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merchant vessels belonging to individuals may pass by inheritance to persons who never exposed themselves to be made prisoners of war. In all her conquests France has considered sacred private property deposited in the warehouses of the vanquished State, and such have had the complete disposal of matters of trade; and at this moment convoys by land of merchandize, and especially cottons, are passing through the French army and Austria, to proceed to the destination commerce directs. If France had seized the monopoly of the Seas, she would have accumulated in her territory all the products of the earth, and she would have obtained unmeasurable wealth.

"Undoubtedly, if England had the dominion of land which she has acquired on the Ocean, her acquisitions would have been equally enormous. She would, as in the times of barbarism, have sold the conquered, and distributed them as slaves thoughout her land. The avarice of trade would have absorbed every thing, and the government of an enlightened nation which has brought the arts of civilization to perfection, would have given the earliest instances of the return of the savage ages. That Government is fully impressed with the injustice of its naval code. But what has that Government to do with justice, which only inquires for profit?

“When France shall have esta blished her naval power, which, with the extent of her coasts and her population will be socu accomplished, then will the Emperor reduce these principles to practice, and apply his mandate to render it universal. The right, or rather usurpation, of blockading rivers and coasts by proclamation is palpably contrary to rea

son and equity. A right cannot possibly spring from the will of an interested party, but must always be founded on the natural relations of things. A place is not properly blockaded unless it be besieged by land and water. It is blockaded to prevent the introduction of assistance, by which the surrender of the place might be protracted; and then we have only the right to prevent neutral ships from entering the port, when the place is thus circumstanced, and the possession of it is matter of doubt between the, besiegers and besieged. On this is grounded the right to prevent neutrals from entering the place.

"The sovereignty and independence of its flag, like the sovereignty and independence of its territory, is the property of every neutral. A state may transfer itself to another state; it may destroy the archives of its independence, and pass from Prince to Prince, but the right of sovereignty is indivisible and unalienable; no one can renounce it.

"England has placed France in a state of blockade. The Emperor has, in his decree of Berlin, declared the British Islands in a state of blockade. The first of these regulations forbid neutral vessels to proceed to France; the second prohi bited their entering English harbours.

“ England has, by her Orders of Council of the 11th of November, 1807, levied an impost on neutral ships, and obliged them to enter its ports before they sail to France. By the decree of the 17th of December of the same year, the Emperor has decreed, that all such ships be denationalized which had entered English ports, or submitted to be searched.

"In order to ward off the inconveniences with which this state of things threatened her commerce, America laid an embargo in all her harbours; and although France had done nothing more than used the right of retaliation, its wants, and those of its colonies, suffered much from this measure; yet did the Emperor magnanimously connive at the proceeding, in order rather to endure the privation of commerce than to acknowledge the authority of the usurpers of the sea.

، The embargo was raised, and a system of nonintercourse was substituted for it. The powers on the Continent in alliance with England having the same object in view, made a common cause with her, that they might derive the same advantages. The harbours of Hollaud, of the Elbe, of the Weser, of Italy, and of Spain, were to enjoy those benefits from which France was to be excluded; and the one and the other were to be opened or closed to commerce as circumstances rendered expedient, so as France was bereft of it.

“Thus, Sir, in point of principle, France recognizes the freedom of neutral commerce, and the independence of the maritime powers, which she respected up to the moment when the maritime tyranny of England, that respects nothing, and the arbitrary proceedings of its government, compelled her to adopt measures of retaliation, to which she resorted with regret. Let England revoke her blockade with France, and Frauce will recal her declaration of blockade against England. Let England revoke her Cabinet Orders of the 11th November, 1807, and the Milan Decree will expire of itself. The Ame

rican commerce will then recover its complete freedom, and be assur ed of finding in the harbours of France favour and protection. But it belongs to the United States to attain this happy object by their firmness. Can a nation, resolved to remain free, hesitate between certain momentary interests, and the great cause of maintaining her independence, her honour, her sovereignty, and her dignity?

(Signed) "M. CHAMPAGNY."

