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HISTORY OF EUROPE.

CHAPTER VII.

SPAIN AND ITALY FROM THE PEACE OF 1814 TO THE

REVOLUTION OF 1820.

VII.

1814.

1.

Spain and

DIFFERING from each other in climate, national charac- . CHAP. ter, and descent, there is a striking, it may be a portentous, resemblance in their history and political destinies between SPAIN and GREAT BRITAIN. Both were inhabited Analogy of the early originally by a hardy race, divided into various tribes, history of which maintained an obstinate conflict with the invaders, England. and were finally subdued only after nearly a century's harassing warfare with the Legions. Both, on the fall of the Empire, were overrun by successive swarms of barbarians, with whom they kept up for centuries an indomitable warfare, and from whose intermingled blood their descendants have now sprung. The Visigoths to Spain were what the Anglo-Saxons were to Britain; and the Danes in the one country came in place of the Moors in the other. The rocks of Asturias in the first were the refuge of independence, as the mountains of Wales and the Grampian Hills were in the last. Both were trained, in those long-continued struggles, to the hardihood, daring, and perseverance requisite for the accomplishment of great things in the scene of trouble. In both the elements of freedom were laid broad and deep in this energetic and

VOL. II.

A

VII.

1814.

CHAP. intrepid spirit; and it was hard for long to say which was destined to be the ark of liberty for the world. The ardent disposition of both sought a vent in maritime adventure, the situation of both was eminently favourable for commercial pursuits, and both became great naval powers. Both founded colonial empires in various parts of the world, of surpassing magnitude and splendour, and both found for long in these colonies the surest foundations of their prosperity, the most prolific sources of their riches. When the colonies revolted from Spain in 1810, the trade, both export and import, which she maintained with them, was exactly equal to that which, thirty years afterwards, England carried on with its colonial dependencies. Happy if the parallels shall go no farther, and the future historian shall not have to point to the severance of her colonies as the commencement of ruin to Great Britain, as the revolt of South America, beyond all question, has been to the Spanish monarchy.

2.

nies were

not a source of weakness to

Spain.

Historians have repeated to satiety that the decline of The colo- Spain, which has now continued without interruption for nearly two centuries, is to be ascribed to the drain which these great colonies proved upon the strength of the parent state. They seemed to think that the mother country is like a vast reservoir filled with vigour, health, and strength, and that whatever of these was communicated to the colonial offshoots, was so much withdrawn from the parent state. There never was a more erroneous opinion. No country ever yet was weakened by colonial dependencies; their establishment, like the swarming of bees, is an indication of overflowing numbers and superabundant activity in the original hive. As their departure springs from past strength, so it averts future weakness. It saves the state from the worst of all evils-a redundant population constantly on the verge of sedition from sufferingand converts those who would be paupers or criminals at home, into active and useful members of society, who encourage the industry of the parent state as much by

VII.

their consumption as they would have oppressed it by CHAP. their poverty.

1814.

are always

the parent

state.

Every emigrant who is now landed on the shores of 3. Australia, converts a pauper, whose maintenance would Colonies have cost Great Britain £14 a-year, into a consumer a benefit to who purchases £8 yearly of its manufactures. Rome and Athens, so far from being weakened, were immeasurably strengthened by their colonies: those flourishing settlements which surrounded the Mediterranean Sea were the brilliant girdle which, as much as the arms of the Legions, contributed to the strength of the Empire ; and England would never have emerged victorious from her immortal conflict for European freedom, if she had not found in her colonial trade the means of maintaining the contest, when shut out from the markets of the Continental states. If it were permitted to follow fanciful analogies between the body politic and the human frame, it would be safer to say that the prolific parent of many colonies is like the happy mother of a numerous offspring, who exhibits, even in mature years, no symptoms of decline, and preserves the freshness and charms of youth for a much longer period than she who has never undergone the healthful labours of parturition.

