Then the Right Honorable Baronet says, that he was also a party to another operation which differed in some degree from pure and mere diplomatic intervention—the interference of this country in the affairs of Portugal by the Quadruple Treaty of 1834.[17]
* * * * *
Now, the fault I find with those who are so fond of attacking me either here or elsewhere, in this country or in others, is that they try to bring down every question to a personal bearing. If they want to oppose the policy of England, they say, “Let us get rid of the man who happens to be the organ of that policy.” Why, it is like shooting a policeman. As long as England is England, as long as the English people are animated by the feelings and spirit and opinions which they possess, you may knock down twenty foreign Ministers one after another, but depend upon it no one will keep his place who does not act upon the same principles. When it falls to my duty, in pursuance of my functions, to oppose the policy of any Government, the immediate cry is, “Oh, it’s all spite against this man, or that man, Count This, or Prince That, that makes you do this.” So the Right Honorable Baronet says our object in 1847 was merely to get rid of Costa Cabral; and, he adds, Costa Cabral being now in office, our purpose has been defeated. Now, as regards mere personal considerations, we did not care who was Minister of Portugal; but we felt that there was in that country much popular excitement, that party was arrayed against party, class against class, that there were bitter animosities ready to break out, and we knew perfectly well that if a member of the Cabral faction, was, at that particular time, made Minister there would be a renewal of civil war; we accordingly excluded, not forever, but merely for a time, and until the Cortes should decide who was to have their confidence, and who should be Minister, all men of the extreme parties, whether of the Cabral faction or of the Junta faction. I, therefore, cannot admit the triumph which the Right Honorable Baronet thinks he has obtained at my expense, by the fact that Costa Cabral, in spite of our proceedings in 1847, is now, in 1850, Minister of Portugal.
Now come to Spain. It is perfectly true that the Right Honorable Baronet was not in office when the Additional Articles of 1835—additional to the Treaty of 1834—were concluded. But what was the Treaty of 1834—the Quadruple Treaty? It was a treaty to expel from the peninsula not Don Miguel only, but Don Carlos also, who was then at the head of the troops in Portugal; and, therefore, so far as the spirit and provisions of that Treaty of 1834 went, the Right Honorable Baronet cannot ride off by saying that it confined itself entirely to Portugal, and did not extend to interference with Spain. Don Carlos was at the time in Portugal, at the head of the troops, with the purpose of getting back into Spain; and, had Don Miguel been successful in Portugal, there is no doubt that Don Carlos would have availed himself of the circumstance to enforce his claims upon Spain. Don Carlos having been expelled from the Peninsula under the Treaty of 1834, came to London for a time, and then returned to Spain. Hostilities were resumed in Spain; and the Additional Articles of 1835 were then concluded, for the purpose of giving to the Queen of Spain assistance, to enable her to retain the Crown, and to expel Don Carlos from Spain.[18]
This was a case exactly similar to that of Portugal in the preceding year. We had no particular interest, in the abstract, in determining whether the Sovereign of Spain should be an infant princess, as Isabella then was, or a full-grown prince; the mere abstract question between Isabella and Carlos was one in regard to which we had nothing to stake, and which the then Government of England would probably not have thought it proper or useful to interfere with. Questions of succession to a Crown have, indeed, at all times been matters with which foreign Powers have concerned themselves; but it has only been when some distant interest has made it worth their while to do so. But in Spain, as in Portugal, the question was between arbitrary rule and constitutional and parliamentary government, and in relation to Spain, as well as to Portugal, we thought that the interests of England in every point of view, commercial and political, would be benefited by the establishment of constitutional government.
If England has any interest more than another with reference to Spain, it is that Spain should be independent, that Spain should be Spanish. Spain for the Spaniards, is the maxim upon which we proceed in our policy with regard to Spain. Much evil must ever come to this country from the fact of Spain being under the dictation of other Powers. It is eminently for our interest that when we have the misfortune to be in dispute or at war with any other Power, we should not, merely on that account and without any offence to or from Spain herself, be at war with Spain also. It is to our advantage that so long as we have given no offence to Spain, and she none to us, differences with other Powers should not involve us in war with her: and we considered that the independence of Spain was more likely to be secured by a Government controlled by a representative and national Assembly, than by a Government purely arbitrary, and consisting merely of the members who might form the Administration. Therefore, on the grounds of strict policy, independently of the general sympathy which animated the people as well as the Government of this country towards Spain at that time, we thought it our interest to take part with Isabella, and against the pretensions of Don Carlos. That policy was successful. The Carlist cause failed; the cause of the constitution prevailed. But it is said by the Right Honorable Baronet that General Narvaez is Minister of Spain. I cannot see in that any defeat of the policy of England; General Narvaez, indeed, is Minister of Spain, but the constitution has of late been more strictly observed than it was at the period to which the Right Honorable Baronet referred.
The Right Honorable Baronet finds fault with a certain despatch which, in July, 1846 after the change of Ministry in this country, I wrote to Sir Henry, then Mr. Bulwer, at Madrid; and the Right Honorable Baronet says: “Here is an instance, not only of the interference of the noble Viscount, but of the manner and tone he uses.” Now, as to manner and tone, there have been certain communications made to other British Ministers by persons in whom the Right Honorable Baronet has confidence, which are certainly couched in terms which may possibly admit of the application of some of those phrases which the Right Honorable Baronet has applied to me. There was a certain despatch, for example, addressed by the Earl of Aberdeen to Sir Edmund Lyons, our Minister at Athens, which has already been read elsewhere, and which I have got a copy of here, and which I think is a very curious specimen of the manner in which the most mild and uninterfering of Foreign Ministers can, when he so likes, deal with the internal arrangement of other Governments.
Everybody knows who Sir Richard Church is; a most distinguished soldier, who fought nobly in the cause of Greek independence, and for a long time was properly respected and honored by the Greek Government. But, in 1843, he was supposed to sympathize with the party who extorted the constitution from the King. I believe that what he then did, was a great service to the King; and that he was very instrumental in saving King Otho from dangers to which he would otherwise have been exposed; but, however, in 1844, he incurred the displeasure of the King, and he was removed from the appointment of Inspector-General of the Greek forces, which he had held; and he was succeeded by General Grivas, a person whose conduct, as it appears from the despatch in question, had not been altogether free from imputations of disloyalty. Well, here are the instructions given on the subject to Sir Edmund Lyons, by the Minister who never interfered with the internal affairs of other countries, and especially with their purely domestic matters:
“Sir—Her Majesty’s Government have learned with deep concern the dismissal of Sir Richard Church from the post of Inspector-General of the Greek Army, which post he had so honorably and successfully filled for many years.”
Perhaps so far it was natural for the English Government to regret the dismissal of a meritorious English officer.