SPANISH REVOLUTION. In another part of this Number the reader will find an article, translated from a Spanish newspaper, upon this subject, which article I beg him to read with attention. If he does this, he will clearly perceive, that those who have any weight in the government of Spain, are decidedly for a complete revolution; that they are for the constitution, the plan of which I have before published, and which is more democratical than the first constitution of France. Indeed, the Cortes have declared for this constitution; and though it may be too late; though it may have been done after the country has been lost in fact, still it will live as a memorial of the wishes of the partics, and, as 1 believe, of the wishes of the people of Spain. -But, the interesting question, is, what shall we do? We are fairly in for it here. We are fighting for the Cortes. Well, then, we are also fighting for the constitution that the Cortes are making and will act under. Shall we continue to fight for the Cortes when they have adopted their new constitution? We must, or we must withdraw, and leave the Spaniards to themselves; for, as to pretending to espouse the cause of any faction against the Cortes, that, of course, would send the Cortes and the people over to the French. And yet, to fight (O, heavens!) for a constitution even more democratical than that which was drawn up by Condorcet and applauded by Paine! To this dilemma, however, we shall be reduced: either we must fight for this constitution, or leave the Spaniards to fight for it themselves. Then, again, either the Spaniards will succeed in their struggle, or they will not. If they do not, then is Napoleon master of Spain, and all our expence of life and money is wasted: if they do, then they succeed without our aid, and not only their triumph, but the triumph of the sovereignty of the people, are proclaimed to the world. While Spain was under its old government, it was unable to resist France; but, having formed a coustitution upon the basis of the sovereignty of the people, it has been able to resist that power, before which all the old governments of Europe have fallen. Will not this be the observation of every man?How much better would it have been if we had been at the head of this revolution, and had encouraged the promulgation of such a constitution before the French had had time to abolish the Inquisition! This, as my readers will recollect, was what I was for from the outset. I said, "assist "them not, unless they make a new and "a free government." I have many times since said: "the country will be free, or it will be Napoleon's.' It was as clear as day-light, that, without a total abandonment of the old system, there was no means of defence against the French. It was clear, that nothing short of a revolution could rouse the people of Spain. I said, that I hoped, that their struggle would be a long one; because a long struggle was necessary to shake, the old system to atoms, and so disperse those atoms as to make it impossible to reunite them. The Spaniards appear to be divided between yielding to the French and becoming free; but, they are, at any rate, resolved not to have their old government; and, if we mean to stand by them against the French, we must make up our minds to fight for the new constitution; that is to say, for the "rights of man'and the sovereignty of the people;" and, it only remains for us to see, whether we shall take this course or not. WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Friday, 22nd November, 1811. I understand, from a gentleman, who was present last evening at a meeting of the Royal Society at Somerset-house, that a paper by Mr. GLENIE was read, in which he demonstrated, that the circumference of the circle is not only incommensurable to the diameter, but infinitely so, and that its quadrature is therefore impossible. This much celebrated problem, then, for the solution of which high rewards have been offered in different countries, and on which the solutions of many other important ones hinge, is now put to rest by that gentleman, though it has heretofore baffled the attempts of mankind. SPANISH REVOLUTION. From the Semanario Patriotico of Cadiz Oct. 24, 1811.-Conspiracy against We are told, that M. Turgot, one of the Ministers of the unfortunate Louis XVI. observed to him early in his reign, -"Your Majesty should anticipate the Revolution which is approaching, and conduct it yourself: if not, one of two things will happen:-your majesty will either see yourself compelled to shoot your people, like Charles IX of France; or the French people will drag you to a scaffold, like Charles I of England." Louis, though naturally well inclined, did not follow this advice: the Revolution advanced in spite of him, and that indecisive prince verified the prediction in its two extremes; at first making war upon his people through the medium of his Courtiers, and then being dragged by that people to a scaffold. The same advice might have been useful to the classes, corps, and ambitious Authorities, who, on the approach of the terrible crisis of our country, were desirous above all to preserve the influence and power of which they were possessed. Place yourselves, might they have been told, in the van of the Revolution which is approaching,-be the foremost and most active in gaining liberty and independence to the state, shew yourselves the most devoted and most ardent defenders of the rights of the people. If you do not act thus, you are lost your ambition and your pride, ill according with novelties, will leave you not a moment's repose and you will perform the part of odious oppressors, if you conquer; and of vile conspirators, if you are conquered.