SONG. Come! my love! an' let us stray, Alang by Kelvin's flow'ry brae; The summer smiles, a' nature's gay; Joy wings the hours fu' cheary. The day has lang to close his e'e; The larks are in the lift fu' hie; The warblers frae ilk bush and tree Tune their sweet notes to chear you. And while we walk yon trees among, We'll hear the cuckoo, soft and strong; We'll hear the mavis chant his song, 'Mid native scenes sae cheary. Sweet is the hour, O come away! On wing the insect world are gay; A' sporting in the sunny ray, They hum and dance fu' cheary. Love dwells amid yon birken bowers; There beauty paints the blooming flowers; And pleasure fills the passing hours, When spent wi' thee, my deary. Though nature a' these sweets can gie; Tho' midst these charms I roam sae free; Thy smile is sweeter far to me. For nane I lo'e sae dearly. M.M. A MOTHER's THOUGHTS, On the return of a deceased only Son's Birth-Day, who died in infancy. WHY thickens this gloom in my mind? Why thus ev'ry prospect o'ercast? Can memory no opiate find, When brooding on woes that are past: No! armed with a sting for my heart, It hails the return of the morn, When (stranger to sorrow's keen smart,) My darling, my ROBERT was born! And raising its record to view, Unheeding the sound of my wail, Too faithful,too cruelly true, Displays all the griefs of the tale. Methinks now he sits on my knee, "His father's each feature I trace, "And joy'd the resemblance to see, "Oft kiss the sweet smile on his face. "But fleet as the breeze wings the glade, "Bursts the charm which no art can res tore, And leaves me to grasp at a shade, "And murmur more loud than before." Ere the soft name of mother was known, Or once had distilled from his tongue; Ere his ear could distinguish the tone Of ber voice, which to solace him, sung. The arrow of death pierc'd his frame, He droop'd, and no effort could save ; In vain did I weep, and exclaim, And sigh at the thought of a grave. Soon shall those eyes be fixed on other rills Than EBRO, sparkling down his native hills, And soon those ears assailed by direr sounds, Than gusts that groan along the mountain mounds. Swift omens glare on omens. Hostile light Profanes yon forest thro' its antique night. Hear you the stern imperious word?—Tie France, She bids her slaves of every soil advance. Revenge and wreaths, hard-fought and re cent shame, Goad her own legions, and the Chiefs inflame. Imperial Persia's Eagles led no band Yet deem not, Spain, thy holy cause be reft On earth; or these thy sons majestic left For man to bleed unfriended. Down the gale Float cordial accents. BRITAIN bids thee® hail : The people, scourge of tyrants, rears the shield, And freights her navies for thy tented field. Lo! rous'd to dash the crest of Gaul to earth, The land that gave a WOLFE, a MARLBOROUGH birth!~ wrong With the false tinsel of an alien tongue! Was it that courtier, in his midnight cell, Dared weave the guilty, triumph-blasting spell? Or chief, disowned by Mars-of recreant soul Stamped with his impious seal the traitorscroll? Was such your hope, lamented youths, whose eye Drank its last night from Lusitania's sky; Who own'd in death your Country's lessened fears A solace for parental life-long tears? For vanquish'd France that prouder palmis might rise? And first salute you from the blissful seats YOUR BRITAIN TARNISHED THRO' HER MARTYR'S FEATS? Stung by my Country's shame, with foot unblest I print the sod, and find no pause of rest. Incessant, Hope and Fear, beside my way, With their contending visions haunt the day. Night moulds her monster brood. Helltempered aims Assault my pillow, pois'd by Daemon And still in sad sorrow my hours must be spent, ~Till Edward, my love and my life, shall return. Now soon the wind ceas'd, and the tem And hope gently whisper'd to Anna once bosoni again. ROSAH. Historical Affairs. SPAIN. EXPOSITION Of the practices and machinations which led to the usurpation of the Crown of Spain. By Don Pedro Cevallos, Secretary to Charles IV. (Concluded from p. 857.) THE Emperor, ignorant of this sud den event, and perhaps never supposing that the Spaniards were capable of displaying such resolution, had ordered Prince Murat to advance with his army towards Madrid, under the idea that the Royal Family were already on the coast, and on the point of embarking, and that, far from meeting the slightest obstacle on the part of the people, all of them would receive him with open arms, as their deliverer and guardian angel. He conceived that the nation was in the highest degree dissatisfied with their Government, and never reflected that they were only dissatisfied with the a bases which had crept into the adminis tration of it. ties, mortifying Ferdinand VII, and sowing fresh matter of discord between the parents and the sou." The attempts are next detailed to get the Royal Family out of Spain, on the pretext of meeting Bonaparte. "At Vittoria his Majesty received information that the Emperor had arri ved at Bourdeaux, and was on his way to Bayonne. In consequence of this advice, the Infant Don Carlos, who had been waiting at Tolosa, proceeded on to Bayonne, whither he had been invited by the Emperor, who, however, delayed his arrival some days longer. "Nothing particular occurred at Vittoria, except that the Supreme Junta of Government at Madrid, having written that