S 24. Secret correspondence of M. de Villèle and M. de Lagarde, 25. Debate on it in the Cabinet, and resignation of M. de Montmorency, who Page 28. Speech of the king at the opening of the Chambers, 67. Views of George IV. and the Duke of Wellington on the subject, 68. Difficulties of the French at the entrance of the campaign, 69. Which are obviated by M. Ouvrard, 88. Resumed negotiations at Cadiz, and assault of Santa Petri, 95. Entry of the king and queen into Madrid, 96. Distracted and miserable state of Spain, 97. State of Portugal during this year. Royalist insurrection, 99. Triumphant return of the Duke d'Angoulême to Paris, 100. Offer of assistance by Russia to France rejected, 101-102. Views of Mr Canning in recognising the republics of South 104. Recognition of the South American republics by Mr Canning, 105. Effects of this measure on British interests, 106. M. de Chateaubriand's designs in regard to the South American states, 107. Speech of Mr Canning at Plymouth, 108. The elections of 1824, and strength of the Royalists, 109. Great effect which this had on the future destinies of France, 110. Meeting of the Chambers, and measures announced in the royal speech, CALIFORNIA 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 ness 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 of weak- 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. 3. are always state. Every emigrant who is now landed on the shores of 1814. 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 the parent 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 |