Star.
London, England, 1815-03-02 00:00:00

advised by. Sir jades Da to write to General Smith,
begging bin remonstrance with the Spanish Govern-
ment, on the ground of a Convention between the
two Governments. Whether this memorial had
"sesubed its destination be did not know, but no no-
tics wu taken of it. He was then taken baize Vil-
lavicencio, and informed that he was free from his
tribunal, but amenable to the Inquisition. He how-
ever escaped to England. Sir James Duff not, per
haps, thinking it proper to interfere to prevent it, in
consequence of the notice taken of these things in
that House. Here that unfortunate gentleman, and
all other Spaniards, were frees nor need they Ai to.
France for protection. Correa was described by Sir
James Duff as having libelled the British taoops at
St. Sebastian's; but the fact was, that all the crime
of this officer, who had fought for this Ferdinand,
was, that he had written a temperate letter to his
Sovereign, begging him to give his country a free
Constitution. For this he was sent to Ceuta, to be
confined to the gallies for '2O years. But the situation
of this gallant officer was far more enviable than those
of General Smith sr Sir James I)uff. His chains
might be broken; the chains of their minds surely
never could. The Honourable Member then read the
dispatch to, and answer from, Sir J. Duff, touching
his administering an.oath to the captains of merchant
vessels at Cadiz, that they had no fugitive Spanish
I subjects on board, which Sir James Duff admitted
but pleaded that he had done so, by the authority of
the Secretary of State for the Hcme Department, tin
prevent improper persons from coming to this conn.
try. He contended that tikh order of the Secretary'
of State was illegal; yet was it exerted to prevent
the Members of the Cortes, who were once hailed ae
the saviours of their country, from escaping the ty-
ranny of the ungrateful Ferdinand. He instanced a
• in which Alien Law had been med.

ease oitr prostituts..
A Portuguese, named Conejo, had settled in this
country, and not having got his passport signed by
De Sousa, the Portuguese Ambassador, he was sent
out of the country. He went to the Brazils; was
tried, acquitted, and loaded with honours by the
Prince Regent of PertugaL He then m wed an Ad-
dress to the Prince Regent, express'n the disappro-
bation of the House in the conduct of Sir J. Duff ;
and praying that his Royal Highness would express
his strongest censure of their conduct ; and that his
Royal Highness would be pleased to interfere, in
order to obtain the liberation of the persons confined
in consequence of the British territory having been
violated.
Mr. BATHURST thought the Honourable Gen-
tleman had taken a very exaggerated view of tht
subject. He denied that Sir J. Duff had advised
General Smith immediately to deliver up these per-
sons to the Spanish Government. When Sir J. Duff
signed the passports of these men, he did not know
that there was any enmity between them and the Go.,
veinor of Cadiz. According to Putt:slant's own
bts ement, he did not enter the garrison according to
the rules of the garrison, for he entered by a permit,'
and did not at first present himself to the Town
Alaj as was the regulation. He thought it im-
proper to condemn an individual unheard, which
would be the case with General Smith, if this mo-
thin was entertained. He had seen Sir J. Duff (who I
was now SO years of age) at Cadiz, and he never
heard a greater enthusiast than he was. He could
not, therefore, believe that he could so soon become
the tool of an arbitrary Government, as he had been
dlecribed to be. Hie did not mean to exculpate Ge-
neral Smith altogether; but he put it to the candour
of the House, whether, in such cases, a discre-
tionary power might not be supposed to be given to
a person in his situation. As Lord Bathurst had
put an end to these things, lie hoped the House
would not pass so severe a censure on these Gentle-
then as that proposed by the motion of the Honour.
able Gentleman.
Mr. GORDON said, be conceived Sir J. Dtiffhad
merely countersigned the passports of these men,
without knowing at that time that they were ob-
noxious to their own Government.
