The Sun.
London, England, 1824-04-13 00:00:00

lo !Spain, he was convinced, with the honourable Member, it
. have been better for both countries that a British sol-
-friar had never entered it. And .31inixters had confirmed this
opieion by their own arguments; for who,in a late-debate, had
tevoinkled the House of former jealousies betwixt them, as a
-graining for the future?, ,The proverb said, "liars should have
ssood memories,", ani' se should politicians, who could make
VITP Or the very arguments urged against themselves when doing
•it which they now pretended to be the wish of their oppo,
neota ; for- when they sent troops to Spain, their .opponents;
reeid-to them—" If. England- were invaded, would Ili. ilish sob
Jena ate each that-Spaniards should defend her ? Then why,
in roe ease of Spaip, should -the proud Spaniards heless jealous
than etieens-•lvea?" Stich. were the arguments of common sense,
which, if the hlinisters had then consulted, would have saved
Stalin from France, and minions. upon millions to their own
coo itTy. Sr much tar theirehlignient of the Spanish charac-
s ?i.e.; and what did they say of France?. They prophesied and
i.rayed in the last session that the lolly and rhatineisit of the Bour-
hee Goverment should recoil upon its own head. But if they had
really believed and wished it, why not have made assurance (loos
bly gyre, by casting their trident and thunder (as they had called
them) into the scale of Spain ; . the fact was. they dared not, as
's ranee knew hut too well ; for her Ministers were neither the
madmen nor fools they had been celled ; nor, like these modern
.Ilachiavels, who had inherited the feeling of their prototype,
Ipi4.llout his brains. The French Ministers, on the contrary,
ire the conduct of their -wicked policy, to which they had been
.riven by the English Government and the Holy Alliance;
'had- acted throughout with ability and cautiou; feeling at
evsia step the pulse of the British naidon, whilst her own
inlstera were lying on their isahke, butand hand and foot..—:
For how stood the fact ? Had God listened to their prayers,
by alelivering Spain from. her enemies, and their predicants
• -of the slowhfidl of the Bourbons. had been fulfilled, the
liking ruin most have fallen cai.,themselves.; fer how were
they to have commenced another revolutionary war, with
*. their recognizances of eight hundred millions, to keep the.
peace ? It was utterly impossible. -What then was -to be
done.? Honest Ministers would have seen at once, that
Reform was the only remedy ; but these, who looked only .to
themselves, had sold the- reversion of the liberties of their
• • country for annuities upon their own lives-- For'by this last
• act of their wretched policy they had so strengthened and se-
.. cured the power 'of the French (government,
,that nothing but
- reform or revolution could enable England much longer to de-
fend herself; as France at the present-moment wedded all the
- force of military despotism under- the musk of civil. liberty;
-for what with her Elections, Septennial Parliaments, and other
:imitations. of the some precious-system, - she had just finished
;a fac-simile of the mock English Constitution. As to Eugland,
-the -Hon. Member had only to hope that the nation, before
-it was too late, would-open its eyes to the conduct of Mini-
sters, and the real danger of the country; for at. present he
'must confess that, of all the dupes upon earth, he considered
-John Bull to be the greatest, and could find no better parai-
elel to his character, conduct, and present situation, looking to
„the state of Europe, than that which 'he should conclude
_ ;The Ministers, as all knew, had-On unlimited power ever the'
purse of the people, bat not their liberty of speech. As to the
'finst, to do them justice, no Gentlemen of their vocation could
be more active, or understand their business better; and if in
' ~',picking John Bull's. pocket, they could only stop his mouth,
all might go on smoothly. But here lay the rub; for John
• •resembled a certain animal in the act of being killed, .whose
-only defence was to set up a cry Which disturber! the .whole
' • -neighbOurhood, whilst ail he got'for 'his pains, was the hearty
-wish of those within
.reaeh of his; vice, that means had been
ibubd 'to stop it. And thui it was with Mr. Bull; for whilst
-the Ministers were bleeding him to death, he too set up a cry
which was heard throughout 'Ettiepth, and naturally alarmed
the combined Powers, who said to the English Government,
" Use him as you please, for that is your affair, but stop his
mouth, as this is ours; and unless you can do this, by the
holy od we must do it for yoh." •
Mr. DENMAN opposed the. Bill, and regretted that they
• who sat on that side should be forced to wear out the patience
of the house by repeating arguments which had been so often
urged. It was encouraging, however, to them to find that
the powers exercised under it were no longer claimed as part
of the prerogatives of the Crown. That question had.been left
where it was placed by his iloh. Friend the Solicitor-General
two years ago. The Right Hon. Gentleman had not-attempted
to disturb it. In that reign to which the Right Hon Gentle-
man had referred, as the ne plus ultra of Parliamentary degra-
dation, when the Proclamation of the King was declared
of superseding all law—in that reign he found a law hOd
• ,passed for removing certain people called Eteyptions, who pre-
. tended to skill in palmistry and witchcraft, and the provi-
- slicing of that Act were soilictent to establish the fact, that the
powers exercised under the Alien Act were not among -the
Prerogative of the Crown. The Right . lion. Gentleman .had,
said then, a sovereign power must exist in the- State to -deal.
