The Sun.
London, England, 1826-12-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We invite the reader's attention to a letter signed
" One of the Old School," which appears in this day's
journal. It embraces with a vigorous and manly grasp the
foreign policy of the British Cabinet, with regard to the
conquest and occupation by France of the whole of the
Spanish territories. We make no scruple of' repeating the
opinion, which for more than three years peat we have
avowed, that there scarcely occurs a passage in English
history, more disgraceful in he circumstances, or in its na-
tional consequences more disastrous
Britain--first, the base truck-
ling of Greatßritain--first, to the ill-disguised treachery;
next, to the audacious effrontery ; last of all, to the victo-
rious and overbearing aggrandizement of the House of
Bourbon, for ends equally hostile to general liberty, and
to the individual safety and prosperity of England, exhi-
bited in this conversion of Spain into a French province,
of which the fine ports and, formidable garrisons are, in
defiance of the most solemn pledge, retained as-,points of
attack upon the power of the British empire, while every
article, the production of foreign industry, which can be
required for. 14;000,000 of Spaniards, has become exclu-
sively French instead of English, and a source of en-
couragement to the manufactures of our rival, but of de-
pression and accelerating ruin to our own, Had the Cabinet
of England been as true to the cause of public justice and of
European liberty, as Louis XVIII.and his Ministers were to
that of hereditary bigotry and ambition, Spain would
have upheld and amended her constitutional Government
• without 'requiring another and a violent revolution to
restore it ; and Portugal, experiencing no re-action, would
long since have released the marine of England from a
series of" anxious duties" like those which have devolved
upon it during the last three months. There sievw was a
more triumphant reply than that of Sir Robert Wilson to
•Mr. Canning, when the Foreign Secretary boasted of the
'services lately rendered by our squadron in the Tagus. It
was impossible to shake the position of the gallant Gene-
ral, that if the expence of such an armament was now ne-
cessary, and its efficacy so doubtful as to have occasioned
great and continued tmeasiness to the Minister for Foreign
Affairs, he, who by his feeble, and subservient policy had
himself been the author of that expence and solicitude, stood
veltconderimed before the nation. Mr. Canning disavowed
all idea of meddling in the domestic broils of Portugal;
but stated broadly that the duty of the British Govern:-
mem was to resist any hostile attack upon the Portuguese
frontier by foreign Powers. If such a declaration had any
meaning, it must be that France and Spain ought to be
opposed in any-aggression upon the Kingdom of Portugal,
and that the bold countenance kept up by his Majesty's
squadron in the Tagus laid actually prevented the fulfil-
ment of such a design. Suppose, then, that while the late
King of France was maintaining the humbug of a cordon
sanitdire upon the Pyrenees, and encouraging by money
.and intrigues, and menaces, every species of underhand
attack upon the Spanish Cortes, to sap the foun-
dations of the Government before he ventured an
assault ;—suppose, that at such a moment, us is
well suggested by the letter to which we have
above referred, Mr. Canning had first, on the part of Mi-
nisters, repealed the Foreign Enlistment Bill, thereby let-
ting loose the gallant spirit of many thousand British vo-
lunteers, eager to range themselves tinder the banners of
that free Government, in co-operation with which the ar-
mies of England had already won the greenest and most
glorious of their laurels, would such a measure have in-
spired no confidence in the hearts of Spaniards, half sub-
dued as they were by the open abandonment of this coun-
try ? Would it have shed no damp Upon the councils of
the priests and despots on both sides of the Pyrenees—yea,
to the borders of Siberia ? But as we are assured by Mr.
Canning, and we believe the fact, that a small squadroal of
our men-of-war in the Tagus has sufficed to protect Por-
tugal from a joint attack by the French and Spanish Go-
vernments, united for putting down the free Portuguese
Constitution, let us only ask what would have been the
effect of ordering °tie British squadron to cruise between
Toulon and Barcelona, while another should rendezvous in
the Bay of Biscay, threatening the mouths of the Bidassoa
and the Garonne, With till the western ports of France....
If the French Government, together with that of Spain,
be now deterred by a few ships of war from attacking the
constitutional Regency of Portugal, is it very conceivable
that the single (love r-mem of France Nvould have over-
looked the danger of invading the two allied kingdoms of
Spain•and Portugal, the power of Great Britain leinif
thrown into the scale with equal alacrity on both occasions ?
