III. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 1. Proclamation from the Superior Spanish Junta. The superior Junta at Castille has addressed the following to the sol diers of the enemy; it has been circulated in the French language. Frenchmen,---How long will you suffer a foreign tyrant to abuse your docility and patience? How long will you expose yourselves, shed your blood to ensure still more slavery, and satisfy the voracious and criminal ambition of an advènturer? It is time that you should undeceive yourselves, and recover from an error fatal to yourselves and to all Europe. of their decrepitude: every where At the time when you fought for your liberty, your friends, your allies, your enemies themselves applauded your triumphs; your cause was just, and every where you had admirers; but now--what cause is it that you defend? That of the most tyrannical despotism, and the most perfidious usurpation. Against whom do you make war? Against a nation which has long been your ally, and which has made for Frauce the most generons sacrifices. What do you propose? or rather, 2. Massena's Addrsss to the Porwhat does the monster who rules over you propose? The debasement, the enslaving of this nation. And what advantages do you expect from so unjust, so wild a project? Turn your eyes towards your country, enter into the bosons of your families, hear the lamentations of your mothers, your wives, your brothers, and your sons! Look on those desolate widows, those deserted orphans, those afflicted mothers, and aged fathers, from whom despotism has torn the only support tuguese. Portuguese !---The armies of Napoleon the great are on your frontiers, and we are on the point of entering your country as friends, not as conquerors. They do not come to make war upon you, but to fight those who have induced you to take uparms. Portuguese! awake to your true interests. What has England done for you, that you endure her troops on your native soil? She has destroyed your manufactures, your commerce, `paralyzed your industry, for the sole purpose of sending into your country articles of her own manufacture, and making you her tributaries. What does she do at present, that you should embrace the unjust cause which has roused the whole of the continent against her? She deceives yon respecting the issue of a campaign in which she seems determined to in cur no risk. She puts your baltalions in advauce, as if your blood was to reckon for nothing. She is prepared to abandon you when it will suit her interest, however disastrous the consequences may be to you; and, to complete your misfortunes, and her insatiable anbition, she sends her ships into your ports to transport to her colonies, such of you as may escape from the dangers to which she has exposed you on the continent. Does not the conduct of her army before Ciudad Rodrigo sufficiently explain to you what you are to expect from such allies? Did they not encourage the garrison and the unfortunate inhabitants of that fortress, by deceitful promises; and did they discharge a single musket to assist them? Again: lately have they placed any of their troops in Almeida, except a commander, who is put there to invite you to as illjudged a resistance as that of Ciudad Rodrigo! What! is it not an insult to place one Englishman in the scale against 6000 of your countrymen? Portuguese! be no longer deceived. The powerful sovereign, whose laws, strength, and genius, receive the grateful praises of so many nations, wishes to establish your prosperity. Put yourselves under his protection. Receive his troops like friends, and you will find security both for your persons and property. You are not ignorant of the miseries of war; you know that they extend to every thing that is most dear to you,—your children, relatives, friends, property, private and political lives. Come to a determination then, that will secure to you all the advantages of peace. Remain quiet in your habitations; attend to your domestic affairs, and consider those only your enemies who excite you to a war, by every event of which your country must suffer. The Marshal Prince of Essling, commander-in-chief of the army of Portugal, MASSENA. Ciudad Rodrigo, Aug. 1, 1810. 3. Lord Wellington's Proclamation to the Portuguese. Lord Viscount Wellington, marshal-general, &c. The time which has elapsed during which the enemy has remained on the froutiers of Portugal, must have proved to the Portuguese pation what they have to expect from the French. The inhabitants of some villages have remained in them, confiding in the promises of the enemy, and hoping that, by treating the enemies of their country well, they might conciliate and mollify them, and inspire them with humane sentiments; that their property would be respected, their females preserved from brutal violation, and their lives secured. Vain hopes! The inhabitants of these submissive places have suffered all the evils which a cruel enemy could inflict; their property has been plundered, their habitations burut, Burn?, their women atrociously violated, and those whose age or sex did not provoke the brutal violence of the soldiers, have fallen victims to the imprudent confidence which they placed in promises made only to be broken. The Portuguese niust now see, that no other means remain to avoid the evils with which they are threatened, but a determined and vigorous resistance, and a firm resolution to obstruct as much as possible, the advance of the enemy into the interior of the kingdom, by removing out of his reach all such things as may contribute to his subsistence, or facilitate his progress. These are the only and most certain means to prevent the evils with which the country is threatened. The army under my command will protect as large a portion of the country as is possible; but it is obvious that the people alone can deliver themselves by a vigorous resistance, and preserve their goods by removing them out of the reach of the enemy. The duties, therefore, that bind me to his royal highness the Prince Regent of Portugal, and to the Portuguese `nation, oblige me to make use of the power and authority with which I am furnished, to compel the careless and indolent to make the necessary efforts to preserve them selves from the dangers which threaten them, and to save their country. In conformity with this, I make known and declare, that all magistrates and persons in authority, who shall remain in the villages or towns, after having received orders from the military officer to remove from them, and all persons, of whatever class they may be, who shall maintain the least communication with, or aid and assist