REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 49 



the situation of the days when Napoleonic 

 France had possession of Spain; Whigs and the 

 liberalizing element of the Tories were dis 

 gusted with Bourbon absolutism wherever it 

 appeared. British commerce with the insur 

 gent Spanish colonies was much harassed by 

 the irregular privateering and ineffective block 

 ades through which the Spaniards maintained 

 the semblance, with but little of the substance, 

 of war. This commerce had attained large pro 

 portions and all its advantages would be lost if 

 Spanish authority should be restored; for Spain, 

 like Britain herself, regarded colonial trade as an 

 exclusive privilege of the mother country. 



Under all the circumstances Canning was 

 readily able, at the first manifestation of a proj 

 ect for intervention in behalf of Spain in Amer 

 ica, to gain substantial support for his purpose 

 to thwart it. An indication of interest in the 

 general subject by Rush, the minister at Lon 

 don, was promptly made by Canning the oc 

 casion of a suggestion for a joint, or at least a 

 simultaneous, declaration by the United States 

 and Great Britain of their hostility to the threat 

 ened intervention. The idea was received with 

 the liveliest interest at Washington and was the 

 subject of the most serious consideration by 