Royal Order, directed to his Excellency the Marquis de Romana, and transmitted to him by Don Martin Garay, dated Badajoz, Aug. 31.

In the midst of the great cares and attentions which the Supreme Governing Junta of the kingdom has taken, to follow with activity and firmness the defence of the country, it has never lost sight of the salutary reforms which the nation earnestly expects, which its actual situation requires, and which must be the foundation of its future prosperity. One of the greatest objects which now claim its attention, and which ought to occupy it with the greatest activity, is the convocation of the Cortes, the most important object which can, or ought, to employ the Supreme Junta. The more important this object is, the more necessary are the kuowledge, the observations, and the experience of those who compose that assembly; and as, in a discussion of such magnitude, it will be expected by the nation, that all should concur, his Majesty has been pleased to grant, that all the deputies shall give their assistance. It

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will therefore be necessary, in consequence of this sovereign and general determination, that the Marquis de Romana separate himself from his troops, and come to this city to exercise the functions of representative of the national body, though it is certainly most difficult to place at their head a Chief of equal experience and achievement; considering, however, the state of the kingdom of Gallicia, and the principality of Asturias, the Junta, after mature deliberation, has determined that the Marquis shall 1ransfer his command to that Geueral of his army whom he shall judge most capable.

I communicate to your excellency the order of his Majesty, for its fulfilment, advising at the same time that the command of the army cannot with propriety be transferred to the Major-general the Conde de Noronha, because he being second Commandant-general in Gallicia, ought always to remain in that kingdom.

In consequence of this Royal Order, the Marquis de Romana has signified, that he has confided the command of the army to the Major-general Don Gabriel de Mendezabal, and that of the kingdom, to the Conde de Noronha, second Commandant-general, and President of its Royal Audience.

our aid, and a generous nation, tra versing stormy seas, conducted us to join our valiant countrymen, from whom we had been separated by the atrocious perfidy and vile prostitution of an individual. You have resisted the mortal blows aimed at you by the tyrant Napoleon, to destroy you. You have suffered with me the disasters which his unequalled force has spread through the whole nation, and through all Europe; but you, without other assistance than your own valourwithout other arms than those furnished by nature--without other ammunition than your own inimitable constancy-without other stimuli than your own heroic patriotism-without other ambition than that inspired by your honour and fidelity, have disputed the first fruits of his triumph; and have raised your names to a level with those of the men who have been born to inspire admiration.

Gallicia is covered with French carcases: neither ancient Carthage, or modern France, can compare their marches with those incessant ones, which, during six months of .aut and privation, you have made among the impenetrable Alps of Castile, Gallicia, and the Asturias, in the most exposed and rigorous situations. Inmortal warriors! with out great and signal battles, you have annihilated the proud army of the tyrant, by aiding the national patriotism, supporting the noble

Proclamation to the Army by the fermentation, harassing the troops

Marquis de Romana.

of the enemy, defeating them in small skirmishes, and reducing Soldiers! The august voice of their possession to the ground on our Sovereign, Ferdinand, reached which they stand; you have fulfillour ears in Denmark, and we obeyed the most elevated obligations of ed the call. Our country invoked the soldier, and the fatigues and

cares

cares which I, as your general, have undergone for your sakes, are the reward I owe you.

The country has not for some time known your best services; but the actions of Villa Franca, Vigo, Lugo, Saint Jago, and San Payo, where your valour shone, must free you from any stain which you may seem to have incurred by your having refused battles, which must have been destructive; and you have rendered yourselves formidable to your enemies, who have been repulsed and conquered, when the superiority of their numbers did not prevent an obstacle absolutely insuperable to your valour.

Yes, brave Spaniards, in viewing you this day, I have no longer that serenity of mind with which I before ever met you. I am no longer your general. His Majesty has called me to occupy a place in the Supreme Central Junta. Had not this been his irresistible will, nothing should have separated me from you, nor made me renounce the right I have to participate in your future victories, under the command of your new chief, and the generals who command you. Receive, Soldiers, the last word of your General, and accept the love and paternal gratitude of your countryman and companion in arms,

THE MARQUIS DE ROMANA.

