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MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS; OR, TJie Christian's Survey erf the Political World.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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War has reigned triumphant in all its horrors , and new scenes of devastation are bursting- open to the view before its' dreadful career can be stopped . Who can look on Spain "without coin- ?
passion on the fate of suffering humanity , and melancholy reflections on , t ^ ie miseries , which a bad government brings * jpon a country . The new sovereign i . s in possession of half of the country , and his tenure is still not comvletelv affirmed .
Not that there is any probability of his "feeing dismissed from his capital , but the evils of civil war must be for a long time endured , and his subjects must be held iii subjection by the terror of l > i $ arms . From the siege of Saragossa , % he Christian would willingly turn aWay his eyes . As far as the arts of destruction can confer glory , both besiegers and .- besieged are entitled to no small share of honour : the one for skill in the
attack , the other f&r perseverance in the deforce of this unhappy city . The numbers of lives lost , and the . ruin of houses , churches , convents and splendid buildings are the triumphs of the destroying angel , and . in vain did the Lady of St . Pillar afford her sheltering " arms to the miserable and deluded inhabitants .
To what purpose , it maybe asked , is this desolation and this-waste of human fylood ? If we can believe the accounts brought home by our unfortunate army , which traversed so large a portion of Spain , ( and we can have no reason to do ^ bt their veracity , ) the Spaniards are far from being united in qne common .
^ ause . Oar men were received with -great hospitality in the convents and monasteries , but the people at large were by no means ready to contribute to their relief . Wlxat indeed does it signify to the common Spaniard , that a Bourbon is as it is commonly said his legitimate monarch ? What benefit could he trace to that source ! The re-movalof
many evils is held out to him by the new dynasty , while from the old nothing was to be expected but the continuation of that miserable system , by which Spain has been so degraded below
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its level among the nations of fiiirope * The war appears to be more that of the : priest than of the nation ; yet the inveterate jealousy between . the two countries may make it of long continuance , and the greater will be the crush of it& monasteries and its convents , its idols and various abominations .
The numbers that bave perished a ^ Saragossa are not fey any means ascertained . On both sides it must have been very considerable , from th € desperation with which the conflict was urg- * ed . The possession of every street was . contended lor ; a ? nd the miners were strU
at work whilst the enemy was m possession of a great part of * the town . The natural love of independence will go a great way ; and , when it is aidddF by the powers of superstition , the mind ; s raised to a degree of rage and strength , little short of that which the plirensies of madness inspire . The holy pillar
• was , we doubt not , often invoked : the priests would bring forth their idols and their wafer go 4 s tp inspirit the populace . The besiegers relied on their strength and s&iU , so of ^ en tried in battles ; and the shame of being baffled
in other attempts would re-animate * their efforts . By taking possession of Saragossa they have broyght' a very * large province into subjection , and thq conquerors are not likely to estimate at a very great rate the * cost of the undertaking , either to themselves ^ or to the *
enemy . One event is likely to follow from this determined resistance . The spvereign will perceive that his throne can never be in safety whilst the power of the priesfcand the monk remains . Thus the horrible anti-christian system of persecution and fraud which has been
so long predominant in Spain , will receive its proper check from worldly policy . The politician of other countries may grieve that this cannot be dpne > without increasing the influence of France ; and the sentiment has been expressed strongly in a quarter , whence better things might have t > een appret
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Monthly Retrospect Of Public Affairs; Or, Tjie Christian's Survey Erf The Political World.
MONTHLY RETROSPECT OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS ; OR , TJie Christian ' s Survey erf the Political World .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1809, page 166, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1734/page/46/
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