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    In this contest , it is easy to see that a very heavy responsibility rests upon one party . What deceit , what violence has not attended every step taken by the great warrior of Europe , and how can any part of his conduct be reconciled with either reason or justice . The

    abdication , or resignation , or deprivation of Charles might be allowed to be just ; but how does it appear , that his lawful successor , supposing the previous steps to be just , which we do not aver by any means to have been lawful , how

    does it appear that his lawful successor was justly put aside ? The act of renunciation was done out of the kingdom ; and as it appears by the Memoirs of Cavellos , to have been made not voluntarily but under the impression of ,

    restraint . A strange doctrine has been maintained relative to kings and to kingly government , unsupported either by reason or revelation : but in the height of its absurdity , it could never equal the act of Buonaparte , which supposes that a foreign sovereign may convoke a certain number of the inhabitants of an

    independent kingdom , and out of their country and the inspection of their fellow citizens , and under the eye of a potent sovereign , they are to form laws for their country , and change the succession to the throne . Richly , as the house of Bourbon may have deserved every thing that has befallen it , yet a

    nation could not easily bear such an insult . Nothing but brutal force could tame the mind to such abject submission : and the resistance made by the Spaniards to the wayward caprice of the great conqueror , may lead to events , which neither he nor his opponents have thought of .

    Providence has raised an obscure man , of an obscure family , of an obscure district , of an obscure subjugated country , to throw down dominations and powers , boasting of their antiquity . But how have those powers conducted themselves ? ¦ Oid they not conceive themselves to

    have some absolute right in themselves to reign , and little think , that their high situation was an awful trust , of which they were to render an * account ? The success of a great conqueror is no argument of his own excellence . Nebuchadnezzar was raised to execute the

    ju , t judgments of God , but was at last levelled with the beasts of the fieltf , and became an outcast from Rien .

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    Whatever great designs mail may be contriving in his heart , he is the mere * instrument in a grand chain of events , and his wicked actions may . be the justavengers of the crimes committed by

    others . Man proposes , but God disposes : with the aid of this maxim , we may survey the awful scenes around us with complete resignation : and however dark the cloud may now be , abright day will follow , and the stone cut out of the mountain without hands

    will destroy the mighty idol of the destroyer of the earth . The grand Junta for the administration of the affairs of the kingdom of Spain has been assembled : k is now sitting , and on its resolves and conduct depends much of the future happiness of the kingdom . Their meeting

    commenced with solemn vows , and protestations , and appeals to the abominati * ons in their temples , those idols of wood and stone , which are permitted to-di *> grace their places of worship , and b . - * fore which , they bow down with thc > awful reverence , due to God alone . We must lament these errors" in a brave

    nation : but this is the established religion of their country , and no authority had been recognised to make an alteration in their forms . Ferdinand was acknowledged in their oaths to be the lawful king , and of course tliis assembly is released from the trouble , which would have attended a discussion on the

    person of the first magistrate . We have not heard what steps have been taken by this Junta with respect either to the means of defending the kingdom , or its future regulations . The first point will evidently be security from the attacks of the external foe , and the next

    (; o establish the meeting of a free Cortez . Without the latter nothing can be done , and happily so many Juntas are established in different provinces , that their jurisdictions cannot be set aside , nor properly ascertained , but by the Cortez .

    As to the external enemy , our accounts are very uncertain . The French papers would make us helieve , that immense armies are marching over the Pyrennees . It is certain that Bilbao is

    in their possession . They have retaken , it from the Spaniards : but with very little loss on the part of the latter . It is supposed however , that they cannot long retain possession of this important post . In the mean time troops are

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    State of Public Affairs . S 67

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1808, page 567, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2397/page/43/