-That, since the commencement of the Revolution, there has existed a very numerous party, hostile to every innovation the object of which was to reform our administration and political Institutions, is a fact quite obvious to the most cursory observer. It could hardly be otherwise; for there were among us too many people whose importance, and even existence depended upon old abuses, not to be interested in their preservation. Hence have we seen them oppose with rage, or reject with contempt, every plan of reform, however useful and necessary, that has been adopted by government or proposed by individuals. And, as the measures for delivering us from the French must go hand in hand with those which have the establishment of liberty for their object, (since you cannot expect great efforts from the people, without great privileges in return), it unfortunately happened, that the enemies of good principles were depressed when fortune was favourable to our arms; and, on the contrary, assumed importance when events were unfavourable: not because they rejoiced in the successes of the enemy, but because such successes discredited and weakened the authority of men and maxims whose destruction they sought. Deplorable situation, certainly, to which pride and ambi tion naturally lead, when they are listened to rather than reason and patriotism! We have seen them form a hostile confederacy against all whom the Revolution has summoned into employment,-pride themselves on their old stations, and boast of having been official men under Charles IV. Idiots! as if they could suppose that the nation had forgotten that Charles IV. his ministers, his agents, and his whole system of government, were that which had ruined it! The installation of the Cortes, which they were unable to prevent, and its first decrees, confounded these men. But they soon began to rally; and determined to avail themselves of the first favourable conjuncture for dissolving the Congress, and putting a period to liberty. -This crisis was approaching. The cam paign of Estremadura, brilliant in its commencement, but trifling in its results,the almost desperate situation of Catalonia, after the occupation of Tarragona and Figuciras by the French,-Valencia already threatened, all seemed to prepare the mind for discontent, and smoothed the way for destroying that order of things, which apparently neither promised felicity, nor inspired confidence. Heuce intrigues of every kind were set at work. Rumours destined to prepare the public mind for insubordination and change, flew from Valencia to Cadiz, and from Cadiz to Valencia. In the former place, it was asserted, that the French had taken the Isla by surprise, that various Deputies were prisoners,-Cadiz in fermentation, the Cortes dissolved, the Government changed. Here, at first with a mysterious air, and then with more confidence, Valencia was represented as tumultuous, and as risen against the Regent General: that the lat ter had died miserably in the tumult: some said that he had escaped the sedition, and fled to Tangiers; others, that he was concealed in Cadiz. Such were the reports whose object was to discredit that respect able Functionary, who, since the Revolution began, has not ceased to perform eminent services to the public cause, as a soldier and as a citizen. The Cortes, notwithstanding their continued application to the discussion of the constitution, which is the same thing as marching straight for ward to the termination of their functions, were represented as an assemblage of intriguers aspiring to perpetuate their power, to arrogate all authority, and to divide all offices among themselves. A resolution of the Council of Castile was talked of, which would shew the Congress its illegitimacy, the falsehood of its principles, and the injustice and political mischiefs, of its measures; in short, every thing presented a black and gloomy aspect to the friends of liberty, who were in a momentary dread of an explosion.-At this very time was published in Alicant, a manifesto of the Ex-Regent Don Miguel de Lardizabal, which, when denounced and publicly read in the Cortes, excited the indignation of all who heard it, and shewed Congress the danger in which it was placed. That a few contemptible authors, as ignorant as obscure, might accumulate attacks upon the eternal bases of social order, adopted and sanctioned by the Cortes, and pour forth reproaches and calumnies against their defenders, was not a thing to be wondered at; and their miserable efforts might justly be consigned to contempt and oblivion. But that a Statesman, an ExRegent, after having sworn to these laws, as the fundamental laws of the monarchy, after declaring his adherence to the established order of things, should publish a libel for its subversion,-should deny the Sovereignty of the nation, the legitimacy of the Cortes, the authority of their decrees, -should profess his intention to restrain and destroy them, if he could depend upon the opinion of the people and the army, should involve his former colleagues as accomplices in this base design,* and should represent the deputies as a club of Jacobin levellers, was an absurdity so enormous, an attempt so scandalous, that it appears rather the frenzied act of a madman, than the crime of a responsible being. But it is not possible, however much one would wish it, to account for the thing in this way: the coincidence of other circumstances shews that the manifesto was only part of a complete plan, which, from want of co-operation in the other parts produced an effect contrary to that which its author anticipated. The Cortes, justly indignant at this scandalous conduct, and bound to defend public liberty thus attacked in its origin, ordered that the author should be arrested, his papers seized, and himself brought to * Senor Escano, the only one of the Ex-Regents now resident in Cadiz, took an immediate opportunity of warmly repelling the imputation, in a representation which he addressed to the Cortes, and which they ordered to be printed and circulated among the people. Cadiz. A tribunal has since been formed for deciding upon the cause of the ExRegent, that of some of the Members of the Council of Castile, and all the ramifications connected therewith; and, if there has been a conspiracy against the liberty of the country, their decision will inform us who are its accomplices, and what punishment they deserve.