The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-28 00:00:00

laughter.) The employment cf the Irish Legion by France,
and the Har.overians by England in the American war, would
supply sufficient precedents for the employment of the Bri-
tish Auxiliary Legion in Spain ; and our own expeditions
to the coast of France, for the restoration of the Bour-
_

bons, and to Quebec in the first American war, were cases in
point as to the expedition to Caretabria. Allusion had been
made to Canning, whom he considered one of the greatest
statesmen that ever lived, and he hoped they would remember
the policy by which he boasted to have called a new world into
life, to redress the balance of power in the old. His hope and
prayer for England had been fulfilled by the policy of the pre-
sent Government, that if ever England should go to war, it
should be for the maintenance of constitutional principles. As
to the subject of the repeal of the Order in Council, the re-
turn of the Legion made that perfectly unnecessary.
Sir A. DALRYNIPLE explained that he never said that
England ought to have paid the Foreign Legion.
Lord MAHON said that the statement of the Hon. and
Gallant Member for Westminster did not alter in the least
his previous opinion, advantage being derived either to the
country for which they fought or the country that sent them
forth.----( Cheers.) Could it be said that England had gained
any honour or glory by this campaign ? That could scarcely
be said with truth, looking at the lamentable results ; although
official opinions sometimes varied widely from those formed by
less interested spectators. For instance, the Noble Lord op-
posite had said that the result of the course pursued by her
Majesty's Ministers in Canada (and which ended in occasion-
ing a rebellion there) was one of the most glorious events for
England that had fallen under his observation.
Lord PALMERSTON—I never said any such thing.
Lord MA HON had heard the Noble Lord say so, and could
not be mistaken. He might, indeed, have been in jest when he
complimented himself and colleagues on the glory they de-
rived from having caused a rebellion and a civil war in
Canada, but if so, it was most uncivil irony.—( Loud cheers.)
The purchase of these British glories in Spain were rather
expensive. The item of stores were 537,0001. The account
due to the Legion from the Spanish Government was about a
quarter of a million.—( Hear.) Then, provisions to the ship-
ping, ship stores, and keeping up the ships themselves, made
up a million more. The sums now squandered in Spain would
be sufficient to keep up the Yeomen now about to be reduced
for rather more than a century. Did they mean to point out
for their admiration the unhappy relics of that expedition who
crowded their capital armless and legless ?—( Laughter on the
Ministerial benches.) If that laughter were raised at the mode
of his expression, it might be very suitable ; but if provoked
by the condition of those unhappy men, it was not the most
consistent return that would be made them. If the Noble
Lord had no other relics of the war to exhibit but those
miserable remnants, he might find it difficult to substantiate
his glories.—( Hear, hear.) Would he boast of our com-
mercial gains by the war ? There was a dispatch from the
Spanish Cabinet to Sir George Villiers, dated January 14,
1837, which declared that British subjects or property
should not be included in the forced loan of two hundred
millions of reels, or in the compulsory militia service ; yet
not long after, amongst those mulcted in the loan raised in the
town of Almeira, were the house of Macdonagh and O'Con-
nor ( British subjects) for 300 dollars, while another (Mr.
M`Nevin) was drawn for the quiche in the same town as a
common soldier, to march against Don Carlos if he approached,
and perhaps be shot if taken prisoner. Had Spain gained
anything? He would not pretend to give a military opinion
of his own, but he would venture that of the Duke of Wel-
lington (whose views were lauded to the skies by Gentlemen
opposite when they happened to agree with their own, as in
the case of Canada', who, on the 21st of April, 1837, said that
all the advantage obtained by the employment of the British
Legion in Spain was the removal of the blockade of St. Se-
bastian from one point to another, and thereby affording an
opportunity for the ladies and gentlemen of that tcwn to ex-
tend their evening promenades. —( Hear.) The true line of
policy which should have been pursued by the British Go-
vernment was to avoid as much as possible countenancing
either party, or, if by any treaty they were bound to give as-
sistance to the Queen of Spain, they should have taken care
riot to go one iota beyond the strict letter of that treaty.
The Basques had very ancient rights and privileges, and if
they adhered to them with ardour this country of all others
should sympathise with them, even although they added to
this ardour a conviction in the justice of the claims of Don
Carlos. With all courtesy to the Noble Lord, he must say
that the foreign policy of the country under his guidance was
" A monster of such hideous mein
As to be hated needs but to be seen."
