The Sun.
London, England, 1827-01-01 00:00:00

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRENCH PAPERS.
PAM.% Dac. 26.—Many copies of the speech of M. Chateua-
briand, in reply to Mr. Canning, were circulated to-day in the
Salle des Conferences. We have been fortunate enough to pro-
cure a copy, which we believe to be very accurate, and we hasten
to submit it to our readers, being persuaded that the publication of it
may tend to throw light on the actual deliberations of the Cham-
ber of Deputies, and that it must strengthen in every French heart
the feeling of national honour.

" In the declaration which the Minister for Foreign Affairs has
deemed it his duty to communicate to us, I have been surprised at
the.silence which the Noble Minister has preserved with regard to
the speeches lately pronounced in the English Parliament. I
respect that prudencei though I cannot comprehend the motives
of if ; but for myself, on whose head no responsibility rests, save
that which rests on the head of every Frenchman,—l mean the
responsibility for the honour of our country,—l will plainly de-
clare that which the Minister far Fnr.L..s_ .• -
v.v. 'Ann,' Atb

-.7 --
rou may perhips recaert, my COTTS; to
nave seen me in this tribune repel as Minister the insults put
upon the French name in the English Parliament. The gener-
ous victories of the Dauphin, answered in a nobler and a louder
strain, than my vain words, the declamations of our adversaries.
" Every thing at present is completely altered. In 1823, I
had only to contend with the English opposition ; in 1826, I
haVe to contend with the prime Minister of his Britannic Ma-
jesty, who outstrips in his career every member of that opposi-
tion. My task is painful. That Minister was my honourable
friend. I admire his talents. I respect his character, but he
will pardon me, if I endeavour to do that for my country which
he has already done too ably for his own.

" It is necessary, my Lords, that I should in the outset impress
myself clearly respecting the grounds of the present transactions
in Portugal.

" I will never recognize in any soldiery the right of making
awl unmaking political institutions, of proclaiming and dethron-
ing. Maus. Perhaps I like the Portuguese charter better than
the English Ministers themselves, who speak of it almost in
terms of derision, and who have deemed it right to recall Sir C.
Stuart from his embassy, because he conveyed that charter to
Li.bon. I thing that the imdependence of one nation supports the
independence of another, and that one free people is the guarantee
fur another. I believe that a generous constitution* cannot be
overthrown in any part of the globe, without an injury being in-
flicted on the whole human race.

" Having made this explanation of my principles, I enter boldly
into the examination of the document which has come to us from
the other side of the Channel.

" The Minister of his Britannic Majesty has commenced a
speech by an enumeration of the treaties which unite England
with Portugal. He might have quoted more of them than he
has done. He might have spoken of the alliance between the
house of Lancaster, and the ancient house of Portugal. But in
that case we might have told him that the house of Braganza
derives its origin from the hou-se of France. Why should he
speak with so much violence respecting our connexions with
Spain, after he had made so pompous a display of the relations
which had existed at all times between his nation and Portugal ?
Have we not treaties which hind us to Spain? Without going,
so tar back as the time of Queen Brunelhart, Charlemagne, and
the mother of St. Louis. Have we not the treaty between King
John and Peter, King of. Castile, in 1351, for the marriage of
Blanch of Bourbon ? the treaty between Charles V. and Henry
11. King of Castile, in 1368 ? the renewal of the same alliance
in 1380 ? the treaty between Charles VI. and John, King of
Castile, made against England in 1387, and renewed in 1408 ?
the treaty between Louis XI. and Henry, King of Castile? and
Leon, 1439 ? Another treaty with Ferdinand and Isabella, King
and Queen of Castile, in 1478 ? Louis XII: renewed that
treaty in 1498. Germaine de Foix, niece of Louis XII., was pro-
mised in marriage to Ferdinand, King of Spain, in 1503, and
hence another treaty of allianCea
" The treaty of the 13th of Cktober, 1640, betiveen Louis
XIII. and the principality of Catalonia, and the convention of
Barcelona, on the 19th of September, 1641, gave us rights over
Catalonia ; then came the famous treaty of the Pyrenees, of the
7th of March, 1659, the contract of marriage with Louis XIV.
ou the 7th of November in the same year ; all the treaties which
accompanied and followed the war of the succession, from 1701
to 1713, and the family compact in 1761, which by its eighteenth
article declares, that the respective states must be regarded, and
a.,41 Ps if they eely made a single and identical power. That
the family compact has been annulled by later treaties is true,
up to a certain point, but it is not at all clear that these very
treaties had maintained all the anterior conventions between Eng-
land and Portugal.
" Besides, what is proved on either side by this diplomatic
erudition ? Nothing at all. It no more establishes our new right
to meddle with the affairs of Spain, than it confirms the right
which England pretends to have to mingle in the "internal affairs
of Portugal. Our respective rights are derived on one side and
the other from our essential interests. Much has been said of a
casus fcederis, which it is declared has occurred. A member of
the English opposition has well auswered to this, by stating that
he did not see how the revolt of two Portuguese regiments esta-
blished a cusus frderis. Eager search is made for the guilty
parties. The Spaniards are at the bottom of the Portuguese in-
surrection. If the Spaniards are not, the French are, and why
not the Austrians too? Is not Don Miguel at Vienna? In that
country there is no great affection entertained for charters. Why
then is not the anger of the English Cabinet directed to that quar-
ter? Why not, my Lords ? There are good reasons for it ; these
reasons are the same which make liberalism wear the cap of liberty
in Mexico, and the turban at Athens.

" But whilst they are discussing the casus fiederis, suppose it
It will be seen by three lines which we have. printed in
italics what the Noble Peer means by a generous constitution.—
French Editor.