There is, we are informed...
The Times, 1824-08-20T00:00:00

There is, we are informed, very little (doubt that some gentlemen set off in the course of yesterday from London for the Continent. for the puirpose of negotiating with the Spanish Court the loan of a considerable sum of monev. Knowing, as we do, the character of FERDINAND anal his advisers, the real en(d of all their policy, and the execrable uses to whichl any treasure that mnay reach their hands will be devoted-we set out with acknowledging our earnest hope, that the present treaty may, like every other w hich has had for its object -to.. relieve the neeessities of these tyrants, terminate in their utter mnortification. It is true that those who now hol(d the securities of the Spanish Cortes, have nsot a shadow of chance that one shilling of the principal or interest *lue to them will be paid, except in the completion of another loan, from the proceeds of which they may be indemnified. But if without a loan they lhave nothing to expect, so neither have they with it. To act honestly is no part of the scheme of Government as at pre- sent constitute(d in Spain, and if it were, no iMlinister em- ployed by FERDINAND an(d the PriestlhoodI would have power to execute those energetic measures, or to force from his masters those extensive sacrifices, without which it has become physically inpossible that the State can fulfil any pecuniary engagement, or satisfy the demand of a single creditor for so much as onle twelvemonth from the day on whielh she signs the undertaking. There is no doubt that the first condition proposed as a sine qua non for a new loan by the contractors,will be the recognition of the former loans whichi FERDITNAND has been all this while proclaiming hiis resolution to disavow. There is perhaps as little question, that rather than fail in the new bargain ha will promise to acknowledge the old ones; and what then ? Promises we see-oaths upon oaths-cost his Ca- tholic Majesty nothing. There is no depending on his word; but what is an equally grave consideration, with the best intentions in the world, wlhich for argument sake we shall suppose, as absolute King of SPAIN, FEtIDINAND lhas not the means of discharging interest or principal, however solemnly he may pledge himnself to cither. As constitu- tional Monarch he was the most solvent crowned hea(l in Europe. The Cortes had comnpelled the church of Spain to disgorge the fruits of long ages of rapacity-and had ap- plied the ecclesiastical domains as a fund for the discharge of all the national incumbrance3. What is the case now ? The restmption of the churchl-lands has made the nation an uncertificated bankrupt. There is not security tor lo,oool. in the whole finanicial system of the country. Tro keep FERDINAvD quiet,the Clergy furnish him with money enough for his immediate personal wants-but no far- thing of debt nor fraction of interest have they enabled him to pay since his restoration, to friend or foreigner -to creditors, constitutional or servile. The pub- lic interest, of course, in all its branchles, tnilitary, maritime, and civil, has been left to takc care of itself; and thc mnost legitimate of all kingdoms has been restored from a state of political society to worse than a state of nature. If then, thc Spanish Court and( people were to restrain their view of the public resources witlhin the field of the Peninsula itself, it is manifest that they neither could be long blind to the necessity of once more converting thc wealth of the Churchl to the purpose for which the Constitutional Government had destiniedI it. Suchl a picce of sacrilegious justice, however, would not s57it the clergy; anld the pride of FERDINAND, anid of Spla- niardls generally, offrerd an easy diversion to the minds of both. The ignisfattues of a re-conquest of the colouies has been studiously kept before the sight of the nation by the ruling party; arnd an expedition to America is repre- sented every where to be the most promnising arton g all the ways and means that a Spanish finanicier ought to contem- plate. The taxes of Spain, then, being literally unprodue. tive, fet us look at this affair of a loan. The demand.s of France for a full repayment of her expenses are more importunate every hour. The raisitig a fleet and aitny for the ruin of our grateful and aff;ctionate friends in both Americas is the other gran(I occasion for borrowing on thce part of FEmDINAND. We therefore are inclined to put it seriouslv, first, to the feelings of Englislniel, whelther they will lend their money, either as a reward to France for de- stroying Spanish liberty in Europe, or as an engine for en- abling Spanish despotism so revived by France, to hunt down freedom bevond the Atlantic also. Secondly, we ap- peal to the common sense of our countrymen, whether they expect that the French BoUR3noNs will suffer the rights of the British creditor to statmd for one moment in the way of au indemnification for -the advances of Louos XVIII. to his Spanish cousin ; or that the integrity of the other BourBoN will induce him to prefer the payment of lawfitl interest on a debt to the prosecution of any scleme, how- ever wild, of ambition, selfishness, or vengeance? Deeply do we deprecate the success of this loan, and the addition of even one otlher dupe to the thousands by whose fate he ought to have been already warned.