The Sun.
London, England, 1826-12-26 00:00:00

10,
N1161,-CAN S SPEECH AT LISBON, IN ISM

(From the John Bull.)
It does seem, and we do not speak our opinion alone,
that amo?t9tap/eliotts degree of expedition has been psed
in commencing what is UM verbally called a war—of edurse
a war with, Spain in defence of Portugal, justified is a
.t.,,,, .finipteta' 1 tue4surc, only by the neeessity,of keeping a'due,
t„,,seasintable, tend cautionary force on foot, in . company With
r.fsnether Ally. But,really, and with all deference we say it,
. , ')t ,seems at present that Spain neither has committed any
,lict:uf, a4gression on Portugal, nor France' hesitated most
.o.xplicitly to •declare its determination not to suppore her
if She did. So that either the force just- dispatched am
. England will have to take a ,decided cart in the intt nal
dissenilons of Portugal, and help the Liberals. to Oda the
ih
• Conittitutii»t down the throats of the people against eir
will, or else have nothing to do but march down th hill
which they have so expensively 'marched up, and clothe
back at:so-much per ton to the barracks und quarters winch
' they need not have left. ' i
That Mr. Canning, who is to receive all' the praisi or
H : beat 'all.- the. blame of this expeditiOn,is consistentland
".. ' stAiumitin'his feelings towards Portugal, may be seen by.
. • the following speech, which that Right Honourable gen-
. , *lemon delivered after is dinner given him by the British
't pe
-- ; merchants' at Lisbon, on the 2d .:of. April, 1816,. nt
'the': occasion of his health being drunklt ,is a hi ppy
. . : piece of :oratory imd,proves beyond every thing else, hat
Portugal is the Right Honourable Gentleman's ho by.
The, speech Intabeen,nomeh sought after, and we ther ore
give it•entire 7.!--, . ) '
z. • '‘'l am. deeply sensible, Gentlemen, of the honour one
to me by this Meeting, and I am highly flattered by the
sentiments with which yon have been pleased to co ple
.my name.
, " To have been, a disciple of Mr. Pitt, and to have
.Ifeen
a sharer in thorn Councils in which originated the struggle
for the salvation of Portugal, are the two circumstances in
• , my political'life, on which, if' on any, I look buck pith
, Pride: andgratification. .
''lt'is a pride to the to have imbibed tin: principhis of
Mi.''Pitt, and a fottifieation to receive your testimon of
the just application of those principles to the measure by
;"'',' *What's country was SHV ed i principles of Which the
-"': "cherticteristie•yees, to cherish order and industry at h e,
`'' as thetrile sources of commercial opulence and Heti nal
• strength iabrotid, to consider the peace and . power nd
, . • safety of Great Britain as bound tip with the Seeurit of
~:ctlist• nations. ,

