The Sun.
London, England, 1831-02-22 00:00:00

been explained, what had they to read from that ? (The
Noble Lord then read the article which declared that the
Portuguese wines should continue to be received at an ad-
vantage in England, and our woollens to be introduced
into Portugal, and that the whole system respecting these
articles should remain unaltered for the present.) Well,
then, the argument simply wan, that so long as we choose
to take the Portuguese wines, so long might we continue to
have a market for our woollens; but that if we chose to
give up their Wines, or whenever we did do so. it should
be on the penalty of forfeiting the introduction of our
woollens into 'Portugal. The alterableness, it would be
observed, was provided for by the Methuen treaty, since
it positively declared, that if we abandoned the wines,
we should forfeit the introduction of our woollens. And
what then did the twenty-sixth article say? That this
arrangement should remain unaltered, or, in other
words, that, for the present, the whole Methuen treaty
shotalti remain unaltered. And was it, he asked, no
part of that treaty that we might, if we pleased,
increase the tax upon Portugusese wines upon the
penalty of thereby losing the market for our woollens. Yet
the Noble Lord supported the opinion that the treaty was
ineilterable—an opinion which no one dreamt of advancing
in 1703, or afterwards, until he produced the thirty-third
article in 1810. This article was to the effect, that the
Poi tuguese were to have fifteen years' notice of an altera-
tion in the arrangement (though all that was said at first
was " for the present") ; and, moreover, that there should
be no alteration without due notice. Now, put the case as
if it were not a treaty signed for the high contracting
parties by their Ministers Plenipotentiary, Ambassadors, or
Envoys Extraordinary, with all the solemnities belonging
to a treaty—but simply as an ordinary proceeding in their
Lordship' every-day life—a contract of the landlord with
his tenant ; and then let them see how any man would re-
ceive his tenant, or how he (Lord B. ) representing the
steward of one of their Lordships, would receive him, if
he came and said that he (the steward) was a faithless
man, because, having given him his land at a rate of, say
1001. a year, to be held from day to day, the rent to
remain unaltered for the present—how would he receive
that tenant if he c ime twenty-one years after to accuse
him of a breach of faith for having altered his
rent ? He might represent that twenty-one years was a
long " for the present ;" but still the tenant, not content
with this, claimed fifteen years' notice. But was this the
bargain ? When the declaration was, the arrangement
should be unaltered for the present, they construed it into
a period of 15 years, although they were enabled by the
terms of the treaty itself to abandon the Portuguese wines
whenever they fancied, simply on the penalty of losing
their market for woollens. Ile really was ashamed to
delay their Lordships so long upon a question so obvious.
The Noble Lord who introduced this matter had earnestly
declared that the bias of his mind was not in the least to
create embarrassment to the Government. His Noble
Friend said he would not embarrass the Government, and he
did not break his promise. —( Laughter. ) It was a customary
thing for Noble Lords and Hon. Gentlemen to make such
professions and promises, when they were at the same time
mind, d to do the Government all the mischief in their
power, and to occasion them all possible embarrassment—
(Laughter)—but his Noble Friend had been as good as his
word—(Laughter)—or indeed he had been a great deal
better—(Lauglrer)—for he did not say or do anything to
embarrass the Government in the least.—(Hear, and
laughter.)—He believed that his Noble Friend, although
using a customary phrase, was perfectly sincere in the
declaration it embodied ; anti even if he originally had
the intention of wandering from this pledge, his natural
good faith overcame him, and he rigidly adhered to it,
so that lie did consequently sit down without embarrass•
in;; the Government in the slightest degree.—(Hear, and
laughter.)—He would now himself make a promise, that,
like the other to which he alluded, was as often broken
as made. He would net trouble their Lordships
with many words.—(Laughter.)—Having sat there
since ten o'clock that morning, he was something in the
sane predicament with his Noble Friend. If he wished
to break his promise he was hardly capable of doing so.—
(Hear, and laughter.)—He could not, however, pass over
what had been said by the Noble Lord (Ellenborough),
touching economy, and our commercial interests, and this
without any notice. First, however, let him remark, that
the other Noble Lord had advised the maintenance of old
arrangements as well as a matter of policy as for the com-
mercial advantages. And in advocating these principles
himself, his Noble Friend had quoted the great authorities
of Mr. Fox, anti (as we understood) the Noble Lord at
the bead of the Government ; and speaking of the greater
