Star.
London, England, 1823-04-29 00:00:00

CAPTAIN StA WIT.

- .- -
Mr. CURWEN presented a Petition from Captain
Manby of his. Majesty's Royal Navy, stating that he
had devoted his attention 'for several• years to ma-
tuiing the means of preserving the valuable lives of
seamen wrecked, or otherwise' endangered through
accident at sea. After a tew observatinns on the
subject, in which the Hon. Member stated that the
Petitioner had been promised the recommendation of
the Right Hon, the Chancellor of the &chequer' to
the House, as a proper persnn to receive a renme•
ration.for his' valuable services;
The CH ANOELLOR of theEXCHE4llls,llstuted
that he certainly hid,been applied to, and had said
that he had expressed his high opinion Of the gallant
Officer in question ai a shipwright and an Otter of
.considerable talent and information. He had said
also that he would refer the subject of his claim to
„the House; bin he had never staled that he should
or should not recommend stick a claim, which he did
not think himself called on to do.
After a few observatieni from Mr. Wowsnowss
and Sir 1. Cowl, the Petition' was read ana ordered
to be printed.

. Alter LR
Mr. M. 4. TAYLOg stud, a report having gone
abroad thit some 044 were taking id the other
flOnie to expedite appeals there, hq wished to'ask the
Right Hon. the Secretary. far the Home Department
when such Ida:nation on the sidieet might probably
be laid on the table of the House of Carismoni as
would throw some light on the nature of the change
intended to be effected in the appellpt torisdiction?
Mr. fiecretaii ?EEL observed, that from the very
Gatlin of the proceeding instituted wit-ls respect to
this change, he could not Lit?!,:jbly gibe toy infOrma-
tion oft the snkject... ,The Lions! of Lords lied ap-
pointed a Critnasittei to air:dine the sahjict, asd
until it was koowts what their Report would be, it