in any manner, the enemy, shall be considered as traitors to the state, and tried and punished as such an enormous crime, requires. WELLINGTON. Head-quarters, Aug. 4. IV. RUSSIA. Decree, or Ukase, relative to the Finances of Russia, February 2, 1810. All the bank assignats (the paper money of the country) now in circulation, are once more declared to form part of the national debt, and guaranteed by all the wealth of the empire. From the present moment the bank assignals shall receive no increase. In order to pay the national debt, a loan shall be opened in the interior of the country, at fixed prices. In order to provide for all expenses, and to reduce the taxes to their former state, it is ordered, provisionally, for the present year, and until the publication of general regulations for the finances and taxes, that the following additional imposts shall take place :-- An increase of 2 rubles a-head on the crown peasantry. Au impost of 3, 24, and 2 rubles, according to the various governments, on the peasantry occupied in cultivating the lands of the state. Citizens employed in the arts, and other branches of public industry, shall pay 5 rubles. Countrymen trading in both capitals shall pay for every shop 100, 50, and 25 rubles, according to localities, and besides those of the 2d guilde, 14 per cent. of the capital they have declared themselves possessed LI 3 possessed of; and those of the 3d guild, 25 rubles. Foreign tradesmen of both capitals shall pay 100 rubles, their part ners 40, and their workmen 20 rubles. In both capitals a duty of half a ruble shall be raised on houses, in virtue of the existing imposts. The tax on traders shall receive an increase of half a copeek on the produce of industry and the capital. The price of salt, formerly fixed at 40 copeeks per pood, shall be raised to one ruble. The impost on copper shall be augmented three rubles per pood. The custom-house duties on imported goods, shall be raised from 210 to 400 rubles, and in proportion, Stamps have also experienced an advance in price. The nobility shall assist in relieving the wants of the state, by paying a 'duty of 50 copeeks for every peasant in their possession. V. SWEDEN. mentioned, be permitted to enter our ports; and further, in the third article of the treaty with the emy peror of France of date of the 6th of January last, having fully and in every respect acceded to the conti-nental system, bound ourselves to shut our ports against the trade of Great Britain, and not to permit the importation of English goods or manufactures, of whatever description, or in whatever vessel the same might arrive. And whereas, having relinquished the permission we reserved to ourselves in the treaty with his majesty the emperor of Russia, of importing colonial produce, we now only retain to ourselves the power to import salt, sufficient for the cousumption of our kingdom; further, to fulfil the treaties with the said powers, we hereby graciously command, that on and after the 24th of April next, no goods shall be imported, neither on paying the duties nor in transitu, which belong to Great Bri tain and Ireland; the colonies or countries under the influence of the British government, or goods of any description whatsoever, loaded in Decree of Non-intercourse, &c. with vessels from Great Britain, or any Britain. of her dependencies, be admittedTM into any of our ports; and that all vessels, under whatever flag, which shalt be proved to carry such goods, as are not furnished with certifi cales and documents to certify the origin and full particulars of their cargoes, from their ports of lading, shall, upon their arrival in our hars bours, be ordered off, save and except such vessels as are solely laden with salt, the importation of which, from all foreign countries, we pers mit, in vessels not belonging to his Britannic majesty or his subjects. For the full execution of our da cree, minions, colonies, and dependencies, and to the articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture, of the dominions, colonies, and dependencies of the nation thus refusing or neglecting to revoke or modify her crée, we command all officers and persons in our service to exert their utmost vigilance, in strictly examining the papers, certificates, and documents, of all vessels that may arrive, agreeably to the gracious separate command, we, on this sub-edicts in the manner aforesaid. And ject, shall or may issue. Given at our court of Stock- VI. AMERICA.--UNITED STATES. the restrictions imposed by this act shall, from the date of such proclamation, cease and be discontinued in relation to the nation revoking or modifying her decrees in the manner aforesaid. And whereas it has been officially made known to 1. President Maddison's Procla- this government that the edicts of mation. France, violating the neutral commerce of the United States, have been so revoked, as to cease to have effect on the first of the present month-Now, therefore, I, James Madison, president of the United States, do hereby proclaim, that the said edicts of France have been so revoked, as that they ceased on the said first day of the present month, to violate the neutral commerce of the United States; and that, from the date of these presents, all the restrictions imposed by the aforesaid act shall cease and be discontinued in relation to France and her dependencies. In testimony whereof, &c. &c. PROCLAMATION. Whereas, by the fourth section of the act of congress, passed on the first day of May, 1810, entitled, an act concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for other purposes, it is provided: That in case either Great Britain or France shall, before the third of March next, so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, which fact the president of the United States shall declare by proclamation, and if the other nation shall not, within three months thereafter, so revoke or modify her edicts in like manner, then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 2. inth, tenth, and eighteenth, sections of the act, entitled an act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for other purposes, shall, from and after the expiration of three monthis from the date of the proclamation aforesaid, be revived and have full force and effect, so far as relates to the do JAMES MADISON. November 2, 1810. Mr. Gallatin's Letters on Non- Treasury Department, Sir-You will herewith receive a copy of the proclamation of the president of the United States, announcing the revocation of the edicts of France, which violated the neutral commerce of the United States, and that the restrictions imposed L14 |