ocity is an evil familiar to our thoughts; but these
combinations of malevolence historians have not yet been called upon to
record; and writers of fiction, if they have ever ventured to create
passions resembling them, have confined, out of reverence for the
acknowledged constitution of human nature, those passions to reprobate
Spirits. Such tyranny is, in the strictest sense, intolerable; not
because it aims at the extinction of life, but of every thing which
gives life its value--of virtue, of reason, of repose in God, or in
truth. With what heart may we suppose that a genuine Spaniard would read
the following impious address from the Deputation, as they were falsely
called, of his apostate countrymen at Bayonne, seduced or compelled to
assemble under the eye of the Tyrant, and speaking as he dictated? 'Dear
Spaniards, Beloved Countrymen!--Your habitations, your cities, your
power, and your property, are as dear to us as ourselves; and we wish to
keep all of you in our eye, that we may be able to establish your
security.--We, as well as yourselves, are bound in allegiance to the old
dynasty--to her, to whom an end has been put by that God-like Providence
which rules all thrones and sceptres. We have seen the greatest states
fall under the guidance of this rule, and our land alone has hitherto
escaped the same fate. An unavoidable destiny has now overtaken our
country, and brought us under the protection of the invincible Emperor
of France.--We know that you will regard our present situation with the
utmost consideration; and we have accordingly, in this conviction, been
uniformly conciliating the friendship to which we are tied by so many
obligations. With what admiration must we see the benevolence and
humanity of his imperial and royal Majesty outstep our wishes--qualities
which are even more to be admired than his great power! He has desired
nothing else, than that we should be indebted to him for our welfare.
Whenever he gives us a sovereign to reign over us in the person of his
magnanimous brother Joseph, he will consummate our prosperity.--As he
has been pleased to change our old system of laws, it becomes us to
obey, and to live in tranquillity: as he has also promised to
re-organize our financial system, we may hope that then our naval and
military power will become terrible to our enemies, &c.'--That the
Castilians were horror-stricken by the above blasphemies, which are the
habitual language of the French Sen