But there was a party in Spain which (instigated and paid,
be it observed, by France), was manifestly hostile to the
Cortes; and is there not now in Portugal the same ?—ts
faction which, set on by French and Spanish emissaries,
has broken out in repeated rebellions against the Regent,
The French Royal Family, moreover, were in 1823 on a
precarious footing with their subjects—the army was sus•
peeted, the experiment of a march across the Pyrenees
was hazardous, the finances had not then taken their late
bold and rapid flight, the elements of manufacturing and
commercial activity had not yet developed their salutary
influence upon the power and general condition of France,
nor had the sinews of
,British greatness begun to expose
themselves to the world in a. state of growing languor and
debility. The battle was lost by abject cowardice, and
the two grandest of all prizes, Ist, that of the balance of
power as between France and England; 2d, that of Eng-
lish spirit and honour, as compared with what they had
been in former ages—ignominiously and stupidly thrown
away. So much for the origip of our present unhappy re-
lation towards the House of Bourbon : and what is its im-
mediate consequence ? A French Ambassador, backed by a
French army, governs Spain with as much certainty as M.
de Villele, protected by the Jesuits, rules the French
Court and nation. The appropriation of Spain as a French
province was foreseen before the invasion was fully exe-
cuted. Mr. Canning (a pitiful expedient truly) stipule-
ted with the Minister of France that no such abuse of
conquest should be perpetrated by Louis XVIII.; and
he attempted to throw dust in the eyes of the people of
England, by pretending to be himself the dupe of a
sneering promise to the desired effect from M. Villele.
Now see what has happened ! Mr. Canning, to he sure, would
continue this double humbug,-.--a real one upon the English nation,
and a fictitious one upon himself;--by telling Parliament, as he
did last year, that the French Government was " full as desirous
question, without
of
looking to consequetiees,—or, indeed, being more impelled by 4
foasforrethetseheof‘AClßilnri aiiteritlseeir's."Xo
f.t°ElclToglllnaiesepnldetrioetulieb:ieFtlllt, °anil but aSupittlybfyalstell
thorough knowledge of the consequenree—withdraw the French
army to-morrow, while M. de Villele and-his brethren, who have
the power, refuse with great obstinacy, and in violation of good
faith, to permit the departure of that army. Mr. Canning's as-
sertion, therefore; is pure fudge.., But the effect of this French
occupancy of Spain is dreadful. Most insulting and dis-
honourable to England, as every man must feel it, the prac--
tical effect on our commerce is felt with equal accuteness.
France supplies 'the whole internal consumption, as we have
said, of 14,000,000 of Spaniards, and excludes every pound
of British goods from that vast portion of the Peninsula.
She establishes, likewise, a line of circumvallation round Portu-
gal, on every spot of which conspiracies and insurrections, con-
cocted by the joint prieethoods of France and Spain, ttup be or-
ganized and set in motion against this ally of ChNott
There is still something beyond all this—a germ ofhostility, which
imn tuvstriiantvraotlivoettl'o:7gFiarnetni'clits alUrdesSerpvirolisii, by the complete
pfauillitiv,Fiig,"uunr.til the time shall
eAcloimhiliebe,iatatilidflobirytsioosinrl
efatFisiotirnaegips,prinrosraneeleoilif:gorkt,;:;„„qii:::°ZildhisZeyrettibet!
selves between England sad the united :mates in America, which
to sett!e without lugs or
disgrace. If, therefore, there be a spark of dignity. left in minor
Ministers, let them insist on an iinntietuiliiiatteelti:aeLaudamtniT owaspasacriy.
the French forces.
frl'ielbet'ttrlant- anyYt'hat is likely to succeed
fieed bat the present is
t;
AM with tbem to a man. The
it. l'he people of England
peninsula, we have great reason to believe, me sick
people "f, "letra+.o. con dmon. Let its not hesitate until events arise
M n world, w
the wester
of their
which cannot fail to neutralise our weight
and power in the eyes Of European Governments.— Timm

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
sin—As you, among all your contemporaries, have been the
most distinguished by your persevet ing_and just exposition of our
relations with France,- in regard to her occupation of 4ipitia by