The Sun.
London, England, 1823-03-01 00:00:00

(VIE TIMi.9.J

We this day present the whole of M., de Cha.;
teaubriand's Speech (as it rt p vear edin yebterday's
SOO on the war %vith Spain. Incredible as the
thing may eeem, we do verity hetievi that this
fantastical and conceited man has -fealty been of
opinion, that hisfortlicoming speech would Shake
the principles of the Britigh Ministers, remove
the aversion which they felt for the Spanish war,
attt stay any measures (such as the roped of the
Foreign Enlistment Bill)
,indicative of that aver.
shin : for, other4ise, it must have 'hen mere
tr;ttchery, whicit we are unwilling to belieVe,
that induced him to hint to them that his speech
them would give em satisfaction ; they might suspend
tffeir Vreparations ; he only wished them to wait
till they had hoard him, and all would be Well!'
What a disapriointment to both
, parties—Lto our
Ministers, Co receive sitch a grotesque, blood-
tiniertred, motley Monster of the brain in the
place of a fair well-formed child, with cc Peace"

written' on his brow ; And to the father, to see
the hady of his affections, the imp of promise,
received every where with beatings, laughter,
derision, and refused admission into honest
men's houses! Ministers, therefore, need have
no difficulty, in dealing with such a speech as
this : it can fetter them with no antecedent con-
cessioni—can bind them up in no principles here-
tofore avowed. We showed yesterday from
Lord Castlereagit's circular itself that he dis-
claimed all participation in and approbation of,
the invasion of Naples. It, was impossible
for him to express more strongly, to those
whom he was unwilling to offend, his sense
that the principle on which the Austrian
troops entered Naples was one which a Bri-
tish Minister could not sanction. It is use-
less to requote to-day what we quoted yester-
day—his written dispatches to British residents,
and his speeches in Parliament : we omit that la.
hour is now superfluous. But—to put words and
declarations out of the question—where is the
act by which we assisted in the subjugation of
Naples? We were well enough placed at Malta
and torfu, for taking possession of Sicily long
befare the Austrians, and so preventing the ex-
plosion which took place there. The apprehen..
sion, also, of that explosion would have afforded
a pretext, had we not been true to the principle,
that we had nothing to do with the internal af-
fairs of other countries. M. de Chateaubriand,
next attempts to prove that the French in in.
wading Spain, are only acting upon the same
principle as that en which we attacked France
at the beginning of the Revolution. Now, for a
moment, we will grant that monstrous position,
that most revolting falsehood, that Spain is in the
same dreadful situation now, in which France was
at the beginning of the year 1793—that she has
murdered her King and Queen—guillotined and
drowned myriads of her peaceful subjects—made
war upon the allies of France, (as France had
made war upon our allies, the Dutch, ere we
began to fight)—sent forth declarations, that
she would free all foreign nations from the des.
Foam of Kings and the bigotry of priests
declared the sleep of death to be eternal, with
a few other horrible et eeteras : we will grant,
we say, that Spain has done all this ; yet when
men of ordinary faculties quote examples for the
purpose of folloa lug them, it is because those ex.
simples have been successful--it is because the
Mode of acting proposed for imitation and adop-
tion has effected its purpose. The French Go-
vernment, then, proposes to itself our mode of
putting down revolutions, because that mode suc-
ceeded so well in our ,hands ! And did wet
really, by making war in 1793, stop the revolts.
tionary torrent at its source ? Or did it not, on'
the contrary, overflow and ravage Europe for
more than twenty years ? And lias it not
now left behind it traces that must endure for ever,
even in the possession of kings and princes sprung
ftorn and mixed with revolutionary blood ?,
However, to show that, we did not make war
Open the same principles of internal interference
which France now alleges as her motive for at-
tacking Spain, we shall here produce the message
of the King of England himself, which, being
descriptive of the cotemporaneous state of affair«,
proves that France had declared war, and was
making war, both upon us and our allies, before
we struck a blow :-" His Majesty thinks proper
" to acquaint the House of Commons, that the
46 Assembly, now exercising the powers of Go.
‘4 Vernment in France, have, without previeus
" notice, directed acts of, hostility to be corn-
" mitted against the persons and property of his
44 Majesty's subjects, in breach of the law of
" nations, and of the most positive stipulations of
" treaty': and have since;on the most groundless
" Pretences, actually declared war against' his
44 Majesty and the United Provinces."—King's
Message to Parliament, Feb. 11-, 1793.

