pulation of the country, or in the army which he commanded, which was warmly attached to him, and which he had often led to victory, he found no one to stand by him. Even that particular division of his army, which had till then considered its fame as bound up in him, did not furnish a man to stand by him on the principles he avowed respecting the ap

councils. The principle on which Russia | so far from finding any support in the pohad acted on the opening of the campaign was that which was recommended by the marquis of Wellington. He had said, if Russia adopted that system she was safe. It was on that principle that he had formerly defended Portugal; so that Russia might be supposed to have derived equal benefit from his councils and example. At the moment the French had taken Moscow, it was some consolation to ourpointment of lord Wellington. He was allies to know that lord Wellington, by pursuing a plan similar to that on which they were acting, had taken Madrid; and what was more, that he had forced the enemy to give up that which, for more than two years, they had anxiously carried on the siege of Cadiz. It was immediately subsequent to their receiving intelligence of this, that Murat met with that defeat which sealed the necessity of Buonaparte's retreat from Moscow. The effects, then, of the battle of Salamanca were to be traced not only in Spain, but in Russia; and not only in Russia, but through all the world; its ramifications were felt to excite those who suffered under the tyrant of France to rise to re sistance. There was yet one other extraordinary and most important result seen proceeding from the battle of Salamanca, in the conquest it gave lord Wellington over Spain herself; for he would put it to the House, with their knowledge of the pride of the Spaniards, their distinguished pride, their honourable pride, and, in many instances, their useful pride, for he did not know but that their pride opposed a more effectual bar to foreign conquest than almost any other nation could oppose to it he put it, then, to the House, what must be the effect of lord Wellington's exploits on the Spanish mind, what the ascendancy of character which he had gained, when the united voice of the whole nation gave him the command of their whole military means. If a proof were wanting of the universality of this feeling in the Spanish people; if a proof were wanting that that honour was not conferred on him merely by the majority of the Spanish councils, the Cortes or the Regency, they could bring it to no better test, than was furnished by the conduct of that unfortunate officer general Ballasteros, to whose neglect and disobedience of the orders he received was in no small degree attributable the speedy advance of the enemy. What, however, was the result of this test? It appeared in his case, that

made a prisoner by his own soldiers, and delivered up in obedience to the orders received from Cadiz. This was a conquest over national feeling most glorious to lord Wellington, and he trusted he would now induce the Spaniards to surrender all their prejudices. This was a triumph for the gallant marquis greater than had ever been obtained by any other man, and perhaps it was the proudest trophy of lord Wellington's greatness, that he had not merely defeated the French armies, but that he had conquered the moral feeling of Spain, however laudable and useful that feeling might be on other occasions. It must be admired for the sake of the common cause, that his conduct had occasioned the surrender of old national prejudices. The general conduct of Spain was a point on which some controversy might arise, and therefore it was one which he wished to reserve for another day. He hoped however the House would not feel disposed to decide at once against them. There might be much to regret, some things to complain of-not as to a disposition to cross our interests, but on account of their reluctance; to put it more early in our power to do them as much service as we might. Still, however, when it was recollected what was the situation in which that country had been placed, brought into an extraordinary and unparalleled conjuncture; betrayed by her own government, and surprised by an enemy, at a time when she was without an army, without magazines, without officers, or any thing on which to begin a determined resist ance, collected against the breaking out of the war, as in Russia. Under all these difficulties, however, her spirit had so far borne her successfully through the contest; and taking the question, not as it stood between us and Spain, but as it stood between Spain and France, and seeing that the chances were more against the enemy now than at any period of the long contest in which she had

ever. Until he had heard it from the noble lord that evening, he had never understood that it was totally out of the contemplation of government to expel the French out of Spain. What the noble lord called success, he called defeat; for he never could have imagined that an expenditure of one million a month had taken place in the military department of this country for the last eleven months, for no other purpose than raising the siege of Cadiz. As to the Andalusias, they must fall again, as a mattter of course, into the hands of France. Under all the circumstances of the contest, it appeared to him, even upon the ministers' own shewing, that we were unable to find sufficient means to support the campaign; and that after lord Wellington's retreat, he had only the two fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, left to him as the fruits of his campaign in Spain. What! were we to be satisfied after all the splendid victories which had been gained in the course of the present campaign-after the exhausted state to which the French troops had been reduced by their incursion into Russia, and more particularly after the glorious, important, and unparalleled victory of Salamanca, so highly advantageous in its consequences to the general affairs of the peninsula, were we to be satisfied by a retreat? Were we not to take ad

