The Sun.
London, England, 1822-11-16 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

[From the Journal des Debate of Wednesday.]
PARts, Nov. 13.—The grand question of war
with Spain still remains undecided ; it must re-
main so during some time, from its own nature,
and circumstances which have come to our know-
ledge.

Our private letters from Verona, dated the
sth inst. (and none of a more recent date have
been received) affirm, that up to that day nothing
had been decided at Congress relative to Spain.
No declaration had been resolved upon; no ulti-
matum sent to Madrid ; neither was there the
slightest appearance of the dissolution of the
Cougress.

Ad- vices from Madrid, of the 6th inst., which
we have this day received, are of a less alarming
character as regards the Princes of Spain. The
Supreme Tribunal, charged to examine the pre-
liminary proceedings respecting the movements
of the 7th July, has declared that the Fiscal, in
demanding the impeachment before the military
tribunal of the late Ministers, and of other dis-
tinguished personages, carried his zeal too far;
and that only 11 officers of the guard, who were
taken with arms in their hands, are to be tried
before the said tribunal. The same letters an-
nounce that efforts are successfully making to
approximate the three parties into which the
Cortes are divided, viz.—that of the present
_Ministry, or the Exaltados of the 7th of July ;
that of Arguelles and other Members of the Cortes
of Cadiz ; and that of the persons who, with
Morino and Martinez de la Rosa, believe some
modifications of the Constitution possible at a
future period, when they might not appear to be
provoked by foreign menaces. In general, there
wet e symptoms of a return, not certainly towards
moderation, but towards less exaggeration.
We haye said, that the violence alone of the
preponderating party in the Cortes could force
France to a war against Spain. The, revolution-
ary axe raised over the head of a Bourbon, would
not allow a Royalist Ministry to calculate either
the interests, or even the chances, of success.—
Honour, that supreme arbiter, would imperiously-,
require a sudden effort, which would at least tes-
tify our firm disposition to oppose ourselves to
the crime, even though we could not successfully
accomplish the object. Who, on seeing a brother
thus surrounded by assassins, on the paint'of
perishing by their poniards, would not fly to his
aid, without calculating whether the proceeding
might not accelerate the fatal blow ?

But, exclusively of this extreme case, which
now seems to be removing, who can doubt that
France ought to make every effort to avoid, and
to prevent, a war against Spain ? We will not
here repeat the irrefragable arguments by
which we have shown, that between two in-
dependent nations the right of armed inter-
vention cannot be founded upon the circumstance
that one of them should have adopted a bad con.
stitution, so long as she does not attempt to im-
pose it upon other nations. We will only observe,
that the danger resulting to France from the
existence of the detestable constitution of the
Cortes, is nothing in comparison to the danger
which would result from the admission of a right,
with which any Congress might be vested, of
supremecontrol over existing constitutions, legally
and diplomatically recognized : for in order to
make us combat the pernicious principles of the
Spanish Constitution, our love for our legitimate
Kings, our attachment to the Charter, the tranquil
enjoyment of all our liberties, under an able govern-
ment, under the guarantee of a national repre-
sentation, and under that of the liberty of the
press, are quite sufficient. With these elements

of oraer, peace and stability, France has nothing
to fear from the example of a Constitution which
hitherto has produced no fruit calculated to se-
duce even the most ardent minds. Nothing, on
the contrary, can guarantee the tranquillity of
France, and of all Western Europe, if the Powers
of Eastern Europe, so different from us in laws,
manners, and institutions, possessed a recognized
right to interfere in our internal constitutional
regime. This confusion of the rights of sovereignty
would he an inexhaustible source of disquietude,

agitations, and even of wars. We believe that
France, as well for her interest as as for her
honour, cannot too firmly oppose a system of in-
terference, founded upon this false basis.
There is another special interest for France ;
which is the preservation of the sceptre of Spain
in the hands of a dynasty allied to the blood of
our Kings, and naturally disposed to cultivate
those relations of friendship between Spaniards
and Frenchmen, which their reciprocal situation

renders so beneficial. Statesmen Will understand

us when we say, that the armed intervention of
the Powers of the North, and of the centre of
Europe, in the affairs of the Peninsula, might,
perhaps, lead to chances still less favourable to
the maintenance of the Bourbons on the throne,
than the present state of things. Fears may be
entertained of combinations, of events which
would induce a Spanish party to call in a Foreign
dynasty, whose establishment at Madrid would
change the equilibrium of -the South of Europe,
to the particular detriment of France. If we

were to speak unreservedly of tho past, this ob-

. . .
servation would appear more important; but we
wish to avoid every thing which may tend to
wound the feelings of respectable Governments.

Another fatal chance, and to which we cart

allude without circumlocution, would be to throw
Spain into the arms of the new ilispano-American
Republics, which would give birth to an immense
federation, to a new political world, and to sub-