sure, within narrow limits that this war of
opinion is at present confined: but it is a war of opinion that Spain
(whether as government or as nation) is now waging against Portugal; it
is a war which has commenced in hatred of the new institutions of
Portugal. How long is it reasonable to expect that Portugal will abstain
from retaliation? If into that war this country shall be compelled to
enter, we shall enter into it with a sincere and anxious desire to
mitigate rather than exasperate, and to mingle only in the conflict of
arms, not in the more fatal conflict of opinions. But I much fear that
this country (however earnestly she may endeavour to avoid it) could
not, in such case, avoid seeing ranked under her banners all the
restless and dissatisfied of any nation with which she might come in
conflict. It is the contemplation of this new power in any future war
which excites my most anxious apprehension. It is one thing to have a
giant's strength, but it would be another to use it like a giant. The
consciousness of such strength is undoubtedly a source of confidence and
security; but in the situation in which this country stands, our
business is not to seek opportunities of displaying it, but to content
ourselves with letting the professors of violent and exaggerated
doctrines on both sides feel that it is not their interests to convert
an umpire into an adversary."

In his reply at the close of the debate Canning vindicated his
consistency in resisting Spanish aggression upon Portugal, while
offering no resistance to the military occupation of Spain by France,
which had not yet terminated. He pointed out that the Spain of his day
was quite different from "the Spain within the limits of whose empire
the sun never set--the Spain 'with the Indies' that excited the
jealousies and alarmed the imaginations of our ancestors". He admitted
that the entry of the French into Spain was a disparagement to the pride
of England, but he thought it had been possible to obtain compensation
without offering resistance in Spain itself. Then came the famous
passage: "If France occupied Spain, was it necessary, in order to avoid
the consequences of that occupation, that we should blockade Cadiz? No.
I looked another way--I sought materials of compensation in another
hemisphere. Contemplating Spain, such as our ancestors had known her, I
resolved that if France had Spain, it should not be Spain 'with the
Indies'. I called the new world in