Mr. DAVIS did not see what the name of. Gene-
ral Whittingham had to do with this question. But
he could state that he was a Spanish, as well as a
British Officer, and when he received the orders of
General glio, countersigned by the King of Spain,
directing him to march to a certain point with his
troops, near Madrid, waste to disobey those orders,
because the consequence might be the abolition of
the Cortes 1
Mr. GOULBURN would not enter into any dis-
cussion as to the merits or demerits of Spain and her
colonies ; but he believed both bad been ill gover-
ned. He could, however, assure the Hon. Gentle.
man, that no one more sincerely rejoiced than he did,
that Mr. Puigblanc was safe in this country s but he
must oppose this motion, because General Smith had
had a sufficient censure passed on his conduct in the
transactions complained of. But, on a loose para-
graph in a newspaper, the. Hon. Gentleman had
thought fit to impute a direct falsehood to General
Smith, which that officer had, however, cleared up.
He (Mr. Goulburn) saw nothing in the letter of Sir li
J. Duff which was improper, for it was his duty to
communicate what he had done to General Smith, to
Troup he left it to est as he pleaked, Whether he
ills truly or not Intormetrthat these men had gone
Imlay with an evil design, it-Nvas his duty to
lestlamunicate that intelligence, without loss of time,
en the Governor of that place. Mr. Puigblanc had
suited, that his passport was kept by the Spanish
Consul, at Gibraltar, as he understood was his cus-
tom. Now that was not the case ; and if the Hon.
Gentleman had exerted half the acuteness he had
shewn in bringing forward this charge, he would
have found, no such thing was allowed in a garrison
town like Gibraltar, General Smith also had still
persisted, that these men were found in the garrison
under fictitious names. He would oppose the mo-
tion, (although generill Smith had acted without
,due precaution, and been the cause of what they all
regretted—the delivery of these men to the Spanish
Government) because his ionduct had received suffi-
tient censure.
Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH thought that the
way in which this important subject had been treated
by the last speaker, was proclaiming to Europe, that
they dent hardly censure such conduct as that com-
Otined o(. The law of nations allowed the giving
lip of desseteis qs priseneri, but surely not of potions
peed of poliucal offences ; and therefore it was
1 datable in General kmid; to act as he had done
' ski; case. Ilirsl. Duff signed the pstsport of these

men on the 14th of March, and on the 16th his letter
to General Smith was written, so that these unfortu-
nate Spaniards could not in that tints have commit-
ted any new crime against their Government, foe
they left Cadiz on the evening of the 14th of March.
It was quite clear that Sir James Duff was the first
mover of this transaction, for it seemed that he con-
sidered a man, Who could write against the venerable
structure of the Holy Inquisition, as one unfit to live
among mankind. But those very unfortunate men,
that were betrayed by the treachery of a British Con-
sul and Officer, were saved by their own Govern-
Intent, to wlom they had been delivered over as to a
destroying lion. He contended, that the papers
laid before the House on this subject, tailed for
an inquiry into the truth or falsehood of Gene.
rat Smith's account of this transaction. If these
persons had violated the rules of the ganiscn of
Gibraltar' they might have been punished there;
but that had nothing to do with delivering them up
to the Spanish Government. He reprobated the in-
structions sent by the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, by which every petty Agent of the Bri.
tish Government, in every part of the world, received
the power of shutting the door against British liospi-
tality, according to their own caprice or prejudice.
He believed that no other Government in the world,
calling itself free, but this, possessed any such mons-
trous power as that given under the Alien Act. But
he bad reason to believe that these two Gentlemen
(Puigblanc and Correa) were but a part of the hun-
dreds of Spanish gentlemen who had been condemned
to pestilential dungeons, or to the sal*: at Cents, in
cd4equence of Sir James Duff utilities to grant them
passports. But the conduct of Sir JaMet had been de-
'fended by an 0 fficer of Government, and therefore it be.
came that House to declare its opinion of that conduct.
