The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-06 00:00:00

placed, discouraged every description of commercial enter-
price ; and no hype of a revival of its spirit could be
looked for, without the protection of the British flag.
While upon that subject, be felt bound in justice to state,
that no man could more cautiously or carefully discharge
the duties intrusted to him than did the Admiral com-
manding the fleet at present on that station. However
tempting the opportunity might be, he should not then go
into the possible consequences of the establishment of Don
Miguel upon the throne of Portugal ; nor even touch upon
the possible results that might ensue, in the event of Spain
departing from that neutrality, the continuance of which
was essential to its own advantage and to the satisfactory
arrangement of the affairs of Portugal. Upon these, and
upon all other topics connected with our foreign policy,
Ito should reserve himself until they should be regularly
and Formally brought under the consideration of the House.
Passing therefore from these, he should now apply himself
to the latter part of the speech which had been delivered from
the Throne. Of that part which related to the necessity of
employing strong measures towards Ireland, he should not
then trouble their Lordships at any length. When the mea-
sures which the condition of that country rendered neces-
sary were introduced, be should have an opportunity of
laying before them more at length the views upon these
subjects which were eutertained by his Majesty's Govern-
ment, and he would then state the grounds upon which
they thought it would be their duty not to shrink from
the task of bringing those measures before Parliament.
Ile need scarcely tell the House, that it was a duty which
the King's Government felt they owed to themselves and
to the country to see that the authority of law was up-
held in that country, that the safety of property was main
tained, and that every attempt at disorder was put down,
and that, above all things, measures should be taken to put
an end to the delusion which prevailed respecting the
Legislative Union, any successful attempt to put an end to
which, could not but end in the ruin of both countries.
In order, therefore, to give the ful'est effect to sentiments,
he should not fail, at an early day, to lay before them
such measures as the necessity of the ease might seem to
require, in perfect confidence that whatever might be
required would he readily conceded. On the subject
of the temporalities of the Church, the Noble Elul had
spoken as though he were apprehensive that something
hostile to the Church was intended. Ile thought that
anything of that kind had been sufficiently. guarded against
in the speech which they had that day heard from the
Throne. The country, he trusted, would give them
credit for wishing not to endanger but to uphold the
Established Church, at the same time that they were
anxious to remove any real grievances or abuses which
had occasioned discontent or dissatisfaction. While they
were desirous of placing it upon a footing which should
command the respect of all classes of the community, they
were anxious to accomplish that object by means that had
their foundation in truth and justice.—(Hear, hear.)
The Earl of ABERDEEN briefly explained. He
begged it to be understood that he had not, as the Noble
Earl at the head of his Majesty's Government seemed to
think, the least design of doing anything that could at all
embarrass him or his colleagues. He should certainly not
be at all backward to do anything in his power to embar-
rass any person or any body of individuals who might be
engaged in a course of injustice, fraud, or oppression ;
but personally he had no desire whatever to embarrass
the Noble Lords opposite, still less could he entertain any
wish in the abstract to embarrass the Executive Govern-
ment of the country. He had always contended, and he
would repeat the assertion, that the nation had no reason
to be satisfied with the manner in which the foreign po-
licy of Great Britain had been conducted. Of the prin-
ciple upon which the greater portion of it seemed to rest—
namely, that of peace with France and war with Hol-
land, Mr. Fox had spoken of the Ministry of his day as
being in the pay of France, when they merely hinted at
the possibility of such a condition of our foreign relations.
