We might have trusted, but for late disgraces, that there is not a man in these islands whose heart would not, at such a spectacle, have beat in sympathy with that of this fervent Patriot — whose voice would not be in true accord with his in the prayer (which, if he has not already perished for the service of his dear country, he is perhaps uttering at this moment) that Andalusia and the city of Seville may preserve the noble attitude in which they then stood, and are yet standing; or, if they be doomed to fall, that their dying efforts may not be unworthy of their first promises; that the evening — the closing hour of their freedom may display a brightness not less splendid, though more aweful, than the dawn; so that the names of Seville and Andalusia may be consecrated among men, and be words of life to endless generations.
Saragossa! — She also has given bond, by her past actions, that she cannot forget her duty and will not shrink from it.
Valencia is under the seal of the same obligation. The multitudes of men who were arrayed in the fields of Baylen, and upon the mountains of the North; the peasants of Asturias, and the students of Salamanca; and many a solitary and untold-of hand, which, quitting for a moment the plough or the spade, has discharged a more pressing debt to the country by levelling with the dust at least one insolent and murderous Invader; — these have attested the efficacy of the passions which we have been contemplating — that the will of good men is not a vain impulse, heroic desires a delusive prop; — have proved that the condition of human affairs is not so forlorn and desperate, but that there are golden opportunities when the dictates of justice may be unrelentingly enforced, and the beauty of the inner mind substantiated in the outward act; — for a visible standard to look back upon; for a point of realized excellence at which to aspire; a monument to record; — for a charter to fasten down; and, as far as it is possible, to preserve.
Yes! there was an annunciation which the good received with gladness; a bright appearance which emboldened the wise to say — We trust that Regeneration is at hand; these are works of recovered innocence and wisdom:
Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo; Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna; Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto.
The spirits of the generous, of the brave, of the meditative, of the youthful and undefiled — who, upon the strongest wing of human nature, have accompanied me in this journey into a fair region — must descend: and, sorrowful to think! it is at the name and remembrance of Britain that we are to stoop from the balmy air of this pure element. Our country did not create, but there was created for her, one of those golden opportunities over which we have been rejoicing: an invitation was offered — a summons sent to her ear, as if from heaven, to go forth also and exhibit on her part, in entire coincidence and perfect harmony, the beneficent action with the benevolent will; to advance in the career of renovation upon which the Spaniards had so gloriously entered; and to solemnize yet another marriage between Victory and Justice. How she acquitted herself of this duty, we have already seen and lamented: yet on this — and on this duty only — ought the mind of that army and of the government to have been fixed. Every thing was smoothed before their feet; — Providence, it might almost be said, held forth to the men of authority in this country a gracious temptation to deceive them into the path of the new virtues which were stirring; — the enemy was delivered over to them; and they were unable to close their infantine fingers upon the gift. — The helplessness of infancy was their’s — oh! could I but add, the innocence of infancy!
Reflect upon what was the temper and condition of the Southern Peninsula of Europe — the noble temper of the people of this mighty island sovereigns of the all-embracing ocean; think also of the condition of so vast a region in the Western, continent and its islands; and we shall have cause to fear that ages may pass away before a conjunction of things, so marvellously adapted to ensure prosperity to virtue, shall present itself again. It could scarcely be spoken of as being to the wishes of men, — it was so far beyond their hopes. — The government which had been exercised under the name of the old Monarchy of Spain — this government, imbecile even to dotage, whose very selfishness was destitute of vigour, had been removed; taken laboriously and foolishly by the plotting Corsican to his own bosom; in order that the world might see, more triumphantly set forth than since the beginning of things had ever been seen before, to what degree a man of bad principles is despicable — though of great power — working blindly against his own purposes. It was a high satisfaction to behold demonstrated, in this manner, to what a narrow domain of knowledge the intellect of a Tyrant must be confined; that if the gate by which wisdom enters has never been opened, that of policy will surely find moments when it will shut itself against its pretended master imperiously and obstinately. To the eyes of the very peasant in the field, this sublime truth was laid open — not only that a Tyrant’s domain of knowledge is narrow, but melancholy as narrow; inasmuch as — from all that is lovely, dignified, or exhilarating in the prospect of human nature — he is inexorably cut off; and therefore he is inwardly helpless and forlorn.
