The junta of Seville, May 29, invited the co-operation of the French nation, and all the provinces subject to it." Come to us, and you shall find valour, generosity, and true honour."-The same junta, May 30th, concluded an address to the Portugueze nation in these words: "Your country is not in danger the danger is past. Hasten to arms for its deliverance and restoration. Share in the glory of setting an example to nations groaning under oppression." Missioners were sent, and a secret correspondence and understanding entered into, or, as was affirmed by the Austrians at the time, only attempted to be entered into with the court of Vienna.

But it was to the English nation and the Spanish colonies that the Spanish patriots looked for the most cordial, prompt, and efficient assistance: nor were their hopes deceived. After the tragical end of Solano, the lieutenancy-general of Andalusia and government of Cadiz were conferred by the supreme junta of Seville, that now exercised all the powers of government, on Don Thomas Morla. Morla was a person of great talents, as well as a decided and vigorous character. With equal wisdom, promptitude, and firmness, he had saved Cadiz and Spain from the ravages of the plague in 1804, by shutting up all the churches of Cadiz and its vicinity, in opposition to the remonstrances of both the monks and the greater part of the secular clergy, who considered this as an act of sacrilege, and against the advice of the Spanish physicians too, who maintained that it was useless. He had been long odious to the nobility on account of the severity of his

manners, and his attachment to the prince of the peace. But, as his great rival and adversary, general O'Farrel, had gone over to the side of the French, his subsequent declarations of irreconcileable hatred to that party were believed to be sin

cere.

In the mean time, in consequence of the concert above mentioned, between general Castanos and the patriots of Cadiz on the one part, and the commanders of the British forces at Gibraltar and in the Mediterranean on the other; lord Col lingwood arrived with ships to take the command of the English fleet off Cadiz, and general Spencer with five or six English regiments from Gibraltar, and the two Swiss regiments of Meuron and Wattenville. Lord Collingwood offered his services for the reduction of the French fleet: but Morla very properly determined, that this should be, exclusively, an achievement of the Spaniards. The French ships lay in the canal of the arsenal in such a position, that they were out of the reach of the cannon of the castles as well as of the Spanish squadron off Cadiz. But gun-boats, bomb-vessels, and tremendous batteries, constructed onthe isle of Leon and near fort Louis, soon reduced admiral Rosilly to surrender (June 14), the French fleet, after offering in vain terms of capitulation. The French fleet consisted of five ships of the line, of seventy-four guns,one frigate, and four thousand seamen and mariners.

Advice having been received, that a small detachment of French had assembled at Tavira, to enter Spain by the river Guadiana, general Spencer, with the small detachment under his command, at the

entreaty

inviting them to unite with their brethren in Old Spain, for preserving the integrity and independency of the monarchy for their lord and king Ferdinand VII. For accomplishing this end, they applied to lord Collingwood for a passport to a frigate and four advice-boats; and also for a corvette to carry out a number of officers, whose presence was necessary in the American colonies. They preferred an English to a Spanish ship for conveying the officers, because it would be a proof of peace and alliance between Spainand Great Britain. Their demand was immediately complied with, and all the vessels, after a short and pleasant voyage, reached their destination. Vessels had been sent before with a number of proclamations by king Joseph; but the greater part of them fell into the hands of English ships of war: the crews of one or two that reached the coast of Spanish America, were imprisoned by the colonists, and the proclamations of Joseph burnt by the hands of the executioner. Application was also made, June 12, to lord Collingwood, by the government of Cadiz, for a frigate to conduct commissioners, appointed by the supreme junta of Seville, to England, in order to treat with his majesty's ministers, on matters of great interest and im portance to both countries. As the admiral who commanded in the port of Cadiz was one of the deputies, lord Collingwood thought it proper that his departure should be delayed till the surrender of the French ships in the harbour: with. in two or three days after which, the deputies set sail in the Revenge frigate for England, where they arrived in safety on the 24th of

July. Long before their arrival deputies had appeared in London from the principality of Asturias, bearing the first certain intelligence of the insurrection in Spain, and soliciting the aid of the British government; a circumstance that, not unnaturally, led the periodical journalists to state that the standard of liberty in Spain, was first raised in Asturias. The insurrection was almost simultaneous. But, if it were of any importance to ascertain the priority of a few days, it might be observed that the insurrection first broke out in Valentia.

