We have but little to say...
The Times, 1824-03-20T00:00:00

WVe have but little to say rLspecting the debate of Thurs- day night, introluceed wvell and powerfully by Lord Joisx RUSSELL, on the Freneh occupation of Spain, Mr. CA.- NIXG has a great aptitude to throw ridicule upon grave subjects; and yet the intrinsic importance of those subjects remains the same, after a thousand jests-even good as his-have been cast at them. It is much to be desired that the Right Hon. Secretary would argue a grave matter gravely. The present Hlouse of Comnmons is not much distinguished by talents: perhaps we might predi- cate aws contrary. WVe recollect how potent poor Lord LoN-oam4.ERPv's rhetoric was amnongst them; and his Lord- ship's successor should recollect the same; and in the full career of mirth and fun, he should suddenly-stop short ! with the abruptness of " procumnbit hiumi bos," turn his thoughts into his own bosom, and ask himself whom he was amusing. How he may be replied to in some of the serious parts of his argument will be evi dent from the following spe- cimen. lie said, and we read the allegation with surprise, that the purpose for whichI the French army remained in Spain was changed " They ihad gone into the country to defend the fanatical party against the Constitutionalists, and now they were actually interfering for the Constitu- tional party with the fanatics !" In reply to this we ask, under whose protection, un(ler wvhose arm is it, that the fanatics (as Mr. CANNING justly calls them) would stab the Constitutionalists? Is it not under the 2rm of the Freneh? Did the Right Honourable speaker mean to say, that if the French were not in the Peninsula, the fanatics would dare to har- bour the thoutghlt of torturing the friends of a limited mo- narchy? It is evi(lent, therefore, that the presence of the French creates those evils, and excites that horrid appetite for bloodl, which they, and their abettors, pretend they stop to control. But farther: let us take the picture, and thlat only such as Mr. CANNiNG has drawn it, of the atrocities wvhiclh the fanatics would, as he says, commit, if the French were to wvithdLraw ; but which, in truth, tlley woould not even fuink of committing, as they do now think, wvere it not for the presenec of the French. " WVhat was it," says the Right Hon. gentleman, "' that the FrenchI were " doing in their occupation-in what way where they em- ploying their influerice? W1'ere they urging on the crIel- " ties to which the party now having the ascendency in " Spain were but too muchl inclincd] ? AWrere they fostering " the gloomy r'indicti, e prejudices of the Monks, or excit- " ing the h'i'd fur;zy of the populace?" These, theni, arc the atrocities whichl FERDINAsND and llis adherents would commit, if they wcre not restrained by a foreign force. But the Coistizutional party had once, and for a long time, the ascendency : they were controlled by no superior power; they acted as they pleased : and did they, undler that licence, perpettate any of the lior- rors of which it is acknowledge(d their adlversaries woill be guilty had they permission? The whnle ques- tion of the French aggression turns upon this point: -the invaders entered the country to oppress a mild Co!iatitutional party who had committed no excesses, and to give the ascenideney to a set of men to whom their foreign allies dare nnt allow the indulgence of their own diabolical passions. Then, we say, the sooner these wretches are left to tlle control of their owtn countrymen-the sooner the managemenlt an)d custody of themn is confided to that party by whiclh they have hitherto been treated with moderation and lenity-thc sooner will matters revert to their proper course: and we h ope no opportunity will be lost of pressing these considerations on the French Government.