Was not their hope in this — twofold hope; from the weakness of him who had thus counteracted himself; and a hope, still more cheering, from the strength of those who had been disburthened of a cleaving curse by an ordinance of Providence — employing their most wilful and determined enemy to perform for them the best service which man could perform? The work of liberation was virtually accomplished — we might almost say, established. The interests of the people were taken from a government whose sole aim it had been to prop up the last remains of its own decrepitude by betraying those whom it was its duty to protect; — withdrawn from such hands, to be committed to those of the people; at a time when the double affliction which Spain had endured, and the return of affliction with which she was threatened, made it impossible that the emancipated Nation could abuse its new-born strength to any substantial injury to itself. — Infinitely less favourable to all good ends was the condition of the French people when, a few years past, a Revolution made them, for a season, their own masters, — rid them from the incumbrance of superannuated institutions — the galling pressure of so many unjust laws — and the tyranny of bad customs. The Spaniards became their own masters: and the blessing lay in this, that they became so at once: there had not been time for them to court their power: their fancies had not been fed to wantonness by ever-changing temptations: obstinacy in them would not have leagued itself with trivial opinions: petty hatreds had not accumulated to masses of strength conflicting perniciously with each other: vanity with them had not found leisure to flourish — nor presumption: they did not assume their authority, — it was given them, — it was thrust upon them. The perfidy and tyranny of Napoleon ‘compelled,’ says the Junta of Seville in words before quoted, ‘the whole Nation to take up arms and to choose itself a form of government; and, in the difficulties and dangers into which the French had plunged it, all — or nearly all — the provinces, as it were by the inspiration of Heaven and in a manner little short of miraculous, created Supreme Juntas — delivered themselves up to their guidance — and placed in their hands the rights and the ultimate fate of Spain.’ — Governments, thus newly issued from the people, could not but act from the spirit of the people — be organs of their life. And, though misery (by which I mean pain of mind not without some consciousness of guilt) naturally disorders the understanding and perverts the moral sense, — calamity (that is suffering, individual or national, when it has been inflicted by one to whom no injury has been done or provocation given) ever brings wisdom along with it; and, whatever outward agitation it may cause, does inwardly rectify the will.
But more was required; not merely judicious desires; not alone an eye from which the scales had dropped off — which could see widely and clearly; but a mighty hand was wanting. The government had been formed; and it could not but recollect that the condition of Spain did not exact from her children, as a first requisite, virtues like those due and familiar impuls
es of Spring-time by which things are revived and carried forward in accustomed health according to established order — not power so much for a renewal as for a birth — labour by throes and violence; — a chaos was to be conquered — a work of creation begun and consummated; — and afterwards the seasons were to advance, and continue their gracious revolutions. The powers, which were needful for the people to enter upon and assist in this work, had been given; we have seen that they had been bountifully conferred. The Nation had been thrown into — rather, lifted up to — that state when conscience, for the body of the people, is not merely an infallible monitor (which may be heard and disregarded); but, by combining — with the attributes of insight to perceive, and of inevitable presence to admonish and enjoin — the attribute of passion to enforce, it was truly an all-powerful deity in the soul.
Oh! let but any man, who has a care for the progressive happiness of the species, peruse merely that epitome of Spanish wisdom and benevolence and ‘amplitude of mind for highest deeds’ which, in the former part of this investigation, I have laid before the reader: let him listen to the reports — which they, who really have had means of knowledge, and who are worthy to speak upon the subject, will give to him — of the things done or endured in every corner of Spain; and he will see what emancipation had there been effected in the mind; — how far the perceptions — the impulses — and the actions also — had outstripped the habit and the character, and consequently were in a process of permanently elevating both; and how much farther (alas! by infinite degrees) the principles and practice of a people, with great objects before them to concentrate their love and their hatred, transcend the principles and practice of governments; not excepting those which, in their constitution and ordinary conduct, furnish the least matter for complaint.
Then it was — when the people of Spain were thus rouzed; after this manner released from the natal burthen of that government which had bowed them to the ground; in the free use of their understandings, and in the play and ‘noble rage’ of their passions; while yet the new authorities, which they had generated, were truly living members of their body, and (as I have said) organs of their life: when that numerous people were in a stage of their journey which could not be accomplished without the spirit which was then prevalent in them, and which (as might be feared) would too soon abate of itself; — then it was that we — not we, but the heads of the British army and Nation — when, if they could not breathe a favouring breath, they ought at least to have stood at an awful distance — stepped in with their forms, their impediments, their rotten customs and precedents, their narrow desires, their busy and purblind fears; and called out to these aspiring travellers to halt — ’For ye are in a dream;’ confounded them (for it was the voice of a seeming friend that spoke); and spell-bound them, as far as was possible, by an instrument framed ‘in the eclipse’ and sealed ‘with curses dark.’ — In a word, we had the power to act up to the most sacred letter of justice — and this at a time when the mandates of justice were of an affecting obligation such as had never before been witnessed; and we plunged into the lowest depths of injustice: — We had power to give a brotherly aid to our Allies in supporting the mighty world which their shoulders had undertaken to uphold; and, while they were expecting from us this aid, we undermined — without forewarning them — the ground upon which they stood. The evil is incalculable; and the stain will cleave to the British name as long as the story of this island shall endure.