Royal Decree, dated Seville, Sept. 1.

His Majesty would neither fulfil his own wishes, nor the hopes of his people, if, at the same time, when he labours to free the country from the oppression of its tyrant, he did not make every exertion to correct

the vices which exist in the interior administration, and to raise this magnanimous and generous nation to the high degree of splendour and power to which it is entitled by the fruitfulness of its soil, the benignity of its climate, the extension of its coasts, and the possession of its rich colonies. Among the obstacles which have constantly opposed the progress of agricultural industry and commerce, the first place is held by the contributions, called Alcabalas, Cientas, and Millones, imposts, which obstructing the interior circulation, and pressing unequally on the productions of the land, on manufactures, and, in general, on all objects of commerce, not only have banished from our unfortunate country that liberty, without which there can be neither arts, cultivation, nor commerce, not only have rendered odious the fiscal administration, and even industry itself, but, which is more, inflicting on it incurable wounds, have ever been only a feeble resource for supplying the necessities of the state. Observation and experience have shewn their prejudicial effects; the people have cried out for a remedy; the decline of our manufactures, and the mercantile system unanimously embraced by all the nations of Europe. But though the government knew these defects and reformed them partially, these reforms were a new vice, which only still more embroiled the system. At length the time is arrived when good principles shall triumph over ignorance, and the nation which has appeared great and majestic in the eyes of all Europe by its valour and its virtue, shall be so also by the liberality of its principles, and the goodness of its interior administra

tion. The Supreme Junta of government of the kingdom is well convinced, that the riches of individuals are the riches of the state, and that no nation can be rich without encouraging its agriculture, commerce and industry, and that industry in general does not increase but remove the obstacles which may obstruct both the fiscal and civil laws. From these considerations the Supreme Junta cannot omit occupying itself with this work, beginning with the most urgent reform, which is, that of the contribution, and providing in the place of those abolished, others upon such things as can more properly be required to contribute, distributing them equally among the contributors, exacting them in the time and manner least offensive, and collecting them with the least expense possible. Thus the contributions, which are always an evil, shall fall only on those who can contribute, shall be applied to their true objects, and not to the maintenance of an innumerable multitude of taxgatherers, who are unproductive consumers, and so many hands lost to industry. In consequence therefore of these principles, the King

our Lord Don Ferdinand VII. and in his royal name, the Supreme Junta of the government of the kingdom, decrees as follows:

Art. 1. The contributions known by the name of Alcabalas, Censo, and Millones,* shall be abolished, as soon as those which are appointed to supply their place shall be appropriated and established.

2. The Department of Finance is charged to propose to his Majesty the contributions which shall supply the place of those abolished.

3. The present Decree shall be printed, published and circulated in the usual form, from the royal palace of Seville, August 7, 1809.

MARQUIS of ASTORGA,

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[The Alcabala is a tribute or royal duty which is paid upon every article sold, in the form of a per centage, according to the value of the commodity. This percent age is varied, but all the laws and ordinances respecting it, to remove ambiguity and to prevent exactions, are collected in a book called the Alcabalotorio. There is a Spanish proverb which sufficiently shews the unpopularity of this form of taxation -Quien descubre la Alcabala ese to paga. "Whoever informs of the Alcabalą should pay it." In the Recopilation de los Lues the superior clergy and judges are exempted from it.

The Censo, which has been improperly called Ciensos and Ciensas in the newspapers, is a rate collected on the rents of houses and estates.

The Millones is an aid that the kingdom granted to the Sovereign on the consumption of six articles of domestic use, wine, vinegar, oil, butcher's meat, seap, and tallow candles. Among the accommodations at court, in the Council of Frnances, there is an apartment called the Sala de Millones. In this room or hall the affairs relating to this due to the King, are transacted, as well as some others regard ing the tax on tobacco, cocoa, and a few other commodities. The persons appointed

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