LIII. 1808. 54. joy with insurrection in England. Future ages will find it difficult to credit the enthu- CHAP. siasm and transport with which the tidings of the insurrection in Spain were received in the British Islands. The earliest accounts were brought by the Asturian de- Universal puties, who reached London in the first week of June; which the and their reports were speedily confirmed and extended news of the by further accounts from Corunna, Cadiz, and Gibraltar. is received Never was public joy more universal. As the intelligence successively arrived of province after province having risen in indignant fury against the invader, and boldly hoisted the flag of defiance to his legions, the general rapture knew no bounds. It was evident now, even to the most ordinary capacity, that the revolutionary ambition of France had brought it into violent collision with the patriotic and religious feelings of a high-spirited and virgin people. "Never," says Southey, "since the glorious morning of the French Revolution, before one bloody cloud had risen to overcast the deceitful promise of its beauty, had the heart of England been affected by so generous and universal a joy." All classes joined in it; all degrees of intellect were swept away by the flood. The aristocratic party who had so long struggled, with almost hopeless constancy, against the ever-advancing 1 South. i. wave of revolutionary ambition, rejoiced that it had at 443, 444. last broke on a rugged shore;1 and that, in the insolence 1808, 193. of apparently unbounded power, it had proceeded to such own family. The supreme junta has against it a thousand rumours, besides its armed president, and the troops which surround it; all which forbids its acts being regarded as those of a free assembly. The same may be said of the councils and tribunals of justice. What a chaos of confusion, of misfortunes to Spain! and will these misfortunes be avoided by an assembly held without the kingdom, convened in a situation where its deliberations can never be regarded as free? And if to the tumultuous movements which menace the interior of the kingdom, we add the pretensions of princes and powers abroad, and the probable intervention of a foreign armed force in the contest of which the Peninsula will soon be the theatre, what can be imagined more frightful, or more worthy of pity? Cannot the love and solicitude of the Emperor find some other mode of manifesting itself than by such measures as will lead to its ruin rather than its cure?"-Answer of PEDRO, Bishop of Orense to the Junta of Government at Madrid, which had named him as representative at Bayonne, May 29, 1808; TORENO, i. 413, 414-Pièces Just. Ann. Reg. CHAP. extremities as had roused the impassioned resistance of a gallant people. LIII. 1808. 55. of the popu the cause. The lovers of freedom hailed the Peninsular contest as Enthusiasm the first real effort of THE PEOPLE in the war. Former lar party in contests had lain between cabinets and armies on the one side, and democratic zeal, ripened into military prowess, on the other. But now the case was changed. It was no longer a struggle for the power of kings or the privileges of nobles; the energy of the multitude was roused into action, the spirit of liberty was enlisted in the cause; the mighty lever which had shaken all the thrones of Europe had now, by the imprudence of him who wielded it, fallen into the hands of the enemy; it would cast down the fabric of imperial, as it has done that of regal power. With honest zeal and fervent sympathy, the great body of the British people united heart and soul with the gallant nation which, with generous, perhaps imprudent enthusiasm, had rushed into the contest for their country's independence, and loudly called on the government to take their station by their side, and stake all upon the issue of so heart-stirring a conflict. Meanwhile the few sagacious and well-informed observers, whom the general transport permitted to take a cool survey of the probable issue of the contest, observed with satisfaction that the ambition of the French Emperor had at length offered a sea-girt and mountainous region for a battle-field, where the numerical inferiority of the British armies would expose them to less disadvantage than in any other theatre of European warfare.1 1 South. i. 443, 444. Ann. Reg. 1808, 193, 195. 56. Noble speech of Spanish war The first notice taken of these animating events, in the British parliament, was on the 15th June, when the subMr Sheri- ject was introduced in a splendid speech by Mr Sheridan, dan on the which merely embodied, in glowing language, the feelings in parlia- which then, with unprecedented unanimity, agitated the June 15. British heart. "Never before," he exclaimed, "has so happy an opportunity existed for Great Britain to strike a bold stroke for the rescue of the world. Hitherto ment. LIII. 1808. Buonaparte has run a victorious race, because he has con- CHAP. tended with princes without dignity, ministers without wisdom, or people without patriotism; he has yet to learn what it is to combat a people who are animated with one spirit against him. Now is the time to stand up boldly and fairly for the deliverance of Europe; and if the ministry will co-operate effectually with the Spanish patriots, they shall receive from me as cordial a support as if the man1 whom I most loved were restored to life. Mr Fox. Will not the animation of the Spanish mind be excited by the knowledge that their cause is espoused, not by the ministers merely, but by the parliament and the people of England? If there