signed the towers of Moscow to the flames? No-experience has made all men judges of what the eventual result of a conflict between a mercenary invading army, and a nation armed for liberty, must, be. The French people have abundant means for estimating what the burdens of a long and hazardous war are to themselves. One battle one long, bloody, serious battle, however the victory had gone, would have stopt the march of D'Angouleme, and made King Louis "trem Ble in his Louvre." If it had not done that directly, through its effect on the French themselves, it would have done so quite as effectually through its influence on the people of England. Mr Canning's speech was applicable only to a contemplated, a meditated, or, at most, an incipient war in Spain. But-had the Spaniards risen in a storm of patriotic rage, had one ariny so risen, and so fought, a thrill of indignant enthusiasm would have been sent home to the core of every heart that is worthy of being called English. We must have interfered-we could not have helped it. The voice of this nation would have been as loud and as united in the fearless and uncalculating cry for interference, as it was in 1808. It is idle to talk of expediency, and mediation, and Vattel, and Gentz, and Grotius de Jure Belli-all these would have been forgotten at once, had the English nation been once fairly convinced that the French nation was arrayed in war against a Christian people willing to bleed for freedom. A fire would have been kindled which nothing but blood could have quenched-ay, and Wellington would have been the first to unsheath the sword-that sword that had already delivered Spain and humbled France. All the despots in the world might have banded themselves together, and they would have been powerless. Would Austria, would Prussia, have dared to bring their armies into the field against Spain backed by England?-No. The rulers of these countries are well aware by how frail a tenure their own despotism hangs-by how slight a thread the sword of insult ed intellect is suspended over their own intellect-oppressing thrones. Would he of Prussia, who has, like Ferdinand, promised, and, like Ferdinand, forsworn himself, and this to a people ages before the Spaniards in every species of intellectual, moral, and religious light -a people really worthy of being free -a people that, ere long, must be and will be free-would he have dared to withdraw his standing army from his own country?-that standing army of three hundred thousand men, by means of which that small and poor country is kept for the present quiet, just as a dog is kept quiet by chains and starvation ?-Would he of Austria have dared to march for Spain, leaving Italy behind him? None of these powers would have dared to stir, Eng, land being once the declared ally of a people devoting themselves to the cause of liberty. For well do they all know, that, as Mr Canning said it, there is, at this moment, a spirit struggling all over the mis-governed realms of Europe against despotic sway-and well do they all know, that the outbreakings of that spirit have been repressed by them and their enormous overgrown standing armies, simply because the uprisers have not mixed wisdom with their cry for freedom-in other words, because they have shewn themselves to be the pupils, not of the rational England of 1688, but of the phrenzied France of 1791-and have, therefore, wanted the support of the mighty mind of England, and the confidence of all those men among and around themselves, who, preserving the use of their reason in the midst of their discontent, refuse to embark in a cause which they see wants the two great characteristics of being upheld according to the magnificent precedent afforded by the history of England; and, by consequence, (for this is felt to be a consequence,) of being countenanced by the energetic sympathy of the nation that has for so many ages stood alone in her liberty-that nation, whose voice, when once raised, sends the irresistible note of impulse or of terror into the ears and the hearts both of Nations and of Kings. What King Louis may do now, it is impossible to guess. The French government, the government of an enlightened nation like France, must feel shame, as well as ourselves, in the contemplation of what the Spaniards of all parties have shewn themselves sunk to. They must be satisfied, now, that there is no party in Spain capable of concentrating and uprearing the scattered and shattered energies of that nation, under anything like a mode rate system of government. The constitutionalists, and the royalists, have shewn themselves equally destitute of all real pride and manhood. And as for the poor pitiable phantom that wears the name of King, we are satisfied that there is not one man in Europe who entertains a more profound feeling of contempt for him, and all his proceedings, than Louis XVIII. himself. For Louis, though perhaps an indifferent writer of pamphlets, has shewn him self, by his own conduct ever since his restoration, to be a man of great judgment, forbearance, and skill in governing, under