effect of their splendid oratory as measured with his own,
compered it to that produced upon the Rhodiana, by the
oration of Demosthenes, when read by his great rival.—
[The Noble Lord then proceeded to quote from the follow-
ing passage as nearly as his memory enabled him. We
mention this because his Lordship changed the expressions
in several instances.]—(Eschines.) " Rogatua a Rhodiis
legisse fertur orationem illam egregiam, quam in Ctesi-
phontem contra Demosthenem dixerat : qua perlecta peti-
turn eat ab eo postridie, ut legeret illam etiam, qua erat
contra a Demosthene pro Ctesiphonte edits : quam cum
suavissima, et maxima voce legisset, admirantibus omni-
bus. Quanto inquit magis admirareinini, si audis-
setis ipsum." Now this was as much as to say, or else
it was in nowise intelligible—you are all thunder-
struck by my great exhibition; but what would it have
been if you had heard Demosthenes himself—si au-
dissetis ipstun? But he (Lord Brougham) by no
means acknowledged the parallel. He was neither en-
wrapt in a trance of wonder or lost in a ravishment of ad-
miration—(Hear, and laughter.)—he had neither been
thunderstruck at the original oration nor overwhelmed by
the quotation. With Fox and the Noble Lord he did not
feel himself strong to grapple ; but he most assuredly did
feel himself strong to grapple with the edition of them he
had heard that night.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) He
too, however, had authorities, and could adduce on this
occasion the testimony of Dr. Smith and Mr. Pitt—the
toaster and the pupil. He sheltered himself under these,
to escape other authorities. Dr. Smith quoted the Me-
thuen treaty as an instance to shake the revereneteof such
treaties. He takes it as one of the worst of the class, and
as such puts it into his book. And Mr. Pitt, in 1786
(who, in this matter, although not in others, was the pupil
of Dr. Smith), brought in a measure to repeal the Me-
thuen treaty, and put the wines of France and Portugal
upon a similar footing. He lost it after a manful struggle,
as had happened in other excellent measures before and
since in both Houses of Parliament, where statesmen had
suffered themselves to be easily, too easily, foiled by the
clamour of mercantile speculators.—(Loud cheers.) Thus
upon this occasion it chanced that the interests of the pub-
lic—of the landowners—of the consumers of the country,
were sacrificed to the clamour of the Portugal merchants.
(Cheers.) But greater than these authorities, and even
Plato anti Socrates thrown into the scale, lie haul the au.
thorities of truth anti reason, and on these he would take his
stand,—(Cheers.) Look at the difference between that
day anti the present. What was the temptation to she
Methuen treaty ? Was it not the notion that the Brazil
gold came over to Portugal, and that only through Portu-
gal could we get our share of it ; and, therefore, all sa-
crifices were to he made, to enable us, by the sale of our
woollens, to draw some portion of this gold from Portugal.
Now, to make this attack on the Government to-night,
all the exploded doctrines of the olden times were revived
—not, however, for the purpose of embarrassing the Go-
vernment, for, God wot, little able to stand would be that
Government, which was embarrassed by the hostile array
of such doctrines—the pick anti choice of the exploded
errors of the worst school of policy. In 1703 these ar-
guments were weak and ludicrous enough, Heaven
knew ; but to have them again dragged forward to the
light of dal in 1831, was literally astounding. " Trim
the balance whereby you can bring here the Brazil gold,
which you can get alone from Portugal, and without
which you can do nothing. Get the gold--never mind
trade—never mind employment— never mind commerce—
go to Portugal—get the Brazil gold at any sacrifice—
Portugal is the only place from whence you can get this
gold, and the only way in which you can get it thence, is
by carrying this treaty. Conclude it, therefore, at all sa-
rifices—at that of common sense amongst the rest—and let
your woollens be sent forth to extract this Brazil gold from
Portugal." This was the argument advanced in all the
contemporary histories and annals, and combated, as he
had stated, by Dr. Smith. Grossly inconsistent—flagi-
tiously inconsistent with the interests of the State, and the
dictates of common sense, were the doctrines on which the
treaty was supported in that day—what must they be in
1831 ? Unfortunate, most unfortunate were the men who
had to maintain these doctrines in that day ; how much
more unhappy and unfortunate were the men who had to
maintain the same in this day—when the labourers were
called upon to make bricks without straw—when Brazil
no lunger belonged to Portugal—when we go out at once
to Brazil, and being our woollens and get the gold from
thence.—(Hear.) Miserable, he repeated, were the men
who, in 1703, had to maintain these arguments, but infi-
nitely more miserable were they, who, in 1831, had the
same to do, when events and changes had cut every inch of
