The Sun.
London, England, 1815-03-02 00:00:00

arise frail •sech aniinadvenion;, and tiler lan-
guage .to an All\- of this country. Whatever the
House or the Ministers might think of the conduct
of the Spanish Government, nothing that they
could- say or .do., could prevent the Sovereign of
an independent country from governing. his own
dominions as he pleased. No men could deplore
the conduct of the Spanish Government more than
his Majesty's Ministers did ; but when Gentlemen
asserted, that the King of Spain and his Ministers
stood alone in that country, that the people were
inimical to King Ferdinand, and disapproved oh
his conduct in annulling the Cortes, he assured
them that they were entirely mistaken ; and it
was important that he should, by stating- a few
historical facts, set them right upon that subject;
he begged, however, in so doing, to guard him-
self trate, the supposition, that he, or any of hi 3
Majesty's -11:linisters, approved of the conduct
which he was about to describe; for he assured
the house, that if ever the time should come when
the whole of the conduct of his Majesty's Minis-
ters, of our Ambassador in Spain, and of the
Commander in Chief in that country, could be
made public, it would appear that nothing !not.
hew.] left undone that could be done by advice or
remonstrance, to prevent those events which
every one mast deplore. But the Hon. Gentle-
man should not run away with the opinion, that
there was but one sentiment in Spain respecting
the Spanish Government. Upon the return of
the King of Spain to his dominions, he went to
Valencia, and the Hon. Mover had exprAsed ills
refire; that the British a,k,hassador, Sir Heury
Wellesley, had gone thither to meet the King.
The lion. Gentleman had not indeed blamed that
conduct, but he had lamented it. The Hon. Gent.,
however, should recollect, that Sir H. Wellesley
was- sent as Ambassador to King Ferdinand, in
whose name the Cortes and the Regency carried
'On the Government, and that therefore when the
King returned to his dominions, it was the duty
Of the British Ambassador to pay his respects to
the Sovereign to whom he was accredited. l3ht,
when the King arrived at Valencia, he was met
by the General Officers of his Army, and by a
great variety of other persons, who all implored
him to put au end to the then existing. Govern-
ment, and to remove the Cortes. Throughout
the %%do& of-ids journey he heard .notching hut
the same language of detestation at the Govern-
ment of the Regency aud the Cortes. He re-
gretted very much that such shoold be the case, n,
but the fact was so. The King arrived at Aran-
juez on the 4th May : on the 11th he issued his
proclamation for annulling- the old Government,
and on that day a part of the Members of the
Cortes were put in prison. What followed ? On
the 14th, the King set out for Madrid. Upon that
occasion, the whole population or the. country
assembled ; they took the mules from his cite-
riage, and he was drawn froloAranjuez. to leis
capital„ amidst the enthusiastic aechunatiov s of.
the largest assemblage of the people thateha- t ever
been known in Spain. If, therefore, Getedeineu
thought that the conduct of the King' in removing
eat... Cortes it'ns unpopular Spain, 'they were
eomoletely mistaken. Ile willed tint,_ the people
of Span felt as the peoPle of England ; but it
stiould be recollected, that as the ).utter would not
suffer any foreign nation to interfere: With their in-
ternal government, so, on the other i:and, it was
rather too much for them to say., that they had
a right to. dictate to another people what sort
of Government they shoedd have, an to
revic
them because they did not think and feel lih,e."
EnOishmen. He lama Cited therefore, he rePeat"cd,
that Gentlemen thoureht it right to animedvert
iii
such strong terms lipon the Spanish Government ; .
it could answer no good end, and might tend t(i.
shake our alliance with that Government—(Hear,
hear 1 ou the Opposition side of the House).-•
He begged tieutlemen to consider that, it, was no
Uninipi.tlint matter whether Spain. was Oro kill
into ouT seale or into any other. The Honourable
Gentleman had also said, that there were imputa-
; tipris. against us for our conduct to New as well
m;to Old -Spain e. hot.shrely nothing could justify.
Great Britain, being in alliance-with Spain, to in 7
tgrfere between 'le mother country and heicolo-
nies, more than we had done in'the tinge of the
Cortes), when we .ofered o'rir mediation, which.
was unfortunately not accepted, The HorMrable.
Gentleman had'illso men:ioned the Duke of We!j.
