The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-16 00:00:00

ISNEWMMINir
LONDON, SATURDAY VIORNING f SUN, JANUARY 16, 1847.

tical character, why did that Government, while it felt
the propriety of endeavouring to come to an understand-
ing with her Majesty's Government about the one mar-
riage, consider itself free to make'a secret and surrepti-
tious settlement of the other ?
The memorandum further contained assurances that
each of the two Princesses ought to marry a desendant
of Philip V., and that consequently neither of them
should marry the Duke of Montpensier, except in the
case of imminent danger of one or other of them being
married out of the House of Bourbon. _ _

What, then, were the circumstances which are men-
tioned as having made such an event imminent ?
The first circumstance happened, as I have observed,
during the time of the late Government. M. Guisot says
" that in May of the present year the French Govern-
ment had addressed to the reigning Duke of Saxe
Coburg, then on a visit to the Court of Lisbon, a message
for the purpose of negotiating the marriage of Prince
Leopold of Saxe Coburg with the Queen Isabella ; and
that the French Government had learned at the same
time, and with the same certainty, that this message had
been previously communicated to Mr. Bulwer, the Bri-
tish Minister at Madrid, and had received his approval ;
that the French Government immediately expressed, both
at London and at Madrid, its surprise and uneasiness, and
that it received from Lord Aberdeen assurances which
demonstrated his entire good faith."
Now what is the impression which this statement is
calculated to produce as to the course of the transaction
to which it relates? Why, evidently, that the French
Government having, from its own sources of information,
obtained a knowledge that a letter had been written by
the Spanish Court to the Duke of Saxe Cobourg, and
that it had been seen by Mr. Bulwer before it was sent
off, expressed to Lord Aberdeen its surprise and uneasi-
ness, and received from Lord Aberdeen, in reply, satis-
factory assurances. But the real transaction was ex-
actly the reverse of this, as regards the communication
between the two Governments.
The first knowledge which the French Government
received of the letter having been written by Queen
Christina was from Lord Aberdeen himself. The first
knowledge which they had that this letter had been seen
by Mr. I3ulwer was equally given to them by Lord Aber-
deen. The surprise which they expressed was surprise
at what they learned from Lord Aberdeen; and the first
expression of that surprise is said to have been accom-
panied not so much by uneasiness as by alleged incre-
dulity. The French Government seemed unwilling to
believe that such a letter could have been written, and
that they should have received the first intimation of it
from any other person than their own Minister at Ma-
drid. M. Guizot says that Lord Aberdeen, in reply to
the communication of the French Government, gave as-
surances which demonstrated his goon faith. M. Guizot
ought rather to have said that Lord Aberdeen demon-
strated his good faith by spontaneously communicating to
Count St. Aulaire a fact of which the French Govern-
ment represented themselves as uninformed. Lord Aber-
deen thought himself bound to make known to the French
Government that such a letter had been written, because
he found that the letter had been shown to the British
Minister at Madrid before it wis sent off ; and as Lord
Aberdeen had said to the French Government that her
Majesty's Government meant to take no active part in
favour of the Prince of Coburg, he thought it right to
inform them of what had passed, lest the bare knowledge
which her Majesty's Minister at Madrid had acquired of
this step might expose her Majesty's Government to the
ssuspicionaoefd h
lavvi
ti nh changedpreviously
their
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espolicy
informing
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French
Government that they intended to do so. It must be
confessed that, as regards Lord Aberdeen, it may be
said of the statement made of this transaction in M.
Guizot's dispatch, that " there is in it, perhaps, some
want of memory, or of justice."
At all events, this example of scrupulous good faith
on the part of Lord Aberdeen cannot be quoted as con-
stituting a reason why the French Government should
be released from the engagements which it had spon-
taneously taken towards the Government of Great