Star.
London, England, 1823-04-17 00:00:00

it was %slimy to . surer witvl te.
law Was at that time mitigind,io as to:
fence a misdernstanour instead of a fell
greater power of prevention wait taken
case of South America, with regard to fitting-..
ship. His object was therefOre not to leaTethflo.-
as it before stood; and he should accordiegly move-
the repeal of all the clauses after- the first, whildt
clause repealed the fanner Acts.. • "• • '
Lord FOLKSTONE, in seconcfmg the motion, ex-
pressed his regret at the general difficulty which he
had in finding language to convey his sentitients to
the House. But he felt the difficulty now more par-
ticularly, because there were no terms in the lan-
guage that could express the utter shame and indig-
nation which he felt on perusing the Papers that had
been laid before the House. (Cheersfrnet Ville Onto-
ain't.) The Right Hon. Gentleman had stated -that
though we were bound to Portugal by a defensive
alliance, we were not bound to enter into a war for
Portugal, if that Power rashly and foolishly entered
into the contest. He did not see that this explanation
was at all neceisary. -If this country were. to remain
neutral, it was to remain neutral, and why then
should the Right Hon. Gentleman go out of his way
to tell France that if she did happen to venture a lit-
tle too far, this country would not feel itself obliged
to take a mt in the war? He deeply regretted the
- degradation and-infamy which, in his opinion, these
Papers proved to have fallen on the country.; If he
wereio take from them the two parts most reflecting
on its Ministers, he should select those which had
been read by the Right Hon. Gentleman from. his
own dispatches. One of these was contained in
answer to the Duke of Wellington'i letter, which ,
first intimated to this Government that the affairs of
Spain were to be discussed in the Congress of Verona.
Why, he begged to ask, had Ministers then received
the first intimation of such an intention ? Why had
Ministers not taken care to be well informed on this
subject before, when they knew of the establishment
of a- French militacy force in the vicinity of the Py-
rennees,' which, called at first •" a sanitory cordon,"
at a subsequent period became an Army of Observa-
tion ? In other times -the-Government of this coun-
try would not have been thus deceived, and a aqua.'
&on of British ships would have appeared in the
Bay of Biscay to observe on the Army of Observa-
tion. If Ministers had first received intelligence of
the designs of Ftance respecting Spain from the Duke
oflYcllingron, what had our Ambassador at Paris
been about? Why were we to be at the expense of
maintaining an Ambassador at the Court of France,
if, ?ail:messed of such an agent,'our Government could
be leftirats uninformed in a matter of so much im-
portance? The language held by the Right Ho-
nourableVentleman to France amounted to a decla-
ration, that if she thought proper to attack Spain she
might, but we would have nothing to do with it.
This was like an individual saying to an evil-disposed
perms,. " if you choose to rob or murder a man on
Vie:highway, you may do it, but I will have nu.hand
i s the affair." It appeared to him that no determined
resistance had been opposed to the views of France,
ga,reaumstrance appeared to have been offered on
tlielintt of 'England: Such, he said, was the plain,
unveraked tale of the, flight Honourable Gentle-
man, 'iuld such, -in hi's-opinion, was the view which
ought to be taken of one of the extracts which had
been selected by the Right Honourable Gentleman
himself (ramifies* disgraceful documents. He wished
that spirit prevailed in the Ironic which ought to be
found -there, and then the individual who could se,
lect such a passage for the iindication of the Admi-
nistration, would not.long be suffered to remain the
Minister of the country. The passage to which he
Lid adverted was found in a document which was
almost the first in the correspondence. The SCC,OUiI
which he should notice would be found in a piper
which was almuatthe lag. This stated that hii Ma-
jesty's Ministers; confiding in the repeated assurances
of his Most Christiaii-Majesty's Government, that no
wish for territorial ativandizezdent was cherished on
the pan or Trance. were satisfied thatalie.hadna de-
sire to retain military occupation of Spain. The
Right Honourable Gentleman was sincere, or he was
not. If sincere, 'be could Only Wonder at his being
thus made the dupe of the French diplomatists, after
their views of aggrandizement had been avowed..
These had been avowed, not in the State Papers of
France, but by M. 4 Chateaubriand in the Chamber
of Deputies, 'where he hid not scrupled to declare,
that France would follow up the policy of Louis the
Fourteenth, and obtain that contioul over Spain,
which would give her a just preponderance in Eu-
rope. M. de Chateaubriand was too cautious a di-
plomatist to state this in those papers which he had
pel forth, at least in such} of them as the Right Hon.
Gentleman thought it prudent to communicate to the
English Parliament. What. the feelings of the French
Ministers were, he observed, might be pretty well
understood from the speech made by the Duke de
Fitzjames. He had stated " this war to be opposed
by the English," and remarked, " that it was. but
natural to expect that it should be so opposed ;
but he, as a Frenchman, was not on that account the
less inclined ti support it.". Could it be said that the
propositions which France had been allowed to pin
forth contained nothing derogatory to the dignity Of
Spain? Did not those papers require that her Con-
stitution should be remodelled ? and who that ad-
mired the British Constitution and reverenced the
spirit of freedom, could after this deny that the rights
of Spain had been infringed upon ? In what he
advanced, the Right Hon. Gentleman, as he (Lord
l'olkstone) had already said, was sincere, or he was,
not sincere. If sincere, he had been duped by the
Ministers of France; if insincere, he was endeavour-1
ing to dupe that House. The contents of the papers
which had now been given were calculated to make
an. Englishman's blood boil in his veins. When l;m
(I,oriiTolkstone) went home with them on the otherl
ffight, twenty umes while reading them he had;
dropped them from his hand with horror and with
indignation. It would be said, that the Spanish Go-
vernment had expected no more than that we should
remain neutral, and on this the Right Hon. Gentle.
Man refused to give way to those feelings which were
cherished by every Englishman, and Great Britain
was seen to bend, to crouch, to bow down, before
the Despots of -the Continent, and the sacred cause
of liberty, in which Englishmen were formerly ac-
customed to bleed, had been meanly abandoned.—
There Was another letter to the'Duke of Wellington.
at Vero*, from which it appeared that the French

