of her institutions, and calling for changes in them as the price of their continued friendship and forbearance. The British plenipotentiary, however, declined any participation in that proceeding, and declared, on the part of his sovereign, that all he could do would be, to continue his minister at Madrid when the others were withdrawn, in the hope of abating the irritation such a measure must occasion, and of preventing the evil by friendly counsel and assist

ance.

So broke up the congress at Verona. The plenipotentiary of France left it to return to Paris, to consider what step his government would take more in advance than the rest of the continental allies: the plenipotentiaries of the continental allies, to prepare their despatches for Madrid; the British plenipotentiary, to renew at Paris the remonstrances he had ineffectually made at Verona, and in the last resort, to report to his government his disappointment, if disappointment it should be, in order that, to the minister at Madrid instructions might be sent, to disavow, on the part of this country, any participation in these proceedings; but, at the same time, to advise, and strenuously implore, that the slightest excess might be studiously avoided, which could retrospectively justify, or prospectively encourage, the war threatened by France.

The duke of Wellington arrived at Paris about the beginning of December. The French government, far from being in a more warlike disposition, were, on the contrary, inclined to maintain peace, and disposed to send back to Verona, at least to the sovereigns who had not then actually quitted

that city, the despatches prepared for Madrid, and to entreat them to reconsider the contents of those

despatches, and the impropriety of the time for sending them.

Such was the first report received from the duke of Wellington. Up to this period, no communication had taken place between this country and Spain on the subject of what was passing at Verona; and the reason why no such intercourse had occurred, lay in the following circumstances: Towards the end of the last session of parliament, a loud complaint had been raised in this country respecting the state of our commercial navigation in the West Indies. Pirate-vessels, some bearing the flag of independent colonies of Spain, and others of Spain herself, had committed the most grievous depredations on British trade, to an enormous amount, and attended with circumstances of such violence and cruelty, as to call for national interposition. Not long, therefore, after parliament rose, it had been thought necessary by the British government to send orders, and therewith an armament, to the West Indies, to take into our own hands that redress which had been in vain sought by representation and remonstrance at Madrid. Orders were given to the commander, in the event of the owners of pirate vessels continuing to find refuge on the shores of Cuba, that, after first communicating with the Spanish governor of the island, and asking his assistance, he should either conjointly, or, upon fusal, separately, effect a landing in Cuba, and root out the nest of marauders that infested those seas. About the same time, pretensions, utterly obsolete, were revived by commanders on the Spanish main,

his re

to declare constructive blockades of the whole coast of what was Spanish America, and to capture all trading vessels that should presume to violate these blockades. Many instances, recent and flagrant, had occurred, in which the laws of these blockades had been rigorously carried into execution, and outrages of the same sort had been continued, more or less, for many preceding years. Almost from the year 1815, there had been a series of unanswered representations of unredressed grievances preferred to the Court of Madrid, which it was at length thought expedient to bring directly to a point. That justice was on the side of the British complaints, might be inferred from the cirstance, that, after negotiation, redress was finally accorded; and that the amount of the grievance was not small, might be gathered from the sum which the Spanish government itself appropriated to the liquidation of the claim, being about half a million sterling. The business, on which sir W. A'Court (our minister at Madrid) was first employed there, was in making these remonstrances, and in demanding redress. He was to communicate to the Spanish government-first, the instructions with regard to Cuba; and secondly, the further fact, that an armament had been sent to the West Indies, with orders to make reprisals, if our maritime rights should not be observed. Redress was promised on the part of Spain, and instructions were accordingly sent out to sir John Owen. Remonstrance having been once made, redress once claimed, and satisfaction accorded, no hostile feeling could possibly remain on the part of this country. But it was

not in the midst of negotiations like these, that it would have been either delicate or proper, to have entered into discussions, or made declarations, of the part Great Britain was taking on behalf of European Spain. This country had pursued two courses of action: on the one hand, it had claimed of Spain, redress for injuries inflicted under her flag in South America; and on the other, she had defended Spain against an invasion by European powers. The British government well knew, that a time must come, when a disclosure of the latter course might be made to the ministry at Madrid; and by a coincidence in point of time, it was at the close of the Congress at Verona, that our negotiations for redress had been brought to a favourable conclusion.

