Libson Mail.
The Times, 1824-08-05T00:00:00

* ^ .csoy c p-esent to our readers the Speech of hiis Britannic Dla. estLy on Cl(,ing the session of Pa;liaument. With the exception of the convulsed state of a part of Ireland, to which His Majesty al- ludes, all thie rest of the s'7eech shows the state of peace and inct eas- tug prosperity of the British nation. Sone Bnglish jotirnals, animal;lted onllv by thirst of the gain which the idea of the separation of the provinces of South America from the mother countries in Europe hold o,it to them, are amazed at tiot finiding i-l His Majesty's speechi anv allusion to the subject of the recognition of the independence of iliose States, which they ea- gerly expected ; and their impatience breaks out with unjust com- plaints and satires. These are the same journals that murmnured because the English Government refused to precipitate Great Britain into a continental war in Euroee, to support the impotent party of the Cortes of Spain, which wvas atterwards treated by these very journals with the most insulting epitheLs, and with the most remarkable inconsistency, (i'creed as the most contemptible of tl'e humrnm race, for not having defiended wihi more heroism lie city of Ca,liz, in which they had shut themselves up. The Enzelish Government, by its prudence and wLisdomx on tlat occasion, delivered Great Britain from a war in which, at least, it would have been opposed by the will and the ef- forts of the principal pait of the population of the Peninsula, as the event proved. The most distinguished andt sound part of the British nation knows how to appreciate the good fortune of having escaped 1rom the mani- fold temptations of the disorganizing notion which' moved heaveti and earth to tIraw England into its ruinous contest. The English Govern- nment gave a great proof its wisdlom and firmness on this occasion: it showed that it knew Spain better titan those who sought to involve it in that war; and the British nation has every reason, as well as the people of the Peninsula, to praise anil bless the moderation and foresight of the Government which saved Europe from a cru-l war and from a renewal of Lhose miseries which it cost so much blood (English as we' as that of other nations) to terminate! l It is the same wise and prucdent policy whlich now indluces the Bri- tish Government to resist all the inciteyne,tts of these same advocates of the cause of .Liberty antd Equality," now ioivested with the specious title of the Independence of Arnerica, and gilded with the seducing hopes ofa commerce which shall transform the stones of xhe streets of Great Britain in.to gold anti diamonds. This policy, which prevents the British Government from interfering in tite measures which the nations of the Peninsula re taking to put down rebellion in their trans-Atlantic dominions, after having conqueredlitat home. is thatwhich justice prescribes; and the propriety of not precipitatitg a -mesurewhich would beascontraryto the relatiorsofpeaceandgood I neighbourhood with the mother countries of Eu rope (of much greater weighin a political view. thian the unformed and distant new States ofSoathAmerica), as if the latter should think fit to recognize the in.- dependence of Ireland, or of any other part of the British empire wvhich should be in a disturbed state merely because it might snit the political or commercial interests of the State which should choose to act in this manner, and even without firstgiving time to the States of Europe to maintain their political rights by means of persuasion or force, which they have been prevented from employing by the po- litical convulsionsfrom which they haye not bcendelivered till withit less than a year. Besides this, the state of things which isalrcadymanifesting itself In various parts of those desolated countries, shows how much rea- son there is to distrust first appearances, always disfigured by enthu- siasm: and how much more agreeable to the interest of Great Bri- tain is the poicy recommended by its wise Ministers, precipitating nothing, leasing circumstances to be mapred by the coutse of time, and by the series of events,which are the best guides of the true policy nations. lleantime, nothing prevents the British commerce fiom continuing its peacefui relations with those States, the recognition of whose independence wouldS certainly not increase the means of causing the private rigist of the English merchants to be more re- spected in their commercial transactions witliktese people, than in the -present state in which those nations exist. Experience proves how slippery is the step for a formal recognition to our intimate alliance, and the consequences of such an alliance are incalculable. A precipitatestep is not always easy to he retraced,and its influence rlin3st always extends further than is desired, or than can be afterwards remedied. At all events, the recognition of the yndependence of a state which has not yet received from time the necessary solidity, and which really does not know its ovn situation, would be an absurdity, looking at the question in the most favour- able hght, since such a recegnition of independence would be only saying tothe world-" I recognize this state as independenit, so far as it can defend itelf against that of wvhich formerly it con- stituted an integral part; and this declaration which I make is not designed to restrain the free exercise of the political tights of the tlI imatic sovereign over it." hat we perceive in the speeces in the English Parliametit, we must believe that the great and prevailing policy by which its Government is guided in this matter, as it was in respect to the first of which we spoke, is that of peace and good understanditng with all nations ; this being the best calculated to secure to it thle immense benefits which it must always dlerive from the excellence of itt in- stitutions, frotm the great mass of its productive capital, from its commercial genius, from its extensive navigation, and trom the im- mense superiority of its manufactures, which must neeassarily open to :t aU the markets in thie world, whether it recognises or does not recognise the independence of this or that political (Government. /1318,.2r EMlAIL. LISBON, JUtrY if;.