be a disposition in Spain to resent the insults and injuries, too enormous to be described by language, which they have endured from the tyrant of the earth, will not that disposition be roused to the most sublime exertion by the assurance that their efforts will be cordially aided by a great and powerful nation? Never was anything so brave, so noble, so generous, as the conduct of the. Spaniards; never was there a more important crisis than that which their patriotism has thus occasioned to the state of Europe. Instead of striking at the core of the evil, the administrations of this country have hitherto gone on nibbling merely at the rind; filching sugar islands, but neglecting all that was dignified, and consonant to the real interests of the country. Now, therefore, is the moment to let the world know that we are resolved to stand up, firmly and fairly, for the salvation of Europe. Let us, then, co-operate with the Spaniards, but co-operate in an effectual and energetic way; and if we find that they are really resolved to engage heart and soul in the enterprise, advance with them in a magnanimous way and with an undaunted step for the liberation of mankind. Formerly, the contest in la Vendée afforded the fairest chance of effecting the deliverance of Europe; but that favourable chance was neglected by this country. What was then neglected was CHAP. LIII. 1808. now looked up to with sanguine expectation; the only hope now is, that Spain may prove another la Vendée. Above all, let us mix no little interests with this mighty contest; let us discard or forget British objects, and conxi. 886,889. duct the war on the great principles of generous support and active co-operation."1 1 Parl. Deb. 57. Secretary These noble sentiments, worthy of the real friends of Reply of Mr freedom and the leaders of the liberal party in its last Canning asylum, were fully responded to by the members of administration. Mr Secretary Canning replied,-" His Majesty's ministers see with as deep and lively an interest as my right honourable friend the noble struggle which the Spanish nation are now making to resist the unexampled atrocity of France, and preserve the independence of their country; and there exists the strongest disposition on the part of the British government to afford every practicable aid in a contest so magnanimous. In endeavouring to afford this aid, it will never occur to us to consider that a state of war exists between this country and Spain. Whenever any nation in Europe starts up with a determination to oppose a power which, whether professing insidious peace or declaring open war, is alike the common enemy of all other people, that nation, whatever its former relation may be, becomes, ipso facto, the ally of Great Britain. In furnishing the aid which may be required, government will be guided by three principles-to direct the united efforts of both countries against the common foe-to direct them in such a way as shall be most beneficial to our new ally-and to direct them to such objects as may be most conducive to British interests. But of these objects the last will never be allowed to come into competition with the other two. I mention British objects, chiefly for the purpose of disclaiming them as any material part of the considerations which 2 Parl. Deb. influence the British government.2 No interest can be so purely British as Spanish success; no conquest so advan xi. 890, 891, 89.5. tageous to England as conquering from France the com plete integrity of Spanish dominions in every quarter of CHAP. the globe." LIII. 1808. 58. on this This debate marks in more ways than one an important era in the war, and indicates a remarkable change in the Reflections sentiments with which it was regarded by a large portion debate. of the liberal party in the British dominions. There were no longer any apologies for Napoleon, or the principles of the Revolution; no deprecation of any attempt to resist the power of France, as in the earlier periods of the war. The eloquent declamations of Mr Fox and Mr Erskine in favour of the great republic-their sophistical excuses for the grasping ambition in which its fervour had terminated-had expired. Experience and suffering, danger and difficulty, had in a great degree subdued even political passion-the strongest feeling, save religious, which can agitate mankind. Mr Sheridan and Mr Windham from the Opposition benches, earnestly called on the government to engage deeply in the war; they loudly and justly condemned the selfish policy and Lilliputian expeditions of the aristocratic government in its earlier years, and demanded, in the name of public freedom, that England should at last take her appropriate place in the van of the conflict, and, disregarding all selfish or exclusively national objects, stand forth with all her might for the deliverance of mankind. 59. of these the true In such sentiments from such men, none but the vulgar and superficial could see any inconsistency with their Consistence former opinions. Whatever others might do, it was not views with to be supposed that the highest intellects and most principles generous hearts in the empire were to gaze all day at the of freedom. East in hopes of still seeing the sun rise there. Resistance to French despotism and invasion was not only not inconsistent with, but necessarily flowed from, the real principles of the ardent philanthropists who had formerly opposed the overshadowing what they then deemed the brilliant dawn of the French Revolution. But it had the appearance of change to the numerous class who judge by |