4.

which co

mother

There is no reason, in the nature of things, why colonies should exhaust the mother country; on the contrary, Support the tendency is just the reverse. They take from the parent lonies afstate what it is an advantage for it to lose, and give it ford to the what it is beneficial for it to receive. They take off its country. surplus hands and mouths, and thereby lighten the labour market, and give an impulse to the principle of population; while they provide the means of subsistence for those who remain at home, by opening a vast and rapidly increasing market for its manufactures. A colony for long is always agricultural or mining only. Manufactures, at least of the finer sort, can never spring up in it for a very long period. An old state, in which manufactures and the arts have long flourished, will nowhere

VII.

1814.

CHAP. find such a certain and growing vent for its fabrics as in its colonial settlements; while they will never find so sure and steady a market for their rude produce as in the wants of its inhabitants. Similarity of tastes and habits renders the fabrics and productions of the parent state more acceptable to the young one than those of foreign lands. The certainty of not having their supplies of necessaries interrupted, is an inappreciable advantage to the mother country. Their identity of interest perpetuates the union which absolute dependence on one part had at first commenced. The connection between a parent state liberally and wisely governed, and its colonies, is founded on the surest of all foundations-a real reciprocity of advantages; and, as such, may long prove durable to the great benefit of both, and retain the infant state in the bonds of allegiance, after the time has arrived when it might aspire to the honours of separate dominion.

5.

What the

colonial

state should

be.

To preserve, however, this connection between the mother countries and her robust colonies, a wise and liberal policy of system of government is indispensable. If such be not the parent adopted, they will, when they have attained majority, inevitably break off on the first serious difficulties of the parent state. Nothing can permanently retain them in their allegiance but a real reciprocity of advantages, and the practical enjoyment of the powers of self-government by the colonies. The reason is, that the rule of the distant old state, if unaided by colonial representation, direct or indirect, never can be founded upon an adequate knowledge of the necessities, or attention to the interests, of the youthful settlement. It will always be directed by the ideas, and calculated for the advantage of the society with which it is surrounded generally the very reverse, in the first instance at least, of what the young state requires. The true colonial policy, which can alone insure a lasting connection between the mother country and her transmarine descendants, requires the most difficult of all sacrifices on the part of the former-that of

Yet it is CHAP.

her established prejudices and selfish interests.
the sacrifice of her immediate advantages only; for never
will the interests of the old state, in the end, be so pro-
moted as by the most liberal and enlarged policy towards
its distant offspring. What that policy should be, has
been written in characters of fire on the tablets of his-
tory. It should be the exact reverse of that which lost
England North, and Spain, South America. It should
be the government of the colonies, not for the interest of
the mother country, but for the advantage of themselves-
an administration which should make them feel that they
would lose rather than gain by a severance of the connec-
tion. Rule the colonies as you would wish them to rule
you, if the seat of government were in the colony, and
you were the distant settlement, and it will be long indeed
before they will desire to become independent. This is,
perhaps, the last lesson of wisdom which will be learned
by the rulers of mankind; yet is it the very first precept
of the religion which they all profess; and the whole
secret of colonial, as indeed of all other governments, is
to do to others as we would they should do unto us.

VII.

1814.

6.

loss to the

from the separation of the lonies.

There is no idea more erroneous than that which is entertained by many in this country, that it is for the Inevitable interest of the old state to sever the connection with the parent state colonies when they have arrived at a certain degree of strength; because by so doing, as it is said, you retain is cothe advantages of mercantile intercourse, and get quit of the burden of providing for defence. Experience has proved that this opinion is of all others the most fallacious; because the very first thing which a colony does when it becomes independent, is to levy heavy import duties on the manufactures of the mother country, in order to encourage its own, and thus the benefit of its rising market is at first abridged, and at length lost to the parent state. The United States of America, accordingly, have imposed an import duty of 30 per cent on all imports whatever; and the consequence is, that our average

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