IT is not possible to call to mind without humiliation and indignant regret, in what manner the great disposable force of England was employed while the Catalans struggled without assistance, and Gerona was left to fall. Forty thousand men were miserably squandered at Walcheren,-18,000 more, less miserably indeed, but not less uselessly sacrificed to an alliance with the wretched court of Palermo. With this army, Sir John Stuart undertook an expedition against Naples, the only part of Italy, and perhaps of Europe, where the French are less detested than the government of which they have rid the inhabitants. It served as a diversion in favour of the Archduke John, which, according to Sir John Stuart, was all he intended by it, and which was utterly unimportant. After some display of ill-directed enterprize the troops returned a gain to Sicily. This army might have saved Gerona, and, in all likelihood, have delivered Barcelona; it was with the greatest difficulty that the French could victual their garrison in that important city, so excel.

lently did the Catalans perform their duty, making incessant war upon their convoys and detachments and outposts. About the middle of October, an attempt was made by the enemy to introduce supplies by sea. Lord Collingwood was on the watch for this, and, having obtained intelligence of their design, sailed from Minorca, and took his station a few leagues off Cape St Sebastian, on the coast of Catalonia. On the 23d, the enemy came in sight, consisting of three ships of the line, two frigates, two armed store ships, and a convoy of 16 sail. Rear-Admiral Martin was ordered to give chase; he fell in with the ships of war off the entrance of the Rhone, but they escaped him that night, because the wind blew directly on shore. The next morning he renewed the Oct. 25. chase, and drove two of them, one of 80 guns, the other of 74, on shore, off Frontegnan, where they were set fire to by their own crews; the other ship of the line and one frigate ran on shore at the entrance of the port of Cette, where there was little probability that the

former could be saved, but they were under protection of the batteries. The second frigate had hauled her wind during the night, and got into Marseilles road.

Two brigs, two bombards, and a ketch belonging to the convoy were burned by the Pomona while Admiral Martin was in chase. The other vessels made for the Bay of Rosas; a squadron of our fleet pursued them, and found them moored under the protection of the castle, Fort Trimidad, and several batteries newly erected by the French. Four of the vessels were armed, the largest one was of 600 tons, carrying 16 nine pounders, and 110 men; she was enclosed in boarding nettings, and perfectly prepared for action. Our boats, however, succeeded in boarding them all, though they were bravely defended, and though a constant fire was kept up from the forts and from the beach. Of the eleven ships, three had landed their cargoes, but all were taken or burnt; and of the whole convoy, there only escaped the frigate which put into Marseilles, and one of the store-ships, which, not having been heard of, probably succeeded in reaching Barcelona.

This success and the capture of Zante, Cephalonia, and Cerigo by an expedition from Sicily under General Oswald, were but as dust in the scale weighed against the great and numerous disasters of the year, the lamentable issue of the continental war, the glorious victory of Talavera rendered fruitless, the wreck of the Spanish army at Ocana, which but too plainly laid Andalusia open, and the deadly expedition to the Scheldt. No former event ever depressed the spirit of the nation like this; an army which, if landed in the Elbe, might have delivered Europe, or, either in

Catalonia or Biscay, would have given the enemy a mortal blow in Spain, had been wasted without necessity, without honour, without even the hope or the possibility of its atchieving any object equivalent to the expence of the armament, even if mere expenditure of money had been the only loss. An almost general despondency prevailed in England at the close of this disastrous year; all men knew that peace with Buonaparte was the worst of all dangers, yet the continuance of war appeared hopeless to all except the few who understood the character of the Spaniards and Portugueze, and judged rightly of the moral as well as phy. sical strength of the peninsula. The ministers, grievously as they had erred in some respects, were of this number; but it was the known and avowed opi. nion of their antagonists, that the cause of Spain and Portugal was lost, and there was danger that the men who held this false and pernicious opinion, and would act upon it, would come into administration.

