The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-24 00:00:00

she has to give in exchange for our manufactures. Let t
us remember our own Corn-laws, and the debates which
not later than this year have taken place upon them in
Parliament, and I think that even the Noble Marquis
himself will be inclined to give the Spaniards a little
further time for distinguishing more clearly the point at
which monopoly and private interest should yield before the
general good. Before we talk lightlyof other nations, to mea-
sure them by our own standard is Lut just towards them,
and it may afterwards be useful to ourselves. Liberty in
in Spain is, to be sure, but in its dawn, and struggling for
existence, while ours, thank God, is upon an imperishable
basis ; but, my Lords, bofore we look down with contempt
upon Spaniards, from the height to which we have glo-
riously, but not without labour, ascended since our own
civil wars, let us see in what manner they have hitherto
used the liberty they have gained. I have already ad-
verted to the good effects which the creation of public
opinion have produced, and I can assure your Lordships
that both the people and their representatives have
already given abundant proof that they understand and
value a constitutional form of Government. The elections
excite the greatest interest—every class of opinion is fairly
represented in the Cortes, and the debates are conducted
in the Chambers in a manner, and with a decorum, my
Lo-ds, which are not unworthy even of our own conside-
ra ion. I have been in the constant habit of attending the
debates in the Cortes, and I can assure your Lordships
that I never saw more than one deputy or senator specking
at the same time, nor did I ever see the Chamber justly
exposed to being charged by its own members with
habitual disorder in its proceedings. I
,have heard from
Catholic Prelates in those Chambers, sentiments breathing
as pure a spirit of Christian piety and religious toleration
as those which emanate from the Right Rev. Prelates in
this House. I have never failed to see the Government in
those Chambers meet with the vigorous and constitutional
opposition which every Government under a representative
system ought to meet with, but I have also seen that oppo-
sition, whenever danger was imminent, lay aside all party
spirit, and so far from endeavouring factiously to embarrass
the Government, rally round it and be united as one man
against the common danger~ywhich the country was
threatened. I say then, my Lords, that Spaniards know
how to appreciate the value and to enter into the spirit of
Representative Government. Then in Spain the press is
as free and unshackled as in England—the conduct of the
Government and of every public functionary is canvassed
with the utmost severity, and Juries are as unwilling to
check the liberty, or it may be the licentiousness, of the
press in Spain as they arc in England ; and, my Lords, I
may here be permitted to advert to a most remarkable fact
as connected with the press. In Spain there is a Queen,
and during her minority the Government is administered
by the Queen Regent, and with regard to that august Per.
soilage, I have never known any other language used by
the press than that of respect and devotion. In times of
trouble, and excitement, and civil war, the passions of
Spaniards have never hurried them into expressions of dis-
respect towards their Sovereign. All the good that befell
the nation was attributed to her, and the blame of every ill
was laid upon her Ministers, and I only remember one in.
stance of a foul libel upon the Queen Regent having been
published, and I shall not easily forget the burst of public
indignation with which it was received by all classes of Spa-
niards at Madrid. A Jury was not then found wanting to do its
duty,and the author of the libel was condemned to thegreatest
punishment which the law permitted. There was not a
man who did not appear to think that an attempt to lower
the dignity of the Crown was a national insult—an insult
replete with evil and danger; and that publicly to calum-
niate a woman, and that woman the Queen, was a national
degradation. I say then, my Lords, that if such is the use
that Spaniards make of their new institutions—and I repeat
that the fairest mode of trying their merit in so doing is by
comparison with ourselves—the Noble Marquis is no more
justified in saying that Spaniards have a disgust for their
institutions, than he has to charge her Majesty's Ministers
with having promoted political changes in that country, or
to say that our policy in Spain led to the Canadian revolt,
and the occupation of Algiers by the French, for such are
the somewhat startling assertions to be found in the Noble
Marquis's speech of last year. My Lords, I opine that
we have never, directly nor indirectly, interfered with the
political changes that have taken place in Spain ; but I do
say that it is natural that our sympathies and good wishes
should be enlisted on the side of a country struggling to
rescue itself from oppression and degradation, and
to recover its lost place among the nations of
Europe. It is not only our sympathies, however, that
should be enlisted in behalf of Spain, for I believe that a
nation ought not to have sympathies, but should be guided
by its interests ; and I say we have an enormous interest in
the triumph of the Queen's cause—first, because it is by
that triumph alone that the Peninsula can ever be tranquil,
and enjoy and impart the blessings that tranquillity brings
into it ; next, because it is to Spain, under liberal insti-
tutions, and not under an absolute form of Government, that
we must look for a useful ally—that we may expect to find
a wealthy customer for our productions, and new markets
for our manufactures, and a friend instead of an enemy in
our political relations with the rest of Europe ; and in the
present state of these relations neither friends nor enemies
arc to be despised. My Lords, I have not the presump-
tion to expect that I can in way influence the opinions of
the Noble Marquis respecting Spain ; but I cannot con-
ceive that those opinions are held in common with many of
your Lordships, for lam sure that whoever has read the
history of Europe rightly, as connected with Spain, and
more especially for the last 150 years, must acknowledge
that the power, prosperity, and above all, in the indepen-
dence of Spain we are deeply interested. Her Majesty's
Government having taken this view, this, in my opi-
nion, most just and proper views of .the interests of
Great Britain have, during the last six years, ren-
dered very important services to Spain, for which that
country, whatever the Noble Marquis may think to the
contrary, is profoundly grateful, and for my own part I
only regret that that debt of gratitude should not be
greater, and that circumstances should have prevented her
Majesty's Government from more effectually assisting the
Queen of Spain. I regret that the restoration of Spain
to that rank among nations which she is beyond all ques-
tion destined again to occupy, should not have been more
exclusively owing to the aid which in her hour of difficulty
she received from this country. My Lords, I have only
now to thank your Lordships sincerely for the attention
with which you have been pleased to listen to me, and
again to apologize for having obtruded myself upon your
notice ; but, my Lords, connected as I have been with
Spain, and knowing as I do how sensitively alive Spa-
niards are to the good opinion of Englishmen, and how
deeply mortified they have been at the misrepresentations
which have been current respecting them in England, I
was anxious to avail myself of the only opportunity that
can occur during the present Session of Parliament to
record (although I may have done it in a feeble and in-
effectual manner) the opinion which, by close observation,
I have conscientiously formed of that brave and generous,
but (in this country) much misrepresented people.
