CHAP. V.] SPEECHES OF CANNING. 335 powers of the Continent should have been arrayed together against Spain; and that although the first object, in point of importance, indeed, was to keep the peace altogether to prevent any war against Spain the first in point of time was to prevent a general war; to change the question from a question between the allies on one side, and Spain on the other, to a question between nation and nation. This, whatever the result might be, would reduce the quarrel to the size of ordinary events, and bring it within the scope of ordinary diplomacy. The immediate object of England, therefore, was to hinder the impress of a joint character, from being affixed to the war if war there must be with Spain; to take care that the war should not grow out of an assumed jurisdiction of the congress; to keep within reasonable bounds that predominating Areopagitical1 spirit, which the memorandum of the British cabinet, of May, 1820, describes as 'beyond the sphere of the original conception, and understood principles of the alliance'-'an alliance never intended as a union for the government of the world, or for the superintendence of the internal affairs of other states.' And this, I say, was accomplished." "Canning," says his biographer, "always protested against the system of holding congresses for the government of the world.2 As this noted speech declared, the object of Great Britain was accomplished in the potentates at Verona being deterred from declaring a war against Spain. The matter lay now between the two countries which were separated by the Pyrenees ; and peace was preserved elsewhere. What his idea was of the peace to be preserved by Great Britain, he manifested in a speech delivered at Plymouth in the autumn of the same year, when the French and Spaniards were at war, 1823. "Our ultimate object was," he said, "the peace of the world; but let it not be said that we cultivate peace either because we fear, or because we are unprepared for war; on the contrary, if, eight months ago, the government did not hesitate to proclaim that the country was prepared for war, if war should unfortunately be necessary, every month of peace that has since passed has but made us so much the more capable of exertion. The resources created by peace are means of war. In cherishing those resources, we but accumulate those means. Our present repose is no more a proof of inability to act than the state of inertness and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town is a proof they are devoid how of strength, and incapable of being fitted for action. You well know, gentlemen, how soon one of those stupendous masses, now reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness - how soon, upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing — instinct with life and motion, soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage, quickly it would put forth all its beauty and its bravery, collect its scattered elements of strength, and awaken its dormant thunder. Such as is one of these magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a display of its might-such is England herself: while apparently passive and motionless, she silently concentrates the power to be put forth on an adequate occasion.” how For that adequate occasion he kept watch as vigilantly as any advocate of war could have done; for he was not one to sacrifice the honor or influence of the country for the sake of the peace for which these were, and always must be, the guarantees. When it was necessary to speak and act again, Great Britain spoke and acted. The French overran Spain from end to end. The Spanish liberals had fewer resources, less union, and less hope than their enemy; and they were cruelly betrayed, not only by some few traitors from among themselves, but by the boastings of the French liberals, who had assured them that a large portion of the invading army would fraternize with the invaded, on touching Spanish soil. Instead of this happening, however, the French soldiery no sooner appeared from the passes of the Pyrenees than the royalist minority in Spain were joined by such numbers. as enabled them to cope with the constitutional forces, even without the aid of a foreign invader. The soldiery were certainly royalist; and they showed it now. The French entered Madrid on the 24th of May,1 within a month after the delivery, by Mr. Canning, of his exposition of the British policy in regard to this conflict. The liberals were still in possession of the person of the King, who was imprisoned by them at Cadiz. There he amused himself with attempting to make signals to friends in the blockading vessels, or outside the walls, taking a sudden fancy for sending up rockets and flying kites. Rockets and kites innumerable were ready to go up at the same moment with the King's, to perplex the royalist watchers outside. He obtained his freedom at last from the hopelessness of his enemies. They dismissed him from Cadiz on the 1st of October, to join his French friends; 2 and two days afterwards they surrendered the town, and gave up the cause. As it was not the cause of the whole people, as the clergy and the great body of the population welcomed the French, it is clear that no aid given by Great Britain could have saved Spain, or Overthrow of the Spanish revolution. 1 Annuaire Historique, 1823, p. 392. 2 Ibid. p. 472. CHAP. V.] SOUTH AMERICAN PROVINCES. 337 materially benefited it, while it would have precipitated war all over Europe, and violated the great principle of non-interference with the affairs of other nations. Ferdinand immediately annulled, by proclamation, all the acts of the constitutional government, the whole legislation and administration of Spain for the preceding three years and a half; and thus, when Riego had been hanged on a very high gibbet, without being permitted to speak to the people, and when some treacherous generals had sworn new vows of fidelity, did the feeble King suppose that all was set right, and that affairs might now go on as if nothing disagreeable had happened. This was a mistake, of course; but it was not one to be wondered at. He knew nothing of the principles of liberty, and of the vitality which resides in them; and he desired to know as little as possible of the consequences of revolutions. There were some such consequences near at hand which soon compelled his notice. South provinces. The French ministry were,2 as Constant afterwards said, so afraid of the result of the invasion of Spain, that, sustained as they were by the sympathy of almost all the rulers of Europe, they would have gladly drawn back, at the last moment, if the leaders of the Spanish Cortes would have saved their honor by some "moderate concessions." It is probable that what the French called “moderate concessions" might appear to the Cortes