The National Register.
London, England, 1817-12-08 00:00:00

br it ation Ist I 'llk toil t

No. 511.—VoL. X.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

ON THE INJUSTICE OF BRITISH INTERFERENCE
(BETWEEN SPAIN AND HER COLONIES.

Ws ha►e on several occasions expressed our opinion
on the nature of the contest now unhappily existing in
South America, and our readers are aware that our
sentiments are by no means so favourable to the cause
of what are usually called the Independents, as those of
many of our cotemporaries. As, however, we do not
consider the war between Spain and her Colonies of
that vital importance to this country which many
enthusiasts do, we had resolved in future to notice its
events no farther than by giving a faithfid report of the
proceedings of each party, as they arc from time to time
detailed in the Journals of the United States, and West
India Islands, the pompous bulletins of the Insurgents,
and the no less boastfid columns of the Madrid Gazette.
A circumstance has, however, occurred. within these
few days, which has drawn the attention of the public
so forcibly toward; the Revolutionary War, that we
ass compelled once more to advert to the subject.
Our readers are sufficiently aware that many enter-
prising spirits amongst us, whose valour was rusting in
these " piping times of peace," bad determined to seek
a new field of glory beyond the Atlantic, and, that
many of them had actually sailed for the destined scene
of scticn ; others were embarked, and many more were
preparing to follow. To prevent the farther =crease of
• practice which could not fail to embroil us with a
friendly power, Government have thought it right to
issue a Proclamation, "Prohibiting his Majesty's Natu-
ral born Subjects from serving, or enlisting, or entering
tbanwelves to serve in the Military Forces or Ships of
War, raised or set forth by the Persons exercising or as-
suming to exercise the Powers of Government in certain
Provinces and Pares of Provinces in Spanish America,'•
and that they should not be charged with entertaining
an unfair prejudice to either party, the same Proclama-
tion equally prohibits them from serving "in the Mili-
tary Forces of his Catholic Majesty employed in Spanish
America, or in his said Majesty's Ships of War."
This State document, as might be expected, has
created great diappointment among those persons who
had made preparation for their departure, and it has
renewed the :Jackal& fire of some of our journal-
ism, whose day-dreams of liberty were somewhat
broken by the hourly details of dissentions amongst
the champions of freedom, sudiciunt to convince the
mist sceptical, that, with them, individual, is para-
raoutlt to national considerations. These writers almost
despairing of success in a cause where " every man's
hand was against his brother," looked to the accession
of British talent as the means of giving a more dig..
ulfed character to the contest. The superior virtue of
Englishmen, they thought, would be equal to the
task of contnouling the licentiousness of the revolted,
and their superior skill and perseverance would insure
success to the cause of their darling liberty ; forgetting
that English virtue is not incapable of corruption, and
that vicious example has too often subdued its in-
tegrity The Buccaneers, whose attrocities have
handed down their execrated names to all posterity,
arc examples of this; and we much fear that the same
scenes will be revived on the same stage, the catastro-
phe of which will be as calamitous as the events are
bloody.
Those who had anticipated such beneficial results
from the !,ecession of British talent, cannot conceal
their chagrin at this Prohibition of the Government;
but we cannot see upon what just grounds either they
or the adventurers themselves can complain. From
the first, is was known that Government was unfavour-
able to t:,e spirit of adventure which animated them,
and variius appiicatio:, nude to the office of the Cout-
mander-in-Cl,Li on subject, were wholly (111S11e.•
eessful. Did the adventurers, then, suppose that the
Britizb. Government pewssed so little virtue, that it

Our Iting, Concitituttoi 'ant 1 abaci.

