The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-30 00:00:00

PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Our attention has been directed to a pamphlet just
published by Ridgway, entitled " The policy of
England towards Spain." Professing to be a cursory
examination of the chapter on the Basque provinces in
Lord Carnarvon's work on Portugal and Galicia, it is,
in fact, a most able and searching analysis of the entire
Spanish question. It is a most valuable contribution,
at such a moment, to the information we possess upon
the subject, and should be read, attentively read and
considered, by every man who desires to arrive at a
correct and impartial conclusion upon the progress
and present position of affairs in the Peninsula. how-
ever desirous we may be, our space will not permit us
to accompany the writer through his examination of
this important question. We the less regrGt this, as
we shall doubtless be compelled to revei't to the sub-
ject, when we shall be able to make a more advanta-
geous use of the information and- the reasoning of this
able writer. For the present we confine ourselves
to one topic, upon which no doubt a good deal of
stress will be laid by such " moderate" men as
Lyndhurst and Mahon in the opposition which
is to be given to the foreign policy of his Ma-
jesty's Government. France justified her abandon-
ment of the Quadruple Treaty, by referring to the re-
volution of La Granja. It was the subject of disapproba-
tion with the King, of severe censure with his Minis-
ters, of the most violent invectives with the Govern-
ment press. France, or rather its concentrated Go-
vernment, was applauded, while England was censured
—the one because it forsook, the other because it con-
tinued to aid the system, created by the Revolution.
What justice is there in such proceeding? What pro.
duced the events of La Granja ? We agree with the
writer before us, that the mortent the French frontier
is effectually closed, the civil war is at an end. The
Government of Louis Philippe has been feeding the
rebellion for the last three years, whether through' fear
or duplicity matters not. The fact is so. The conti-
nuance of the civil war drove the people in their exas-
peration to the desperate remedy of a revolution ; and
for that revolution, if it be an evil, France is hersel
responsible

" Every step onwards in Revolution in Spain," says tee
author of this pamphlet, "has been caused by the civil, -war
alone." " Changes of Government effected by :noisy
brawlers were sanctioned by the nation, in the lneoeie that
new men might bririg with them new vigour, are() put an
crol to a state of things Which Which bad become intolerable.
If Zee bad crushed the war in its birth, Zea and
Men-
lightened despotism would not have artinez de
la Rona and the Estatuto Real were eercethrown by the
military failures 'which occurred at tae latter period of
his Administration. Mendizabal -"lt'd have continued
Prime Minister of Spain if be had been able to fulfil his
promises of terminating the struggle ; and-the cry of the
Constitution put an end to the calamitous Government of
Isturitz, chiefly because that Government, beyond all pre-
ceding ones, was distiTruished by military reverses."
This is the troe cause of the instability of each suc-
cessive Government in Spain, and we confess we can-
not see in it anything to excite either censure or sur-
prise. Those who may be preparing their declamations
on this inviting subject, will do well to throw their eye
over the brief history of the progress of events since
the outbreak of that revolution which they so much
condemn. Let them fairly examine the conduct of
the Spanish people, even at the moment of their
highest excitement ; and they will agree, we think,
with the author of these pages, that " there is
not another people in Europe who, under such try-
ing circumstances, would- have exhibited such mode-
ration." But our present purpose is not so much to
consider the cause of that revoluticin, or the conduct
of the people during its rapid accomplishment, as the
'effects it has produced upon the cause of moderate and
weil-ordeeed Government in Spain. Let it, then, be
decided-which was the wiser and the more honourable
policy—to abandon Spain in the moment of its greatest
difficulty—difreedtv not altogether of its own creation,
or to adhere to the engagements upon which we had
entered, and enjoy the proud triumph of being the
chief instrument of giving peace to that distracted
and, by the establishment of a Constitutional Govern-
ment. The writer, whose work we have been coneie
tiering, very truly observes, that " the British Govern-
ment never has, and never could have, supported a
