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POLICY OP FRANCE AS TO SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 1~7republic ; for, had Spain possessed and felt the real extent ofher powers,she would hardly have continued a mere instrument in the hands ofFrance, with whom her debility was always an object wished for"*.In the behaviour to British subjects here, the court showed howmuch it valued the national connexion.Though habits afforded veryfew oportunities ofevincing this, still such as did present themselveswere made the utmost of.Politicsconstitute a very strange system:such at Jeast will be the opinion of those who regulate their ideas uponthe dicta of Adam Smith. In his opinion, this connexion is of very Httleworth to our country in proportion to the trouble bestowed on it.words are," The burthen of supporting a very weak ally, so unprovidedofdefence (he seems here totally forgetful of Fort La Lippe and Almeida,)that the whole power of England could scarcely protect. herfor anotber campaign."HisBut jf the Methuen treaty were injurious toEngland,it was destructive toPortugal. What ..can that be but destructive,whlch substitutes the v.ineyard for the plough, which dFives a coùn..try to be dependent on her colonies for her daily bread during four-fifthsof the year, and which forces manufactures on thern to the destructionof aIl efforts of their own?If this be not destructive, aH political speculationis at an end." .1Uilat'is, mijili," is the thought that must everrecul' when the subject is politics. Such has ever been at least themachinery used, when a country \Vas deliberately intended ta be groundinto dust.Don Sebastian~s fanatical and unfortunate (as it deserved to be) expe..dition first \veakened Portugal, and its efiècts would have ever continued,had her enemies been able to take advantage of thern.Coloniescontributedto preventher rallying..But \vhat her people .bave perforrned• lt isobvious how much Bonaparte felt it to he for the. interest of France, that ~pain and Portugalshould not be united.