" Prom this system of internal and external policy, Gti,
Britain derived the'nfeans, and imposed. upon her the d t,
of Sustaining the long contest with France, which preeee
the war of the Peninsula.
" Itt punmunee of that those who bad the diAO.O-
tion-:of the British Councils at the moment when the
grasping hand' of Prance was extended to seize the cram'
liberties of Portugal, did not hesitate to fly to ber;lis-
aistatree; the good-sense, the feeling, awl the generoslty
of the British, Nation went with 'their Government in he
. ondertaking.!' But sanguine and > visionary enthusiast I
%yell remember, were they deemed to be, who thouot,
hat from the struggle for Portugal might issue the de-
,
iverance of Europe I Such an enthusiast I was, and id-
waya,,avowed myself to be. I made this' avowal evenlin
.(,,,Ones when the contest was most doubtful, and, by may,
.414, to be desperate.
'Prue it • was,:that clouds and darkness occasionally
gathered on the horizon ; but, even throughthose clouds,
can4,throuh that-darkness I saw, or fondly fancied .I s4v,
'of light which ,promised to pierce the gloom, and
~.:I'ifijiglttitererifter lighten all the nation.
" It is not at this time of day, or on this spot, that I
imcalled upon to justify these hopes against the implicit-
nort of cxtravegance. .AVhether.as a just and. natural con-
" 11400 of perstiOrance itl a. good cause, or whether by
the Special favourer Providence, true it is, in fact, tlitit
from thiß mink of litirnpe procestled that impulse y
which irri mightiest kingdoms have been set free!' true t
1. that in tIOS 4tQl null impromisiug soil, was deposit d
c Seed Of that siemity, whom!' !moieties now overshot!
mankind% Vona these recollection, and ov,ociations the
'tva are mumbled.. tlerivc:t err animating
"oriel ersiSle interest even ill the eyes of the most indifferent
obsert!er. For my own part, I cannot view this c 4,
nv,whie so many months of horror and anxiety, the
hopeS Of Europe lay trembling fOr their doom. I could not
traverse those mighty fasppisesof, mature 'which fen4e
this capital, thosejnilwartiliebind Which Victory herself
retliiitta new plink her Wings' for a flight more soaring{
end more snstained contd not eontemplato those,holy
,tittiftepattionget which I have beet wandering, Where
curiosity 'pauses to imptire whether the surrounding
°!distruction Mut' bent Wrought by ancient convulsions of
'nature, or by theiportive sacrilege and barbarous intdig.
'vary of the foe:' '=cannot behold the traces of desolation
itithii country, mid, of suffering among the people, without .
rendering's- just homage to :the character of a nation, which,
by allthat it, htl4 'dobe, and more, by all that it has endured,
has raised itself to a pitch of moral eminence sorer beyond
the proportion of its territory, population, or power.
" I cannot consider all these things without blessing
that. wise atticbeneficent policy, which brought 'England
With timely 'Speed to the aid of such it nation, to cull .
forth its energies-,-to marshal its resources—to support
;:''grid invigorate its unyielding conititney—awl, after its own
-:-deliverance was aeldeVed to lead it. forth in pursuit of its

. .
oppreotser. .
• " To have fought together in such a cause—to have
mingled bannera, and to have mingled blood in battles of
Filth interests, and leading to such results., must undoubt-
-ediy eementun eternal union between the British and Per.
uvula Nations, • •

"'Vette/ill observe, Gentlemen, that lam anxious to
state the principle of our connexion, and of our claims, upon
each other, in terms, not of comparison, but of equality. I
do so with sincerity, because I believe. that statement to
be.itutt--1 might' do so from policy, -even if I doubted of
its justness. . .

"'Portugal would not have been staved without Eng-
land, it is true ; but Portugal was to England a main
instrument for the mightier task Which England had to
perform.

" brought' hither Councils, arnw, and British disci-
and British valolr ; we found, here willing hearts
and
,f;:aotive.,hands-74 confiding. Government—a people
brave AO enduring, docile_ in instruction,faithful ut fol-
lowing, patient under privations, not to be subdued by
disattet, and .riot to be intoxicated by tiIICCONS: The ono
of England was the fever that'wrendied the power of Bo-
naparte from its bask; -:Portugal was the fulcrum on
whiol that lever Mtived. England fanned and fed thc
sacred but Portugal bad already reared the altar on
whichlE4 fire was kindled, and from which it mounted,
,brightening and , until the world wit.% illumined
with the blaze._

I have said that, :natives from of policy, I would
km, mud)/ equal as possible the balance between Por-
turP qd nud England. There is a principle.of disunion in
'unequal connexions. Active heat fistnce. la a virtue of
easier practice than forbearance after having'
,conferred, or
than thanlifoincvs after having received, a 611044 I know
not, indeed, wht‘,ther"it be u greater and more difficult or_
irente of magnanimity for the one, party to act Ns if he bad
forgot:Len, or for the other as if he constantly remembered
the,nbligation.
" On' the part of Great Britain, let us bear in mind,
that. tin. feelings to which we addressed ourselves in Por.
togoi, were those of national pride and independence. If
those feelingit were found equal to the occasion, what
wonder, or what regret, that they shOuld have aurViVed ?
It: natiirally to b'e expected, that having accomplished
tin overtlaotV of its enemies, the genius of the nation
should carry itself with somewhat, of a bolder and freer
port, even towards its friends. We have nosight to feel
this sorely—rit.WOeld be. neither just nor becoming in us
to tit so. 'We sheald respect, even in its excess, an hale•
pendenee that We 4yo vindicated, and should pardon even
to the waywardness or!, spirit Nwhicii we.have raised.
" To Portugal, on the other hand, I would say that
then is no htuniliation in the owiti,„„t of „won, gratis