i:.% • ,
_to say with certainty what migist lse
_ . -,.. • . etfi measuv proposed.
• •""- e few words frs•Mr.lll. A. TAYLOR/ ~
~
r. VrtifLIAMS gaie- notice, that he would, en
Wednescla.y sen night, bring'forward a Motion oh thel
sebjeCt 4f these Courts:
life EVANS presented a petition from the Inhabitants of due '
neighbourhood of Derby, praying that %lavery might be abo-
lished in the West Indies.—Ordered to be printed. A
message was brought from the Lortis, announcing their
Lordships' assent to various Bills.
The second reading of the Peer Laws Amendment BM was
postponed till to-morrow.
THE LATE NEGOCIATIONS..
Mr. MACDONALD rose to bring forward his
motion relative to the late negotiations. No one, he
said, appeared either to expect or to desire that coin-
munications of such vast importance as those whiCh
had lately been presented to the House, and which,
he trusted, had found their way to the hands of all
his Majesty's subjects, and in which every person who
perused them must have found matter to induce him
to cling to the liberties he enjoyed with redoubled
zeal and devotion; no one expeoted that communi-
cations of such e nature could have remained so long
on their table unnoticed. It had been well, indeed,
that they should have so remained till the surprise
they'had excited had somewhat abated. The disgust
occasioned in every British mind by reading them
would never subside; even though they should re-
main unnoticed and undisturbed on the table till they
should be buried in dust. The surprise had now
somewhat subsided ; and he rose to call the attention
of the House to their conttpts. During the late war,
a war commencing-in 1793 and finishing in 1815,
every Briton had declared that the neck of the Spa-
nish people should never be made a footstool to a
French Ruler, whether that Ruler was a Bourbon or
A Bonaparte; but now we. had changed our position..
—We, dining that war, acted up to our professions:
now we had substituted professions for facts; and
whatever the' Right Ilonourable Oritlemen might
think, we did not now stand exactly in the situation
of Cesar's wife. In 1812, Spain found herself under
the necessity of reforming her Constitution, and on
that occasion the Despots of the North were most for-
ward to acknowledge it in its regenerated form, and
the great Autocrat of Russia pronounced upon it that
cabilistical epithet e legitimate." In 1814, when Fer-
dinand was restored to the Throne, his first act of
gratitude, for the blood wasted to support him, was
the overthrow of liberty ; while himself continued
the slave of bigots and monks, he proceeded to exile,
incarcerate, and, he believed, to execute some of.
those very persons who had distinguished them-
selves in the liberation of their country. In 1820,
however, the fabric of tyranny, thank Goof fell'
to the ground. Portugal soon followed the noble
example set by Spain, and the Peninsula was free.
It was not to be expected that such a change could
be effected without divisions and without resistance.
The wonder was, how slight that resistance had-been
till France had recourse to that worst and most dis-
graceful species of warfare, that of exciting insurrec-
tion by her money and her intrigues. These insur-
rections were charged as a Crime on Spain, and were
made the feigned pretence of continuing an Army of
Observation on her frontiers. In 1821 the Emperor
of Russia bethought himself of what he had previously
,done. New lights broke in upon him, and he pub-
lished a Manifesto, disapproving of what he before
;designated as-legitimate. Lord Londonderry, upon
this occasions presented a Note found among his pa-
pers, many partsof which did him eat credit. The
!Emperor of Russia, not finding his proppsal warmly
received, did not press it further at the time. He
begged to say a word or two on the divisions which
were said to exist- in Spain. There had been some.
thing thce malignant exaggeration in the description
of them. Divisiops, no doubt, existed ; but did
they not also exist in France? No revolution
was ever effected without division. Our own glo-
rious Rerdlution had not been accomplished
with Out two civil wars; but he did not be-
-1 lieve-there was any new division of parties in Spain.
'How did
.parties- stand in Spain ? He believed on
one side was all the landed property, and, he might
almost say, all the People; on the other side, a few
bigotted Nobles, the greater part of the Priesthood,
and a small portion of the most ignorant of the po-
-pulses. The Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Canning),
in presenting the Papers, seemed to anticipate great
advantage over those pugnacious individuals who are
inclined to return no answer but a blow. Could the
Right Hon. Gentleman discover no alternative, no
mode of making this country respected in negotia-
tions, but by threats of hostility? The first question
they had to ask was, whether they had done their
duty as men ?—thesecond, whether, if they had done
so,- and failed, they should have recourse to war? It
was only with the first question he-had to do that night.
His charge against the Government was, not that they
did not precipitate them into a war, but that they did
nothing in right season to preserve peace. They acted
from chimerical apprehensions of war, and for that rea-
son exposed them to the peril of being dragged into it.
Before he sat down he should chew that in the course
of the negotiations they totally lost sight of the dig-
nity of the country, and held it out to the world in
a ridiculous and contemptible light. For two years
and a half our Government was in total ignorance of
all that was passing between France and Spain, while
we were communicating all that was passing be-
tween us and Spain to France. He wondered 'whe-
ther we were also ignorant of all that was passing
between France and-Russia? The Duke of Welling-
ton wrote home for instructions, and he is told by the
Right Hon. Gentleman that, “ If there be a deter-
mined project to interfere by force or by menace in
the present struggle in Spain, so convinced are his
Majesty's Government of the uselessness and danger
of any such interference—so objectionable does it ap-
pear to them in principle, as well as utterly imprac-
ticable in execution, that when the necessity arises,
or (I would rather say) when the opporninity offers,
I am to instruct your Grace at once frankly and
peremptorily to declare, that to any such interference,
come what may, his Majesty will not be a party."—
This language seemed strong, but it was one of those
things called a parturient mentor. He expected from
the Right Honourable Gentleman something more
decisive. He expected he would have thus written
to the Duke of Wellington :---,, Lose not a moment.
Deprecate such a proceeding in the strongest terms.
Protest against it as a gross violation of all interne-
tionallaw, a most unjustifiable outrage, repugnant
_to al) principles of justice. Say, that not only will