Great Britain asked these assurances, then, without offence; forasmuch as she asked them—­not for herself—­not because she entertained the slightest suspicion of the supposed danger, but because that danger constituted one of those hypothetical cases on which alone France could claim eventual support from the allies; and because she wished to be able to satisfy France that she was not likely to have such a justification.

In the same spirit, and with the like purpose, the British Cabinet proposed to Spain to do that, without which not only the disposition but perhaps the power was wanting on the part of the French Government, to recede from the menacing position which it had somewhat precipitately occupied.

And this brings me to the point on which the longest and fiercest battle has been fought against us—­the suggestion to Spain of the expediency of modifying her Constitution.  As to this point, I should be perfectly contented, Sir, to rest the justification of Ministers upon the argument stated the night before last by a noble young friend of mine (Lord Francis Leveson Gower), in a speech which, both from what it promised and what it performed, was heard with delight by the House.  ‘If Ministers’, my noble friend observed, ’had refused to offer such suggestions, and if, being called to account for that refusal, they had rested their defence on the ground of delicacy to Spain, would they not have been taunted with something like these observations?  “What! had you not among you a member of your Government, sitting at the same council board, a man whom you ought to have considered as an instrument furnished by Providence, at once to give efficacy to your advice, and to spare the delicacy of the Spanish nation?  Why did you not employ the Duke of Wellington for this purpose?  Did you forget the services which he had rendered to Spain, or did you imagine that Spain had forgotten them?  Might not any advice, however unpalatable, have been offered by such a benefactor, without liability to offence or misconstruction?  Why did you neglect so happy an opportunity, and leave unemployed so fit an agent?  Oh! blind to the interests of the Spanish people!  Oh! insensible to the feelings of human nature!"’ Such an argument would have been unanswerable; and, however the intervention of Great Britain has failed, I would much rather have to defend myself against the charge of having tendered advice officiously, than against that of having stupidly neglected to employ the means which the possession of such a man as the Duke of Wellington put into the hands of the Government, for the salvation of a nation which he had already once rescued from destruction.