Did we not (if, from this comprehensive feeling of sorrow, I may for a moment descend to particulars) — did we not send forth a general, one whom, since his return, Court, and Parliament, and Army, have been at strife with each other which shall most caress and applaud — a general, who, in defending the armistice which he himself had signed, said in open Court that he deemed that the French army was entitled to such terms. The people of Spain had, through the Supreme Junta of Seville, thus spoken of this same army: ‘Ye have, among yourselves, the objects of your vengeance; — attack them; — they are but a handful of miserable panic-struck men, humiliated and conquered already by their perfidy and cruelties; — resist and destroy them: our united efforts will extirpate this perfidious nation.’ The same Spaniards had said (speaking officially of the state of the whole Peninsula, and no doubt with their eye especially upon this army in Portugal) — ’Our enemies have taken up exactly those positions in which they may most easily be destroyed’ — Where then did the British General find this right and title of the French army in Portugal? ‘Because,’ says he in military language, ‘it was not broken.’ — Of the MAN, and of the understanding and heart of the man — of the CITIZEN, who could think and feel after this manner in such circumstances, it is needless to speak; but to the GENERAL I will say, This is most pitiable pedantry. If the instinctive wisdom of your Ally could not be understood, you might at least have remembered the resolute policy of your enemy. The French army was not broken? Break it then — wither it — pursue it with unrelenting warfare — hunt it out of its holds; — if impetuosity be not justifiable, have recourse to patience — to watchfulness — to obstinacy: at all events, never for a moment forget who the foe is — and that he is in your power. This is the example which the French Ruler and his Generals have given you at Ulm — at Lubeck — in Switzerland — over the whole plain of Prussia — every where; — and this for the worst deeds of darkness; while your’s was the noblest service of light.
This remonstrance has been forced from me by indignation: — let me explain in what sense I propose, with calmer thought, that the example of our enemy should be imitated. — The laws and customs of war, and the maxims of policy, have all had their foundation in reason and humanity; and their object has been the attainment or security of some real or supposed — some positive or relative — good. They are established among men as ready guides for the understanding, and authorities to which the passions are taught to pay deference. But the relations of things to each other are perpetually changing; and in course of time many of these leaders and masters, by losing part of their power to do service and sometimes the whole, forfeit in proportion their right to obedience. Accordingly they are disregarded in some instances, and sink insensibly into neglect with the general improvement of society. But they often survive when they have become an oppression and a hindrance which cannot be cast off decisively, but by an impulse — rising either from the absolute knowledge of good and great men, — or from the partial insight which is given to superior minds, though of a vitiated moral constitution, — or lastly from that blind energy and those habits of daring which are often found in men who, checked by no restraint of morality, suffer their evil passions to gain extraordinary strength in extraordinary circumstances. By any of these forces may the tyranny be broken through. We have seen, in the conduct of our Countrymen, to what degree it tempts to weak actions, — and furnishes excuse for them, admitted by those who sit as judges. I wish then that we could so far imitate our enemies as, like them, to shake off these bonds; but not, like them, from the worst — but from the worthiest impulse. If this were done, we should have learned how much of their practice would harmonize with justice; have learned to distinguish between those rules which ought to be wholly abandoned, and those which deserve to be retained; and should have known when, and to what point, they ought to be trusted. — But how is this to be? Power of mind is wanting, where there is power of place. Even we cannot, as a beginning of a new journey, force or win our way into the current of success, the flattering motion of which would awaken intellectual courage — the only substitute which is able to perform any arduous part of the secondary work of ‘heroic wisdom;’ — I mean, execute happily any of its prudential regulations. In the person of our enemy and his chieftains we have living example how wicked men of ordinary talents are emboldened by success. There is a kindliness, as they feel, in the nature of advancement; and prosperity is their Genius. But let us know and remember that this prosperity, with all the terrible features which it has gradual
ly assumed, is a child of noble parents — Liberty and Philanthropic Love. Perverted as the creature is which it has grown up to (rather, into which it has passed), — from no inferior stock could it have issued. It is the Fallen Spirit, triumphant in misdeeds, which was formerly a blessed Angel.
If then (to return to ourselves) there be such strong obstacles in the way of our drawing benefit either from the maxims of policy or the principles of justice: what hope remains that the British Nation should repair, by its future conduct, the injury which has been done? — We cannot advance a step towards a rational answer to this question — without previously adverting to the original sources of our miscarriages; which are these: — First; a want, in the minds of the members of government and public functionaries, of knowledge indispensible for this service; and, secondly, a want of power, in the same persons acting in their corporate capacities, to give effect to the knowledge which individually they possess. — Of the latter source of weakness, — this inability as caused by decay in the machine of government, and by illegitimate forces which are checking and controuling its constitutional motions, — I have not spoken, nor shall I now speak: for I have judged it best to suspend my task for a while: and this subject, being in its nature delicate, ought not to be lightly or transiently touched. Besides, no immediate effect can be expected from the soundest and most unexceptionable doctrines which might be laid down for the correcting of this evil. — The former source of weakness, — namely, the want of appropriate and indispensible knowledge, — has, in the past investigation, been reached, and shall be further laid open; not without a hope of some result of immediate good by a direct application to the mind; and in full confidence that the best and surest way to render operative that knowledge which is already possessed — is to increase the stock of knowledge.
Delphi Complete Works of William Wordsworth Page 322
