HISTORY OF EUROPE, 



1 mO 



terrp'r, must speedily come to a 

 termination. Accordingly, the 



prince of peace adopted that line of 

 condtict, which must bring it to an 

 imnudiatc conclusion. — In his re- 

 ply, he stited, that although he re- 

 ceived the visits of foreign niiriis- 

 ters, yet it was in his individual ca- 

 pacity, and not as the minister of 

 Spain, That his royal master had 

 his secretary of state, who was the 

 regular channel through whom to 

 make communications to the govern- 

 ment ; and, that he therefore desired 

 that a controversy, which was en- 

 tirely of a personal nature, sliould 

 not be considered as at all involving 

 the interests of their respective so- 

 vereigns. Mr. Frere wrote twice to 

 the prince, subsccjuently to this note, 

 but no answer was returned to his 

 letters. 



This correspondence, which took 

 place in the month of April, ]80.j, 

 and of which we have been an.vious 

 to give as copious an abstract as our 

 limits would permit, sufficiently 

 evinces (he devotion of the prince of 

 peace to the interests and views of 

 the French government, and how 

 entirely he was gained orer by Bo- 

 naparte. In the preceding year, 

 he appeared to have been extremely 

 averse from the encroaching dispo- 

 sition of France. Means, however, 

 had been found to induce him to al- 

 ter his sentiments, and, in the pre- 

 sent instance, he seemed but too 

 willing to act as the mere tool and 

 creature of Bonaparte. Throughout 

 the whole of this controversy, no- 

 thing appears more ridiculous than 

 the phrase " greatness of soul," 

 and the epithet of " magnanimity," 

 by which the Spaniard was pleased to 

 distinguish his personal conduct, as 

 being supereminently adorned by 

 btttb. — Thos* qualities, however, 

 1 



seem to have deserted hlni, whoa 

 they failed in inducing him to give a 

 direct answer to a plain question. — • 

 If no such conversation had taken 

 place as -vvas alleged by the French 

 official paper, it was his duty to have 

 disavowed the charge. On the 

 contrary, had the English minister 

 ever made use of the language as- 

 cribed to him, the prince of peace 

 was .sufficiently provoked to have 

 established it, by the many warm, if 

 not angry, remonstrances he had re- 

 ceived upon the subject. The dread 

 of oil'ending Bonaparte, by discoun- 

 tenancing what was evidently a 

 fabrication, was however predomi- 

 nant, and the whole of his conduct 

 upon the occasion was as " un- 

 adorned'' by " greatness of soul" 

 and "magnanimity," and as strong- 

 ly marked by mean evasion and 

 contemptible subterfuge, as that of 

 Mr. Frere was distinguised by firm- 

 ness and propriety. As this per- 

 sonage, however, chose to shelter 

 himself under forms, and denied 

 tliat he was minister of Spain, al- 

 though, in point of fact, his power 

 in that court Mas paramount to that 

 of majesty itself, this controversy 

 assumed the character of a dispute 

 merely personal, but it was suc- 

 ceeded by other discussions, of a far 

 weightier nature, and of the highest 

 political importance. 



Few questions have ever been 

 more ardently contended, or have 

 produced more diversity of opinion, 

 than the degree in which Spain was; 

 to be allowed to remain the auxi- 

 liary of France, and yet liave her 

 rights as a neutral nation strictly 

 preserved to her ; and, whether the 

 conduct of the British cabinet to- 

 wards Spain were justifiable, or the 

 contrary, in their decision upon it, 

 the following brief statement will 



enable 