circumstances of the most perplexing difficulty. Louis, therefore, must be a man of sense and talent; and as such, he must despise his bro ther Bourbon. We have little doubt that the French government already more than half repents that interference, which, besides the perilous precedent it has established-a precedent that may be turned against France herself, as probably as against any other country in Europe has terminated, to all intents and purposes, just where it began. It has so terminated, because it leaves Spain in as disunited, and, of course, in as dangerous a state, as it found her. If Spain was an object of alarm to France, under the Cortes government, will it be less so, under the government of such a creature as Ferdinand ;-a government which will, of course, go on doing what it can to keep up the discontent of, at least, one great party of this sorely divided people;-a government which, until the leopard changes his spots, will never act anything but folly, imbecility, and cruelty, under the guidance of obstinacy, ignorance, and bigotry? The base tergiversations of such generals and armies as the Spaniards have had, the meannesses of which their chief men, both of peace and war, have been guilty-the profligacy and cowardice of individuals, have been on a par with the general conduct of the nation, as a nation, and of its parties, as parties.-In a word, Spain seems to be a state broken up, entirely destitute of any rallying points of principle that command a national influence, and incapable of either doing or suffering anything as becomes a nation worthy of demanding the sympathy of the free. Her fate holds out one more lesson to the continental nations of Europe. She has had the fairest opportunities that any nation could have desired to have, and she has lost them all. The nation that really thirsts for freedom, must look to history. No nation has ever derived liberty from the insurrec tion of a mercenary army, No nation has ever derived liberty from the interference of foreigners. No nation need come before the world, demanding lis berty as her right, unless the nation be prepared for national, and the individuals of that nation, for individual efforts and sufferings. Think of our poor little country of Scotland—a country not stronger, nor nearly so strong, as the north of Spain,-and containing, even now, not a fifth part of the Spanish population. This poor little country, five hundred years ago, was assaulted by a king infinitely more powerful than Louis XVIII., at the head of an army infinitely greater, in proportion to the habits of the time, than the Duke of Angouleme's, -(it, indeed, consisted of the very same number;) and did not we, did not this poor little nation, scatter all this mighty army like chaff, in one summer's day's bloody work? And yet it is to us, among others,—it is to the descendants of the men who acted in this style, when their freedom was at stake, it is to us, that the deluded or desperate Whigs were bawling for money, for pounds, shillings, and pence, to keep the great country of Spain-a country to which we are but as a very small province,-to enable that great country, which contains five times more population and wealth than ours does now, and fifty times more than it did in the days of Bannockburn, to repel from her soil a French army, which, had it landed on our soil, would have been exterminated in three weeks!Kirkaldy subscribing for CastilleBut really the subject is too melancholy to be jested with. Nugent, Wilson, Light, and a young Glasgow spark, who thought a steam-boat dinner something quite superb, and a few more similar noodles, going out to assist the country of Pelayo, and The Great Captain, to shake off the Duke of Angouleme ! What will these wiseacres say for themselves, when Parliament meets? Do they expect to be received with anything but a universal shout of derision? When General Pepe came to Eng Spain. land, from the heroic display of Neapolitan Carbonarism, he was feté by the Whigs; and now, when Riego, a poor miserable creature, who never did anything memorable in all his life, except one feat of military mutineering, and who conducted himself throughbut this last affair with just as much brigand cruelty, and just as little sense and spirit, as any other Spaniard of 1823, when this man is put to death, what a cry they make! a monument, forsooth, for Don Rafael del Riego! Absurdly, no doubt, uselessly, and, perhaps, all things considered, wrongfully too, has Ferdinand acted to this man: but, were we not prepared for a civil war? and did we dream that no blood was to be shed at all, either on the field or the scaffold? The affair is too contemptible to receive a moment's notice from any man of sense; but, certainly, it is very consistent in those who presented Sir Robert with a sword, to give Don Rafael a cenotaph. That despotism is destined to be extinguished in Europe at no distant date, no man can doubt. But this sad business of Spain, with all its circumstances of folly, meanness, rashness, and imbecility, furnishes the best of all possible evidence, by