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rents of invective which would have been poured upon them for giving up, at such a time, a conquest so dearly bought and so critically important? Was it a rash supposition to imagine, that hostilities would recommence? Was there nothing in the wavering and uneasy alternations that preceded the treaty of Vienna, to countenance the belief that another battle might be fought for the liberties of the continent? And in that case, would not Walcheren have been, in our hands, a most important means of annoyance? At that time, too, the sickness was daily abating: that distemper uniformly abates in October, and terminates in November. Here, then, the evil was momentarily decreasing, while the advantages reasonably to be expected rose with the crisis itself. The opponents of ministry would have an expedition subject to no chances, and secure of intermediate, as well as ultimate success, their theory was more perfect than their practice. I will detain the house," said Mr Perceval, "no longer, weary as their attention is, and exhausted as is the subject. I have reluctantly endeavoured to drag them along with me through a length of detail which lent me no aid, and to which my humble efforts could impart no interest. It remains only to state, that it was my anxious wish, as well as that of my colleagues, to retain Walcheren, if that intention had been practicable, and that our greatest regret is, that it was not possible to retain a conquest which, if retained, would have proved invaluable."

The question now, after four nights debate, was put to the vote. 227 members voted for Lord Porchester's resolutions, 275 against them. The house then divided upon an amendment of General Craufurd's, purport

ing, that though the house considered with regret the lives which had been lost, it was of opinion that his majesty's ministers had proceeded upon good grounds in undertaking the expedition. 232 members voted against this, and it was carried by 272. The second set of resolutions was then put to the vote; and Lord Porchester's censure upon ministers for delaying the evacuation, was negatived by 275 against 224. A counter resolution, approving them for retaining the island as long as they had done, was moved by General Craufurd, and the numbers were 255 to 232, leaving ministers a majority of 23. This was their smallest majority; their largest was 51, which was in fact upon the same question; but before the final division many of the ministerial side had left the house, conceiving the business sufficiently determined, and worn out by the length of the debate, for the house did not adjourn till half past seven in the morning.

The reasons which the ministry assigned for not having evacuated Walcheren sooner, were completely satisfactory. Upon the policy of undertaking the expedition, more was said than their opponents had anticipated; the importance of the naval station which had been attacked was made apparent; it was shewn that three successive administrations had each meditated an attempt upon that station, and that such an attempt had also been contemplated by Nelson. The effect which the discussion produced upon great part of the country was expressed by Mr Wilberforce, when he said, that a great deal of strong and just reasoning had been adduced on both sides, and that on the whole it was a question with regard to which impartial men might differ.

May 9.

The opinion of Nelson upon such a subject was deservedly considered as of the greatest weight; but what was it in reality that Nelson had projected?-an attack upon Flushing, which he said, would be a week's expedition for 4 or 5000 troops. The possession of Flushing would have effected all that was desirable; that station in our power, it would have mattered not what might have been the number of ships which would then have lain rotting in the Scheldt. And if the conquest had been made at a fit season, we should have been left with unexhausted forces to maintain it; for to take and to hold is the only principle upon which any state should ever attempt conquest. The ill effects of the climate, had they been duly foreseen, might have been counteracted by proper precautions, and perhaps even the causes of the evil materially diminished by cover. ing as many of the drains as possible, and keeping those clean which were left open. The greater part of the troops would have been effectually secured by being hutted on the sand hills and kept in floating barracks, and means might have been devised for lessening the danger to those whom it would have been necessary to keep in the town. Generous diet, with the free use of tobacco and of spices, would have served as antidotes to the climate; the risk would have been greatly alleviated by quartering them in the upper stories; and if men for the service had been selected, who were natives of the fen countries, they would have found themselves in an atmosphere not very different from their

own.

