they fo vilely joined,-raifed up the ftandard of infurrection,-bore it through maffacre and through victory, until it chased the ufurper away, and waved over his deferted courts. Happen what will in the fequel, here is a grand and permanent fuccefs, a leffon to all governments,-a warning to all oligarchies,-a cheering example to every people. Not a name of note in Spain was to be feen in the records of the patriotic proceedings, until the caufe began to flourish; and then the higher orders came round for their fhare in the fuccefs. The Spaniards, then, owe their victory, whether it unhappily ftops fhort at its prefent point, or ends in the expulfion of the invaders, wholly to the efforts of the people.

Suppofe for a moment that they fucceed; that France gives way before the tries the iffue of the impending conteft; or is finally de

feated,

feated, and Spain freed ;-Will the gallant people, after performing fuch wonders, quietly open the doors of the Efcurial to the fame herd of crowned or titled intriguers, who, firft by mifruling the monarchy, and then by deserting it in that utmost need into which their mifrule had brought it, had rendered neceffary all the effufion of blood, and had almaft rendered it vain? Having fhed their best blood in refcuing their house from a banditti admitted by the cowardice or treachery of the watchmen, will the Spaniards be fuch fools as to reftore thofe poltroons and traitors to their former pofts, and renew a confidence fo univerfally abused? No man can hesitate one inftant in faying, that this thing neither ought to be, nor will be. Common justice demands fuch a change of government as will give the people who have faved the state-who have reconquered it, a fair falvage a large share in its future management. Common fenfe requires an alteration in the political conftitution of the monarchy, fufficiently radical to guard it against a recurrence of the late cri fis. And if all confiderations of juftice and of prudence were out of the question, the Spanish court may be affured of this, that the feelings of our common nature, the universal sentiments of right and of pride which must prevail among a people capable of fuch gallant deeds, will prevent the repetition of the former abuses, and carry reform-change-revolution (we dread not the ufe of this word, fo popular in England before the late reign of terror), falutary, juft, and neceffary revolution, over all the departments of the state.

Such, we may be affured, will be the immediate confequence of the Spaniards ultimately triumphing over their enemies, and reftoring the peninfula to independence. Whether Ferdinand or Charles be the monarch, we care not; or whether a new stock be brought from Germany for a breed. That they fhould have a king, every one must admit, who believes that an hereditary monarch, well fettered by the conftitution, is the best guardian of civil liberty. But who the monarch is, muft be a matter of little moment, provided he is fufficiently controuled in the exercife of his delegated and refponfible truft. And whatever may be the form of the checks impofed upon him, we fhall be fatisfied, provided the basis of a free conftitution is laid decp and fteady in a popular reprefentation. Many years must elapfe before this can be corrupted, and betray the people to the Crown; for the general fentiments of liberty, of contempt for bad rulers, of refiftance to all enemies. foreign and domeftic,-the univerfal feeling of their own powers, from the recollection of their great actions, will long remain among the Spanish people, and thake to atoms every court-intrigue hoftile to their rights.

Let us further recollect, that this system of liberty will grow

up

up with the full assent, and, indeed, the active assistance of the English government; and, what is of infinitely greater importance, with the warm and unanimous approbation of the English people. And who then shall ever more presume to cry down popular rights, or tell us that the people have nothing to do with the laws, but to obey them,-with the taxes, but to pay them,—and with the blunders of their rulers, but to suffer from them? What man will now dare to brand his political adversary with the name of a revolutionist, or try to hunt those down, as enemies of order, who expose the follies and corruptions of an unprincipled and intriguing administration? These tricks have had their day,a day immeasurably disastrous in its consequences to England and to Europe. Their glaring impudence has been at last exposed; they have ceased to blindfold the multitude; and we can once more utter the words liberty and people, without starting at the echo of our own voices, or looking round the chamber for some spy or officer of the government. Thus much had been done for us by the lapse of time, and the universal and signal failure of all the policy which the English reign of terror gave a cloak to. But the Spanish revolution comes most opportunely to turn the tide quite into the opposite channel; to awaken in this country all those feelings of liberty and patriotism which many had supposed were extinguished since the French revolution; and to save our declining country, by the only remedy for its malady-a recurrence to those wholesome popular feelings, in which its greatness has been planted and nursed up.

We anticipate, then, a most salutary change in public opinion, from the example of Spain, should her efforts prove successful, and from the part which this country so wisely and generously takes in her affairs. The measures of our government will be more freely canvassed; the voice of the country will no longer be stifled, and, when it raises itself, it must be heard. Reforms in the administration of our affairs must be adopted, to prevent more violent changes; and some radical improvements in our constitution, will no longer be viewed with horror; because they will be found essential to the permanence of any reformation in the management of the national concerns.