the Grand Duke of Berg had imperiously demanded that the Favourite should be released and placed in his hands, his Majesty did not think proper to comply with this demand; and, in communicating this determination to the Junta of Government, enjoined them to enter into no explanations with the Grand Duke respecting the fate of the prisoner. “In the mean time Gen, Savary concerted with the Emperor in what manner they should prepare to give the finishing blow; and while the French troops in the vicinity of Vittoria were making suspicious movements, he made his appearance in that city, with a letter to his Majesty from the Emperor. The circumstances are next related which preceded the arrival of the Grand Duke of Berg at Madrid, at the head of his troops." He was no sooner acquainted with the state of affairs, than he began to sow discord. He spoke in a mysterious manner of the abdication of the crown, executed by the Royal Father in favour of his son, amidst the tumults of Aranjuez, and gave it to be "To the contents of this letter, which understood, that, until the Emperor had were neither flattering nor decorous, acknowledged Ferdinand VII. it was General Savary added so many and such impossible for him to take any step that vehement protestations of the interest should appear like an acknowledgement, which the Emperor took in the welfare and that he must be under the necessity of his Majesty, and of Spain, that he of treating only with the Royal Father. even went so far as to say "I will suffer "This pretext did not fail to produce my head to be cut off, if, within a quar the effect which the Grand Duke in-ter of an hour of your Majesty's arrival tended. The Royal Parents, the mo ment they were informed of this circumstance. availed themselves of it to save the Favourite, who remained in confinement, and in whose favour Prince Murat professed to take an interest, for the sole purpose of flattering their Majes Dec. ISOS. at Bayonne, the Emperor shall not have recognised you as King of Spain and the Indies. To support his own consistency, he will probably begin by giving you the title of Highness, but in five minutes he will give you that of Majesty, and in three days every thing will be settled, and ad your Majesty may return to Spain immediately." After the detail of some further circumstances, he comes to the interview between the King and Napoleon. "His Imperial Majesty arrived, accompanied by a number of his Generals. The King went down to the street door to receive him, and both Monarchs em braced each other with every token of friendship and affection. The Emperor staid but a short time with his Majesty, and they embraced each other again at parting. Soon after, Marshal Duroc came to invite the King to dine with his Imperial Majesty, whose carriages were coming to convey his Majesty to the PaJace of Marac: This accordingly took place. The Emperor came as far as the coach steps to receive his Majesty, embraced him again, and led him by the hand to the apartment provided for him. "The King had no sooner returned to his residence, than General Savary waited on his Majesty, to inform him that the Emperor had irrevocably determined that the Bourbon dynasty should no longer reign in Spain; that it should be succeeded by his; and therefore his Imperial Majesty required that the King should, in his own name and that of all his family, renounce the crown of Spain and the Indies in favour of the dynasty of Bonaparte. "It would be difficult to describe the surprise with which the royal mind of his Majesty was affected, and the consternation with which all those who were nearest to his person were struck, at hearing such a proposition. His Majesty was not yet recovered from the fatigues of a toilsome journey, when the same man who had made him so many protestations of security at Madrid and on the road, who had drawn him from his capital and his kingdom to Bayonne, on pretence of adjusting matters of the greatest importance to both states, and of his being recognised by his Imperial Majesty, had the audacity to be the bea. rer of so scandalous a proposal. "On the following day I was sent for by the Emperor to his royal palace, where I found the Minister of Foreign *Affairs, M. Champagny, waiting to enter upon a discussion of the proposals verbally stated by General Savary. I instantly complained of the perfidy with which so important an affair was proceeded in; representing that the King, my master, came to Bayonne, relying on the assurances given by General Savary, in the name of the Emperor, and in the presence of the Dukes del Infantado, S. Carlos, D. Juan Escoiquiz, and myself, that his Imperial Majesty would recognise him at the very first interview between the two Sovereigns, in the imperial palace of Marac; that when his Majesty expected to witness the realisation of this promised recognition, he was surprised with the propositions above alluded to; and that his Majesty had authorised me to protest against the violence done to his person, in not permitting him to return to Spain, and as a categorical and final answer to the solicitation of the Emperor, that the King neither would nor could renounce his crown in favour of another dynasty, without being wanting in the duties which he owed to his subjects and to his own character; that he could not do