MONDAY, DECEMBE:

8, 1817.

would wink at those acts of aggression in its subjects
which it hail not openly disavowed If knowing
as they did, that their conduct was -offensive to their
government, they still persisted in their course, until •
positive mandate forbade them, have they, whose diso-
bedience called forth this mandate, or tIK government
whose patience they had abused, most right to com-
plain ? " If," says Vattel (B. c. c. 6r " a Sovereign
who might keep his subjects within the rules of justice
and peace, suffers them to injure a foreit• nation either
in its body or its members, he does no less injury to
that nation than if he injured it himself:: In short, the
safety of the State, and that of human sk ciety, requires
this attention from every Sovereign. If let loose
the reins to your subjects against foreign nations, these
will behave in the same manner to you ; %nd, instead of
that friendly intercourse which nature has established
between all men, we shall see nothing but one vast
and dreadful scene of plunder between nation and na-
tion." Here is the clear and equitable principle upon
which the British Government has acted, and that it
might be rigidly just, it extends its prohibition to both
parties. Thus far we have considered the question merely
asit respects ourselves, but thearguments againstour in-
terference are infinitely stronger if v e look to the
nature of the contest between Spain and America.—
Nothing like a substantial argument has been urged in
favour of the insurgent cause. Al.4e Pradt, " who
writes on all things, but on nothing well," has repre-
sented the South Americans as the most virtuous, and
the most oppressed people in the world ; but his state-
ments being notoriously flilse, the reasonings which
he builds upon them necessarily fall to the ground; all
his love of liberty, moreover, (his love of I:berty !) is to
be traced to the never-dying; hope of all Buonaparte's
creatures, that the yoke of England will be broken, no
matter by what means. Amongst ourselves the writer
who has been most indefatigable in upholding 'he cause
of the Insurgents, is the Editor of the Aluininoi Car ti-
nkle, but he, even, has never ventured to argue the
justice of their cause upon broad grow. Is, he always
reasons like a shop-keeper, and in the cc:.templation of
pounds shillings and pence, forgets that there is such a
thing as National Honour.—lie enters into long and
minute statements to prove that the freedom of South
America would increase our trade.

The Times bad very justly observed, that by espous-
ing the cause of the rebels, we should lusr the trade of
Old Spain, through which country we ,epplied South
America. The Chronicle with a bold less -thich to
do him justice, never leaves him, be he right or wrung,
asserts, " that this trade never amounted to a million
and a half per annum, whereas our trade with Buenos
Ayres alone, which arose altogether out of this ruinous
indepridence, amounts to more than ten millionsdol-
lars per annum." But will this writer tell us what
that trade would have been, had Buenos Ayres conti-
nued subject to the ravages of the remorseless Artigas ?
had nut the government of Brazil interfered to put a
stop to the devastation of contending parties, where
would have been the flourishing trade of Buenos Ayres?
But this is the illusory mode in which this writer rea-
sons in the vain hope of deceiving his readers.
But the most considerable person who has come
forward in this contest is the Quarterly Reviewer, and
from the high respect which we entertain for him,
we regret extremely the part he has taken. He erects
to.steer a middle course between the two conflicting
parties, yet he enumerates various oppressions and pri-
vations which the South Americans indure as an apo-
logy for their revolt. " The education of the lower or-
ders (says he) has been totally neglected, and though
instructed in some of the ritual observances of their re-
10.on, this instruction is seldom carried beyond the ad-
oration of the Virgin and the making of the sign of the
cross, while in the Indian villages their ancient idola-
try is frequently indulged to them by their Casirptes "
We may justly exclaim, "He that is faultless let him
cast the first stone." Until very lately what was the
state of education in our East India Settlements? and if
we talk of idolatry, let us look at the idolatry of Jagger-
naut, which we not only indulge to the natives but from
which we derive a revenue !

Thus it ever is when we attempt to be unjust to
others, we then become unjust to ourselves, our own ar-
guments recoil upon our heads. Between .-•aain and her
colonies we have no right to interfere, *Ti I, unless we
reason through the ixxiict, like the .Vo sing clinmicie,
we must say, that if we were compelled to take a decided
part, even-handed justice would point out the ,atuse of
the mother country as that which we should espouse.