Page images
PDF
EPUB

day be assured, Sire, in spite of all that your counsellors may insinuate to the contrary, you would begin to reign in the hearts of your subjects, and to know the perils from which you had rescued yourself. From that day you would begin to perceive that a prince cannot be happy unless when he exercises his authority to contribute to the well being of those who have confided it to him. Lastly, from that very day you would be convinced that this alone is what constitutes the true majesty of a monarch, and that it is an idle chimera to seek greatness where liberty is not to be found. If all that has been said do not convince you, Sire, I hesitate not to announce to you that much time will not elapse, ere you confirm, and perhaps at the cost of heavier sacrifices, the very lesson that Bonaparte gave to all absolute kings, when in his fall he said: "I have sinned against the people; I have offended against liberal ideas; and I have lost all."

May heaven prosper the life of your Majesty, to realise the great objects proposed in this representation!

SIRE,

At the royal feet of your Majesty,

ALVARO FLORES ESTRADA.

SIRE,

ENCIRCLED by courtiers, either timid, who dare not speak to you the truth; or ignorant, who do not know it; or ambitious, who disguise it; and all attached to your favors, and in uo way to your person, your Majesty, the plaything of their passions, has not eyes to see, nor ears to hear any thing but what it pleases: such men. Flattering to you as may be their language, it is but the lulling song of the syrens, that would enchant the pilot that the ship may strike. Such is the lot of all kings, who, measuring their power by the slavish submission of their subjects, wish to create respect through terror alone. Never can they arrive at a knowledge of the real state of things, unless when the evils are. brought to extremity. A continued risk threatens their lives, and their dynasties. In proportion to the dread which they inspire, is augmented their danger, and the number of their secret enemies.

Bitter as may seem to you the truths which I disclose in the representation that I have addressed to you, they are such, Sire, as it is your greatest interest not to be ignorant of, nor to treat slightingly. I do not doubt, that the obscure personages of that secret cabinet will seek to frighten you, persuading you that they are seditious, that they are derogatory to the honor of your royal person,

that they are direct blasphemies, and that I am an enemy of thrones, of order, and of religion. When did an absolute monarch ever hear other language? Their courtiers never feed them but with poisoned or ridiculous anecdotes. Senseless pigmies that pretend to make nature retrograde, to resist the torrent of opinion, and to change night into day. Our law, wiser than they, and that speaks a more impartial language, declares that he who speaks or writes the truth, does injury to no one; and that he who tells it to the king, in place of acting criminally, does a most important service to the state. That your Majesty may be convinced without a doubt whether I or they be your enemy, and which it is that seek to excite insurrection, to vilify and to blaspheme, there is a method very simple, in no degree hazardous, and undoubtedly sure: such is that of referring to public opinion.

The press is an organ, through the medium of which, wise and impartial men of all countries make themselves heard, and through it we attain a perfect knowledge of what is the truth. By chance the ideas conveyed in my representation, have for the last four years formed the principal topics of all the journals of all enlightened Europe, which are a true thermometer of public opinion. Deign, Sire, through this safe channel to consider what I expose to you, and what is declared by those shadowy men. Deign to command that all, or the most able of them, shall enter the public arena through the press, to refute by arguments or to belie by deeds the opinions which so assassin-like and cowardly they strive secretly to discredit. This step would in no way degrade you: it is what is practised by the most enlightened governments, that best understand their own interests. To what purpose is it, Sire, that in that dark assembly they give the name of blasphemies to doctrines the most wholesome, and of subversive notions to those alone calculated to ensure the tranquillity of the people, and to secure your political existence so closely threatened; if the wise of all countries, if the enlightened state of the age, if general opinion, if the press, if experience, all proclaim the contrary? What avails it, Sire, that the inquisition, redoubling its fury and its anathemas, condemns my writing as impious and irreligious, if general opinion approve it; and if the most scrupulous man find in it nothing than can offend sound morality? Detestable is the government that needs to confirm the justice of its decisions by the use of force. The effect of such a vindictive spirit let loose against a writing, the object of which is the public good, caunot fail to recoil and cover with opprobrium the prince in whose name it has been exercised; it will give greater lustre to the work, and add weight to the truths therein. disclosed.

