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 Canning and the Spanish Patriots in j8o8 47 selves collectively Espana — " a term which strictly does not extend to the other provinces of the Peninsula ". In the important matter of commerce Stuart took steps which facilitated the import of British goods, not only into Spain, but also into her South-American colonies. He described on August 22 the difficulties experienced by British trading-vessels, which, having put into Corunna, found all entry for their cargoes barred by the almost prohibitive tarifif adopted by Spain in 1806. They were about to weigh anchor; but Stuart used his influence with the authorities, who thereupon promised to revise a tarifif drawn up in the interests of France and in a sense hostile to Great Britain. In a very short space of time the necessary alterations were made in the tariff, the duty on baizes (the chief British export to Corunna I being reduced from thirty-two per cent. ad valorem to sixteen per cent. ; while that on coarse cloths was lowered to twelve per cent. In the far more important sphere of South-American trade Stuart sought to gain favorable terms in place of the prohibitive regime previously existing. He sounded various persons who were about to sail to those colonies, and especially Admiral Hindrobo, who was proceeding to Buenos Ayres as vice- roy ad interim. Stuart's influence (so he averred) had been partly instrumental in procuring this appointment for the admiral ; and when, on the twenty-fourth, it appeared that the proclamation drawn up by the Galician junta to those colonies was long, dull, and one- sided (no mention being made of the help afforded by Great Britain to Spain), the new viceroy proffered the assurance that he would sup- press that document and replace it by a fairer and more spirited mani- festo. Clearly Stuart excelled in the arts of intrigue, and was by no means prone to depreciate his own services ; but it may be conceded that, in opening up to British merchants trade with the north of Spain and indirectly with South America, he rendered very great service to his country. The United Kingdom was then feeling severely the constricting grip of the continental system, the efficacy of which had been nearly doubled by the treaty of Tilsit (July 7, 1807). British trade with the Baltic ports, except those of Sweden, could thenceforth filter in only by indirect channels ; but the opening of many harbors of Spain and Portugal, and a little later of their colonies, made up for the loss sustained in the north. It is hardly too much to say that Canning's intervention in Spain brought about results in the spheres of politics and commerce which might be summed up in his later magniloquent phrase : " I called in the New World to redress the balance in the Old World." In one matter Stuart drew on himself a sharp rebuke from his