Hag ton ; he hail, iroked Mentioned him a's he' al-
ways did, in a manner that must be gratifying to
every one who felt au affection for that noble
person ; hut the Holt. Gentleman seemed sur-
prized that the.eNoble Duke, whO had received)
his hOrours and faVonrs from the Cortes, should
have again received them from thcKing ; but the
Geutlentan shOuld recollect, that these ho-
nours were conferred in the name of the King,
and therefore it was natural that the King should
Confirm the honours which had been granted in:his
name: He was ashamed to have taken pp so uniclrot
• the' titne of the House upon this part of the subject.
The nonourable Gentleman who broCight'forward
thigtnotioil, and tile Right Honourable•and.Learn
ed Gentleman Who spoke last, differed essentially
from each other' in their views of this subject.—
. •
The former (as he bad before stated) Was of
,opi-
nion that General. Smith' and Sir James Duff had
already been. sufficiently punished, and had only.
moved -this Address to mark - more strongly the
sense of, the House upon this transaction ; the
latterthonght the conduct of General Smith cptite
atrocious : he disbelieved the statement of the
Genehal respecting the 'entrance of theSe persons
into the 'garrison sinder false names. Upon that
point 'he chose rather to give 'credit to M. Polg•-
blanch, notwithstanding the statement of -Mr.
Stedman,' who, when he wrote the letter before
the House,. could never suppose that this sobj-ect
Would he made public. The Learned Gentle Man
even thought that the conduct of Gen. Smith shOuld
be made the subject of military enquiry. This Was
not the opinion of the Hon. Gent. who brought
forward this question. There was not one tiord
to that effect, either in his speech or.in the A‘k,
dress. Another point upon which those two lion'
.
Gentlemen were quite at variancewith each-other)
was the Convention entered itato in 1794. The
former thought this Goievention illegal'; the
latter said that it was quite conformable- to the
Law of Nations. In his (Mr. Pole's) :-opi-
nion, the Convention went rather Itkither Than
was strictly warranted by the law of nations.---
But to revert to the case of General Smith, what

were the facts before the House,. Here was a
General Officer placed unexpectedly in the tem-
porary command of a garrison of a peculiar tie-
scription, called upon suddenly to decide upon
this..case; he knew of the Convention formerly
agreed nporl, and had stated that it had I:cep acted
upon : tinder these circumstances, surely some al-
lowance should be nude for an Officer so eireuni-
stanced, if he erred in his judgment ; for no mini
could think that he meant to act wrong—what
motive, what temptation bad he so to do Under
these circumstances, he for one-would not consent
to punish hint more than he was already punished
by the letter of Lord Bathurst, which, to an Of-
ficer of General Smith's rank, must be consideted
as a severe censure, and a serious misfortune.—
The same principle applied to the case of Sir
James Duff; but that part of the ease had been so
fully argued by his Hon. Friend (Mr. Goulburn),
that it was not necessary for him to enlarge upon
the subject. It appeared; that. Sir James Duff
thought it his duty to apprize the Governor of Gi-
braltar, that persons had gone to that garrison
who were• of suspicious character; he did not ad-
vise the Governor to apprehend or to deliver them
up, but merely to apprize him of the fact. Was there
then any thing in this conduct to draw.down such
severe censure upon a man above eighty year', of
age, and who was grown grey in the service of
his country--.•a man who had passed a public life
Of near 50 years, without the slightest stain or
1)611iSil upon his character. He had lived near
40 years in Cadiz,. where no Man was ever more
heloved—he was called the Fat-her of the City—
where he had exhausted. h.is fortune-by acts of
liberality. He knew that the present Ambassador
in Spain entertained the highest opinion of Sir
Jabites Duff, and so did his predecessor, whom he
had seen that morning. The hearted Gentleman
had admitted the high character of Sir. James
Duff, but he had arg..ed ttr,on. it in the most ex-
traordinary manner. His proposition was this :
Sir. James Duff has, through a long life, pre-
served a most Imblettuished character—he has
Col2)lllitted an error, therefore punish him se-
verely; and why ? Because he could bear it.—
Surely the Hon. Gentleman must know, that in
proportion as a matt's character was high, in the
same proportion was his sensibility to any thing
iil.7e censure. Was it justice, was it humanity to
treat au old and faithful servant of the public in
such a manner ? \Vas it in the Law of Nations
that the 'Learned Gentleman acquired this extra-
ordinary principle of punishing men according to
the excellence of their conduct ? Upon the whole,
thong It he coold. not justify the conduct of Gene-
ral Smith, and wished that the letter of Sir ;fames
11. tiff had not been written, yet, as he thought
they had already been sufficiently punished, lie
shonlA vote against the motion.
