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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 831: ATTACK ON MINISTERS WITH REFERENCE TO SPAIN, ETC.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

ATTACK ON MINISTERS WITH REFERENCE TO SPAIN, ETC.

Early in this session the affairs of Spain occupied the attention of both houses. In the upper house Lord Lansdowne deplored the fate of that country, which was occupied by French troops, and thought that a greater advance should have been made towards our complete recognition of South American independence. In the commons, Mr. Brougham attacked the tyranny and particular cruelties of the Austrians in one peninsula and of Ferdinand in the other, and denounced the impotent efforts of government to ward off the blow from the constitutionalists. Subsequently our foreign policy was discussed, on motions made by Lords John Russell and Nugent, but Mr. Canning successfully vindicated it. He showed that the conduct of Great Britain had been regulated by a due regard for her own interests and dignity, as well as by an honourable attention to the first principles of international law; and that while we preserved peace, we had by bold remonstrances paralysed schemes formed by the holy alliance for extending their system of interference from the government of Spain to the internal condition of her colonies. These explanations were satisfactory to the house, and the motions were not pressed to a division. Before the close of the year, ministers gave a pledge of their sincerity by admitting the South American colonies into the rank of independent powers. Treaties of amity and commerce were concluded with Mexico, Columbia, and Buenos Ayres, which gave a fresh impetus to trade and commerce.