Mr. V. SMITH said that as to the benefit Which Spain
had derived from the services of the Legion, perhaps the best
authority on that subject was the Queen of Spain herself. If
anything further were necessary, they had the notorious fact
that Don Carlos had lost the best part of his forces in his
several attempts to quit the Basque Provinces, and that he
had been compelled to place some of his best officers under ar-
rest, to prevent them abandoning his service. If, theu, the
cause of the Carlists had not advanced, how stood it with re-
gard to the cause of the Christinos ? They had, besides other
advantages, possessed themselves of all the passages loading
from France into Spain, and, inspired by the presence of the
3ritish Legion, had become better soldiers, and far better aVe
to perform their duty, than they were before.—(Hear.) All,
then, that the Government could do was to act up to th,,
Quadruple Treaty in all its principal points.--( Hear.) lie
(Mr. V. Smith) had always looked upon the Spanish contest
as a contest between liberal and arbitrary principles, because
it had ever been taken up as such by all who had spoken upon
the question ; and he thought that no man could hesitate
for a moment to say that such a distinction as that of
liberal and arbitrary existed between the Carlist and Chris-
tino policy. With respect to their having sent out arms
and ammunition to Spain, the same thing had been done
during the time when the Duke of Wellington adminis-
tered the affairs of the Foreign Office, and the Noble Duke's
Government was equally answerable with the present for their
share in that part of the policy which had been pursued.—
(" No, no I") With regard to the division en this question,
be would say, as he had said before, that he did not think any
sufficient reason had been shown for such a motion as had been
brought forward.—( Hear, hear.) The only real question in
the case was, whether the Government was right in sending
out the Legion or not, in support of the Treaty into which
they had entered. But the consequence of this motion, if
cat ried, would only be to show that there was a party in this
country ready to support the Carlists if they had the oppor-
tunity —( Hear, hear.) He could not understand the argu-
ment of the Hon. Gentleman opposite on this motion. He
could not understand it, he repeated, and he would conclude
by asking them why they always went so far abroad as Spain
or Canada on these occasions of censure, and why they did
not at once come boldly ferward, and " thrust home ?"
Mr. PE NI BERTON said it was the object of this motion to
assert that by such as interference as had been adopted with
regard to the affairs of Spain, a great and most important
principle had been violated—(Cheers)—and, therefore, to
call upon the House to address her Majesty, in the hope that
such a course of policy would no longer be persevered in.—
( ar, hear.) The principle they thus called upon the House
to anion was one which, unless he was much mistaken, he
had heard asserted by the Nagle Lord opposite, and was one
of the principles on which Earl Grey's Governmert took office
—( Hear, hear)—Lord Grey having himself expressly stated
that non-interference in the internal affairs of foreign nations
was one of the three great principles on which his Govern-
ment was determined and professed to found its policy. The
object of those, then, who brought forward the present mo-
tion was to call upon the House of Commons to respect this
great principle, to re-adapt this policy, and to address the
Throne, praying that her Majesty would no longer permit the
continuance of tho employment of British troops in the con-
test between the two great parties now at war in Spain—
( Hear, hear.) The propositions which this motion asserted
were--first, that the course pursued with regard to Spain was
unattended with any advantage to England ; secondly, that
it was unaccompanied by any benefits to Spain herself ; and,
thirdly, that this country was not bound by any existing
treaties with Spain to perform duties inconsistent with the
principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other
countries.—( Hear, hear.) These were facts which Gould not
be displaced by any elamarous railing against Don Carlo.—
(Hear, hear.) They must give their verdict upon principles
like these in the same manner as the country gave it. But bad
the policy of the Government been in unison with these prin-
ciples e-_( Hear, hear.) As far as the interests of this country
were concerned, no man had ever contended that the policy
pursued had been attended with advantage. What, then, was
the nature of the charge against her Majesty's Government?
It was that they had so far miscalculated the forces of the
Carlists and the Christinos, and so far erred in their specula-
tions with regard to the Spanish finances that they had en-
couraged their own countrymen to enter upon an expedition
in which certain failure awaited them—(Hear)—and he must
be allowed to say that it was incumbent on them as a Govern-
ment to show on what considerations they had given counte-
nance or encouragement to the British forces leaving the
shores of this country. On the Ist of June, 1835, the
present Government began their coarse of peddling policy •
and very soon afterwards foreigners and strangers ' '
were
embarked in the Spanish contest, and the result was the
Durango decree—( Cries of " Hear, hear")—a measure which
the Spaniards considered had been rendered necessary by the
policy pursued towards them. He believed that no human
being had more reason to regret the Durango decree than
Don Carlos himself, for nothing but the indignation which
that decree had excited against him could have driven the
people of this country to the gross injustice and impolicy of
the course which they pursued. With respect to the advan-
tage which this assistance had produced to Spain, be might
ask what had been the result so far as the cause of the Queen
of Spain was concerned ? It seemed to be admitted on all
bands that the test of the military operations, contrasting their
former with their present state, was favourable to the Carlist
cause. In proof of this he might appeal to the state of the
Carlist forces at the time the Durango edict was issued and
at the present time, but he believed there was no dispute as
to the point on either side of that House. On the 24th of
June, 1831, this was the account of the Carlist troops given by
the Nofo
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this partial and local insurrection that the present effort •to
be made. And here I will answer the question e question of the is
Noble
side Lord who asks mo on which
the majority of the Spanish
nation, and I have no hesitation in saying that
majo-
rity of the nation is with the Queen. theil great e
proof of this fact
is to bo found in the circumstance that for nearly a year and a
half the resistance to her authority has been confined to two or
three particular provinces, and that no disturbances. have
g
broken out in any other parts of the kin dm
Such was the condition of the thisCarlistsato:.
od accord-
ing to the Noble Lord, and then it was that period,
the o
12,000 British troops were sent out to aid the
Spanishlo,ooo or
o r.
vernment in putting down the insurrection. Well, `3°-
were sent out-.-they arrived, and were beet- ose Legion
troops belonging to the Queen of Spat but -ed
what by loom()the
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