-What object had they in view, who, under such calamitous circumstances, caluminated our new institutions, and that national representation from which they flowed? Surely it was a terrible moment in which to raise the standard of division among us! Suchet was advancing against Valencia ;-Suchet, still more formidable as an intriguer than as a General. One would almost say, that these perfidious agitators acted by his directions, were not the imputation too horrible to be ascribed to Spaniards. We rather believe, that their conduct proceeds from an inflexible pride,'from a boundless lust of power, from aversion to a constitutional government, from rage at losing an influence and preponderance founded on vicious institutions, and inveterate abuses. There were, doubtless, few who were personally attached to Godoy, whose insolence and vices disgusted even those on whom he conferred favours; but there were numbers partial to his arbitrary power, to his despotism, and to his disorderly and fatal system of abuses. These men have always believed, and still affect to believe, that the revolution had no other object, but to preserve to them their influence, their honours, their employments they have always retarded the tendency of our affairs towards a salutary and general reform. Enemies, perhaps, of the tyrant, but not of tyranny, they are more easily capable of coming to terms with Napoleon, than with the friends of liberty.It will not cost them much. Of the principal instigators of these treasons, some swore obedience at Bayonne to the usurper King; others did the same at Madrid; and a third set received commissions from the intruder to calm the effervescence of the people; the least culpable among them let themselves be carried down the stream without openly joining either the French or the Spanish party. It is painful to descend to these odious accusations; but they have compelled us to that step who let no means of reproach and calumny pass that may tend to discredit the friend's of the people; and who, in order to prejudice the weak, bave always upon their an account of the Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry, held at New York, relative to the affair between the Little Belt and the American Frigate President; I confess, however, that, by the same evidence, I am led to very opposite conclusions, and I have so high an opinion of your perfect uprightness of intention, and liberality of sentiment, that I doubt not your readily giving this a place. in your invaluable Paper, and moreover that, should my exposition make that impression on yours, which your statement has on my mind, you will with equal readiness admit it.In the first place then, Sir, I am an old Soldier, and have seen and heard many shots fired, both by sea and land; and though I am willing to admit the bare possibility, that men below, and employed, (though I must even then confine my meaning to men without experience) might be so situated as, on the hearing of a gun, not immediately to know whether it proceeded from their own ship, or from one 70 or 80 or 90 yards distant, still I have no hesitation in declaring my full conviction of the utter impossibility of any man's being on the quarter-deck, fore-castle, or gangways, or in any other part of a ship, above-board, and of his lips the appellations of impious disorganizers, and even of rebels. Let them thank our moderation, that, in recording their treachery, we do not also address them by their names; and let those who pretend to be so zealous in defending the rights of Ferdinand VII. that they would not leave a single right to the nation, let these hypocritical pretenders to fidelity tell us, what they did with those rights at Bayonne and at Madrid, when they sold them with so much facility to the tyrant who usurped them!-There is no middle course: our political revolution is not a game of puppets; it is the work of men and of Spaniards. The nation contemplates with anxiety those constitutional laws, which are to become its hope and its consolation: Europe views them with respectful admiration, the French with terror. Who, then, are the rash men who would dare to retard the progress and conclusion of these majestic labours? If they are individuals, let punishment repress them; if public bodies, let them be dissolved. Are we to seek for supporters of liberty and guardians of the nation, among its representatives, or among those, who, for twenty successive years, abandoned it to the deplorable and shameful voracity of Maria Louisa, and of Godoy ?-There is no medium: we re-not, of an absolute certainty, knowing from peat it. The Cortes must either resolve to preserve the national liberty and dignity, together with their own institution, or resign themselves to an untimely dissolution, by intrigue or by violence; thus bringing on themselves the execration of Spaniards, and the scorn of the whole world. In fine, if the sovereignty of the people is a fundamental maxim, from the recognition of which flows both civil and political liberty,if the balance of powers, if the equality of the laws,-if the benefits of a Constitution, are not the ravings of heated brains, then fit it is, that the senseless men who conspire against its establishment should suffer the punishment due to their audacity, and learn, that the Spanish nation does not drain its veins in the sanguinary contest with Buonaparté, in order to remain subject to the caprice of four insolent Viziers. AMERICAN STATES. Court of Inquiry, relative to the Rencontre between the President and Little Belt. SIR, I have just read in your last week's Register (the general sentiments and language of which I highly approve) whence the first fire (particularly a single shot) proceeded, more particularly