lj" I
i I
: 1,'t
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
94
I I '
i.
-, ! '
-
',I I
' ' I I
, I
South America, he believed, was now disposed of, or nearly so; for an event had recently happened, than which no event had ever dispersed greater joy, exultation, and gratitude over all the freemen in Europe; an event in which he, as an Englishman, connected by ties of blood and language with America, took peculiar satisfaction. An event, he repeated, had happened which was decisive on that subject; and that event was the message of the President of the United States to Congress. The line of policy which that message disclosed became a great and independent nation; and he hoped his Majesty's ministers would be prevented by no mean pride or paltry jealousy from following so noble and illustrious an example. He trusted that, as the United States had had the glory of setting, we should have the good taste to follow, the example of holding fast by free institutions, and of assisting our brother freemen, in whatever part of the globe they should be found, in placing bounds to that impious alliance which, if it ever succeeded in bringing down the Old World to its own degraded level, would not hesitate to attempt to master the New World too." Mr. Canning, the Premier, in reply, stated that: "In some of the principles laid down in the message of the President of the United States he entirely agreed; and he might be permitted to say that, long before the message went forth, it was distinctly admitted in the State· Papers of Great Britain that the question between the mother country and the colonies was not a fit subject for foreign interference; but he did not agree in the principle that the parent State had not a right, if she could, to recover her own colonial dominions." [Mr. Brougham motioned that such a principle was not laid down.] Mr. Canning, continuing: "In the paper to which the honorable and learned gentleman referred, there was a passage which many individuals construed in that way, and he certainly under- stood the honorable and learned gentleman so to have construed it. He was clearly of opinion with the President of the United States, that no foreign State had a right to interfere, pending the dispute between the colonies and the mother country; but he was so strongly of opinion that the mother country had a right to attempt to recover her colonies if she thought proper." Mr. Canning's construction of the message was clearly cor- 1·ect, as will have been seen from the extracts wich I have read from that document. Spain, ruled by France, as the swords- man of the Holy Alliance, was included in the declaration that- i
l ,. I ,
', I .. ,
,, I, I I'
•
I
I ' I
i
t
; ' '
' ; .
: J
I
' I
Powered by FlippingBook