what sorts of men, and principles, and measures, its "fatal day" is most likely to be procrastinated. We have disdained to go into minute criticism of the details, that have as yet reached us of Ferdinand's proceedings under the circumstances of his present proud and happy restoration. One thing, however, we may just notice, because its effects are not confined to Spain; we mean his determination [Dec. not to hold by the contracts entered into by the late government with the English stock-jobbers. This is cerreign merchants are not to be safe in tainly idiotcy itself embodied. If fotheir dealings with the ostensible governments of countries, what becomes of their assistance in all cases of future need and emergency? The Sparaise the immediate funds necessary niards are unable, confessedly so, to stration within their own country; for the ordinary purposes of adminithey will, assuredly, get no more from without-and who cannot see the consequence? Money might have lent some energy even to the government of a Ferdinand-but, at all events, without it he is weak as a weanling. pable of declaring himself to have been And then, think of the abject soul caa quiet slave so long, in a country where he tells us he has been all along "seated in the hearts" of the vast majority of the people! And, to conclude, look at the absurdity, and worse than absurdity, of which he convicts himself; for, that two and two make four, is a proposition not one whit more indisputable, than that, if the ing the nominal head of it too,) had government de facto, (he himself beright to perform any other function no right to borrow money, it had no of government. It follows, that every der in Spain, during the last two or man who has been executed for murthree years, has been murdered. There complete the picture of the degradawas only this one thing wanting to tion of Spain, and " YO EL REY AR SOLUTO. LETTERS OF TIMOTHY TICKLER, ESQ., TO EMINENT LITERARY CHARACTERS. No. XII. To Christopher North, Esq. ON THE LAST NUMBER OF THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. DEAR N. WHY, yes-I think pretty much as you do. It is not worth a cutting up. I am sorry for it, for I never was in such good humour in my life; and I always observe, that, when I am perfectly pleased with myself, and quite overflowing as it were with the milk of kindness, I am in the best order possible for tearing an unfortunate rascal of a scriobler all to rags. Nothing can be a more mistaken idea than that a thorough-going, cut-and-thrust sort of a critic is ex officio an ill-natured man. The poor devils who try to be severe, and who grin as hideously as if under the impression of a half pound of Glauber's salts, or other diabolical compost, while exercising the act of severity, are, no doubt, suffering from unpleasant feelings. They think, while sticking in their lancet, generally as blunt as the razor of a barber's apprentice after the forty-fifth patient has passed under his hands on a Sunday morn, that they are committing murder, and rejoice in the circumstance, like the Turpin-like lads who sent the worthy Weare on a visit to an eminent character in the other world. are such bilious, yellow-visaged, under-sized, gall-bladders of devils extant, beyond doubt-mostly Whigs, of course. Just read some of the attacks in the Liberal, and other venomous, spider-like little books on us, Kit, and you will see what I mean. The tea has soured on the stomachs of the wheezing animals shortly after breakfast; and, as they have had no dinner, the seventh cup of Bohea at the evening potation has exasperated them into an acidity quite irrepressible. God help them! I am not at all angry with the poor vagabonds, but sincerely pray that they may give up the simple trade of botched calumny, and take to some lawful calling, in which they might cut a figure as exemplary men There milliners or tailors, commendable to the usual fraction. On the contrary, a man in sound health, well fed on five meals a-day, supplied with wholesome nutriment, kept in proper exercise of mind or body, or both, able to take his quantum of fluid from his morning gun of mountain dew, down to his concluding libation of cold punch, or hot toddy, or the blood of Bourdeaux-Con state days, and holidays, of course, for economy is the order of the day, and there is no sense in sporting claret on plebeians, who would not know it from catsupa man who despises not Orinoco, nor scruples to dissipate a cigar into thin air-such a man, I say, is quite happy, benignant, and milky-minded, while dissecting a jackass. He thinks no more of it than he does of taking off the thigh of a woodcock after a hearty dinner of five courses. In the world of everyday life, who is jollier than a fox-hunter, more cheery-spirited than a fowler, more sweetsouled than an angler? Nobody at all. The true bloody-minded, blood-snuffing cannibals, are your fellows who whine about the destruction of animal life, and long for the perfectibility of man by the massacre of some millions of his species. Such was Oswaldsuch was Robespierre-such is We wage war on vermin-they are our natural prey-and we carry on the massacre-chase with as much jocularity and free-heartedness as ever Cecil Forrester-I beg pardon-my Lord Forrester, felt, when giving a cheery tallyho at the tail of the best pack of hounds in Leicestershire. Therefore, feeling, as I do, such an elation of spirits, I am sorry that Blue and Yellow is such dull carrion this quarter. There are scarcely three articles in it worth abusing. It is poor work to be running a drag after a dead cat. You may take in the beagles by * Thank you, Tim, I have no fancy to be brought up before the Chief Justice in Banco Regis, on an information. I shall pocket the name, if you please.