under the circumstances of that extreme silence and attention which invariably accompanies the hailing of one ship by another; and more particularly still, when accom panied by the nervous anticipation of an action. Sir, I lament that my own experience has convinced me, and your numerous statements and expositions have confirmed the fact, that there are men (aye, and I fear in bulk too) who will rob and plunder, and prosecute, and persecute, under false pretences, the innocent, thè poor, and the needy; and commit every breach of every law, human and divine, without fear, and without remorse; why, then, should they not lie and swear? And why not Americans, as well as those who now disgrace the once honourable name of Englishmen? It is a lamentable fact, Sir, that where hopes of reward, and no fears of punishment exist, we must now look among men for circumstances, and not for oaths, in confirmation of their statements. Sir, it must be evident to every man of common understanding, that it will be pleasing to the American government to substantiate the fact of the Sir, they have not succeeded, for as is commouly the case, falsehood sooner or later takes care to detect itself; so in this instance we find several of the evidences contradicting each other on their oaths; and others though in situations where ignorance is manifestly impossible, swearing that they are ignorant, thereby evidently endeavouring (weak men) to salve over their consciences, and trying hard to reconcile their interests and their feelings with something at least like the truth. Sir, all that can be said for them is, that to a lesser degree of wickedness, they add a much greater degree of weakness; but to the proofs.-In the first place, Charles Lud, low, master commandant, and acting captain of the President (of course an experienced seaman) swears, that he does not know whether the first shot was fired from his own ship, or from one 70, or 80, or 90 yards off!! This at least will prove, that there is not at all times a sensible jar felt at all parts of a ship, from the firing of a sin first shot having been fired by the Little Belt; they thereby remove the onus (in the eyes of the world) from their own shoulders to ours; and make their hostile measures (which I verily believe it to be their real interest to pursue), still more and more palatable to the American people at large; for the American government, Sir, hath not (like some other governments) ceased to regard the opinions of that very people, who have established their power, and on whose shoulders they are borne. And when I consider the numerous indignities and oppressions which have been exercised towards that people at large, and towards the American seamen in particular, how can I wonder that the first shot should have been fired by them; even supposing it not to have been accidental? or how can I expect them to swear against their strongest and bitterest animosities, and equally against their self-evident personal interests? There exists however in some of the instances an evident and almost insurmountable dislike to the thing itself, however palata-gle gun; and you will observe, Sir, that ble, however gilded; which as far as it goes, does honour to the individuals, and to the American nation. In the first place then, Sir, it appears on the face of the proceedings, that they embrace only every deck officer, as well as captains of guns, now' on board the President who were present at the action. Sir, it cannot be doubted, but that every man's sentiments were known long before the examination took place; in all examinations of that sort, it is invariably so; and here, either all were prosecutors or all defendants, an absurdity in all law; here were no cross examinations; but an evident anxious desire, that there should not be the smallest variation in evidence; and the above quotation evidently implies that, some of the deck officers or captains of guns had been removed from the President subsequently to the action, and were not among those examined. In the face of the world, let me then ask, Sir, why is this? Is not a rupture between the two nations, which may involve the dearest interests of both, worthy of every testimony, of every elucidation which can be given to it? and will it not subject the American government to a suspicion at least, of having removed some conscientious men out of the way, thereby endeavouring to smother the truth? and expressing as well as though they had used words, the sort of evidence they desired, demanded, and would reward. But even in this, the chaplain who was on the quarter-deck, only imagined the first shot to have proceeded from the Little Belt, because he felt no jar in his own ship! Well done, oh thou prince of quibbles! well done, oh thou worthy brother of the gown! what, thou on the quarter-deck couldst find no other cause of suspicion, but that thou didst feel no jar on board thine own ship; what wast not thou directing thine eyes, and thine ears, and all thine attention towards the ship thine officer was hailing? Thou couldst hear the reply to the hail of thy commodore, but thou couldst not see whence the flash, the sound (that dreadful sound, the cannons' roar) and the smoke proceeded! no, though several seconds intervened between the first solitary shot, and the second! oh, thou worthy brother of a quibbling brotherhood!!-John Orde Creighton, the first lieutenant, stationed on the upper-deck, who had received instructions to keep at half cock, &c. &c. and who must of necessity have been watchful and attentive, and have participated in that silent feeling of anxiety, which must have pervaded the whole crew; he also swears that he only believes the first shot to have been fired from the Little Belt! Had he given a reason he probably would have said, because he had since been told so; and which would have been as good a reason at least as the reverend Churchman's ! The question asked by the Commodore of Captain |