Canning's
recognition of Spanish-American independence was a sagacious
stroke. It not only gave strength to his contention that peoples
had a right to decide for themselves who should rule them,
without consulting the despots of Europe, but its timeliness was
masterly. Glorifying his own course in one of his most famous
Parliamentary orations, in December, 1826, he explained why he
had not joined the Spaniards in making armed resistance to the
French invasion. He said: "Is the Spain of the present day, the
Spain of which the statesmen of the time and William and Anne
were so much afraid? Is it, indeed, the nation whose puissance
was expected to shake England from her sphere? No, sir, it was
quite another Spain--it was the Spain within the limits of whose
empire the sun never set; it was Spain with the Indies which
excited the jealousies and alarmed the imaginations of our
ancestors. . . . If France conquered Spain, was it necessary in
order to avoid the consequences of that occupation that we
should blockade Cadiz? No, I looked another way: I sought the
material of compensation in another hemisphere. Contemplating
Spain such as our ancestors had known her, I resolved that, if
France had Spain, it should not be Spain with the Indies. I
called the New World into existence to redress the balance of
the Old!"
Greece began her struggle for independence in 1821.
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