ground from under their feet.—(Hear.) Next, as to the
equalization of the wine duties, the Noble Lord (Ellenbo-
rough) said, " Look well to this matter ; are you not aware
that the consumption of French w.nes was increasing, and
what might not be expected if you were still more to lower
the duties ?" He did not know if the Noble Lord (Ellen-
borough) had agreed with his Noble Friend in nut wkshing
to embarrass the Government, but certainly, if he had

made himself a party to the promise, he had most faith-
fully kept his word.----(Cheers.) Perhaps, like his Noble
Friend, the Noble Lord might riot have been able, had
he been willing—there certainly was some confusion in
his own camp—amongst his own array of arguments,
and, indubitably, all that he had done was to give Go
s ernment the most complete support; for if he were
to select one favourite—one pet feet—if his Noble Friends
on the Treasury benches, who had formerly been Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer, and who now, to meet premanne
discussions of the budget, were compAled to cast a retro-
spective glance upon their labours in the other HQUSP, and
endeavour to revive their financial lore were to do so—it
was impossible, when a tax was to be taken off, to select
a stronger fact in favour of further reduction than the
fact, that a preceding reduction of duty had been foil:meet
by an increased consumption.—(Cheers. )—ln these cases
it had always been the rule to draw their arguments for
the future from the experience of the past. That many
persons preferre 1 port at press nt could not be denied,
but he could not help thinking rhea; ness had more to do
with this thsn predilection, for undeniable it was, that
the French wines were at once more palatable and more
wholesome.—( Hear, hear, )--Bat in all this the Noble
Lord (Strangfiird) suspected there lays something of a
political nature lui king below—that they wanted (to use
the Noble Lord's own words), to curry favour or to co ix
the French Government, and turn our backs upon the
faithful Government of Portugal ; arid yet, let it be re-
membered, that in 181.1, 1812, and 1813, this faith-
ful Government was the first to break faith with `us, and
this, if we had so pleased it, to release us fi one our
engagements Now, as to France, lie certainly con-
sidered that Governments ought to act openly, honour-
ably, and sincerely, and avow manfully the principle on
which they proceeded ; but here, looking to this charge,
that they were paying particular court to France, he saw
nothing whereon to fix the slightest blame. If they pro-
ceeded upon the true principle in the measure—if they
promoted the comfort and happiness of the people and the
interests of trade and commerce—if there were no breach
of treaty, no error of judgment, no fault of policy—if, in
improving our domestic regulations, the measure was as
favourable to trade as the interests of the community, he
confessed he had not the Spartan virtue to reject it, merely
because it happend to have amongst the rest the fatal, the
terrible, the never sufficiently to he reprobated tendency of
consolidating the good understanding which prevailed, and,
thank God, it did prevail between France and this country.
—(Cheers.) He wanted no argument but that furnished by
the Noble Lord, to confirm him in his approbation of the
measure, and to render his position impregnable. The
Methuen treaty was entirely apolitical one, created and de-
fined by mercantile politicians. Much had been said about
the change of things in France, since the period of that
treaty, and of the two times. The Bourbon time had
been highly lauded in contradistinction to those of regene-
rated France ; but in the Bourbon times, so far as regarded
good feeling and amicable disposition to this country, he
must take leave to differ widely from the Noble Lords.—
Those times might have been better fur France, which was
now labouring under the curse of regenetation. They
might have been more glorious for France, in the dread
season of warfare—including Blenheim and Melplaquet,
and a throng of other foreign triumphs. The French na-
tion might have cast away the brightest jewel of their
crown ; they might have won a mighty name, and an il-
lustrious character, by the labours of a series of ages, only
to forfeit it with their lost Princes. They might have. in
banishing their mild Monarchs, blindly deprived themselves
of triumphant leaders of the people in war, and wise, and
intelligent, and beneficent rulers in peace ; but he humbly
ventured to submit, that the conduct of the Bourbons iu
respect of the Methuen treaty and in the American war
(he would go no lower down), proved, that whatever
France and Europe might have lost by the expulsion of
the Bourbons, that at least England had lost nothing by
the substitution of one branch of the House of Bourbon
for another; or the substitution of a legitimate for an ab-
solute Monarchy.—(Cheers.) In conclusion, he repeated
the assertion, that there would he no stain left on the ho-
nour of the country by the proposed alterations.
