The Sun.
London, England, 1848-05-08 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE ON SPANISH

AFFAIRS.

From the correspondence laid on the table of both
Houses of Parliament on Friday, we give the follcwing
extracim, in addition to the letters which have already
appeared

BULWER TO THE DUKE OF SOTOHAYOR.
" Madrid, April 12, 1848.
" Sir,—l have received your communication of yes-
terday, with its enclosures.
" Referring to the observation you make with respect
to the Clamor Publico, I have consulted the columns of
that journal, and so far from discovering that it showed
any particular cognisance of my proceedings, I find that
it stated I had sent in a note to your Excellency, when
I had neither sent, nor in fact written the note which
you subsequently received ; and I might add that so far
from the desceiption of the Clamor Publico showing that
it was acquainted with my communication, it is perfectly
clear, from this description, that it knew nothing what-
soever upon the subject. Other notes which I have
never written have been in a similar manner announced
by the opposition journals ; I cannot, therefore, under-
stand your allusion to the accidental and incorrect asser-
tion of the Clamor Publico, unless it is meant to affirm
that if an opposition paper should chance to guess any
step I might be likely to take, I was from that moment
precluded from taking it.
" Veen, different grounds should I have for complaint
if, searching into the columns of some of those news-
men K hich support her Catholic Majesty's Govern-
ment; I sought to connect the sentiments and language
of the one with the sentiments and language ot the other;
very different grounds should I have for complaint, if I
thought proper to give importance to the circumstance
that the whole of the confidential correspondence I had
with your Excellency on the subject of Portuguese
affairs was translated immediately, word for word, into
:a newspaper conducted under the auspices of the Messrs.
Cabral, at Lisbon.
" I wish not, however, to recur to any question which
could produce unnecessary irritation or recrimination
between us, and shall, therefore, pass rapidly to other
passages in your note which require a reply. I shall en-
deavour to give one with that calm moderation which I
never wish to forsake.
" It is perfectly true that the remarks I enclosed from
Lord Palmerston were written at a time when the
Cortes were yet sitting, and when the Government bad
not as yet committed any of those, acts which have re-
cently characterised its conduct. They were, therefore,
merely in contemplation of the possibility of such a state
of things as his Lordship thought might arrive, and to
-which when it did arrive they were applicable. The
sudden suspension, without any assigned cause, of the
National Representative Assembly, the violent arrest
and incarceration of the most distinguished citizens, in
consequence of a tumult which a state paper declared to
be the mere work of a few drunken groups, and with
which no attempt has yet been made, even remotely, to
connect the distinguished persons who have been seized
like malefactors, with the intention, as is generally
stated, of sending them to the Philippines, justified per'-
haps in a certain degree the previsions of her
ucieedst
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and induced
me
at all events to think that a friendly counsel, which
events may ere long unfortunately prove to have been
founded on too soliegrounds, might have its weight with
those who have in their charge at this moment the
safety of her Catholic Majesty's crown. Your Excel-
lency, wholly misunderstanding (I may say as I proceed)
the nature of this counsel, deems it expedient to intro-
duce comparisons between the position of the Queen of
England and that of Queen Isabella, and asks me what
would Lord Palmerston say it' M. Isturitz should, at
your Excellency's instructions, give her Majesty's Mi-
nister for Foreign Affairs advice as to his policy in the
United Kingdom, or suggest the formation of another
Cabinet in lieu of that presided over by Lord John
Russell. If I desired to answer this observation in the
spirit in which it is made, I should not want the means
for so doing, but I prefer confining myself to observing
that there is no parallel between the two cases. The
Queen of England has not had to seek the assistance
of the Queen of Spain, nor receive it on certain grounds
or pretensions ; whereas the Queen of Spain, in her
struggle for the throne of this kingdom, did receive the
support and countenance of Great Britain, which neither
stipulated fur nor acquired any sort of advantage for
herself on account of these services having been ren-
dered, considering that she was repaid for them by the
satisfactory conviction that she had thus contributed to
confer on the noble people of this country the benefits
of a free and enlightened Government.
" For these reasons, so far from deeming, as you seem
to think, that the conduct of her Catholic Majesty's Go-
vernment towards its subjects ought to be a matter of
perfect indifference to her Majesty's Government, I am
bound to tell you that I consider it is the duty of the
British Government out of regard to the youthful and
inexperienced Queen, whose claims it helped to confirm,
and whose fortunes are now in your hands—out of re-
gard for the people ot Spain, whose improvement and
good government it thought to advance during the civil
conflict I have alluded to—and still more out of respect
towards the English nation, which may yet demand the
reason why England preferred the cause of Queen La-
bella to that of Den Carlos—to make it clearly under-
stood, that if a military despotism be established in this
country under Queen Isabella's name, or that if her
Catholic Majesty's Government be overthrown in the
