1828.) Affairs in General. 623 
to us to be one of the most legitimate sovereigns in Europe. We are 
perfectly weary of the foolish ravings of the Times, and cannot believe 
one fact out of ten announced by its correspondents. If Englishmen will 
be busy in foreign countries, they must take the consequence of inter- 
fering, and giving licence to their tongues. The wisest thing this country 
could do would be to seize the first fair opportunity to resume the usual 
relations kept up with a friendly state. Nor can we even see any signi- 
ficant objection to the proffering of such resumption ; we stand too 
high, and are really too powerful, to have such an act imputed to sinister 
motives ; nobody could suppose it prompted by fear—nor could it be so 
construed by Miguel himself. There could, therefore, be no degradation ; 
and as to Pedro—what could he do but fume a little ? 
When will the intercourse of governments come to be conducted on 
the principles of common sense, and the file and the portfolio be treated 
with the contempt they deserve? If we are for ever to act according 
to precedent, the hope of amendment must be abandoned ; and none 
are fools enough to suppose the established system of intercourse is 
unsusceptible of improvement. We would have matters, even of inter- 
national concern, be determined by circumstances, and take at once the 
best result they will admit of; and not wait till they fall into some 
form into which they have fallen before. Jealousies, and misunder- 
standings, nine times out of ten, might thus be removed; and wars 
would at least less frequently rise from the infractions of the rules and 
precedents of office. The little queen is, we suppose, at Laleham ; or, 
for any thing now heard of her, at St. Helena—it is quite immaterial ; 
only the sooner she returns to her father’s court the better, to waive the 
crown, and wait till some continental prince wants a wife, and demands 
her. 
Of Spain it is surprising how very little of late we hear. The cause 
of constitutionalism we may conclude does not visibly progress; but a 
few months may bring about some sudden change. Nothing but the 
destruction of more armies apparently will convince Ferdinand of the 
impossibility of recovering the colonies, for large preparations are 
_ making for another attempt. Two-and-twenty thousand men are now, it is 
said, on good authority, assembled at Cuba, of which ten thousand at least 
are Europeans; and their destination Columbia. Columbia has been 
distracted a good deal of late by divisions, which has probably given 
rise to these preparations; but her chief is plainly on his guard. On 
the 10th of August, Bolivar, who is now dictator again, issued an order 
for the immediate assembling of forty thousand men, to be distributed into 
four divisions ; and will, no doubt, with the energies and indignations 
of the nation to back him, readily repel the enemy, land where they will. 
‘Cut up more European troops; in this way, by some signal defeat, and 
it will present, by the new ground of dissatisfaction it will give, espe- 
cially among the military, a grand opportunity for the constitutionalists: 
to better themselves, and they are, no doubt, far more numerous, pro- 
portionally, than among the Portuguese. This would be a lucky event 
for the Spanish exiles, who are again—or rather stil, for we do not 
know that they have at any time been otherwise—in a miserable state of 
destitution, and, unhappily for them, are fast wearing out the com- 
passion and sympathy of the country. 
It is always an invidious thing to seem to repress any thing like kind 
feelings towards the necessitous ; but these persons, be it remembered, 