The Duke of WELLINGTON said, one would cer-
tainly imagine, by the opinions of the Noble and Learned
Lord, that the Government had intended no breach of
faith, and also from the Noble and Learned Lord's speech
at the satne time, that Government really was embarrassed
by his Noble Friend's motion. For no lawyer ever took
more pains than the Noble and Learned Lord to prove to
their Lordships that his construction of the treaty was
correct. He would do the justice to the Government of
believing that their intention was not to commit a breach
of faith ; his opinion was, that they had neglected to ad-
vert to the treaty, as they had to many other things, in
their anxiety to bring on questions at an early period.—
He agreed with the Noble and Learned Lord, that the
Nlethuen treaty was revocable under the penalty he had
stated. In this the words bore him out; but when they
came to the 26th article, they found the words alluded
equally to political and commercial treaties as requiring
revision. Then it was that new stipulations were made
as to the article in the Methuen treaty, by which Portugal
wines were taken into this country at an advantage, and
our woollens introduced into Portugal; and it was agreed
that this arrangement should, for the present, remain un-
altered. But now what did the thirty-third article ?
It decidedly mails a new stipulation respecting wines and
woollens. The Noble Duke then read the thirty-third
article of the last treaty, and maintained that it placed
the two countries in precise!), the satne relation as
the Methuen treaty had done. It had never been
asserted that his Noble Friend who had brought the
subject under the consideration of the House was
the sole judge of the meaning of the treaty ; all that
had been contended was, that as he had been the
negotiator of the treaty, he was no bad ;edge of its mean-
ing. And what did his Noble Friend say? That the
33d article was inserted in order to satisfy the Portuguese
Government that the treaty should not be put an end to
until it had been fairly reviewed. It had been allowed on
the other side, that there was some doubt if notice ought
not to have been given of the determination of the Eng-
lish Government to put an end to the treaty. Why, then,
had not that notice been given ? It was said that the re-
solution to admit the wines of France at a reduced duty
was taken not to punish Portugal for any breach of faith,
but as a measure of finance. It also came before their
Lordships as a great question of political economy. He
could not follow the Noble Lord opposite through his cal-
culations. His Noble Friend did not dispute that the
measure might effect some increase of the revenue, What
he said was, that the loss of the Cape wines deducted
from that benefit would render it not worth any trouble.
The loss on the Spanish and on the Rhenish wines was
also to be considered. As a financial measure, therefore,
there was nothing in it very desirable. But not to dwell
upon that, how did it stand as a commercial measure,
and as a measure of political economy ? Let their
Lordships consider the measure as connected with
Spain. The exports from this country to the whole
of the Peninsula were greater in amount than t hose to any
other country in Europe, without exception. The
exports from this country to the whole of the Penin-
sula amounted to a fifth of her exports to all the various
parts of Europe. And now this rising commerce was to
be risked —for what? Fur an increase to the revenue of
at most 100,000/. We were about to sacrifice the
trade with the Peninsula, which was worth annually
ii,000,000/. to the trade with France, which is worth
only 525,000/. or a twelfth of that amount. There was
another view of the question, which, he confessed, ap-
peared to him to be the most important of any; he meant
the political view. He had frequently heard the Noble
Lord opposite maintain, that this country could not value
the friendship of Portugal, and a free admission into the
Tagus, too highly. In reference to Irelend especially,
he remembered that a Noble Baron opposite had expressed
himself most strongly with regard to the advantage of
maintaining our friendly relations with Portugal. Unfor-
tunately the great measure which he had had the honour
to propose to their Lordships three veers ago hid not an-
swered so as to produce, he would not say all the advan-
tages which he expected from it, but all the advantages
which the warmest friends of that measure expected from
it. The agitation of that question was over ; but, to we
a vulgar expression, a new hare had been started, anti it
might be long before it would be run down. He wanted
to know whether during that period the ftiendship 01
Portugal, and our amicable reception in the Tagus,
would not be as valuable as during the existence of that
agitation which was terminated three years ago? If so, let
their Lordships turn their attention to the wording of the
treaty with Portugal ; let them listen to his Noble Friend',
statement of the importance attached in Portugal to the
wine trade with this country. He would not discuss the
question with any reference to considerations connected
with the Portuguese Royal Family—with Don Miguel or
Donna Maria. He would not attempt to embarrass his
Majesty's Government by any such allusions. But leaving
those considerations entirely out of the question, he main-
tained that under existing circumstances the friendship of
Portugal and our reception in the Tagus were of the
utmost importance ; and that if we exchanged these ad-
vantages for an increase in the revenue of 100,000/. we
should make a gross political blunder.
Lord KING ridiculed the mourning which he had no
doubt would take place over the Methuen treaty; which,
if not absolutely dead, was evidently in articula mortis.
It would be followed to the grave by a funeral cortege,
computed of the shipping, the colonial, and the other