shall distribute the said number among the departments of the empire, taking into particular consideration the departments beyond the Alps, and those of the south, where this branch of cultivation formerly made great progress. 6. Our prefects shall take measures, that the quantity of hectares allotted to their departments shall be in full cultivation next year, at the latest. 7. The commission shall, before the 4th of May, fix upon the places most convenient for the establish ment of six experimental schools, for giving instruction in the manufacture of beet-root sugar, conformably to the process of the chymists. 8. The commission shall, also, by the same period, fix upon the places most convenient for the establishment of four experimental schools, for giving instruction as to the extraction of indigo from the lees of the woad, according to the processes approved by the commission. 9. Our minister of the interior shall make known to the prefects in what places these schools shall be formed, and to which the pupils destined for this manufacture should be sent. The proprietors and farmers who may wish to attend the course of lectures in the said experimental schools shall be admitted thereto. 10. Messrs. Barruel and Isnard, who have brought to perfection the processes for extracting sugar from beet-root, shall be specially charged with the direction of two of the six experimental schools. 11. Our minister of the interior shall in consequence, cause to be paid to them the sum necessary for the formation of the said esta blishments, which sum shall be charged upon the fund of one million, placed, in the budget of the year 1811, at the disposal of the said minister, for the encou ragement of the manufacture of beet-root sugar, and woad indigo. 12. From the 1st of January, 1813, and upon the report to be made by our minister of the interior, the sugar and indigo of the two Indies shall be prohibited, and be considered as merchandize of English manufacture, or proceeding from English commerce. 13. Our minister of the interior is charged with the execution of the present decree. (Signed) NAPOLEON. Lisbon, April 3. Proclamation of the Governors of the Kingdom of Portugal and of the Algarves. "Portuguese!-The day of our glory is at last arrived; the troops of the enemy, in disgraceful flight, and routed on all points, rapidly disappear from the Portuguese territory, which they have infected with their presence. The Governors of Portugal rejoice with you on this happy event; and after humbling themselves in the presence of the Almighty, the first and sovereign Author of all good, they render due thanks to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent our Lord, whose wisdom established the bases of our defence; to his British Majesty, to his enlightened Ministry, and to the whole British nation, in whom we have found powerful and liberal allies, the most constant co-operation in re pelling pelling the common enemy, and that honour, probity, and steadiness of principle, which particularly characterise that great nation; to the illustrious Wellington, whose sagacity and consummate military knowledge enabled him to penetrate the plans of the enemy, to take the most effectual precautions for frustrating them, and compelled them at last to fly with the remains of their numerous army, diminished by famine, by the most severe privations, and by the incessant pursuit of the allied forces; to the zealous and indefatigable Beresford, the restorer of discipline and organization to the Portuguese troops; to the brave and skilful Generals and Officers of both nations; to their brave comrades in arms, who, with generous emulation, never fought that they did not triumph; and, in fine, to the whole Portuguese people, whose loyalty, patriotism, constancy, and humanity, have been so gloriously distinguished amidst the tribulations which have afflicted us. "A nation possessed of such qualities can never be subdued; and the calamities of war, instead of disheartening, serve only to augment its enthusiasm, and to make it feel all the horror of the slavery with which it was threatened. citizens of both sexes, and of all ages, with which those heaps of ruins are still tinged; the insults of every kind heaped upon those whom the Vandals did not deprive of life-insults many times more cruel than death itself; the universal devastation of the fields, of plantations, of cattle, and of the instruments of agriculture; the robbery and destruction of every thing that the unhappy inhabitants of the invaded districts possessed; this atrocious scene, which makes humanity shudder, affords a terrible lesson, which you ought deeply to engrave on your memory, in order fully to know that degenerate nation, who retain only the figure of men, and who, in every respect, are worse than wild beasts, and more blood-thirsty than tigers or lions. Wretched are they who trust in their deceitful promises! Victims of a foolish credulity, a thousand times will they repent, but without avail, of the levity with which they have trusted to the promises of a nation without faith and without law; of men who acknowledge neither the rights of humanity, nor respect the sacred tie of an oath. Opposed to such an enemy, the only alternatives which remained to us were resist-ance, or retreat; the former de-. pended on a competent armed force, the latter is a law which the duty of preserving life and property imposes on all peaceful citizens. These evacuating the towns where they dwell, transporting the effects which they can carry off, destroying those which they are obliged to abandon, and which might serve for the subsistence of the enemy, escape the horrors of the most infamous slavery, throw themselves themselves into the arms of their fellow countrymen, who receive them as brothers, assist the military operations, depriving the invaders of the means of maintaining themselves in the territory which they occupied; and in this way they are so far useful to themselves, because the enemy, not be ing able to support himself for a long time in positions where he is in want of subsistence, will soon be obliged to evacuate them; and the inhabitants returning immediately to their homes, neither suffer the inconveniencies of a length ened absence, nor find their houses and fields in that state of total devastation, in which the enemy's army would have left them, had he remained for a longer period. "Such, Portuguese, are the lessons of experience which we ought never to forget. "But amidst such great disasters, Providence is pleased to give us sources of consolation which will make them less sensibly felt. "The unfortunate people who fled from the fury of their cruel oppressors have experienced the greatest kindness in the humanity of their fellow citizens. In all the districts to which they have fled, they were received with open arms; the inhabitants eagerly pressed to afford them all that succour which they could individually bestow; they filled their houses with emigrants; and many times have we perceived with tears of joy the generous emulation of those who disputed with one another who should afford the rights of hospitality to those unknown families who arrived in this capital