Viscount MELBOURNE said that after the eloquent
specch'of his Noble Friend, he should merely confine him-
self to answering the questions put by the Noble Lord.
But considering the observations by which the Noble Lord
had introduced those questions t ) the House, it was natural
and proper that his Noble Friend should take that oppor-
tunity of making that statement which he had just now so
eloquently laid before their Lordships.—(Cheers.) In
answer to the first question, he would state that there was
no engagement contracted by the treaty of the Quadruple
Alliance, which prevented Great Britain from entering
into negotiations with the other Powers for the pacification
of Spain. It was impossible that such could be the case.
That treaty was known to all the Powers of Europe, and
had been laid on the tables of both Houses of Parliament ;
but although there was nothing in that treaty preventing
our entering into negociations with the other Powers for
the pacification of Spain, yet what had been stated by his
Noble Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
was certainly correct, that they were placed in a different
situation from other parties, for, having acknowledged the
Queen of Spain, we were bound to ask what were the
grounds of any proposed negotiation before entering into it.
These were the particular steps to which they were bound by
the treaty of Quadruple Alliance, and it had been stated
to Count Nesselrode, in reply to his note, that it was the
most anxious desire of this country to embrace every oppor-
tunity that could be afforded for finding means of bringing
the unfortunate state of affairs in that country to a satis-
factory termination. The Noble Lord had said that this
country had received the assistance of the three great
Powers in settling the affairs of Belgium, but the three
great Powers had been engaged in the settlement of
these affairs from the commencement. It was true the
conferences had been interrupted, but they had never
been absolutely dissolved. With respect to the Eliot
Convention, he was not going to enter into a discussion
respecting the atrocities which had been committed.
According to the last accounts, by an arrangement
which had taken place between General Ayerbe and
Cabrera, it appeared that they were justified in hoping
that the provisions of that Convention would become
general. But he must say, from the papers laid on the table
of that House, and from the evidence of Colonel Wylde,
there could be little doubt as to who commenced these
atrocities and cruelties, and which party had carried them
to the greatest extent; but he trusted they would now be
brought to a speedy termination on both sides. The ex-
planation given by his Noble Friend of the reasons why
the Convention bad not originally been extended to the
whole of Spain was satisfactory, that it would be exceed-
ingly impolitic to extend the Convention to those parts
where Don Carlos had no force, and where it would be
taken advantage of by marauders and robbers. With re-
spect to the claims of the Legion, all that could be done at
present was to ascertain the amount of claims due. Every
one was aware of the penury of the Spanish Government,
but he hoped eventually those claims would be met,
and no exertions should be wanted to urge them
on the attention of the Spanish Government.—
( Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord had concluded by a
violent attack on her Majesty's Government for having
by their policy tended to lower this countryN in the
Whether the
of the other Powers of Europe.
—(Cheers.
hal e e Mel-
bourne) had his own opinion conduct of the Noble Lord was likely to restore us to that
position, it was for others tno
ocnotnhsaidtesrubj.
eHete.
The Duke of WELLINGTON congratulated their
o
Lordships
the hope that they should at length see an
end puttotnhis disastrous and disgraceful system of war-
fare. He should not have troubled their Lordships on this
subject, lied he not imagined that the Noble Earl oppo.
site, who had se eloquently addressed their Lord-
ships, and the Noble Viscount also, were labouring
under some misapprehension as to the part which he
(the Noble Duke) had acted. He had frequently
stated that the position which this country should assume,
in order to obtain the object, which it appeared was at last
likely to be attained, was to assume its real position under
the Quadruple Treaty, and not to appear in the character
of a belligerent —( Cheers.) Let them acknowledge the
Queen of Spain if they pleased, and grant such assistance
as they were bound to grant by the treaty of Quadruple
Alliance, but let them do no more. Let them remain
strictly neutral, in all matters connected with carrying on
the war. He had said long ago, that if her Majesty's
Government had assumed this position, they must la ye
had influence to put an end to this system of warfare ; and
the proof of the justice of this opinion was, that at the
very first hint of a Power which was in a strict state of
neutrality, the thing was done, and if her Majesty's Go-
vernment had occupied the position of the Austrian Go-