It had long been reported that there were divisions in the cabinet, and that a change in some of the higher offices of state would take place. These divisions became public in the latter end of September, when Lord Castlereagh sent a challenge to Mr Canning; a duel ensued, and at the second fire, Mr Canning received a ball in his right thigh. The practice of fighting political duels might well have been suffered to expire with the Irish parliament. Mr Pitt had given it the sanction of his example, and both in that instance and in the present, the nation, as well as the parties, seemed to overlook the offence committed against public decency, when men whose duty it was to maintain the laws acted thus openly in

violation of them. The cause of this duel was for a considerable time the chief topic of discussion for our political journalists. Lord Castlereagh's complaint was, that Mr Canning had applied clandestinely to get him removed from office, for the purpose of substituting Marquis Wellesley in his place; before Easter, it was affirmed, he made this application to the Duke of Portland, and obtained his promise that Lord Castlereagh should be dismissed from office. "Notwithstanding this promise," said Lord Castlereagh in the letter which contained the challenge, "by which I consider you pronounced it unfit that I should remain charged with the conduct of the war, and by which my situation as a minister of the crown was made dependent upon your will and pleasure, you continued to sit in the same cabinet with me, and leave me not only in the persuasion that I possessed your confidence and support as a colleague, but allowed me, in breach of every principle of good faith, both public and private, to originate and proceed in the execution of a new enterprize of the most arduous and important nature, (the Walcheren expedition,) with your apparent concurrence and ostensible approbation. You were fully aware, that if my situation in the government had been disclosed to me, I could not have submitted to remain one moment in office without the entire abandonment of my private honour and public duty: You knew I was deceived, and you continued to deceive me."

An accusation of injury to the public service was coupled with this charge of private wrong. Lord Cas tlereagh's friends affirmed that Marquis Wellesley had received a posi

tive promise of succeeding to the war department, yet at this very time was appointed ambassador to Spain, and that, in expectation of taking possession of this office at home, he was either detained, or else designedly delayed setting off on his mission, till it was too late for him to be of any use in inducing the supreme junta to make those exertions, and provide those supplies, which were necessary for the success of our arms in Spain, and for want of which our best exertions had failed. Severe illness was said to have detained the marquis; whatever may have been the real cause, it is certain that no injury resulted from the delay; there can be no reason for supposing that he would have been more successful with the junta in June than he was in August, and while he remained in England, Mr Frere continued to act as ambassador; and it may be affirmed, without disparagement to his successor, that no man could have acted with greater zeal or greater ability.

The charge of private wrong towards Lord Castlereagh laid open a pitiful story, far more injurious, however, to the reputation of the cabinet as a body, than to Mr Canning as an individual member of it. He admitted that he had, as unquestionably he was entitled to do, required of the Duke of Portland, that a change should be made in the war department, declaring, at the same time, his intention of resigning as the alternative; the change proposed was agreed upon, but he had consented to its postponement till the rising of parliament, partly yielding to the representations which were made to him of the inconvenience of any change in the middle of a session, but principally from a consideration of the

particular circumstances under which Lord Castlereagh stood in the House of Commons, "circumstances," it was said, “which would have given to his removal, at that period of the session, a character, which it was certainly no part of Mr Canning's wish that it should bear."-Upon the case of Mr Quintin Dick it would have been highly unjust to have censured Lord Castlereagh; but in the case of Reding and the writership, there had been an undeniable, manifest, and admitted offence, and, in due respect to the laws of Parliament and the public opinion, he ought then to have retired; far better would it have been for himself so to have retired, than to have remained, and planned the miserable expedition to Walcheren; and far better for the ministry to have urged his dismissal upon proper grounds, than, by a system of finesse, to have exposed itself to the danger of a complete dissolution, accompanied with the loss of the good opinion of the country.

