Star.
London, England, 1823-05-13 00:00:00

fore:should go in employing a large military force
iA spitin, which bad brought a.variety of attacks on
biro. Now, if they substantiated the charge against
him, it in fact made against their argument. Then,
,gain, it was said, that it would be no use to send a
rvi men over, that it must not be a cheap war, which'
was good for nothing : then the Noble Lord turned
Immi, and said the danger is not so great ; France
wood find the conquest of Spain no easy thing.—
ugh, he thought, would he done by the assistance
bt our army or navy, and encouraging English
volunteers to aid her in the sti uggle. The value of
otrallialice was not appreciated by those who talked
in that strain. If we landed a single brigade of sol-
fliers on Spain, said the President of the Council, all
the whole war was our own. This might be true, as
king a leaf out of the Noble Duke's (Wellington)
book ; yet much might be done if that Noble Duke,
bur tutelary genius, had appeared active in the Spa-
sish cause, or in that country :

" Idet but Achilles on the mount appear,
Proust Tray shall tremble, and consent to fear."

of whilst our fleets or army could do nothing to
save Spain from invasion, the same Noble Lord asked
France would dare to attack our ally, Portugal,
when we had a fleet to sweep the sea, or a large army
tp avenge the insult ? History would prove that the II
Spaniards were most completely adapted for the sort
if war which they had laid down as the plan of the
present campaign. When, in Homer, the Goddess of
Wisdom wished to inspire the weak with a'rnotive or

courage to attack the strong, it was said she gave
them the courage of a fly, which having once tasted
human blood was incessant in its attack, and could

aot be diverted from its purpose. With reference to
the transactions at Verona, about Tui key. and Spain,
a great merit had been made that our Ambas,:adoi-
bad kept them from signing a joint declaration as to
the policy to be adopted towards Spain. Now he
thought this praise was about on a par with the
Frenchman who arrogated to himselfa peculiar merit
_ .

in having preventedhia friend, who had received
forty pills from a quack, from taking more than
fire, which however, from their strong drastic nature,
brouglic hi in to an untimely end, after five days torture.
Then, skid the .Frenchman, what would have been

the consequence if he had taken the forty ?--(.4 laugh).
Though no such joint declaration was made, still it
was admitted that it was in the spirit of the Holy
Alliance to make war on Spain for her late change
of Government, and called on all superior Govern-

rents to assist in making this war diet ival towards its
end. Now this Constitution was founded on the bases
of the old Constitution of Spain, and at all events
was moie like our own Constitution than the A 11-.1-
eracy of Russia. As far too as English interests were
concerned the Government of Spain could never be
too democratic, so as to keep her out of the family
influence with France. Peace with England, and
war wish all the world, was the cry of all the lower
and middle orders in Spain. We should have strength-
ened the favourable feelings of Spain towards us. He
repi.obated still mole the cold, formal, cruel, admoni-
ilea given to the Portuguese, to beware of defending
her y on the l'yrennees as a better place than on
the Tagus. Time ske was to be abandoned to her
fate. For his part, he would rather break the Treaty
at our than have acted with such cold cruelty to-
wards an old ally. Ile should now like to know, in
the ease of Amarante joining the French against the
Portuguese Army, whether this would not come
within our Treaty of Alliance? Was this nothing, or.
would they wait longer? He. would ask with De-
mosthenes, was it nothing that a man of Macedon
bad invaded Greece ? What! were they to wait till Por-
tugal was attacked, till her territory was loaded with
soldiers ? On the whole, the Government should have
protested against all this interposition by the Allies
in the first instance; and we should have best seemed
the intetest of Spain, as well as that of England, had
the line of policy adopted been more firm and intre-
pid, and more becoming the character of the Govern-
ment of a brave and free people.
Lord ELLENBOROUGH concurred with his No-
ble
Fr.end in believing that a systematic design to
put down liberty wherever it appeared us Europe,
had been detected from the transactions which took
place since 1814, at Lay back, Troppau, and Verona.
The ancient policy of Great Britain had been to send
troops as auxiliaries to such of the Great Powers as
were its allies when engaged in war. But never until
the late.war in Spain had it sent an army to take the
lead in the combat. Why not act now in conformity
with the old policy of Great Britain,and give assistance
to Spain, not indeed by dispatching an army, but by
the other means practised by Great Britain? The
Noble Earl asked, was Great Britain now to fight for
Spain, when Spain was divided? That, said the
Noble Earl, would be a war not against the French,
but against the Spaniards. Neither he (Lord Ellen-
borough) nor any of the Noble Lords around him
gave Ministers such counsel ; they did not ask them
to send an army, but why not make use of a fleet?
Why not give the Spaniards the assistance of the naval
power of Great Britain? Suppose, for instance, that
tire or six ships were now on the coast of Catalonia,
would they not be sufficient to enable the Spaniards
to preserve Barcelona ? It was known to every one
acquainted with the coast of Catalonia, that there
were but two roads to Barcelona ; one of which could
not be passed while a fleet commanded the bay, and
the other could easily be retained by a small number
of troops, in consequence of the country through
which it ran being extremely difficult. Would not
the assistance of a small British fleet prove highly
useful to the Spanish Generals, who had retreated
lately to the province of Catalonia? It would be use-
ful, not only as a means of defence, and of protection,
hut also as one of conveyance of their troops from that
coast to any other part of Spain. From the speech of
the noble Earl, and from the declarations of the Noble
Duke, it seemed that they wished success to the Spa-
niard% yet why did they thus tolerate the wanton at-
tack of France on their liberties? It was argued that
it was a war solely carried on by France against Spain;
but aas it really such? He could not agree to that
proposition. Did not the Holy Alliance join in it ? It
was pretended that the present war was one in which
the personal aggrandizement of France was alone
sought, its military ascendancy solely desired ; but
would any one believe that Russia, Prussia, and
Austria, were not interested in the present war ?
The Holy Alliance was interested in supporting their
principles--7those principles inimical to every free
Constitution about to be established in Europe, and
above all, to the British Constitution, the origin of all