The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-25 00:00:00

prestige of military rank that would aid in its way that came
to which the skill and bravery of his Hon. and Gallant Friend
would under any title so mainly contribute.
Mr. O'CONNELL rose for the purpose of noticing one or
two omissions in the speech of the Noble Lord and the Hon.
Member who last addressed the House. Interference had been
objected to, but he was sorry it had not been carried much fur-
ther. He should like that it had extended so far as to effect a
restoration of their privileges to the Biscayans and people of
Navarre, for he was sure that such a restoration would have
done more for the cause of constitutional government in Spain
than almost any military aid could achieve without it. He was
sorry not to see the Hon. Member for Dover (Mr. Fector) in
his place. He supposed the Hon. Member was gone to take
some refreshment after his great labours.—(A laugh.) That
Hon. Member had thrown away a vast deal of virtuous indig-
nation against those members of Government who had taken
any part in the interference with Spain, not thinking for a mo-
ment that the Constable of Dover Castle came in for his full
share of it—(Hear, hear)—for it was admitted on all hands
his Grace (the Duke of Wellington) had carried the qua-
dripartite treaty into full effect, and had supplied 40,000 stand
of arms to be used against his Majesty Don Carlos, King of
Spain, as the Hon. Member for Dover was pleased to call him.
Yet the Noble Duke would, no doubt, be as much praised for
his conduct by the Hon. Member for Dover as the present Go-
vernment would be blamed by him, though both had acted fully
in the spirit of the treaty. He (Mr. O'Connell) must pro-
test against Don Carlos being called King of Spain. He had
now as little title to that character as he had chance of gain-
ing it, now that the arm of British valour was let loose against
him. Interference had been objected to, but he would con-
tend that we were justified in interfering on the side of con-
stitutional liberty. It was the interest of every state to sup-
port the cause of freedom. Let it be remembered that the
Holy Alliance, though asleep, was not dead ; and that its
members would take every opportunity that presented itself of
trenching on civil liberty, and would even deprive this country
of its freedom if they could, as they had deprived some of the
German States of taxing themselves by their own representa-
tives. The Hon. Member for Dover had complained that the
Spanish revolution was tarnished by the introduction of foreign
troops. He would not say so if he were a Whig, for he would
not in that case have banished from his recollection that our
great revolution of 1688 was greatly aided by the introduction
of whole battalions of Dutch troops. Referring to the late
mission of Lord Eliot to Spain, he thought it was most humane
and praiseworthy, as it went to put an end to the barbarous and
atrocious practice of destroying human life, not in the ordinary
chances of war, but in cold blood. The blood not only of
prisoners taken in battle, but of persons dragged from the
quietness and supposed security of private life, was mercilessly
shed by both the contending parties. The case of the unfor-
tunate young O'Donnell must be still fresh in the memory
of all who heard him. He was taken prisoner, and with a
sort of mockery of mercy he was offered his life if he would
recognize Don Carlos his sovereign. The brave young sol-
dier refused to betray his duty and was shot like a
dog by order of the monster Zumalacarregui ; but these out-
rages on human nature were not confined to one side; they
were perpetrated by both parties, and Zumalacarregui was,
if possible, exceeded in cruelty by General Mini, whom he
would also designate as a monster. He (Mr. O'Connell)
deeply regretted that he had once acted as a steward at a
dinner given to honour that man, and that he had paid him
a compliment, but of course he did not know at the time he
was capable of such cruelties as he had since been guilty
of. All men should raise their voices against such monsters.
After a warm eulogium on the character of Bolivar, whom
he described as having, after the first heat of the civil war
in South America (in which he had been obliged to re-
tdiate by blood for blood), succeeded in putting an end to
the inhuman practice of butchering prisoners in cold blood,
the Hon. and Learned Member concluded by expressing his
conviction, that his Hon. and Gallant Friend would never as-
sociate with any who could sanction such a pnactice.
Mr. G. PRICE must say, in justification of Zumalacar-
regui, that he never destroyed a prisoner until his repeated
offers of a cartel to exchange prisoners had been refused. With
respect to the case of O'Donnell, he (Mr. Price) knew that
Zumalacarregui had received him as his prisoner, and treated
him as his friend, and sent to General Mina to offer him in ex-
change for another prisoner ; and it was not until after he had
received Mina's answer that he had no prisoners, as they were
all shot by his orders, that Zumalacarregui, in retaliation, and
to put a stop if possible to the evil, by showing to what it must
lead, ordered O'Donnell to share the same fate as the prisoners
at the other side had undergone. Having thus disposed of the
case brought by the Hon. and Learned Member; he would now
advert to the general question. The Hon. Member then, re-
ferring to what he had said on a former occasion, repeated that
troops so sent out could be considered only as mercenaries. He
did not believe that. the Hon. and Gallant Colonel was actuated
by any mercenary motive, or by any idle desire of adding fresh
laurels to those already gained. However, without applying
the term mercenary or leader of condottieri to the Gallant
Officer, he w shld say that not one in 100 of officers or men
who should go out would have any other motive of action
but their pay ; and if the Gallant 'Colonel should dismiss all
who were not as brave and as disinterested as himself, he
would have to sail on his expedition with perhaps sonic
officers, but with very few soldiers.—(" Hear," and a laugh. )
As to the arguments which heal been urge-I by the Noble
Lord, he congratulated him on having come forward to ad-
vocate a code of national law for which he.could find no pre-
cedent, for none could be found. The principle of interfering
in the internal affairs of a country, unless those affaies endan-
gered our own safety, was one which might be productive of
the worst consequences. If this principle were once esta-
blished, what security could there be for the peace of Europe ?