No monarch can strengthen his power, nor reign in peace, but

by conforming himself to prevailing opinions. History does not present a single fact, which contradicts the truth of this observation. Kings truly great, have been no other than those who have succeeded in discerning the spirit of the age in which they lived, and have yielded to the impulse of the times. On the contrary all those who, unobservant of the progress of civilisation, have endeavoured to resist opinion, have had weak, stormy, and disastrous reigns. Their triumphs over the new ideas, which they have thought to stiffe, have always been very ephemeral, and in the end the spirit of the age has prevailed, however unequal in the commencement were these struggles. It is neither, Sire, kings, nor emperors, nor popes, nor their sycophants, who rule the world. It is alway the ideas of every age; it is the general opinion of each period; and that of the present day is the same which I announce in my writing. Opinion is the queen of the world, whose empire alone is indestructible. To know how to create it implies a great genius; to direct its course it suffices to have prudence and power; to despise it supposes depravity of manners; but to engage in resisting its torrent marks the heighth of madness and desperation. It is that, which at the voice of some humble peasants, founded the liberty of the Helvetic republic, and that which defended it against the formidable power of Austria. It is that which inspired in some poor mariners the thought of shaking off the yoke of Philip the Second; and that which eventfully snatched Holland from his colossal power. It is that which twice hurled the Stuarts from a throne, on which they would reign in a manner which it did not sanction. It was, opinion which made Great Britain stoop in her contest against the independence of the United States. Opinion gave the victory to France against the coalition of all Europe. It was opinion which alternately overthrew Napoleon, Louis the Eighteenth, and again Napoleon. It was that which converted France from an absolute monarchy into a constitutional kingdom. It was that which preserved the independence of Spain. And it will be that which will re-establish the constitutional Spanish monarchy; that which will annihilate the tribunal of the inquisition, which it so detests; and that which will destroy your person and your dynasty, if you obstinately persist in braving it openly.

I could present to you similar examples in the history of paganism, of popery and feudalism, but it would be superfluous, since the instances adduced should be sufficient lessons, if you are willing to open your eyes, and not suffer yourself to be dragged to the precipice, to which a second time these same counsellors would force you.

My object in writing the preceding representation has not been, Sire, to conciliate your favor in behalf of the party which I am

yours.

defending. I should think such a step offensive to the delicacy of their principles, and to the heroism which is their meed. As little has it been, as I doubt not your advisers will endeavour to persuade you, with the view of prejudicing you in the estimation of your subjects. The actions of a monarch, in his official capacity, be they commendable, or be they the most unjust, cannot be perverted but very momentarily, nor remain concealed from public notice. It is a folly to imagine that they can receive their definitive approval or their censure, from the eulogies lavished on them by courtiers, or the faults imputed to them by a faction, or by a single individual. The opinion on a monarch rests upon the wisdom and justice of his measures, or upon the opposite defects; and these qualities are estimated with much precision by the happiness or misery of his people. My only object then has been to conduce to the prosperity of my country, whose interests are identically the same with To attain my purpose I have thought it indispensable to demonstrate to you, as well as I was able, that not only had you no ground of complaint against the persecuted party, but that never has any prince received from his subjects so many kindnesses, as you have received from those very men, whom you seem to think it necessary to mark out as the objects of all your wrath. I have thought it requisite to prove to you, in a way the most respectful that I could do it, that nothing can be more hurtful to the people, than for kings to forget that maxim of our law, in which is comprised the whole art of good government: "With two things alone the world is regulated; doing good to those who do well; and inflicting punishment or giving warning to those who do ill:" nor that nothing is more fatal to princes than insincerity in the promises and declarations made to their subjects. Finally, I have thought it indispensable to demonstrate to you that the system of government, to which your counsellors have driven you, is the most opposite to your glory and well understood interests; that it is the source of all the existing evils of the nation; and that the faithful delineation of them ought to undeceive you, as to the sinister counsels which you have embraced. I consider, Sire, as a point of the greatest importance and of the first necessity for you, that you meditate deliberately on all that I have laid before you; and that you will not suffer yourself to be blinded by an idle resentment with which your counsellors will endeavour to inspire you against me, for having dared to speak to you in a language unused in your court, calling every thing by its proper name. Forget not, Sire, that the writings the most obnoxious to criminals, because the perusal of them is the most galling to the consciences of such men, are those which most faithfully depict their actions. I do not, Sire, remind you of evils that are too notorious to all the world, in order that they may be known, but that VOL. XIV. Pam. NO. XXVIII. 2 C

you may endeavour to remedy them. You yourself must be convinced that your situation is most unfortunate, since you have neither the power to make yourself respected by foreigners, nor moral force to make yourself obeyed by your own subjects; that the nation is running headlong on ruin, and that it threatens to lead to a convulsion which will cost you very dearly. My plan, Sire, redresses all these ills, and exposes you to no danger. Happy shall I be if I succeed in convincing you!

May the Almighty preserve your life many years, if it be to contribute to the happiness of the nation.

SIRE,

At the royal feet of your Majesty,

London, October 8, 1818.

ALVARO FLORES ESTRADA.

« EelmineJätka »