French circulated, and particularly those which the baseness of the late government still permitted to be published in Madrid. And care was to be taken to convince the nation, that when they had freed themselves from this intestine war, the Cortes would be assembled, abuses reformed, and such laws enacted as the circumstances of the times required and experience might dictate for the public good: “Things,” said they, “which we Spaniards know how to do, and which we have done, as well as other nations, without any necessity that the vile French should come to instruct us, and, according to their custom, under the mask of friendship, and wishes for our happiness, contrive (for this alone they are contriving) to plunder us, to violate our women, to assassinate us, to deprive us of our liberty, our laws, and our King; to scoff at and destroy our holy religion, as they have hitherto done, and will always continue to do, so long as that spirit of perfidy and ambition, which oppresses and tyrannizes over them, shall endure.” ♦MEASURES FOR ENROLLING THE PEOPLE.♦ A general enrolment of men from the age of sixteen to that of forty-five was ordered by this Junta in the name of Ferdinand. They were to be divided into three classes; the first consisted of volunteers, who were to march wherever their respective Juntas, or _Ayuntamientos_, by the direction of the Supreme Junta, might order them; and were then either to be embodied with the regular troops, or formed into separate corps, and act with them, being in all things subject to the same duties. The second class consisted of unmarried men, and those who, whether married or widowers, had no children; these were to hold themselves ready for service in the second instance. The third class included fathers of families, persons in minor orders, and others who were employed in those offices of the church which were not indispensably necessary for public worship: this class was not to be called upon till the last extremity, when it became the duty of all to offer their lives in defence of the country. But this being the time of harvest, and it having pleased the Almighty to bless the land with an abundant one, all persons included in the second and third classes were enjoined, whatever their rank and property might be, to lend their personal service in collecting it, and this was required from those who were above the age of forty-five as well as from others: so would they deserve well of the country, and the Junta expressed their confidence that no persons would so far derogate from the generosity of the Spanish character, as to take advantage of the times, and demand an exorbitant price for day labour. There were many villages where the women reaped and performed other agricultural offices; this they might do every where, and in so doing the Junta would consider them as rendering the greatest service to their country; the clergy also, secular and regular, were invited to set a generous example, by taking