ing supplies to lord Wellington. (No! | no! from the other side.) As far as he understood the noble lord, what he had said went to shew, that government had supplied every thing that had been essential to the success of the marquis of Wellington. Lord Castlereagh disavowed having made any such statement, and said, he had particularly guarded himself against such a construction.]-He begged the noble lord's pardon if he had misunderstood him, but he could not upon all occasions comprehend the course of his arguments. It often fell to his lot to be totally incapable of collecting the meaning of the noble lord; and now, amidst his many tropes and figures, and words about circumstances and details, he felt that there was in many instances no distinct idea conveyed to his mind. He yet did imagine that some excuse was indirectly intended for the conduct of his Majesty's ministers. He was not very much disposed on any occasion, when a vote of Thanks was proposed for services performed by the British army, whether those services had been attended with success or defeat, to give such a vote any opposition. Far was he from wishing invidiously to detract from the merits of men who had devoted their exertions to the service of their country, or to withhold from them any recompence which it was in the power of the House to bestow.vantage of all those gratifying and cheering But when he heard it stated that the victory gained over the French forces in Spain was more important in its consequences than any which had been gained in former times, and that the victory of Salamanca was equal to that of the duke of Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim, in which the enemy lost 20,000 men, had their general, marshal Tallard, taken, and 30 or 40 squadrons driven into the Rhine, and other great battles, which had completely changed the aspect of the whole affairs of Europe-though not desirous of undervaluing the merits of the great general whose achievements were meant to be extolled, and whose character and ability no man could more sincerely admire than he did; yet he could not suffer such delusions to go forth uncon tradieted, the more especially, when he considered that they were calculated to plunge the country, under the direction of the same persons, still deeper in a destructive and ruinous war. He contended that, after these boasted and overpraised victories, we were still as far from our object as

circumstances? Were we to suffer the French troops to recover from the effects of their discomfiture and exhaustion, and to wait until the tide of good fortune which had attended us had flowed back upon its source? It seemed to him, that such propositions were totally inconsistent with the obvious rules of common sense and reason. And yet, where now was the marquis of Wellington? In what direction were we to look for the glorious results of the campaign? In what manner was the diminution of the French power in Spain evinced? The noble lord had slightly touched upon the most important feature of the war, the failure of the siege of Burgos. If the word of the noble lord was to be taken, nothing on this occasion was to be imputed to the commander of the forces. Lord Wellington did all that a great commander could do, and all that his means rendered him capable of performing. If this was the case, then either the government had not supplied lord Wellington with the means adequate to accomplish his purpose, or, possessed of

those means, he had totally failed. There territory, he found new causes of congramust be blame somewhere, and some de- tulation, new sources of national pride and fect existed which called loudly for en- gratitude. He had called the attention of quiry. It was somewhat extraordinary, the House to the difficulties with which as well as mortifying, that, after all the the emperor of the French was surrounded means which had been placed in the hands in his endeavours to reach winter quarters; of his Majesty's ministers, and the liberality and that he had considered as a matter of with which those means had been dis- great triumph on the part of the emperor pensed in the course of the Spanish war, of Russia. Would he be equally inclined that the country had not yet reaped some to consider it a matter of triumph, if Buoof the fruits of the great victories; some naparté should extricate himself from these of the benefits of the exertions which had perils which, in his opinion, was more than been detailed. Nothing, however, seemed probable, and after having found good to have resulted from all these advantages, winter quarters, return to the contest with but calamity and distress, which gave rise renovated ardour in the spring? Could he to the natural proposition, that either lord believe it possible that Russia could conWellington was not entitled to the praise tinue such a contest, and undergo a which the House was called upon to be- repetition of similar dreadful experiments stow, or the fault of our failure was attri- and sacrifices? Supposing he marched butable to the gross negligence and imbe- to Petersburgh, which seemed to be his cility of the ministers of the crown. He ultimate intention, would the same mode could not see how they could get rid of of defence, as at Moscow be adopted? this dilemma. It was not, however, for Could Russia burn another Moscow to prethe purpose of going at length into these vent its occupation by the enemy? Would topics, that he now rose; all he wished to she burn Petersburgh too? The Russian do was, to protest against the system of general Kutusow, speaking of the battle of delusion which had been observed by his Borodino, said, that he did not follow up Majesty's government for the last 19 the results of the battle, because he should years, 16 of them under his own obser- in that case risk both his own army and vation, and to which the noble lord's the safety of Moscow. The event of the speech formed a sequel. In every speech capture of Moscow did, notwithstanding, which had been delivered on occasions si- take place. He, for one, could not greatly milar to the present, the same prospects admire the magnanimity of burning that, of success were held out; the same the preservation of which ought to have panegyrics were passed upon com- been fought for; nor could he see the manders; the same panegyrics upon mi- shining character of the emperor Alexnisters themselves, ending always in dis- ander, who was not, like the emperor of appointment, and calculated to engage the French, personally sharing in the them deeper in expence and war. Other danger of the war. He could not subdue and more fit opportunities would occur for the conviction which arose in his mind, the discussion of these subjects, which he on viewing all these things, of the utter now wished to avoid, as he was very un-impossibility of the emperor of Russia willing to dissent from any vote of thanks or gratitude which might be proposed to the present commander in the peninsula. He could not help thinking, however, that it would have been better, if the question had not been brought forward quite so early, and that time might have been allowed to go into some inquiry on the general conduct of the campaign, before the House was called upon to give their vote. The noble lord, in the plenitude of his satisfaction, had not merely confined himself to Spain, but had travelled out of his course, and had taken the House to Russia, where, in the destruction of from two to three hundred thousand human beings, in the burning of Moscow, and in the devas tation of an immense tract of Russian

feeling any exultation whatever on the contrary, he thought that unfortunate individual must be oppressed by a view of the irreparable calamities to which himself and his people had been, and were likely, still further, to be exposed. The noble lord, in his almost incomprehensible speech, had next adverted to that which he was pleased to call a victory over the moral feelings of the Spaniards. This was an expression which he felt himself wholly at a loss to understand. Where was the proof of this victory Was it to be found in the support which had been given to the Inquisition? Could it be said that our conduct in treating as traitors the Spaniards who had adhered to the French at Madrid, was the cause of this