On the 9th of June, six Spanish gentlemen, having at their head the viscount de Materosa and Don Diego de la Vega, arrived in London, and they were followed by a succession of deputies, or envoys from other provinces,both Spanishand Portugueze. Peace was proclaimed with Spain in the London Gazette of the 5th of July. The Spanish prisoners in our gaols, to the number of several thousands, were set free, cloathed, and sent home to join their brethren in arms. The British arsenals, fleets and squadrons, and treasures: all that Spain could demand, or England afford, was without hesitation or the smallest delay liberally granted. The ministry were neither remiss nor parsimonious, where to be alert and profuse was to be universally popular, from the king on the throne to the beggar on the highways and streets. Inthecause of the Peninsula the peo ple of Great Britain and Ireland seemed ready to rise in a mass, as well as the natives of that noble country. They hailed the dawn of liberty, and stood in admiration of the Spaniards. The emigrants from France, prone to grasp at appearances infinitely less promising, ex

pressed

pressed their sensibility, in extravagant and poetical language, but, at the same time, nothing more than what they felt. "The Spaniards, they said, were worthy to contend for the cause of liberty, law, monarchy, honour, and God.-Spain raises the standard of liberty, and all nature revives.-The spirit of party is mute; the most inveterate hatreds extinct ; enthusiasm has banished the spirit of opposition: the walls of Westminster hall are astonished at seeing, for the first time, a perfect unity of sentiments, words, and actions.*"

The first supply to the Spanish patriots, which was sent within a few days after the arrival of the Asturiandeputies, consisted in three hundred thousand pounds sterling, in dollars, five thousand muskets, thirty thousand pikes, and an immense quantity of powder and balls. Materosa's secretary was sent home, together with three Britishofficers of

rank, with these succours, with assurances that others should be sent from time to time, as well as troops, and whatever the patriots might need. A promise which was fulfilled faithfully.

The deputies were splendidly entertained by the city of London, the bank, and other public bodies, as well as by individuals of great distinction. Subscriptions were opened in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and many other places, for supporting the cause of Spain, and several military corps, militia and volunteers, offered their services. The supreme junta of Asturias did not fail, in a gazette, dated Oviedo, June 30, to publish, with expressions of the most profound gratitude, the generosity of the English nation. The same sentiments, on various occasions, were expressed with the same warmth by the other juntas.

Ο

F the fourteen provinces into which Spain is divided, four in the beginning of June, after the insurrection had broken out, were incontestably in the hands of the French. These were Navarre, Biscay, and the Two Castilles. The French were likewise, as already noticed, in possession of the fortress of Barcelona. A paper, fraught with the greatest political prudence, was published on the last day of May, by the junta of Seville, under the title of "PRECAUTIONS which it will be proper to observe throughout the different provinces of Spain, in the necessity to which they have been driven by the French, for resisting the unjust and violent possession which their armies are endeavouring to take of the kingdom.*" In that paper it was observed, among other most judicious counsels, that as a combined union of plans was the soul of every well-concerted enterprize, and that which alone

could promise and facilitate a successful issue, it appeared indispen sable, that there should be three generalissimos, who should act in concert with each other; one who should command in the four kingdoms or provinces of Andalusia, in Murica, and Lower Estramadura ; another in Valentia, Arragon, and Catalonia; a third in Navarre, Biscay, Asturias, and the North of Old Castille. Each of these generals and generalissimos would form an army of regular troops and peasantry united, and put himself in a situation to undertake enterprizes, and to succour the most exposed points; always keeping up a frequent communication with the other generalissimos, in order that all might act by common accord, and assist one another. Madrid and La Mancha, required an especial general, to concert and execute the enterprizes which their particular local situation demanded. His only object would be, to embarrass the enemy's