attempt to establish such despotism, either of these events
will occur in spite of the remonstrances and counsels of
England.
"It is your province, doubtlessly, if you so deem
proper, to treat such counsels or remonstrances with
.resentment and contempt—to reject, repudiate, and re-
fuse to receive them; but in that case my responsibiliry
-and that ot my Government end. Whatever responsi-
bility remains will attack the reputation of others, and
to their reflection I appeal from the document which is
now before me. Indeed you will permit me to express
my conviction that, notwithstanding that document,
your Excellency will give due consideration and concede
:a just value to the sentiments of a state whose opinion
is a moral power that will ever prevail as long as Great
Britain remains the constant and consistent advocate of
liberty, order, and justice.
" It only remains for me to add, that I too sincerely
regret and deprecate the tone which your Excellency
has given to our correspondence, not to disclaim any
intention on my part, either originally to have provoked
or now to irritate it. Nor will it be my fault if the
relations between us should lose any of that character
of urbanity which our respective situations, and the
interests of our respective countries, require.
" I have, &c.
(Signed)
vISCoUNT PAL3IERSTON TO MR. BULWER.
" Foreign-office, April 19, 1845.
Sir,—With reference to your dispatch of the 10th
instant, I have to inform you that her Majesty's Go-
vernment approve the language which you held to Queen
Christina ou the 4th inst., pointing out to her Majesty
the importance of governing Spain by constitutional
means ; and that her Majesty's Government likewise
approve of the note which you addressed on the 7th inst.
to the Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, offering
similar counsel to the present Ministers of her Catholic
3lejeety. "I am, &c..
(Signed) "PALMERSTON."
VISCOUNT PALMERSTON TO 3IR. BULWER.
"Foreign-effice, April 20, 1848
" Sir,—l have received your dispatch of the 11th inst.
with its enclosures, and I have to instruct you to state
to the Duke of Sotomayor that her Majesty's Govern-
ment entirely approve the step which you took in making
your communication of the 7th instant, and likewise of
your note of the 12th.
o That her .Slajesty's Government, however, are not
your corn-
at all offended, either by the sending back of Y
munication of the 7th April, or by the angry
the tone
10th,and
language of the Duke of Sotomayor's note of
however they may regret the existence of those feeligs
in the minds of the Spanish Government, of which the
language of his Excellency's note and the return es
yours were proofs.
"Her Majesty's Government, in making to the cee.
vernment of 51ain the representation, and in giving
the advice, which your communication conveyed, were
inspired by no sentiment but that of sincere friendship
for Spain, and of deep interest in the welfare of Queen
Isabella. They felt that in making that communication
'they were performing a duty, and not taking any undue
liberty ; and, therefore, at all events, it is a satisfacohtion
to her Majesty's Government to reflect,
that althue
their counsel has been rejected and their communication
has been returned, the note has, nevertheleas, been read
yid the counsel has been tendered ; and that whatever
calamity may happen in Spain, her Majesty's Govern-
ment stand acquitted of not having done what they could
to prevent it.
" With regard to the contents of the Duke of Soto-
mayor's note, her Majesty's Government have only to
observe, that, if the right of her Britannic Majesty to
the throne of the United Kingdom had been disputed by
pretended rival; if civil war had arisen out of such a
conflict of claims; if the British Government had only
few years ago sent a special envoy to Madrid to solicit
'the assistance of Spain in order to place her Majesty On
her throne, if that assistance had been given, both mo-
rally by treaty
engagements, and physically by military
and navalforces;
it the aid thus afforded by Spain had
contributed in
to her Majesty so essential a degree to secure the Crown
without such Y
ai that it might with truth be said that
Queen
of Englaan hder
it, moreover,
would not now have been
a pretender who raoreover,
there still remained
were backed b asserted his right, and whose pre-
tensionseyvear
large
party in the United
Kingdom ; and if upon
symptom of danger from
that pretender, and that Pr the British Govern-
ment was in the habit oLteremrsed reminding Spain of the treaty
engagements she had
ennba ; was also in the
mtelrits were still in
habit of asserting that those
force; and was continually claimgiane
alleged existence of those engageLnte benefit of the
s• all those
things existed, and if the Government of Spain had, in a
moment of general disturbance
ei
Europe, warned
British Government of dangers bywhich in
the
opinion the security of her Majesty's throne was
I think I may confidently affirm that under stalaee!'racc th
er
d;
stances any statesmen who might be Ministersloluin.
th
British Crown, instead of sending back the note in
which such representations were conveyed, and insteadof replying to it in discourteous terms, would have
accepted the communication in the same spirit of friend.
ship in which it was made, and whether they adopted
or not the advice which it contained, would at least have
considered it as a proof of the continued existence of
that friendship on the part of Spain, to which in such
case would have been owing the circumstance that
those British Ministers had the honour of being advisers
of the Crown, instead of being proscribed exiles in a
foreign land.
" You will transmit to the Duke of Sotoraayor a copy
of this dispatch.

" H. L BULWEFL"

"I am, &c.,
(Signed) " PALMERSTON."