ADDiree.ToN vindicated hi, Maies-
ty's Government, and particularly his Noble 'Re-
lative, Lord Sidliti'ntl).
Mr. Alderman Su.ern was glad that the Mem-
ber for B.ylforthhire had brought forward the A,!-
dress, as it might presvent any thiug of the nature
.
coniplitined Of from happening its future.
Mr. DOMINECK BROWN said, if the Address had
been much inure severe, it should have his most
decided support,,
Mr. Hotts.re, in a long 'speech, supported the
argumeuts already adduced. by Mr. Whitbread,
and considered it imperative upon the blouse to
agree to the Address.
B.ll.2crutiaT, contended, that notbiiig• was
more 'eUtouton Or more jitsf than to consider all
the eirennstances of mitigation, and to xletermine
nu a private-or a public reprimand, as those cir-
cionsta,nees appeared to direct. Enough, he
thought, had'heett done to satisfy the justice and
sinpport -the honour of the country.
JouN l`Ceetvrou'r suppir,rted the Address.
Mr. W. WYNNE spoke also in favour of it.
Mr. IlusKis.;oN thought the manoer in which•
the character of-the Sp mist) Sovereign had been
that night treated in the House, extremely ill cal-,
caditted to give,weight to any sited representations.
Thin HOn. Member 'had extremely surprised him
when he talked' of the unexampled efforts which
had been autt(!e by the Spaaish patriots, when.t,be
constant language of his-friends On former oeda-
sions had been to complain of their apathy, and
of the ohssacles which they opposed to the success
of the common cause. He would put it, how-
eVer;to that Learned Gentlernan's taste and good
sense, whether' it was hecoiniiig. the conduct of a
Legislator, .-91 a Member of ;the British Parlia-,
ment, to talk of, ein Allied,Sovereign as a wretch
and ustoper.-7-(Hear, heard) 'What would haVe
been said here, if- in en;:y disCuSsion which had
taken place-hi the Cortes,. the Stivereign of this
country had been so branded on a question of do-
mestic policy, as the Sovereign of Spain had been
that night ?—(-Icar !), have promoted
harmony between the two commies..? And-yet.
there were not .wanting tpitstions, of domestic
policy.in this couutry iu which it Was possible
that the Cortes'might have interfered. lie would
ask, also,•as- the Gentleman opposite .11-light look
forward to the future nutuag.ement of af-
fairs, whether such language was politic io re-
gard- to the interests of this country and its con-
nection -with, Spain ?
Mr.J. P. GRANT !..aid, that. notwithstanding
what they had heard, lie must. declare, that 'for
the person of 'Ferdinand, sand the counsels by
which he-was , directed,. be felt. nothiog but con-
tempt -and abhorrence. There. was tau hope for
Spain,—no hope that she could,heof any service
to The, commonweal of Europe, if the Government
of Ferdinand fasted, -if that contemptible and de-
testable Tyrant was not hurled frotn itis..throne,
If he-could rouse one man in Snaip.itt; resist him,
he should think lie did service.. While Ferdinand's
Goyert9neet
.continued, there wgs potlling to. fear
from
.her resentment, or to 'hope from her assist-
ance.

. ..
. .
Mr. \Vii. Er.,..r.zoTT supported the motion, and
trusted ti)at,sf;:Ts would,l?e taken by Govero;nent
at least, to, relieve., those pet:sous who were ag-
grieved. .

Mc. Wtn.ThiteAD, in reply, ;!cnitd his I;aving
cast any iloptitation on General lie
merely stated, that it was a gre::t aisfor.t tine that
Gcnerai Wilittjagliain was in when Ferdi7
nand retamed that he took the, ctoininaml awl
still coatinued there.—[,olr. 1-11:pavis said from
his "'fiat Could I,:e do i;"-----/-14:t might
Lave cloak like others, wild to their h-imottp, e-