Before this disclosure of the discussions at Verona was made to Spain, and while she was yet uncertain what steps had been taken at Congress, an application was made on the part of the Spanish government, first, to ascertain what the precise course of the negotiations had been; and next, to interest this country to employ her good offices for the maintenance of peace. In making this request, pains were taken to make it appear distinctly, that the good offices she asked were not inconsistent with the most strict neutrality. She asked counsel and mediation that Great Britain should offer advice to one friend, on behalf of another. Upon receiving this application, his majesty's government hesitated not a moment to write to the duke of Wellington, then expected at Paris, and to direct his grace to offer to the French government the mediation of Great Britain for the

amicable settlement of the disputes with Spain. The French government, after some negotiation, declined the offer thus made; stating as the reason, that the grounds of difference between France and Spain were not of that distinct and definite kind that admitted of exact specification, and practical adjustment; that they grew out of the state of things in which the two kingdoms found themselves; and out of the influence which what was passing in Spain had upon the internal tranquillity of his most Christian majesty's dominions; that the two nations had, in fact, got into such a condition towards each other of reciprocal jealousy and irritation, that, rather than submit to all the inconveniences of such a situation, war would be the preferable alternative, as affording at least some ultimate solution. He (Mr. Canning) admitted, that here was a case, in which we might have said to both parties, that without something more specific on either side, some sensible and tangible cause of complaint -some exact claim of redress on the part of the country supposed to be aggrieved it would be better for us not to interfere; that we had done all that we could do with each party; and that, as our efforts had been attended hitherto with no success, we begged leave to withdraw from further interposition. Such a course was quite open to the British government: but as every thing that was stated on both sides was accompanied with the most solemn assurances of a pacific disposition; and as the British ministry did entertain an alarm, beyond any former occasion, of the danger of war, not only to Spain but to France,

and through France to Európe, it became a question very material to be debated, whether, while there remained the slightest chance of success, it was not our duty to make a further effort, as being the only power through whom it was possible that the effort should be made. There was this advantage in the present situation of affairs, as compared with the state of Europe at the opening of the Congress of Verona-that the questions were now reduced to the differences between France and Spain. The dispatches from the three continental powers had been sent; their ministers had been withdrawn: the cases foreseen at Verona, in which alone the powers were bound to interpose on behalf of France, had none of them occurred. It was a matter, therefore, merely between France and Spain; and it was for this country to decide, whether it would or would not take a step, which might prevent the occurrence of war, but which could not widen the breach, and increase the danger. Under these circumstances, his majesty's ministers determined to interpose their good offices on behalf of Spain; and their anxiety, in so interposing, was to distinguish their conduct, not only from that which the continental powers in their several despatches had displayed towards Spain-not only from that which France, in the speech of her minister, had likewise declared her determination to pursue; but to distinguish it also, by the channel through which it was made, from every species of interference that did not proceed from the most friendly terms. The channel through which it was made, was the duke of Wellington.

About the first week of January, Lord Fitzroy Somerset quitted this country, with a confidential communication from his Grace to the Spanish government; and this measure was adopted, in the hope, that the expressed opinions of so distinguished a benefactor of the Spanish nation might have much influence on many leading Spani ards, who had been his Grace's personal friends and acquaintances. Not many weeks (continued Mr. Canning) after lord Fitzroy Somerset had set out, an event occurred, which shook very strongly our hopes of bringing about any accommodation between the governments of France and of Spain -he alluded to the extraordinary speech with which the French mimisters opened the chambers. Of the construction, to which the words of that speech were liable, and which indeed they most naturully bore, there was not a man in the House, who thought with more disgust and abhorrence than he (Mr. Canning) did. If that speech were to be understood in the plain meaning of the words namely, that the Spanish people were to be called upon, to consent to certain modifications in their constitution, not because it was faulty in itself, or dangerous to neighbouring states, or unsafe even to the prince who ruled by it, but because it was not an emanation from the Crown-it was clear, on the one hand, that no Spaniard, who had the slightest regard to the independence of his country, could consent either to modify, or to hear a modification proposed of that constitution; and on the other, that no British statesman, who valued his character as a member of a free state, could either think, or hear of his country being made