As to General Smith, it was said that he bad been
already sufficiently censured but he would be glad
if any Gentleman would point out to him in the dis-
patches, any thing that conveyed a censure on that
Officer. He had read Mr. Puigblanc's book against
the Inquisition, which was a temperate and philoso-
phical work, and not at all of the nature of a political
pamphlet._ He contrasted the conduct of this Go.
vernment towards these unfortunate Spaniards, and
that of the French Government in releasing General
Mina from the arrest he had been put into, at the re-
quest of a person, who, he feared, was an accredited
agent of the Spanish Government. As long as the
act of delivering up men as prisoners to so tyranekcal
a Government subsisted, the enthusiastic veneration
of good men must cease for the character of this
hitherto honourable country. No longer was the flag
of this country a protection to oppressed foreigners;
for a British Officer had become an Alguazil of the
Inquisition, and a British Consul the common gaoler
to Ferdinand VII,
Mr. W. POI4E admitted that the conduct of Go.
neral Smith could not be justified ; but it had been
cleared from some misconceptions by his Honpurable
Friend (Mr. Goulburn). There liarLbeen a great
deal of abuse bestowed on our ally the King of Spain;
but he could state it as a fact, that, on Ferdinand's
journey from Valencia to Madrid, all manner of per.
sons met him on the way, and implored him to put
an end to the Cones, whom they considered as so
many tyrants. The Right Hon. Gentleman depre-
cated these kind of discussions, as tending to shake
the alliance with Spain. With respect to the Duke
of Wellington, his honours were conferred by the
Cones, and confirmed by Ferdinand. lse snake the
best of the question, what was it r Hera was Gene-
ral Smith, a very meritorious officer, serving his
country, without being aware that he was doing an
act of injustice. With respect to Sir Janus Duff, he
did not desire these persons should be taken up and
given over to the Spanish Authorities, but he wished
to put the Governor of Gibraltar on his guard. He
passed some high encomiums rpon the character of
Sir J. Duff, who had resided upwards of fifty years
at Cadiz, and was considered the Fatber of that
City ; and who, having served his country faithfully,
would, when he died, die poor. He admitted th it it
would hate been better if he had not written the fet-
ter. He assured the •House every means would be
used by the British Government to obtain the Ebner
ticni of the other persons.
Mr. Alderman C. SMITH was obliged to the
Member for Bedford for bringing the question for-
ward, for if it should not be carried, it would do a
great deal of good, by preventing similar transactions.
Mr. H. ADDINGTON vindicated the conduct
of his Noble Relative, the Secretary of State, who
had, in the letter written to General Smith, conveyed
a censure commensurate with the fault.
Mr. DOMINIC BROWN said, if General Smith
and Sir James Duff had rendered some great service
to the country, he should not bare thought the
probation of Lord Bathurst sufficient—so he did not
think his censure adequate to the offence I he would
vote for the address, and would have done so even if
It had been much more severe.
Mr. HORNER said, be eo entirely concurred in.
what had been said by the last speaker, that it almost
precluded the necessity of saying any thing. That
the conduct of General Smith could ant be justified
was.the opinion of all parties—(//ear, Lear. km)-4
and if ibis waathe case, would the Haase dues ditty
in iblit.lning from expressing that, is *eir corporate
eapailty, which they all felt individually r By the
letters of Sir James Duff, it appeared tut he parti-
cipated in the offence which had been committed.—e
The lionoorable and Learned Member described the
persons who had been persecuted as the most illus.
trious of the Spanish nation, mot yet they were ire
their discussions to abstain lions commenting on the-
latrocity of the transaction, and suppress their (Cele
ings, lest, forsooth, they should lose the alliance of
Ferdinand.— Lear.)—The alliance of the Dey
of Algiers, the alliance of any of the Barbary pn wen
was more to be desired, than the alliance of the
usurper Ferdinand. —(Heor, hear.)—He wass iedev_ jde
as great a usurper as that penal Who had precede*
him on the throne of Spain.--(erhor, haw.) Nothing
he was sere could operate on the miserable laden
of whom he had spoken ; but if the expression of the
fpeeoelpinlgge ofaSoafrieD7 men could induce the oppressed
ranny together, he rise and a
shouldrejgsuoicei
in hire
mat and
dreshisis expressions
which would redound to the national honour.
Mr. B. hiII'HURST contended, that the con-
duct of fir J.
D 4 was not entitled to that degree of
censere which' belonged to General Smith. He
thought, however, that the official notice froln tie
Secretary Of !hate heirs a< nation Owe% He at