without shelter or the means of subsistence. "It is the duty of the govern ment to take immediate measures for the relief of these necessitous persons; but the want of public funds, which are not even sufficient to provide for our defence, must make these measures less effectual, unless individuals liberally concur in a proceeding as much recommended by humanity as by patriotism. "Under the inspection of an illustrious tribunal, which has advanced part of these succours, by the wise and economical measures of a member of that tribunal, executed by zealous and intelligent officers, the wretched fugitives have heen fed, and numberless unfortunaté persons have been rescued from the jaws of death. This great expense has been supported, not only by the resources which were at the disposal of government, but, still more, by voluntary donations presented by natives, and foreigners among whom we ought to mention with particular distinction the subjects of his Britannic Majesty, both those who are employed in the army, those who are attached to the legation, and those who are comprehended in the class of merchants. Those acts of patriotism and of Christian charity were not confined to the capital and its vicinity. In all the districts of the kingdom, whither the fugitives resorted, they met the same reception, and experienced the saine kindness and liberal aid, as far as the ability of the inhabitants enabled them to extend it. "The Governors of the kingdom, in the name of the Prince Regent, return thanks to all for such distinguished services; by which which the lives of so many of his subjects have been saved, and those calamities softened, which were caused by the scourge of a destructive war. His Royal Highness will rejoice in being the Sovereign of a people so loyal, patriotic, generous, and Christian. "It now only remains to complete the work, to promote the restoration of the fugitives to their homes, to render habitable the towns which the barbarism of these spoilers has left covered with filth, and unburied carcases; to relieve with medicine and food the sick who are perishing for want of such assistance; to give life to agriculture, by supplying the husbandman with seed-corn, as well as a little bread for his consumption for some time, and facilitating his means of purchasing cattle, and acquiring the instruments of agriculture. "Such have been and are the constant cares of the Governors of the kingdom... a nation "Portuguese! tribulations are the crucible in which the merit of men is purified. You have passed through this ordeal, and the result has been glorious. You are become a great nation, worthy of those heroic progenitors who illustrated the cradle of the monarchy. Preserve unalterable these sentiments; confide in your government, as your government confides in you; draw every day more closely the bonds of union among yourselves, with other na tions, and with our generous allies, who are our true brothers. Let one soul, one will, direct our common efforts; and if any one at tempt to sow discord, let us tear VOL. LIII. from our bosom the venomous viper, and let us seal with his blood the ratification of our indissoluble alliance. "Practise these maxims with the same constancy with which you have hitherto followed them, and you will be invincible." Palace of the Government, March 3, 1811. THE BISHOP CARDINAL P. SOUZA, The Council of Regency to the Spanish Nation, on the Anniversary of May 2. That memorable day, Spaniards, on which the nation rose to the majesty of independence, from the depth of servitude and dismay, has now come round for the third time. What grand, but, at the same time, mournful recollections does not its return excite! When Napoleon was issuing from Bayonne his decrees of blood when, madly impatient, he was accusing Murat of remissness for not precipitating the means of ter ror-he did not perceive that these atrocious counsels, recoiling upon the very iniquity which planned them, would be destructive to their treacherous agents. The second of May dawned; the French had fixed upon it for completing their murderous plots; and the people of Madrid, indignant at the outY * rages rages which they suffered, rose at once to revenge them, or to die. Ill armed, without plan, without chiefs, they did not hesitate a moment to attack those veteran battalions, formidable by their arms, their victories, and their union. The patriots died fighting nobly; or they perished by treachery, while thinking themselves protected by the truce which disarmed them. But the blood which was shed could not be confined to the Prado of the capital; it spread itself over the soil of the peninsula; it everywhere excited enthusiasm; and at one and the same time, and with one voice, the signal was every where given for this rancorous, sanguinary, and desolating war, similar in all respects to the execrable aggression which gave it birth.. It was then said by our treacherous enemies, and their unworthy partizans, "How rash and unavailing your attempt! You have neither arms, magazines, nor soldiers; your generals and officers want experience and military knowledge; your poverty is great, your ignorance greater; you must lose every battle which you hazard against the most practised troops in the world; the war will disorganise, will ruin every thing; and your impotent efforts, instead of saving that shadow of a country which you adore, will plunge it in misery and desolation, and load it with much heavier chains than those you now wish to escape." Spaniards, you rejected with horror these vile suggestions, and devoted yourselves to adversity, certain of shaking off ignominy by resistance, and of finally establishing, though at the expense of immense labours and numberless exertions, that independence and happiness to which you aspired. True it is, that the stupid tyranny, to which you were previously subject had left you without mounds to oppose to the inundation. A furious sea broke in, and covered with its waves an unprotected country: but it must one day abandon it again; and the inundation, though now destructive (in like manner as the earth is fertilised by the conflagration of forests or the ashes of volcanoes), will deposit in our soil all the germs of prosperity and abundance. What combats, what vicissitudes, what contrariety of events, have you not experienced during these three terrible years! Conquerors at first, then conquered; formidable again by the force which you opposed to your enemies; favoured by the war of Austria against the tyrant, but too soon, deprived of that powerful assistance; condemned again to experience all the rigour of destiny, and reduced to extremity; threatened with the dissolution of empire by the separation of some distant provinces; yet always firm, always magnanimous; encounter, ing adversity, without being over, come by it; forming new establishments amidst your very ruins, and dismaying the enemy by your ceaseless efforts. If from this stormy and uncertain spectacle impartial Europe and posterity turn their eyes to your political and civil march, how much will they see to compensate for your military misfortunes! What were you before the second of May? Grief to recollect it, and shame |