The Duke of WELLINGTON began by observing,
that no doubt it was the duty of his Noble Friend to take
the opportunity which then presented itself to make the
statement end observations which the House bad just
heard ; hut be could not agree that the Noble Earl at the
bead of his Majesty's Government was justified in insinua-
tiose that Noble Lords at that side of the House had done any-
thing calculated to occasion difficulties,or in the slightest de-
gree to embarrass the operations of the Administration in
the conduct of the foreign relations of this country. It
was not alone to imputations of that nature they were ex-
posed in the House ; but charges of a similar kind had
been made against them out of doors. In many of the
newspapers they had been accused of nothing less than of
actually advising the King of the Netherlands in the
course which he ought to adopt in the conduct of the
war. If he had advised that illustrious personage, very
different would have been the result from those with
which they then had to deal. He could have sug-
gested such as would have rendered the embargo laid on
by the British Government in a great degree nugatory;
for at the very time when it was laid on, the mouth of the
Thames wae so totally unprotected, that the Dutch might
with much ease send out such an expedition as would have
greatly injured British property and commerce, and ren-
dered the embargo almost a nullity. It happened, how-
ever, either that no one gave such advice to the King of
the Nethetlands, or that being given, he had not thought
it expedient to adopt such counsel, and perhaps, upon the
whole, he had acted wisely in so doing; and he would
have acted still more wisely had he given perfect freedom
to the shipping of England ; bad he freely -admitted
into his ports all British vessels, he would have proved
that the embargo was as impracticable as it was
illegal. As to the negotiations, he had no difficulty in
saying that from the moment the present Government
took charge of them, they might be said to have
abandoned the cause of the King of the Nether-
lands ; and that was an act peculiarly reprehensible in a
British Minister at any time, and especially in times like
the present, it was the business of a British Minister to
pay every attentive care to the interests of the Dutch na-
tion. In the progress of negotiations like those, it was
Impossible to imagine a greater blunder than the recog-
nition of the independence of Belgium. It would have
been bad enough had it stopped there ; but every step in
the negotiation made matters better and better for Bel-
gium, and worse for Holland. Holland was left to make
her way
.out of the difficulty as she best could, though it
was professed to conduct every thing upon the fairest, the
most just, and the most equitable principles. The negoti-
ations, which were at first conciliatory, were next mediato-
rial, and ended in war ; and that was called a due regard
to the interests of Holland, and a maintenance of those
principles of a distribution of power and territory
upon which the European systgoa had been already based.
As soon its the case of Hulle:nd was abandoned by the
British Ministers, the British Ministers were abandoned by
three other Powers, and in proof of it he might men-
tion that the Plenipotentiaries of the three other Powers
were not authorizes] to give their approbation to the treaty
of Jan., 1532. He would confirm this statement by what
passed at the time of ratification, for he bad in his pocket
a memorandum upon the subject, which would show
clearly that England and France were the Powers which
pushed the measure forward, while Russia, Prussia, and
Amelia did not join in the attempt. The King of Prussia
stated that he " expected that the other Powers would int-
medietely occupy themselves in framing such modifica-
tions in favour of Holland as would not alter the sub-
stance of the twenty-four articles, and which, although
supplementary and explanatory, would have the same force
and value as the articles themselves; that Prussia con-
sidered herself the more under the necessity of insisting
upon this point, in consequence of the assurances fre-
quently repeated by Great Britain and Frances that
the time of ratification was the moment for taking
important measures into consideration." This ,bowed
clearly that England and France were piessing forward
the other Powers, and it was impossible that the King of
the Netherlands should he ignorant of what was passing.
The terms employed on the same occasion by Russia were
even stronger, and that Government even entered into
certain minute points regarding the navigation of waters,
and the collection of rent due to Holland. Yet the King's
Ministers, after all that had passed, still came forward
with an assurance that the King of Holland ought to have,
and should have justice. The negotiations were afterwards
recommenced, and considerable progress towards an ad-
euetment was made, as the King of the Netherlands did
not hesitate to make considerable sacrifices in order to
avoid a breach. When, however, matters were in this
promising condition, the King of Belgium interposed, by
his envoy, to state that he could not consent to any altera-
tion in the treaty of November, unless the city of Antwerp
and its citadel were first placed in his hands. The busi-
ness of the British Cabinet, at such a juncture, should have
been to have persuaded the Belgian Minister to give up
this point; but they did nothing like it. The King of the
Netherlands sent no answer to the proposition, and from
that moment the capture of Antwerp was the great object.
He (the Duke of Wellington)was thoroughly persuaded that
the Noble Earl (Grey) would not be able to disprove one
word of what he had advanced, as it teas founded upon
the contents of the documents themselves. His Noble
Friend (Lord Aberdeen) bad been blamed by the Noble
Earl, because he bad stated his firm belief that the attack
upon Antwerp arose out of i desire, on the part of the
French Government, to conciliate the party or the Move.-
ment.—(Hear, hear ) He entirely concurred with his
Noble Friend.---(Bear, hear.) It was his opinion, that
no. man was-more interested in preserving peace than 'the
King of. France ; and he would take thin opportunity of
correcting the Noble Earl in a historical point, which ree