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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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Untitled Article
starved out , if they are too numerous to cope withal in the field : and the advice , at the beginning of the war never to attack the enemy * hut to wear him out with skirmishes and the division of
his forces , appears now to have been founded on the wisest plans of policy . The Spaniards have lost Badajoz sioce our last : but part of the allied army which was , after the retreat of Massena ,
detached by Lord Wellington into those quarters , has approached near to its walls , and defeated the French in their way to it . The city , it is very probable , will soon be retaken . Their entrenchments
before Cadiz remain unhurt , and no small dissatisfaction prevails in the town , on tjie conduct of Las Penas , in the last attempt to attack them . Of the Cortez , we hear nothing . It continues its
fissions , but we hear little of its resolves . The deliverance of Spain must depend on the energy of the peasantry in its provinces , and little can be expected from
delegates collected together under such very difficult circumstances . Their deliberations on the liberty of the press restrained every sanguine hope that was formed previously to their meeting .
If the affairs of Spain afford but melancholy prospects , those of their Colonies in America are m scarcely a better situation . In Mexico , the civil war has
begun , and it will be fought out , probabty , without foreign interference . At present ,, the adherents to the old government have the superiority ,: they have defeated the insurgents in a pitched battle , and cut them down in several detachments : but there is great rea-* ° a to believe that the population
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is in favour of the latter , and consequently , after a few trials , will be enabled to stand their ground against the disciplined troops . Every thing portends an independent government , of which
Mexico will be the capital ; and , whether republic or empire , it will , probably , when the fame of England shines only in the page of history , be the seat of great
atchievements . Buenos Ayres is far more forward . There , a regular government prevails , and the Cortes has no authority ! To understand the real state ' of these Transatlantic
dominions of Spain , it is necessary to be well acquainted with its population , of which we have only imperfect accounts . Whore the native . Spaniards have arrogated to themselves so great a superiori - ty , § and are so few in comparison with those bom in the Colonies
and the native Indians ,, there is room for a great conflict of the passions , and we tremble for the faie of many thousands , who will fall the victims of this contest .
We cannot , however , doubt that , when once the different provinces have established themselves . into separate states , they will be better
governed than they have been , and a great field will be open to them for improvements in civilization , religion and science . The United States have not
declared war againsc us ; and we trust that they never will . Much time is consumed in deliberation , and the more the better . Any thing is ^ better than war , of which one year will consume more than all the advantages of two years '
peace . But war is extending itself to Africa , where the Algerines and the Tunisians are going to logger-
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State of Public Affair $ + 244
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1811, page 243, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2415/page/51/
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