As The Night Advanced, Several Persons Entered For The Purpose Of
Enjoying The Comfort Of The Fire And For The
Sake of conversation,
for the house was a kind of news room, where the principal speaker
was the host, a
Man of some shrewdness and experience, who had
served as a soldier in the British army. Amongst others was the
officer who commanded at the gate. After a few observations, this
gentleman, who was a good-looking young man of five-and-twenty,
began to burst forth in violent declamation against the English
nation and government, who, he said, had at all times proved
themselves selfish and deceitful, but that their present conduct in
respect to Spain was particularly infamous, for though it was in
their power to put an end to the war at once, by sending a large
army thither, they preferred sending a handful of troops, in order
that the war might be prolonged, for no other reason than that it
was of advantage to them. Having paid him an ironical compliment
for his politeness and urbanity, I asked whether he reckoned
amongst the selfish actions of the English government and nation,
their having expended hundreds of millions of pounds sterling, and
an ocean of precious blood, in fighting the battles of Spain and
Portugal against Napoleon. "Surely," said I, "the fort of Elvas
above our heads, and still more the castle of Badajoz over the
water, speak volumes respecting English selfishness, and must,
every time you view them, confirm you in the opinion which you have
just expressed. And then, with respect to the present combat in
Spain, the gratitude which that country evinced to England after
the French, by means of English armies, had been expelled, -
gratitude evinced by discouraging the trade of England on all
occasions, and by offering up masses in thanksgiving when the
English heretics quitted the Spanish shores, - ought now to induce
England to exhaust and ruin herself, for the sake of hunting Don
Carlos out of his mountains. In deference to your superior
judgment," continued I to the officer, "I will endeavour to believe
that it would be for the advantage of England were the war
prolonged for an indefinite period; nevertheless, you would do me a
particular favour by explaining by what process in chemistry blood
shed in Spain will find its way into the English treasury in the
shape of gold."
As he was not ready with his answer, I took up a plate of fruit
which stood on the table beside me, and said, "What do you call
these fruits?" "Pomegranates and bolotas," he replied. "Right,"
said I, "a home-bred Englishman could not have given me that
answer; yet he is as much acquainted with pomegranates and bolotas
as your lordship is with the line of conduct which it is incumbent
upon England to pursue in her foreign and domestic policy."
This answer of mine, I confess, was not that of a Christian, and
proved to me how much of the leaven of the ancient man still
pervaded me; yet I must be permitted to add, that I believe no
other provocation would have elicited from me a reply so full of
angry feeling:
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