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have been appointed . The young ting proclaimed , and every thing is executed under his orders * But with this active energy the vilest superstition is united . Appeals are made in their proclamations to their blasphemies and abominations , the mother of God , and the glorious
image of the virgin , and the rehes of their patron saints . If this may serve to iuflaroe the passions , it shews into how degraded a state the character of Spain has fallen . Their accursed system of allowing one religion only in their country , of subjecting to the
tortures of the Inquisition the inquiring xnind , ha ^ produced its full effects : and it is a doubtful point , to whom the next generation will be most indebted , whether to Buonaparte and his new consti » tution , ox the present Spaniards with their inveterate prejudices . One thing however seems certain . Torrents of
blood will be shed before the conflict is over . Spain must undergo a complete political and moral revolution . The country had been so ill governed , that no common measures could restore it to the rank it ought to hold in society Such is the iate of man , that if he
prefers folly to wisdom , he must either in himself or his successors pay the penalty . The Bourbons had effected the complete ruin of the Cortes , just as their cousins in France had gotten the better of its parliaments . How shortsighted is tyranny ! By these bqdies they could better . h # ve effected their
purposes and retained . a dominion equally injurious to their subjects , but less odious for themselves . Whilst the Spaniards have been forming associations for the defence of their country , Buonaparte has been employed with their grandees , in framing a constitution for it . The first article ' of it
is evidently marde to suit the prejudices of a bigoted and ignorant people . Tt states , that the Romish religion shall not only be the sole religion of the country , but that not any other religion shall be tolerated . This is a decisive proof of the melancholy state of this unhappy country . Whatever may be the crimes of the French monarch , he would
not from him self impose such a horrible decree on any nation . It is the people that wi > h it . It is the people that are so abject , so degraded , so lost to every Jgood-feeling of Christianity , that they yvi * U for this badge of servitude and ignominy to remain among them . But this cannot be wondered at . They have
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been so long under the dominion of priests , and- so long without the true information to be derived from the scriptures , that they do not see the wretched state , into which they are fallen , and how far such conduct' keeps them from the advantages of the gospel . We
may judge of their state , from what happened not many years ago to a Spaniard in England , to whom a gentleman , whom he accidentally met w a stage coach , made a present of an elegant New Testament in the Spanish language . The Spaniard received the book with
many thanks : read it over with great satisfaction : but just before he returned to Spain , called on the donor , and after assuring him how much he had been gratified by the perusal of so extraordinary and so instructive a work , begged leave to restore it to him * as he did not
dare to carry it with him into Spain : for- should any of his neighbours or his servants see it in his possession , it would be the ruin of him and all his famil y * How thankful then ought Englishmen to be , that they have the New Testament in their own language ! they can read it
when they please , and it is their own fault , if they submit their understandings to the traditions of any priests or minister , instead of receiving with re * verence the pure word of God , and making that alone the rule of their faith and doctrine .
If the first article of the new con * stitution for Spain is bad , some points in it are beneficial to the country , and wiU be " adopted by whichever party gains the day . Th ^ se are the remova l of the barriers to the extremities of the kingdom ., and thus opening a free trade between prpvince and province * the establishment of an uniform system of
justice ; the determination that every man ' s house . shall be his castle : the abo * r lition of local tribunals with peculiar privileges , under which the Inquisition is most probably intended to be abolish *
ed ; and the prospect of enjoying the freedom of the press . If this constitution should not be accepted , ai ) d the Spanish patriots should gain the day , they will in their Cortes form a constitution for themselves . The name of
Ferdinand will serve for a time ; and should ne ever return , his government will be limited by some go ^ regulations , and Spain w } l ! emergeSrom its disgraces ; By the last accounts they have stood the shocjji of arms with the French , and obtained over them , most
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394 Slate of Public Affairs *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1808, page 394, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2394/page/42/
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