with aliens as it should think fit. The sovereign. power might
also deal with the Members of the two Houses of Parliament,
and with every native subject; but here the question was not
aa to-the authority Possessed of interfering with aliens, but as
ta the propriety of exercising it. Ile objected not to the alien
being brought within the reach of the law, but to his being
denied the prerection of all law. It had once been proposed
that the Alien' Bill should not apply but toeiliens who had not
Steen ten year% in this country. Then. the idea was scouted,
-but now die principle was adopted, and all who had been re-
aalent here for several years were .to be .exempted .front
- its operations. But this did not convey .the objects. of that
•'aide of the House to the Bill. They claimed hospitality thr
the Spaniard, for the Neapolitan, for the Sardinian, and for
every man woo suffered from. persecution.- It was impossible
• net to look at the three Secretaries to whom the powers given
by this Bill were to be confided. He-objected to give them to
the Noble Secretary of State, who had been entrusted with
them 'for the last five years ; considered them as tie did, to have
been grossly abused hi their application to the few 'followers of
Buonaparte who were faithful to him in his misfortunes. lie
°la-jetted to give them to a night Honourable Secretary oppo-
site, who, on this as on a former occasion, had claimed them
almost- as a plotter -of course, and. in a manner which, 'as
lich(Mr. Denman) had once before remarked, spoke him to
have little thought of the heavy responsibility which attached
to-their exercise. With respect to the third Secretary, speak-
ing of 'the Right Hon. Gentleman with all possible respect for
the liberal feelings which he had manifested on so many men-
sioos, and which did him great honour, wishing him to remain
as:leng as any one of his present colleagues in thht Cabinet, of
which he was no doubt the brightest ornament,- to him alsO i.e
- objected to entrust the powers of the Alien Bill. Without en-
tailing into the history of Spain, without censuring the circum-
stances connected with the origin of the late war, without con-
demning the conduct pursued in the Congress at Verona, where
is was made known, that come what might, this country would
-not interfere far Spain, anti without rJerriag to the offers of En-
glish meliation, when both parties refused it, or to the advice
Oren to Spain in adversity, to truckle to France; withoutrefer-
ring to these, he objected to give the powers of the Bill before
the House to that Right Hon. Secretary. It had been seen how
-the Right lion. Gentleman acted in the case of Mr. Boweing.
-for his conduct on that occasion, the Right Hon. Gentleman
was entitled to the thanks of Mr. Bowling and of the country.
The Right Hon. Gentleman had referred the question to some
eminent lawyers in Paris,- to inquire if that Gentleman had
been 'treated as, under similar circumstances, a Frenchman
would have been treated ? It was answered in the affirmative;
but had the answer been different, in what a situation would
the Right Honourable Gentleman. ltave stood ! What con 11
he have replied, if the French Government had said, we also
have an Alien Bill, and claim a right to deal with a foreigner,
not as if ha • were a native. Frenchman, but its. you claim .a
Tight to deal with French subjects •in England. He would
take the liberty to tell the Right Hon.. Gentleman; that.uf all
the means he had .resorted-to thr obtaining popularity,. there
rat nothing which. did him so much honour as the way in
which he had spoken of his lion. and Gallant Friend (Sir R. ,
Wilson.) It was an.honour to him wile. Was the object or it,
but it was still more to the honour of him that uttered it; and •
there was not-one generous mind in the country, nor in Eu-
rope,' which did not feel grateful to the Right Hrpn. t3eatleman
dhr it. He heard it with peculiar pleasure. became: it told the.
Moly Allence.,. that by stripping him of the paltry hortours
which they had the power of conferring and taking away, they
did not strip him of the regard of his countrymen, and of
all who abhorred oppression and bad faith. He hailed it also
'because he saw infamous libellers, in the Wry sincerity•of their
meanness, trying to trample on him, when they supposed him
in a fallen and it humbled state. He could -not, however,
entertain the same feelings in respect to the course pursued
by the Right Honourable Gentleman towards . the • French
Government, when he informed them gratuitously that-Sir
Robert Wilson was gone to Spain, • and, appeared .so hasty
in disclaiming his condtict. whatever it might be. In what
he had said to that Government,
.he did not think he had
acted as became a Minister of England. towards a subject of
these real Ms. • lie might have, at least, waited until an expla--
hation was required. Something indeed had been advanced
about proceeding to extremities
.in case of his falling into the
hands of the French armies and some principles of interna-
tional law were quoted for ids protection. But it would have.
been one thing if France had dared to ask an account of an
- NhOloihman's conduct, and had been put to the. proof of her
auertiolm• But he must say, that under all the circumstances, ,
it was one of the strongest instances of frankuess, from one •
itoverninent to another, that ever he met tvith. What could
have been expected 'froth such an application to the Govern-
ment of Prance ? What had they to do with Grotius and Vat- -
• tel,.after the infamous outrage which had been committed
upon every .principle of the lawof nations by the invasion of
Spain, as the tools of the Holy Alliance ?—(Hear, bear !)—hie
knew that they had been lectured in severe terms for the Jan-
./loge in which they expressed their feelings towards foreign.