[NEW TIM ES.]
M. de Chateaubriand argues with great close-1
ness and dexterity. He reasons thus—No GO:
verurnent has a right to interfere in the internal
regulations of another• Government, except in
cases %here its own immediate safety or its es-
sential interests are .compronnised : but the es-
sential interests of France, are compromised by
the present state of things in Spain; therefore
France has right to interfere. That the es-
sential interests of Prance are compromised, he
shews from a great variety of, circumstances,
each rising in .importance, above that which
precedes it—from impediments to commerce,
prejudice to agriculture, lesolts to public
offtc.ers, prohibitions to navigation, viola-
tions of territory, and necessity of keeping
up an Army of ObserVation: , But to this
'part of my. argument, says, he, some object 'that
we established the Army of Observation without
necessity, These. ,objectors cannot be better
answered than by citing the authority of the
Duke of Wellington and Mr. Canning, who both
admit (the latter so lately as the 1 lth of J -
nuary) that there was abundant necessity on the
pert of France for establishing an Army of
Observation, to protect loisell against three
distinct dangers, viz.--against civil troubles,
against the moral contagion of political intrigues,
and against the violation of her territory. So far,;
then, the British and French Cabinets agree.—
They agree, as every candid man must, that the
democratic Revolution arid civil war in Spain
produce dangers'of various kinds to France, and
particularly a danger from " the moral contagion
of political intrigues" But this danger diffe:
rently estimated by different persons. We who
do not border on Spain—we who have not suf.
feted 426 years of revolution---we who hav'e not
recently seen conspiracies break out at once in
several of our garrison towns-4d whose traitors
have not Veen caressed on account of theif trea-
sons by ihe democrats of Madrid -.--we, in'shorti
who are totally beyond 3 the sphere of this
moral contagion, think -lightly of it but
the French Governinnnt have the shoe on,
and they know where it pinches. ACCoidingly,
M. de Chateauhrtand winds up this part of
his argument by skewing that the moral eon.
to ;ion is tire most formidable of all, the dia.
gers that France has to apprehend, and that
it is this Which *bine all comprornisen the esien::
vial interests of his country. It is impossible

not to believe him sincere in these apprehensions,
and for our own part we think his apprehensions
are well founded. Be this as it may, the Noble
Orater certainly conducts his argument with con-
summate ability ; and we fully agree with a re-
spectable Cotemporary, that," at any period, and
ou any question, such an oration would be read
with delight and interest; but at the present
moment, and in reference to the great subject of
the speech, it must necessarily command a ten-
fold attention. It is admirable for its eloquence,
and no less so for the manly and vigorous Mode
in which it grapples with the real merits of the
question at issue."

[BRITISH PRESS.]
Loud as may be the rumours of war, and
widely as the menaces of hostility may be cir-
culated, we cannot be induced to depart from
our primitive conviction that there is still enough
left of wisdom and vigour; and prudence in
France, to prevent it putting its armies in battle.
array against the enthusiasm, and vigour, and moral
energy of Spain. The prond ambition of the
Muscovite may 'offer, no doubt, some encou-
ragement to dangerotis speculation in this
way; but. is, after ,all, too late in the day
to put Europe under the administration of
the Cossacs. The reign of confidence in
.So-
Yereigns has had Nil play, but la never likely,
we think, to go this length. No doubt they will
guard the interests of freedom and defend the
liberties of the world ; but they would take so
many slices of-territory from time to time by way
of indemnity, and social order would have to
make so many sacrifices, that in the course of
a century we should make the tour of Europe,
and still be within. the Russian frontiers.. Three
hundred and. fifty-five years have elapied since
all the Russian provinces were united under
one Government, during which time ihe'RusSian
frontiers have extended, without a single instance
in Russian history of a cession of territory. These
little acqpisitions of territory took place as fol-
low :—Siberia, in 1573 ; Little Russia, in. 1844 ;
T.ivonin and Eithonia, in 1710; White Russia, in.
177 ; the Crimea, in 1783 ; Lithuania and Cour.-
land, in 1793; the remainder of Poland, in 1795;
Georgia, in 1801 ; Bialystock, in 1807 ; Finland,
in 1809; and the Duchy of Warsaw, in 'lBl5 !!!
In the ProtoCul signed and reciprocally ex-
changed by- tbe. subscribing. Cabinets at Aix-la-
Chapelle, the Autocrat, whose benign influence
took the lead, talks thus—" After having ma-
turely investigated the conversative 'principles of
the great interests which constitute the order of
things established under the auspices of Divine
Providence," Stc. What 'mockery of religion
and Contempt of the rights of mankind is. here !
How long is this warfare against common sense
to be carried on ? When will the resources and
subterfuges of imperial ambition have an end ?