qualification for the members of the Cortes—­whether the promising to consider hereafter of some modifications in other questionable points—­was too much to be conceded, if by such a sacrifice peace could have been preserved!  If we had declined to interfere on such grounds of punctilio, would not the very passage which I have now read from Vattel, as our vindication, have been brought against us with justice as a charge?

I regret, deeply regret, for the sake of Spain, that our efforts failed.  I must fairly add, that I regret it for the sake of France also.  Convinced as I may be of the injustice of the course pursued by the French Government, I cannot shut my eyes to its impolicy.  I cannot lose sight of the gallant character and mighty resources of the French nation, of the central situation of France, and of the weight which she ought to preserve in the scale of Europe; I cannot be insensible to the dangers to which she is exposing herself; nor omit to reflect what the consequences may be to that country—­what the consequences to Europe—­of the hazardous enterprise in which she is now engaged; and which, for aught that human prudence can foresee, may end in a dreadful revulsion.  As mere matter of abstract right, morality, perhaps, ought to be contented when injury recoils upon an aggressor.  But such a revulsion as I am speaking of would not affect France alone:  it would touch the Continental States at many points; it would touch even Great Britain.  France could not be convulsed without communicating danger to the very extremities of Europe.  With this conviction, I confess I thought any sacrifice, short of national honour or national independence, cheap, to prevent the first breach in that pacific settlement, by which the miseries and agitations of the world have been so recently composed.

I apologize, Sir, for the length of time which I have consumed upon these points.  The case is complicated:  the transactions have been much misunderstood, and the opinions regarding them are various and discordant.  The true understanding of the case, however, and the vindication of the conduct of Government, would be matters of comparatively light importance, if censure or approbation for the past were the only result in contemplation.  But, considering that we are now only at the threshold, as it were, of the war, and that great events are pending, in which England may hereafter be called upon to take her part, it is of the utmost importance that no doubt should rest, upon the conduct and policy of this country.

One thing more there is, which I must not forget to notice with regard to the advice given to Spain.  I have already mentioned the Duke of Wellington as the chosen instrument of that counsel:  a Spaniard by adoption, by title, and by property, he had a right to offer the suggestions which he thought fit, to the Government of the country which had adopted him.  But it has been complained that the British Government would have induced the Spaniards to break an oath:  that, according to the oath taken by the Cortes, the Spanish institutions could be revised only at the expiration of eight years; and that, by calling upon the Cortes to revise them before that period was expired, we urged them to incur the guilt of perjury.  Sir, this supposed restriction is assumed gratuitously.