y  2


Canning  recommending  it)  opposed  Napoleon's
attempt  to  place  the  Spanish  crown  on  his
brother's  head,  but  under  circumstances  essen-
tially different.  Peace  or  war  was  not  then  the
question  ;  that  point  had  years  before  been  de-
cided in  favour  of  the  latter :  the  question  for
consideration  then  was,  —  howT,  being  at  war,  we
could  wage  it  most  advantageously  ;  and  to  this
Mr.  Canning's  answer  was,  that  the  Peninsula
then  afforded  "  the  theatre  of  exertion,  in  which
"  we  could  contend  with  the  greatest  prospect
"  of  success."  Then,  indeed,  Spain,  if  not  as
powerful  as  ever,  still  had  not  lost  her  Colonies,
and  did  not  present  the  picture  of  national  de-
gradation that  she  did  in  1822.  France,  too,
in  1808,  when  all  the  Great  Powers  of  Europe
were  at  the  beck  of  her  Ruler,  was  not  the  same
France  that  in  1822  acknowledged  Louis  as
Her  master.  The  union,  consequently,  of  these
two  Powers  in  1808,  was  far  more  formidable
than  in  1822,  when,  in  comparison,  both  of
them  had  shrunk  so  considerably  in  their  di-
mensions.
It  would  have  been,  therefore,  surely  most
impolitick  to  have  neglected  the  consideration
of  the  altered  state  of  Europe,  and  to  have
plunged  into  a  war  to  prevent  Spain  from  being
overrun  by  France,  with  no  better  defence  for
it  than  that  our  ancestors,  in  former  times,  had
done  so  wisely ;   and  that  We,  in  more  recent


885

times,  had  neither  commenced  nor  continued  a
war,  but  merely  directed  our  efforts,  which  at
any  rate  were  to  be  made  in  some  direction,  to
the  accomplishment  of  a  similar  object.