One state might send its mercenaries at one side, and another
its mercenaries at the other, and thus in the two great divi-
sions of parties into which most countries were split, the whole
of Europe might soon be embroiled. This country had no
right whatever to interfere in the internal arrangements of that
country, nor in the question whether Don Carlos was King,
or Christina was Queen of Spain ; this was a Spanish affair
from beginning to end, in which the Spaniards themselves had
alone the right to interfere. He further would urge, that
nineteen- twentieths of the people of Spain were on this sub-
ject themselves so feeble, so apathetic, so lost to principles of
attachment to their new and liberal Government, that it was
necessary to search through every shambles in Europe to get
men to fight in support of a cause in which the natives them-
selves manifested so little interest. In conclusion, he must
say, that the moment the English soldiery thus raised set foot
on Spanish soil, from that moment the honour of the country
would be for ever extinguished.—( Hear. )
Mr. H. BUL WE R said the Right Hon. Baronet had in
the first place stated, that the act of the Council in the pre-
sent instance was, in his judgment, much to be regretted •
and that he disapproved of the Government adopting a line of
policy which went to sanction the intervention by other Go-
vernments in the domestic disputes of another state or com-
munity. He (Mr. Bulwer) would beg to ask the Right Hon.
Baronet what had been the course of policy pursued by Go-
vernments with which he 'had himself been connected under
precisely similar circumstances? The Right Hon. Baronet
had first come into the House in 1810, and it was not many s
years afterwards that the remarkable event of Bonaparte re-
turning from Elba, marching through the whole of France,
and arriving at the capital of that country, occurred. The
question was then agitated by the Legislature of this country,
whether it might not then be expedient for this nation to inter-
fere in a much more direct manner than was proposed in
the present instance. On that former occasion did not the,
Right Hon. Baronet give his sanction to the Government
which adopted and pursued such a course of interference in
the domestic disputes of France—disputes in which the whole
of that country was ranged on one side, and foreign troops
no matter how distinguished the officers who commanded
them on the other, ?—( Hear, hear, hear.) In that case there
had been a direct interference by foreign force, and he
(Mr. Bulwer) was not prepared to deny that the Right Hon.
Baronet, in acquiescing in that line of policy of the then Go-
vernment of this country, had taken the only course
which could at that time have been adopted. But the Right
Hon. Baronet had said, that if this country interfered, what
was to prevent other Governments also from interfering ? Did
the British Government prevent the interference of other fo-
reign countries on the occasion to which he had adverted ?
( Hear.) Had the Austrian Government then been stopped in
its career to ask advice Certainly not ; but the Austrian
forces were marched forward at so rapid a rate as to have ar-
rived at their destination before official intelligence of the com-
mencement of the march had reached this country.—( Hear. )
One word with regard to what had fallen from the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman, the Member for Sandwich, who had just
sat down. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman had said that
the policy pursued by his Majesty's present Government was
an entirely novel course, and wholly without precedent. He
begged to ask the Hon. and Learned Gentleman what had
been the line of policy pursued by Queen Elizabeth in times
quite apposite with the present—in times when a struggle
prevailed on the continent of Europe, as at the present mo-
ment ? Queen Elizabeth then would not interfere by a decla-
ration of war against the Spanish Monarch, but she did permit
her subjects to engage in a cause much similar to that now
under discussion, and with that permission not less than 10,000
men, under the command of Sir Horace Vere, went to Spain.
—( Hear, hear.) It had been said, that the auxiliary forces
now raising in this country would know nothing of the
merits of the cause in which they were about to fight, and
therefore would be guilty of a moral wrong.—( Hear.) He
(Mr. Bulwer) doubted much whether the men who had fought
with glory under the Duke of Wellington, were able to dis-
tinguish between the rights of those who disputed the crown
of the nation for which they fought.—( Hear.) It was suffi-
cient that the men now levying were engaged in a cause which
they believed to be a just one ; by doing so they might be
deemed indiscreet—they might be thought enthusiastic—but
still he thought no obloquy could or ought to reach them.
Sir J. ELLE Y said it appeared that the Spanish Govern-
ment was to defray the expenses of these auxiliary corps; but
if these corps depended upon the faith of the Spanish Govern-
ment they would find themselves greatly in error, for that na-
tion was not now able to pay even the interest upon what she
owed, and therefore she was not very likely to be able to furnish
instanter any very considerable sum for the maintenance and
support of these auxiliary forces. The expense, therefore, would
eventually fall upon this country. He was convinced that
every thing that a gallant soldier could achieve would be ac-
complished by the Hon. and Gallant Member for Westminster,
and he (Sir John Elley) only lamented that his Hon. and Gal-
lant Friend was not about to go out in the command of troops
already in a state of discipline. The evils of' a want of disci-
pline had been sufficiently shown in the instance of the con-
duct of the French infantry at Waterloo, as contrasted with
their previous conduct and achievements. Their failure arose
from the hasty manner in which they had been promiscuously
congregated from varipus parts of the French Empire—they
never had been before together either as troops or comrades__
were officered by strangers, and the consequence was a total
want of union and c9nfidence ia the ranks. Hence it was that