The question of the writership having been decided, the Duke of Portland communicated with Earl Camden, as being that member of the cabinet who was supposed to be more particularly Lord Castlereagh's friend, and he assented in thinking, "a change in Lord Castlereagh's situation in the government desirable, provided it could be effected honourably for Lord Castlereagh, and that it could be reconciled to Lord Castlereagh's feelings."-This is perhaps the first time that, when it has been thought expedient to dismiss a statesman from office, any consideration of his feelings has been suffered to interfere with the arrangements of government. In delicacy, however, to Lord Castlereagh's feelings, four different arrangements were suggest

ed and abandoned:-time passed away, and no intimation of what was intended was made to him. Mr Canning expected Earl Camden would make the communication,-parliament broke up,-the result of the expe dition was known, that is, the ul timate success was known, but not the mortality which was to follow it, and, Mr Canning discovering then that Lord Castlereagh had still been kept in ignorance, and that no steps had been taken for making the pur posed, or rather the promised changes, offered his own resignation to the Duke of Portland. Then, and not till then, Lord Castlereagh was informed of all that had taken place, and he thought proper to challenge Mr Canning, who had been at least as ill used as himself.

In consequence of these political squabbles, both Mr Canning and his lordship resigned; the Duke of Portland did the same, compelled by the state of his health, for he died almost immediately afterwards, and thus the administration was broken up. Lord Liverpool, the only remaining secretary of state, performed the business of the other two departments, while the remaining members of administration looked about in dismay, and almost in despair, for new colleagues and for a new head. Their situation appeared at first so forlorn, Sept. 23. that official letters were addressed to Earl Grey and Lord Grenville, informing them that his Majesty had authorised Earl Liverpool and Mr Perceval to communicate with their lordships for the purpose of forming an extended and combined administration, and requesting them to come to town, in order that as little time as possible might be lost in forwarding so important an object. Earl Grey replied, that had his

Majesty been pleased to signify that he had any commands for him personally, he should not have lost a moment in showing his duty by a prompt obedience to his royal pleasure; but when it was proposed to him to communicate with the existing ministers, for the purpose of forming a combined administration with them, he felt that he should be wanting in duty to the king, and in fairness to them, if he did not frankly and at once declare that such a union was, as far as it regarded him under the then circumstances, impossible; this being the answer which he was under the necessity of giving, his appearance in London could be of no advantage, and it might possibly be of detriment to the country, if, in consequence of a less decisive answer from him, any farther delay should take place in the formation of a set tled government.

Lord Grenville, who was in Cornwall, replied, that he should lose no time in repairing to town, and begged leave to defer all observations upon the business till his arrival. The day after his arrival he sent an answer conformable to that of Earl Grey, declining the proposed communication, because it could not possibly be productive of any public advantage. "I trust," he added, "I need not say that this opinion is neither found ed in any sentiment of personal hostility, nor in a desire of unnecessarily prolonging political differences. To compose, not to inflame, the divisions of the empire, has always been my anxious wish, and is now more than ever the duty of every loyal subject; but my accession to the existing administration could not, I am confident, in any respect contribute to this object, nor could it, I think, be considered in any other light than

as a dereliction of public principle. This answer, which I must have given to any such proposal, if made while the government was yet entire, cannot be varied by the retreat of some of its members. My objections are not personal, they apply to the principle of the government itself, and to the circumstances which attended its appointment."

Nothing but extreme necessity could have induced the remaining ministers to make these overtures, and when their advances were thus rejected, great hopes were entertained by the adverse party, that they would not be able to keep their ground. So strongly did this opinion prevail, that it was affirmed and believed that some of the highest offices were offered to different persons, and none could be found to accept them. The only hope of the ministry rested upon Marquis Wellesley; hints were thrown out that he would not join any arrangement in which Mr Canning was not included; this opinion, however, proved erroneous, the Marquis accepted the office which Mr Canning vacated, the Earl of Liverpool was transferred from the home to the war department in place of Lord Castlereagh, and the situation which he had vacated was filled by Mr Ryder. Lord Palmerstone was made secretary at war in the room of Sir James Pulteney, and Mr Perceval took the place of the Duke of Portland, thus uniting in himself, as Mr Pitt and Mr Addington had done before him, the offices of first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. The loss of the Duke of Portland was only that of a name; that of Mr Canning was greatly regretted, as was also the secession of Mr Huskisson, who resigned his seat at the treasury at the same time; but though the ministry