The paragraph in the Etoi...
The paragraph in tie Etoile, which we noticed yesterday more for amusement than as considering it entitled to any serious notice, has drawn forth long and laboured luoGu brations from some of our cotemporaries. In our judg_ ment, the Etoile and its Ultra neighbours of Germany are working to very little purpose; when they fancy that the Englislh nation, whatever may be the bias of the KING'S Ministers, will suffir itself, under any pretext, to be involved in the meslhes of the Holy Alliance. We long since published intelligence conveyed to us, tlhat in all pro- bability no troops under the control of this Governiment, Nvhether British or Hanoverian, would be sent to Lisbon to act under the orders of King JOHN. The despatch of a naval armament, reinforced by marines, few Eiiglishmrn, observers of the course of foreign politics, will object to, inasmuch as tbe 'establishment of our gallant navy is rather perhaps below the level of the times, than open to censure for extravagance. But with regard to these Ultra Royalist specuiatioiis concerning the mission of Count Muxt&raT to Pil Ce METTERNIC t'S diplomatic circle atJohannisberg, the first idea of collecting. Hanoverian troops for a voyage, of in- terference, no matter ofi what side of the question, viith the politics of a distant Power, did ne doubt appear to. have placed the Count and the German Cabinet of GEORGE IV. ini a pitiable sort of dilemma. If the consent of that non-descript the Germanic Diet, were, by its consti- tution, indispensable to the legality of the proposed arma- ment issuing from a German state, (and the Diet, of coarse, would be ready enough to set up such a pretension), it is obvious that Prince METTERNICH and the rest of the legi timates would clog their acquiescence with conditions tend- ing to give the Anglo-Hanoverian expedition to Portugal a colouring favourable to the views of the Holy Alliance. How, in case of the Hanoverian troops being sent, our Government could manage to force upon the world their own construction of thle measifre, in opposition to that of the Austrian Minister, we have yet to learn. Prince MET- TERNICH would say-I sanction your enterprise, because it is a virtual recognition of the doctrines of the Holy A1liance. Mr.CANNING cannot accept the authority zo expressed, send off thc troops, and theu turn round upon Europe-" I have "tespatched an army to Portugal, but it is not in confe- "deracy -with the Holy Alliance or its principles"-that wouldl be a breach of faith to the Alliance. To keep faith witlh them, on the other hand, he must break it to the British nation: so, with regard to this Hanoverian army, we suspect that, as Puf descrilbes it, Miinisters may have fel themselves "at a dead lock." The grand hope is, that they will follow throughout, the advice which, from the first, we ventured to offer them-namely, to steer clear of the trap whlich had been laid for them, and, except as a preventive of inyasion from other quarters, to shun), as they would disgraee itself, the proposed occupationi of Portugal.