chi-1
was
fas

~•~

delgavedtiiiit
- mat _...ten them and the Minister
of the"country ' ifief Were preparing to attack. Our
opinion on the subject bad been asked, and our an-
swer was, that we did not know what had taken place.
Was it not natural that the question should then be
asked whit had been done? Would not a child have
done this? But it was clear that our Government
had been afraid to ask such a question. This was
known to the world, and he would repeat it, we had
beau afraid to ask it. He-declined for the present
entering into the discussion of the contents of all the
papers which had been laid upon the table of the
House, as he could not do it with satisfaction to him-
self or to diem. He wished to know how it was-that
we were not at war in the cause of Spain and Liberty?
He liked not bullying, and was not disposed to hold
out a menace which we could not make good. He
would not threaten war when we were unable to en-
gage in one; but he should like to know how long
such had been the situation of England, and in whose
bands she had been reduced to such humiliation?—.
tTime was, when we should not have acted thus;
time was, when the late Lord Chatham said, ~ I
should like to see the Power in Europe who would
dare to fire a shot without first explaining its object
to England." That time was gone by. -Eight years
ago, indeed, we called ourselves the saviours of Eu-
rope—(Hear, hear). The Noble Lord then at the
head of his Majesty's Government received the highest
mark of honour his Majesty could bestow—the Order
of the Garter, for the shate he had had in raising this
country to such a height of glory. That Noble Lord
was still at the head of this Government, he still wore
that star on his breast; yet now we were crouching at
the foot of France—prostrate before a Bourbon—
(Hear, hear.) He called on the Noble Lord and the
Right Hon. Gentleman for explanations on these
po.nts; for, as Jie had given the Noble Lord credit
for the good he had done to the country, so he must
hold him reseonsible for the evils which had since
been brought on the national honour—(Hear, hear).
The Noble Lord then adverted to the grand dinner
given to the Duke of San Lorenzo, and observed, that
those who attended that dinner had been guilty of a
mockery on the Spanish nation—(Hear, hear).--It
was strange policy to keep up the army in the time
of peat., and to reduce it now that it was wanted,
to save Spain, and to preserve the peace of Europe.
The Right Hon. Gentleman, duped by the policy of
France, had wished to play off that policy upon the
House, and to dupe it also. He had then to warn
the House and the country against the state of degra-
dation into which they *ere about to fall, and of
•which they already tasted the first fruits, arising
from the infamous policy of the House of Bourbon.
He hoped the Commercial Gentlemen in the House
would extend their sympathy towards the Spaniards
beyond the walls of the London Tavern. Let them
look to their own interests, for that curseddeht would
weigh them down, as well as the whole nation, oral)
we should be compelled to drink the bitter' -cup of
degradation, even to the very &Cgs. - - '
Mr. LAMB said, that this being the first Rractieid
measure brought before theliouse, 'he felt it neces-
sary for him to state his'olinion o,64:subject, end'
why it was impossible for him tOigrte i'alth tile pre-
sent measure. He-wondered hew his -Noble Friend
should have proposed' war with the House of Bour-