an unprincipled and fatal yielding. However that may be, the French dropped all their timidity and doubt in the course of their sweep over Spain; and we find them next eager to subjugate, on behalf of Spain, the insurgent colonies American in South America. Mr. Canning had declared in Parliament, with a prospective view to such a juncture as this, that Great Britain would not tolerate any proposed cession, by Spain to France, of any of those colonies over which Spain had ceased to have an effective control. It could not therefore be now permitted that France should carry the war across the Atlantic, and attempt to capture those colonies which Spain could not pretend to be able to cede. On this occasion the British minister pronounced words which stayed, like a spell, the preparations for war on one side of the Atlantic, while they kindled life and hope on the other, from the sea to the Andes, and over to the sea again. "We will not," said Mr. Canning, "interfere with Spain in any attempt which she may make to reconquer what were once her colonies; but we will not permit any third power to attack or reconquer them for her." It was a proud position which Eng land held when this declaration was made. Her minister had declared his desire that she should hold a majestic station among the conflicts of the world; "that, in order to prevent things from 1 Annuaire Historique, 1823, p. 483. 2 Life of Mackintosh, ii. p. 414. going to extremities, she should keep a distinct middle ground, staying the plague both ways."1 Accordingly, when some young liberals in England had been eager to repair to certain of the South American colonies, as they were still called, to throw themselves into the combat for independence, Mr. Canning had brought in a bill to stop their proceeding, as one wholly irreconcilable with our relations with Spain; manifesting, however, very plainly, his expectation at that time that the colonies could not fail to achieve their independence. He now "stayed the plague on the other side. He applied, in October, 1823,2 to the French government for an explanation of its intentions in regard to the South American colonies, in return for a similar explanation from England; and it was in the course of this correspondence that he made the declaration quoted above. Other words of no meaner weight were put upon record. The French minister, the Prince de Polignac, declared 3" that he could not conceive what could be meant, under the present circumstances, by a pure and simple acknowledgment of the independence of the Spanish colonies; since, those countries being actually distracted by civil wars, there existed no government in them which could offer any appearance of solidity; and that the acknowledgment of American independence, so long as such a state of things continued, appeared to him nothing less than a real sanction of anarchy. That, in the interest of humanity, and especially in that of the Spanish colonies, it would be worthy of the European governments to concert together the means of calming, in those distant and scarcely civilized regions, passions blinded by party-spirit; and to endeavor to bring back to a principle of union in government, whether monarchical or aristocratical, people among whom absurd and dangerous theories were now keeping up agitation and disunion.” Here was the principle and procedure of the Holy Alliance openly proposed for the coercion of the South American people. They were to live, not under such government as they might prefer, but under such as the rulers of Europe should impose upon them for their good. The reply of Mr. Canning was short, but large enough to enclose and exhibit his principle and procedure that none but the parties concerned have any business with the form of government under which any people may choose to live; and that Great Britain was equally ready to recognize institutions founded by people and by kings. His reply was, "that, however desirable the establishment of a monarchical form of government in any of those provinces might be, on the one hand, or whatever might be the difficulties in the way of it, on the other hand, his govern 1 Life of Canning, p. 334. 2 Hansard. x. p. 708. CHAP. V.] ATTITUDE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 339 ment could not take upon itself to put it forward as a condition of their recognition." In the preceding declaration, it had been announced to Spain that consuls would be sent to South America,1 to protect the interests of British trade there, a list being furnished of the places to which they would be sent. These consuls were now appointed and despatched; and this was the decisive act by which Great Britain, following the example of the United States, recognized the independence of the South American provinces of Spain. 3 Calm and dignified as appears the attitude of Great Britain throughout these transactions, which have so largely determined the fortunes of the world, there was much struggle within the breast of the Queen of the Seas the umpire, as she was now made in the rivalship, not only of the Old World and the New, but of the new and the olden time. Her foreign minister spoke with decision and clearness in all his correspondence, but it was from out of the midst of turmoil. He met with almost as much resistance at home as abroad; and he was twice on the verge of retiring from office,2 before he finally achieved the recognition of South American independence. Up to this time, Lord Sidmouth had retained a seat in the cabinet, without office; he now resigned it, partly because he could not agree with those "of his colleagues 3 who advocated the immediate recognition by His Majesty of the independence of Buenos Ayres." Buenos Ayres and all the other struggling provinces might now date their declared independence from this year; and little as they then knew, or may know now, how to consolidate their freedom, the proud boast of the British minister was a true one which he uttered when, two years later, he gave an account of his policy of this time. The speech is one which ought to stand in every history of the period, for its effect upon every living mind. "It was an era in the senate," says one, applying what was said of the eloquence of Chatham. "It was an epoch in a man's life," says another,* to have heard him. I shall never forget the deep moral earnestness of his tone, and the blaze of glory that seemed to light up his features." It having been objected that the balance of dignity and honor among nations had been affected by the French occupation of Spain, which was thought to have exalted France and lowered England, Mr. Canning replied: 5 "I must beg leave to say that I dissent from that averment. The House knows the country knows that when the French army was on the point of entering Spain, his Majesty's government did all in their |