the
three "great powers" of the west of Europe in one alliance. This was
the quadruple treaty; and such was its effect, that even before the
ratifications were exchanged, Don Miguel's army of twelve thousand men
laid down their arms, and the two pretenders abandoned Portugal. Then
came the escape of Don Carlos, and his placing himself at the head of
the insurgents in the Basque provinces. The four contracting parties
considered the treaty to be fully in force, and that it was only
necessary to prepare new articles in order to provide for the altered
circumstances of the war, which articles, however, should be considered
merely as complementary of the original treaty. The noble lord proceeded
to defend the manner in which those articles had been carried into
execution; and, in conclusion, he observed, that however skilfully
the question before them might be disguised, it involved no less than,
whether England should continue to fulfil her engagement with the Queen
of Spain, or should disgracefully abandon an ally whom she had pledged
herself to succour. But this was far short of the real and ultimate
tendency of the motion. The contest now waging in Spain was but a
portion of that great conflict which was going on elsewhere throughout
the world. The house had to decide that night between two opposite
systems of foreign policy. Even these were not isolated principles,
which might be taken or neglected by themselves: they were intimately
connected with, and affected also our domestic interests. The object
of the one party was to support Don Carlos and despotism; the other to
uphold Isabella and the constitution. Sir Robert Peel replied to Lord
Palmerston, reproducing the arguments and facts already urged; and the
discussion was closed by Lord John Russell, who defended the existing
state of our foreign relations, by contrasting it with that in which
they had been left by the right honourable baronet and his friends
in 1830, when they quitted office. On a division Sir Henry Hardinge's
motion was rejected by two hundred and seventy-eight against two hundred
and forty-two. The same subject was brought under the consideration of
the lords, April 21st, by Lord Alvanley, in a motion for the dispatches
of Lord John Hay relative to the affair at Hernani.

A circumstance occurred which brought the state of our relations with
Russia under the attention of parliament. A mercantile house, Messrs.
Bell, of London, had fitted out a vess