London, Thursday, Februar...
The Times, 1824-02-19T00:00:00

The article in the Journal des Debats, which we copy this day, will partly create the ridicule, and partly also the indignation, of wvhatever portion of the British public may have attended to foreign politics. Ir. that article, it will be found that the French Government congratulates mercantile Europe upon the adlvntages likely to result from the concession of a free trade to America: end by whom, does the reader think? Why, by FERDINAND of Spain. He, the French Government informs the world, has granted perrmission to mercantile sta3es to trade with his provinces in the trans-Atlantic regions, which is a boon of infinite value; a boon, says the Journal des Debats, so vast, so contrary to the prejudices of Spa- niards, and to the policy of CHARLES V. and PHSLXP II., that it (the Journal des Debats) can hardly per- suade itself that " the decree has been promulgated !" For Heaven's sake, then, we say, save the Journal des Dehats the pain of this effort of credence; have pity upon its swal- lowing and digestive powers; recal, annul, obliterate the decree, and the Journal des Debats will be saved a very painful and dangerous effort, and not one creature be a bit the worse for the experiment. Surely it is time to put an end to these fooleries, and to tell the Fronch Government plainly, if ' under such ab- " surd pretences, such a contemptible galirnatias of words, "you mean to attack the provinces of Amierica either from "France or Spain, and expect us to remain tranquil, you "are mistaken. It is an insult thus to suppose yourselves so superior to us in understanding, that you can cheat us "with our eyes open." Lord NUGENT proved clearly enough, in his speech on Tuesday night, that Spain was an annexation to France; not an annexation from which the master-state could immediately draw any subsidies or tri- butes-for what is to be gained from cowvards, and traitors, and beggars, such as are the adherents of the French ?-. but an annexation of which the- dornant rights and pre- tended claims might be set up in the first instance, and of which the physical powers might afterwards be approDriated. For our own parts, we cannot understand wvhat the Bri- tish diplomatists are doing abroad. It must, we presume, have been after some conferences with Sir CHA,LLSs STUART, that the French Government have sent forth this notable manifesto, whereby they concede a free trade to South America and Mexico. Has he taken no pains to con- vince thein of the absurdity of the pretended concession ? Has he never told them that it was nothing ?-that it was less than nothing ?-that we wanted it not ?-that nobody wanted it ?-that neither the French nor FERDIMAND had the power to grant it ? If he has told them all this, with what contemptis he treated, wlheni a wild proposition is sellt out into the world with all the affiected gravity and solemnity tha. Tmight induce the b;Aief that it liad never been protested against as absurd by the British Minister at the Court from whence it issued ? We hardly know how to enter iTnto the minuto refuta. tion of a dQcument so prepostcrous in its whole. This French concession of a free trade to Amnerica is said to " detach the question of commercial interests from that of " the independence of the colonies." How can that be ? The commercial interests were perfectly satisfied and at rest when this document appeared. They wanted nothing from France or Spain. It was only a publication like the present which could make them uneasy, by instilling a doubt of the title by which they possessed their security; and the effect of that doubt we are sure will be, to malke them adhere with more pertinacity to the first conceders of the free trade, and stiinulate tiem to treat the imperti. nence of these intruders and their "1 crambe recocta" with more indign ation. But this concession of a free trade in the name of Spain, " announces the return of practicable and reamonable ideas." In vhom does it announce that return ? Not in the colo- nies; for to them practicable and reasonable ideas have re- turned long ago, and they have granted the free trade; and if the happy ideas in question have only returnedl now to Spain, it is obvious that they have ret=ed too late, for she iz in ato eapacic to give idiem. ffect. - *es .coloniei are free;'wbist she.hmls slaved- t67rance. he-ls be.: come a province, and her clonIes are bec&me indepeudcnt states. BtOObAPARTZ, it will be recollected7, wheneVer he had enslaved a nation, imnnediaiely put forth andenforced all its dooubtful claints and antiquated rights; and here wve have a BloUBRoN adopting the same course-an accurate representative in will and inclinhtion, but feeble in power: " Proxirus huic, longo med proximus interrallo." *- To be brief: the policy of the British Ministry is clear,- and we should think unembarrassed, if they wil inur be open to their own countrymen, and sincere to foreigners. The nation will bear them out in opposing any attack upon the Spanish trans-Atlantic States, by France; or by Zpain, whilst Spain continues a province of France, and is occu- pied by the French troops. A manly declaration to that effect may prevent the meditated mischief. Shuffling and chicane will not long protract the necessity of their inter_. ference; and will justly subject them' to the reproach of having deceived the BouRoBN Cabinet, or having ittempt.. ed to prevent the success of an: enterprise which they had in the first instance appeared to allow. LONDON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19. 1g