democratic party in Spain. Their object and their
interest was to uphold moderate men, and to esta-
blish a moderate system capable of regulating the
progress of improvement in the Peninsula. At the
time of Ferdinand's death there was every pro-
spect of the experiment being attended with suc-
cess. Those prospects have since been as vari-
able in their aspect as the military events
upon which they became dependent. The chances
of success never have been, and are not now extin-
guished ; but we affirm, that had they been incom-
parably less than they were, England adopted the
most judicious course upon the death of the King ;
and had the chances of success become since that time
incomparably worse than they have, it would have
been mean and ungenerous, and therefore unwise, for
England to have withdrawn her support from her ally,
or to have shrunk from the consequences of her own
act." That our policy was generous, and, therefore,
wise, no man who is not steeped to the lips in party
prejudice will deriy That it has been successful the
present position: of affairs in Spain incontestably
proves. Our co-operation has secured the triumph,
the decisive triumph, of the Queen's arms in the
north, while the influence which our conduct gave us
at Madrid has,•if not caused, materially contributed to
the moderate and constitutional progress of the Go-
vernment that was called into existence by the Revo-
lution. Look at- the conduct of the " democratic"
Cortes, and find a parallel to its moderation and it
wisdom in the proceedings of any legislative assembly
in the world. Did. England err in judg-
ment when she refused to abandon that Govern-
ment in its hour of trouble ? What have the
Cortes done to justify the invectives hurled
against them by the faithless, though profes-
sing, friends, who first betray and then ca-
lumniate ? Look at their votes upon the Regency ;
upon the restrictive measures demanded by the Minis-
ter; upon the various modifications proposed in the
Constitution ; look, in fact, to_ every measure that has
emanated from them since they were called together.
Turning from this gratifying progress of constitutional
- legislation at Madrid, see the altered aspect of the war.
The victory of Iribarren is followed by the capture of
the Cerlist stronghold in Aragon—Cantavieja—the
utter defeat of Maroto in Catalonia—then there was
the disastrous expedition of Sanz to Galicia, and the
ruinous excursion of Gomez to the south :
" The expedition of Gomez," the writer before us justly
observes, " has proved that whenever the Queen's Gene-
rals really chose to look for and attack the Carlists, they
will always find and beat them ; for Gomez, with 12,000,
was met and completely routed by Narvaez with 4,000.
That expedition further proves, that either there exists no
sympathy for Don Carlos in the greater part of Spain, or
else that the party favourable to his pretensions, is too
timid or insignificant to show itself. Except in one or two
insignificant places, not a manifestation ,was made in
favour of Don Carlos, and in those places order was in-
stantly restored, upon the return of the local authorities
to their functions. In the retreat of Gomez, as well as in
that of Cabrera, the Carlists were harassed on all sides by
the peasantry, and the stragglers were hunted down and
killed like wild beasts. In Galicia, the Asturias; Leon,
Castile, Aragon, Valencia, Andalusia, Estremadura, Mur-
cia, and La Mancha—in short, in nearly the whole of
Spain which has been traversed by Gomez, it is mani-
fest that the people are not disposed to take pal with Don
Carlos."
The last and most decisive proof of the power of
the Constitutional cause, and the weakness of the Pre-
tender, is furnished in the raising of the siege of Bil-
1-ma. Such is a compressed epitome of the- course of
events, legislative and military, since the revolution of
La Granja, some of which England has produced, in
all of which, to her credit, she has participated. Have
the events justified her conduct or not ? We can under-
stand the objection of those whose feelings and whose
interests are bound up with the success of Don Carlos
as the representative of that despotic principle which
they are endeavouring to establish in England.
But may we ask those who agree with us in think-
ing—and they are the vast majority of the people of
England—that it is our interest, as it is our wish, to
srea Constitutional Government established in Spain,
Is hat course would they prescribe to the King's Minis-
ters other than that which they have adopted ? They
should have either gone further or remained absolutely
neuter. The latter they could not have done. They