If any one doubts this, let him reflect on the state of things in England, previous to the bad times of the French revolution, when almost every voice was given in favour of the new-born liberty of our neighbours, and they had not yet forfeited their claim to our suffrages by violence and anarchy. What man in England but viewed the course of high Tory principle as nearly finished, and the hour of genuine constitutional freedom as about to strike? The intriguers of the court, indeed, saw their

reign drawing towards a close; and yet they had no means of protracting its period, until the excesses of the French themselves furnished the materials of that alarm, which had well nigh extinguished for ever the liberties and prosperity of all Europe. This alarm, then, having spent itself, the Spanish revolution places the cause of freedom and reform on a much better footing than it had even at the beginning of the French revolution ;-because the country, government and people, are committed with the Spanish patriots, which they never were with those of France; because the example of the one revolution, will prevent a repetition of its enormities in the further progress of the other; because, happen what will, the trick of alarm can never succeed again to any thing like the same extent in this country; and because the good will of this nation towards the cause of Spain will not be crossed by any of those feelings of national rivalry which unavoidably operated against the popularity of the French revolution; while the very existence of France, in its present state of despotism and power, offers additional inducements to keep alive our enthusiasm for the new order of things in Spain. Therefore, we must admit that there is now a much better prospect of reform in England, than that which the French revolution for a moment held out to us, and then seemed to hide for ever.

If these happy effects may be thus confidently anticipated from the final success of the Spaniards, it gives us no small degree of consolation to reflect, that much good has been secured to the cause of liberal principles, and sound constitutional feeling, by the important events which have already taken place; and that, however the prospect may be darkened over,-however fatally the gloomy view which we are forced to entertain may be realized,still enough has been performed by the Spanish people to raise the spirit of the middle and lower classes, both in this country and the rest of Europe.

The cause of the Spaniards is so obviously that of the people; the desertion of the court and nobles is so manifest; the connexion between the success of the patriots, and a radical change of the government, is so plainly necessary-that whoever has wished well to them, feels intimately persuaded, that he has been espousing the popular side of the greatest question of the present day; that he has been praying most fervently for the success of the people against their rulers; that he has, in plain terms, been, as far as in him lay, a party to revolutionary measures. We do not deny, that the just dread of France, and the very natural antipathy to her present government, have had a large share in stirring up the spirit of the British nation in favour of the Spanish revolution. The cause of the universally prevailing feeling is

immaterial.

immaterial. Every one must allow, that the fear of French invasion, and the hatred of the Jacobin tyrants, put down for a while the spirit of liberty, which is, we trust, natural to this country; and why should that spirit be the less powerful, though it has been raised up again by similar feelings? The plain and broad fact is this that every Englishman who has, for the last six months, heartily wished that the Spaniards should succeed, has knowingly and wilfully wished for a radical reform of abuses in the regular monarchy of Spain, and for such a change of the government, as might permanently secure a better administration of its affairs. He has, moreover, wished to see that change adopted by the Spanish people themselves, and has admitted, most amply, the right of the people to call their rulers to account, and choose their own constitution.

Now, who are the persons thus committed to these most wholesome and truly English principles of civil government? Are they a few speculative men-a few seditious writers or demagoguesor a popular meeting here and there-or are they even a political party in the state? No such thing. Men of all descriptionsof all ranks in society-of every party-have joined, almost unanimously, in the same generous and patriotic sentiments, and have expressed them loudly and manfully. There may have existed a few wretched intriguers in our government-one or two feeble courtiers, or clerks in office, who brooded, in the corners of drawing rooms and public boards, over gloomy anticipations of their comforts being disturbed by the progress of the Spanish principles. But if those persons, from such forebodings, were averse to the cause of the patriots, they never dared raise their voice against it to the country. They shuddered in secret at the overthrow of the worst government in christendom; in secret they offered up their prayers that the reform of abuses might be nipt in the bud by the success of the French arms; and, if that were impossible, that at least some excesses on the part of the people might render the Spanish revolution odious in the eyes of this country; and save our state from those horrible reforms which had well nigh purified and overwhelmed us eighteen years ago. A better proof of the universal prevalence of right feelings upon the subject of Spain cannot be fancied, than the profound silence in which all those generous wishes have been breathednot one sigh, heaved about court, having ever mixed itself with the general exultation which has burst from the whole people at the progress of the revolution.

The result of these widely-diffused principles, has been highly honourable to the country, and reflected some credit also upon the leading men in the government. The nation has formally

taken