1827.] Death of Castlereagh to Canning's Premiership. 169 wrote for instructions.* The reply was, " If there be a deter- mined project to interfere, by force or by menace, in the present struggle in Spain, so convinced are his Majesty's Government of the uselessness and danger of any such inter- ference so objectionable does it appear to them in principle, as well as utterly impracticable in execution, that when the necessity arises, or, I would rather say, when the opportunity offers, I am to instruct your Grace at once frankly and peremp- torily to declare that to any such interference, come what may, his Majesty will not be a party." This despatch was written on the 22nd of September, 1822, and it soon became evident that it would have to be acted upon decisively. The King of France had established a military line along the Spanish frontier. This was at first assumed to be merely a cordon sanitaire, to prevent the introduction into France of a virulent fever said to be prevalent in Spain. It was found, however, that the real fever dreaded was that of constitutional- ism, or, as the continental monarchs chose to call it, revolution. The French King was bent not only upon stopping the spread of this disease to his own territories, but upon stamping it out in Spain itself by military force, and it was this project which the congress really met to accomplish. On the 2Oth of October the French minister gave in a paper requiring answers to three questions from the ministers of the allies. The first was whether, if France should be under the necessity of withdrawing her minister from Spain, the other allied powers would do the same. The second inquiry must be given in full, because it set forth not only the action required to be taken, but the principle on which it was to be founded. It ran as follows : " Should war break out between France and Spain, under what form, and by what acts, would the high powers afford to France that moral support which would give to her measures the weight and authority of the alliance, and inspire a salutary dread into the revolutionists of all
- The papers were laid before Parliament on the I4th of April, 1823. They
are given in the "Annual Register" for 1823, and are summarized in the same volume, pp. 1 8, et sey.
