Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/49

CANNING AND THE SPANISH PATRIOTS IN 1808 The attitude taken up by a great statesman towards any event of world-wide importance must always be a matter of interest; and interest is heightened when he is comparatively new to office and when the circumstances which call for his decision are com- plex and unprecedented. No apology need therefore be made for an attempt to elucidate the occurrences which brought Great Britain and the Spanish patriots to an informal but effective alliance in the year 1808, and largely owing to the exertions of Canning. In the pages of the Americ.x Historic.l Review it is need- less to describe the events which led to the intervention of Napoleon in the affairs of the Peninsula in the period September, 1807- May, 1808. It may also be taken for granted that readers of this article are familiar with the consequences of his action toward the Spanish dynasty and the Spanish nation. As soon as the news of his treatment of Ferdinand TI., dc facto king of Spain, became known throughout the Peninsula, the people, with comparatively few exceptions, rose against the government which he sought to impose and requested help from its nominal enemy. Great Britain. The rising, though national in its universality, was provincial in the manner of its manifestation. The intense individuality of the provinces and the difficulty attending concerted action, seeing that Madrid and many other important centres were occupied bv French troops, helped to determine the course of the whole movement. In intensity and savagery it resembled a Jacquerie : in the bigoted hatred displayed against the French and their partizans the patriots showed themselves to be the true scions of the men who fought under the Duke of Alva ; and it will ever be matter for question whether Spain would not have benefited by submitting to Napoleon and to his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Submission, however, was impossible. Reforms were spurned when offered by the man who had deeply insulted Spanish pride ; and the fact that deputies from three provinces of Spain — Asturias, Galicia, and Andalusia — set sail almost simultaneously to appeal for aid from England shows the depth of the animosity against the French emperor after his behavior at Bayonne. The deputies of the little principality of Asturias were the first to reach London. Those of Galicia and Andalusia soon followed. (39)