-C. N. it, but you can never impose it on yourself as a real hunt, no more than you can make believe that Conscience, or Bellamira, or Fiddlededevil, is a real tragedy. So, as I said in the first line of my letter, I agree with you as to the inexpediency of wasting an article on this Number of the Edinburgh. I shall throw a few remarks on it off my stomach in a kind of miscellaneous way, leaving you quite at liberty to print them, or keep my MS. as food for your pipe, according as may be most agreeable to your phantasy. The first article is on the Funding System, and is, of course, full of all the usual humbug and jugglery of arithmetical fanfaronade. Figures in proper hands can be brought to prove anything. I own I have not read the article. Luckily, in turning over the pages farther forward, I found [p. 260 it confessed that the computations on which the reviewer relied were made by Mr Joseph Hume. I felt quite satisfied, and read no more. I remember the adventures of that eminent figure-factor with Jonathan Croker of Watling Street, John Wil son Croker of the Admiralty, and others. I recollected inter alia his having made the agreeable error of eleven millions in a sum of seventeen, and was easy in my mind as to the correctness of the Review. There is something rash-something intensely spoony, in fact, in the reviewer's blab bing on Hume, and exhibiting him in print. In the House of Commons, Joseph is very well. It would require talents and patience superhuman to follow any man through a maze of figures, calcu lated with seeming accuracy down to half farthings, embarrassed by fifty intermediate "tottles," until they all merge in the grand "tottle of the whole." The Opposition cheer, of course, and nine-tenths of the Ministerialists know nothing about the matter. At last, up gets the groaning officer, whose department it is to refute Joseph, and in a speech as yawn-begetting as Hume's own, proves that every statement of the honourable gentleman opposite is wrong, humbly submitting to the House, and offering to prove, by respectable evidence, if required, at the bar, that three times four is no more than twelve, and by no means nineteen, much less thirty-one, as stated by the Honourable Member for Montrose. In reply, Hume admits, that there is some error, he believes, in the details, but is quite sure the principle is correct, and withdraws his motion for the present. Bennett, then, or some person of that grade, rises, and compliments his friend on his skill, and perseverance in hunting corruption to its inmost recesses and the affair is over. Next morning, the dirty-faced papers refer their readers to the very able and accurate speech of Mr Hume last night, and the little Whig journals throughout the provinces, repeat the cuckoo cry of "very able-very able, indeed-accurate man amazing industry;" and that beautiful body among ourselves, the Pluckless, God bless them!" must admit, that, after all, Mr Hume is a man of considerable talents, and, in reality, has done a great deal of good." All the while, there are not three lines in the so lauded speech, which do not contain a piece of blockheadism, or mendacity. Ainsi va le monde. You may think that I am treating the really important question of the Funding System too lightly, in resolving it merely into a disquisition on the nothingness of such a humbug as Mr Hume; but if I were called on by anything worth attending to, I should speak differently. But I am only writing scraps on a scrap-book. I take it for granted, that the article of the Whig reviewer-for I beg leave to repeat I have not read it-shews us how we are ruined in consequence of the anti-whiggosity of our Chancellors of the Exchequer; proving hap pily-though perhaps with a hungry up-snuffing of the distant feast, of which, thank Heaven, there is no chance whatever of a Whig's partaking-that had the fifty-headed, nobrained, blood-bespattered, filth-begetting Juggernaut of Whiggery, been the idol at Downing-Street, England would be just now one entire and per fect chrysolite. We too well remember the exhibition of Lord Henry Pettyhodie, my Lord Landsdowne-to be taken in by this cogging cant. If ever a series of financial operations merit. ed full and unsparing measure of contempt, for imbecility and nonsense, mixed with outrageous breach of promise, [ex. gr. the doubling of the income tax, after the whole pack had been yelping in full chorus against |