a party to negotiations for the purpose of discussing such monstrous proposals. Not a week, no, not even a day was lost, in conveying to France the expression of these sentiments on the part of the British government, and in telling her, that, if such was the meaning of the speech in question, there was an end to all further negotia tions, at least through a British channel-that the principle avowed, was one, which a British statesman could not acknowledge, that it struck directly at the root of the British constitution-and that, as it could not be accepted as part of the British code of law, it could not be recommended by a British statesman to the acceptance of any other people. The ministers of France were likewise told, that as Great Britain did not put forward her own political institutions as the model on which those of other states were to be framed, or as the only system from which national freedom and hap piness could flow, so neither could she allow France (whose freedom and happiness she did not envy, though they were described to arise from a constitution octroyée from the throne) to make her own example a rule for other nations, much less to force that example upon Spain, in virtue of the consanguinity of the reigning dynasties of the two countries. It was, however, added, that if this construction were disavowed, the negotiations might still continue. The French government did subsequently disavow this obnoxious construction, and adopted another, which the words were not altogether qualified to bear. The negotiations in consequence proceeded; and it was at this period, that ministers, when interrogated

on the subject in parliament, had felt themselves bound to declare, that they had considerable hopes of bringing them to a successful termination: for, however singular and extraordinary it might appear, it was nevertheless strictly true, that when the speech of the king of France was communicated to him (Mr. Canning) by the French Chargé d'Affaires in this country, it was accompanied by more profuse assurances of the desires of the French government for accommodation, and of their wishes for the good services of the British government, in producing that accommodation, than had ever been made at any previous stage of the transactions. It was not surprising, that the effect, which the French government had anticipated, had been produced upon the British government by the communications which they then made to it; but it was surprising, that the French govern ment, by some strange and unaccountable delusion, and in spite of all the remonstrances which his majesty's ministers had made to them on the subject, should have ever thought, and indeed should still continue to think, that, in publishing the document which they had done, they had hit a chord which could not fail to vibrate at Madrid, and that they had put forward a specific, which could not fail to cure all the evils which prevailed within its meridian.

While these communications were passing between Paris and Madrid, a new application was received from the Spanish government, calling for a more active employment of the good services of this country in producing an accommodation with France. If his majesty's ministers had previously

entertained any doubts of the line of conduct which they ought to pursue, that application would have decided them: for, under such circumstances, had they declined to continue their interposition, they would have appeared to be setting their own private feelings in opposition to the judgment of those who still thought their interposition worth having. The interposition was therefore continued; but, from that time forth, the British government took no active part in the transactions. No second instructions were sent out to lord Fitzroy Somerset, and he in consequence left Madrid. Sir Wm. A'Court, being three days nearer to Paris, and the duplication of three days in the conveyance and return of the correspondence causing the delay of a week, was left to conduct the intercourse of the two parties; and all that remained for him to do was, to state to each party the proposals and answers of the other. The result of these communications was a total failure of every endeavour

to maintain peace. After this failure nothing remained for Great Britain to do, but to state fairly to each party the line of conduct which she was determined to pursue, in a state of things so deplorable for the tranquillity of Europe. From the beginning to the end of these transactions it was regularly stated to the Spanish government, that we would do all that we could to avert a war; but that, if war should unfortunately ensue, it was not to be supposed, that our anxiety to avert it was to be considered as the measure of our determination to take part in it, when commenced. To France, a formal declaration was made of the course of policy, which we meant