bon, who formerly wasauniiing.before the Ministers
fin war for the House of bourbon. Tliaf Noble Lord
now abused that very debt wlikli•he Was the fore-
most to cause this country to contract, and therefore
was, of all Men, the Most responsible for the con-
sevences of it. Neither. On geairai nor particular
principles could he (Mr. Lamb) consent to the repeal
of thisaAct.• He knew that formerly it was the prac-
detail Men of chivalrous spirit to volunteer in the
serviel'elf the Elector Palatine, of the Protestants of
France and Holland; but that was in support of roll-
' ;ion. Now the prerogative of war and peace waavested
Ito the Cistern, andahere he wished it to remain.—
Confidence too stiould be reposed in the Government
on account of the superior means of information it
possessed with resnett to the views and policy of
Foreign Powers. Persons incurred a very grave re•
sponsibility, who at Public Meetings would hold out
false hopes of assistance to foreign countries. We
would never bear another country to assist our ene-
mies by subscriptions in their favour. Generally,
therefore, a Bill of this kind was necessary to enable
Ministers to keep the country still- at peace. The
'contrary would be a pretty clear act of hostility, and
would be the cause of involving us in the war.' He
saw in the interference of foreign nations with the in-
ternal affairs of others, neither sense, policy, nor jus-
tice, except under-certain cases. The wars that had
been so disastrous to Britain, the American and the
first French war, had their origin in eloquent and
bitter invective. The American war was stirred up by
the bitter invective of a great lawyer, Mr. Wedder-
burn, against Dr. Franklin ; and yet the peace was
•made with that very Dr. Franklin, arrayed in that
very garb in which his sarcastic opponent had de-
picted him. Government ought to-be left to its dis-
cretion, and he thought the line of neutrality was the
best fitted for this country, though we had ample
means to go to war were it necessary. How often
had he heard the doctrine that we had nothing to do
with wars on the Continent; but now the argument
was quite different. He did not think we ought to'
interfere in this contest. If France failed there was
an end of it. If she succeeded it crippled her •
re.,.
purees, and covered her with obloquy. He utterly
denied that the occupation of Naples benefitted Ass-
trial ; on the contrary, it prevented her from acting
hex part with energy in Europe. For these reasons
he thought Ministers were acting the wisescpoliey. --
Lord FOLKSTONE explained. He denied that
he was putting an end to the debt by violent mica-
sures. He did ant understand what the Hon. Gen-
tleman alluded to, when he said that he was respon-
sible for the Debt.
Mr. LAMB said, he Noble Lord had, in a speech
at the time, advocated the restoration of the House
of Bourbon as a sine qua ins of peace.
Lord FOLKSTONE said, he had certainly pro-
posed that the war shOuld be declared to be for the
se of Bourbon in opposition to that of Bona-
.,
; but he did not see how that madc him respon-
sible for all the disasters of the war.

Trent ...:... • it** te'haiimed or irlertifli
osirite. • 'lbw 'intim lUS italatftiad -CiPstn.' i
oiintethief. . letik ad alillid courted ilitWein a
"WM. end- a lieVaotietnnoinit and tht Court of Mi✓drid s
to meet' the tohe anattuihicatird tei France, white it er:
to fitting out that the French anyernitent had not deign
leayetho law of what hid pasted between them and the Lk