1823.] 



posed he might say war was coraraenced, 

 when a delicate prince had gone forth 

 amidst hail and snow, with he knew not 

 what retinue of horses and carriages, at the 

 head of some 60,000 men, against his brave 

 and free, and, except as far as they were 

 free, unoffending neighbours. Excepting 

 two or three important questions relating 

 to the sister kingdom, and two or three of 

 fiscal importance, scarcely any thing was 

 done. It was true, large establishments 

 had been voted (but this was not a very la- 

 borious work), and they had been voted 

 without opposition, chiefly on acco)int of 

 the critical situation of foreign affairs. 

 The Ways and Means had been provided 

 for, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 had taken care to stop their mouths on 

 this subject by permanently appropriating 

 five millions of surplus revenue, and by 

 making some reductions of Taxes which 

 affected the expenditure of gentlemen. 

 This country, which had in other times 

 been proudly termed the arbitress of 

 Europe, had interfered with the govern- 

 ment it had restored, to prevent war, and 

 had not been successful. It had interfered 

 too nnder circumstances apparently most 

 favourable to its efforts. With this nation, 

 to a man indignant at the meditated hosti- 

 lities, with nineteen-twentieths of the peo- 

 ple of France in the same sentiments, and 

 opposed only to a band of fanatics, who 

 had seized the government, while their in- 

 firm king was falling rapidly into the grave ; 

 with Prussia averse to the war — with Aus- 

 tria shrinking from it — surely there were 

 circumstances imder which this country 

 might hope that its interference would 

 have some weight with the family in whose 

 behalf they had spent 1500 millions of 

 money. If, under these circumstances, 

 the interference of this country had been 

 repelled, and her authority laughed at, it 

 was surely tit that the people of England 

 should have speedily before them the de- 

 tails of those transactions, by which it was 

 too manifest that we had lost much of dig- 

 nity and command, though he hoped even 

 yet we might save our honour. There was 

 a story, too, spread by malevolence — for 

 malevolence he must as yet deem it — that 

 tl is country, finding its efforts ineffectual 

 with the stronger and assailing power, had 

 counselled the weaker, and the injured 

 one, to consent to its own degradation. — 

 And this was said of the government of 

 England, which was indebted for its exist- 

 ence to its own energies ; and which had 

 purchased its safety by casheering its king — 

 a government which, were such conditions 

 onered to it, would be the last to accept 

 them, and, if tendered to an insidious 

 enemy, would be ready to make any sacri- 

 fice strenuously to oppose them. No man 

 looking to our debt,tive-sixths of which, let 

 it never be forgotten, was incurred for the 

 purpose, of putting down the enemies of the 

 Monthly Mag. No. 380. 



Political Affairs in March. 273 



Bourbons, or to restore them to that 

 throne they seemed now hkely to lose ; but 

 with this load of debt, vrith which the Tory 

 administration had inflicted the country, 

 no mail could wish the country could be 

 again subjected to the chance? of war.— 

 Whatever may happen to the Bourbons, 

 and they seemed in a fair way to prove 

 again the extremities of fortune, he was 

 quite snre that the people of this country 

 would never again allow one drop of their 

 blood, nor one farthing of their money, to 

 be spent for the support of the family. If 

 they were not to aid the cause of liberty, 

 they would at least never again, with their 

 eyes open, be found abetting the cause 

 of slavery. That famous manifesto, the 

 speech of the King of France, gave us the 

 right to make war. In that docnuieut, war 

 was declared against every free institu- 

 tion not emanating from the will of a 

 king. There was no limitation in time or 

 space. The Bill of Rights and the Act of 

 Settlement were invalid; our sovereign, 

 according to these doctrines, was a 

 usurper, and our shores might be invaded 

 and polluted to put down all the conse- 

 quences of the revolution of 1688. By 

 this, France had given iis the right of war, 

 and whether we were to use it or not, 

 would depend entirely on ourselves. 

 Pledged neutrality !— what ne»itrality can 

 there be for us, when she is in arms to sup- 

 port such a principle? A pledge of neu- 

 trality is a compact which could not exist 

 with France, on the present occasion. It 

 might be wise indeed for us to look on 

 and allow the fanatics at the head of the 

 government of that country to waste its 

 resources. It might be wise also to avoid 

 rousing the angry feelings of two great and 

 jealous nations ; it might be prudent for us 

 to abstain from war, but there could be 

 no neutrality — to he pacific was not to be 

 neutral. It might be wise to pause before 

 we took up arms, or again expose our- 

 selves to such an enormous taxation, after 

 having expended 1500,000,0001. in the last 

 war. But, if the weight of this burden 

 prevented us taking up arms, it would be 

 also wise to avow it ; there could be neither 

 disgrace nor danger in this, but much in 

 concealing the true reasons for our con- 

 duct; on whatever side the government 

 might be, the hearts and the prayers of 

 the people were with Spain; never can 

 they be neutral, when unmasked oppres- 

 sion is SI liking at freedom. We may, at 

 least, say, and earnestly say — God pros- 

 per the righteous cause ! May this incur- 

 able race rue the day of this their under- 

 taking — an undertaking, guilty in the 

 extreme, and which, he hoped, they 

 would find spe licta, tractata dura, eventa 

 tristia. 



Mr. Canning said, he did not think the 



House would expect him to be tempted 



into a premature discussion of the qnes- 



N n tion 