so in prejudice to the individuals of his own family, who were called to the suc cession by the fundamental laws of the kingdom; and much less could he consent to the establishment of another dynasty, which ought alone to be called to the throne by the Spanish nation, in virtue of their original right to elect another family upon the termination of the present dynasty. "The Minister of Foreign Affairs insisted on the necessity of the renunciation which had been proposed, and contended that the abdication, signed by Charles IV. on the 19th of March, had not been voluntary. "I expressed my surprise that the King should be importuned to renounce his crown, at the same moment that it was asserted that the renunciation of his father was not his free act. I wished, however, not to be understood as entering into such a discussion, as I could not acknowledge the smallest authority in the Emperor to intermeddle with matters which were purely domestic, and peculiarly belonging to the Spanish Government, following, in this respect, the example of the Cabinet of Paris, when it rejected as inadmissible, the applica tions of his Majesty, the Royal Father, in favour of his ally and first cousin the unfortunate Louis XVI. "Nevertheless, desirous of giving to truth truth and innocence a testimony which they alone had a right to exact, I added, that, three weeks before the disturbance at Aranjuez, Charles IV. in my presence, and that of all the other Minis ters of State, addressed her Majesty the Queen in these words: Maria Louisa, we will retire to one of the provinces, where we will pass our days in tranquil lity; and Ferdinand, who is a young man, will take upon himself the burden of the government.' "I concluded with proving to him that the renunciation of the Royal Father was only the consequence of his Majesty's predilection for the tranquillity of a private life, and his persuasion that his constitution, enfeebled by age and habitual indisposition, was incompetent to support the heavy burden of the government. "This irrelevant objection having been got rid of, M. Champagny stated, that the Emperor could never be sure of Spain, in case of a new war with the powers of the North, while the Spanish nation continued to be governed by a dynasty, who must regret to see its elder branch expelled from the monarchy of France. "I answered, that in a regular system of things, such prepossessions never prevailed over the interests of states, and that the political conduct of Charles IV. since the treaty of Basle, afforded a recent proof that Sovereigns paid little regard to family interests, when they were in opposition to the interests of their dominions; that the friendship between Spain and France was founded in local and political considerations ;-that the topographical situation of the two kingdoms was of itself sufficient to demonstrate how important it was for Spain to preserve a good understanding with France, the only state on the continent of Europe with which she had direct and very extensive relations, and consequently that every reason of policy induced Spain to maintain a perpetual peace with France." After some further remarks, the paper goes on" Besides these considerations, having a direct relation to the interest of both states, I expatiated on others no less cogent, and connected with the character of the French Cabinet. "I reminded the Minister, that, on the 27th of October last, a treaty was signed at Fountainbleau, wherein t Emperor guaranteed the independenc and integrity of the Spanish Monarchy as it then was; that nothing had since occurred which could justify its infraction; on the contrary, that Spain had continued to add new claims to the confidence and gratitude of the French Empire, as his Imperial Majesty himself had confessed, by the praises which he bestowed on the good faith and constant friendship of his intimate and first ally. "What confidence, I added, can Europe place in her treaties with France, when she looks to the perfidy with which that of the 27th of October has been violated? And what must be her terror when she sees the captious means, the seductive artifices, and the false promises by which his Imperial Majesty has confined the King in the city of Bayonne, in order to despoil him of the crown to which, with the inexpressible joy of his people, he has been called by the fundamental laws of the kingdom, and the spontaneous abdication of his august father. Posterity will not believe that the Emperor could have given so great a blow to his own reputation, the loss of which will leave no other means. of concluding a war with him than that of total destruction and extermination. "This was the state of the discussion, when the Emperor, who had overheard our conference, ordered us to enter his own cabinet, where, to my great surprise, I was insulted by his Imperial Majesty with the infamous appellation of traitor, upon no other ground than that, having been Minister to Charles IV. I continued to serve his son Ferdinand VII. He also accused me, in an angry tone, of having maintained, in an official conference with General Montion, that my master, in order to his being King of Spain, did not stand in need of the recognition of the Emperor, although that might be necessary in order to continue his relations with the French Government, |