bands of mountain peasants? I feel the force of that question; but there
is another which I venture to put to every man who hears me, and, above
all, to the gallant officer by whom the motion has been brought
forward: I invoke the same recollections; I appeal to the same glorious
remembrances, and in the name of those scenes, of which he was not only
an eye-witness, but a sharer, I ask, whether it be befitting that in
that land, consecrated as it is in the annals of England's glory, a
terrible, remorseless, relentless despotism should be established; and
that the throne which England saved should be filled by the tyrant by
whom your own countrymen, after the heat of battle, have been savagely
and deliberately murdered? Never! the people of this country are averse,
indeed, to wanton and unnecessary war; but where the honour of England
is at stake, there is no consequence which they are not prepared to
meet--no hazard which they will not be prompt to encounter." The debate
was protracted by another adjournment to a third night.

Lord Palmerston, who had been repeatedly called upon in the course of
the debates, at length arose to defend government from the imputations
of their opponents. The manner, he said, in which the question had been
dealt with by opposition was not fitted to impress other people with
a notion that their own convictions were very strong in respect to it.
Having made a few observations on the conduct of General Evans, on the
sufferings of the British soldiers, and on the atrocities which had been
committed, he came to the question of the quadruple treaty. Every one
knew, he said, under what circumstances, and for what purpose it was
concluded. The most superficial observer must have perceived that the
change that had been made in the accession to the Spanish throne, though
accompanied by every circumstance cf legality and regularity, yet laid
the foundation for a great revolution in that country. It was not merely
the substitution of an infant female for a grown man; out of that change
must spring a great alteration in the internal constitutions of Spain,
and a change too in the tendencies of its external policy. What happened
on the death of Ferdinand? A Spanish minister came to London to request
of the English government a force to assist in expelling Don Miguel from
Portugal. This was refused; but we said:--"Though we will not give you
an army, we will give you a treaty." Accordingly, we joined with