These things had manifestly never been considered; the season was ill

chosen, and the choice of the com-
mander was, if possible, still more in-
defensible, from his vice of notorious
and incorrigible sloth. Under a man
of soldier-like habits and activity, the
expedition might easily have succeed-
ed, and in fact could hardly have
failed of success, had the first opera-
tion been effected,-that of landing
upon Cadsand; the failure there drew
after it all the other evils. But had
the expedition succeeded in all its
parts, still it would, at such a time,
have been a miserable misdirection of
such an armament. It was affirmed,
that we could not have supported an
army farther from our own shores, be-
cause foreign coin could not at that
time be procured ;-a strange argu-
ment, which the opposition seem to
have considered as valid, for they made
no reply to it. But, without refer-
ring to the manner in which the
French make war, what is to prevent
us from giving our own money cur-
rency wherever our armies go, by
martial law, if foreign coin is not to
be procured, or only at a loss?—The
paramount object at that time should
have been Spain. It is true, that a
larger army could not have been em-
ployed under Sir A. Wellesley, be-
cause that which he had was not sup-
plied; but there was another and even
a more important scene of operations
in Catalonia. Barcelona might have
fallen, Gerona have been saved, and
Zaragoza recovered for the Spaniards.
If, however, it had been thought
better to turn our views to the north,
and the circumstances of Prussia, as
Mr Canning so ably argued, render-
ed it unfit to land in Germany, one
object, and only one, offered itself,
which would have been commensu-
rate to the means employed. We should

* Clarke and M'Arthur's Life of Nelson, vol. ii. p. 229.

have once more, and now with a justice which could never be disputed, have attacked the Danish capital, planted the English flag at Copenhagen, established a viceroy there, incorporated Zealand with the British empire, and admitted the inhabitants to a full participation of all the rights and privileges of British subjects. "If we pay a proper regard to truth," says Polybius, "we shall find it necessary, not only to condemn our friends on some occasions and commend our enemies, but also to commend and condemn the same persons, as different circumstances may require; for, as it is not to be imagined that those who are engaged in great affairs should always be pursuing false or mistaken measures, so neither is it probable that their conduct can at all times be exempt from error." The modern spirit of party, not having that regard to truth of which the historian speaks, either sees things falsely, or, if it sees them aright, wrests the consequences to its own perverse purposes. The opposition argued truly, when they maintained that the expedition to the Scheldt was impolitic and disgraceful; but the conclusion upon which they insisted was, that therefore the

ministry ought to be displaced, and they themselves be appointed to succeed them; and they who agreed with them most entirely in the first part of their proposition, would have regarded the second as a worse evil than the expedition itself. The temper and the views with which this party called for a vote of censure, were exposed by Mr Stephen in a singularly felicitous allusion. "The public," he said, "were led to expect a redress of grievances, and punishment of delinquents; but the gentlemen on the opposition bench had the more substantial game in view of obtaining possession of the government; and this was the true cause of their impatience. They reminded him of the squire of the valourous knight of La Mancha. The knight, like the people of England in this case, was intent on generous purposes, though with mistaken views; but Sancho had always his eye to the main chance; and as soon as an adventure was atchieved by his master, he conceived, like these right honourable gentlemen, that his own end was attained; and said, 'I do beseech you, sir, give me immediately that same government."

CHAP. III.

Sir Francis Burdett's Motion for releasing John Gale Jones.-His Letter to his Constituents, Committal to the Tower, and consequent Proceedings.

THE decision of the house upon the Walcheren expedition was so utterly discordant with the opinion of the public, that it would probably have excited a feeling throughout the country little less violent than that which had manifested itself during the inquiry of the preceding year; but the attention and the passions of the people had been effectually diverted by circumstances which, during the progress of the business, had grown out of the commitment of Gale Jones. On the 12th of March, Sir Francis Burdett moved that Jones should be discharged. He lamented exceedingly," he said, "that, in consequence of indisposition, he had not been present at the time the resolution for committing John Gale Jones to Newgate was passed, conceiving as he did that the house possessed no such privilege, and that no such privilege could legal ly or constitutionally exist. The law of the land was the standard by which the privileges of every individual, and of every body of individuals, in this country were to be measured; but he maintained, that the imprisonment of John Gale Jones was an infringement of the law of the land, and a subversion of the principles of the constitution. The question was, if

the House of Commons had a right to imprison a person, not a member of that house, for an offence punishable by the ordinary course of law? This question involved the consideration of two distinct qualities,-privilege and power. The one, privilege, the house possessed for its own protection; the other, power, was a right to be exercised over others. Privilege they were to exercise to prevent the crown from molesting them in their proceedings; they were to use it as a shield for themselves; but they were not to allow it to change its character, to be converted into power, and to use it for the destruction of others."

Sir Francis then entered into an historical argument, shewing how this privilege, according to his view of the subject, had arisen. "By the exercise of that privilege, in the present case," he affirmed, "the common law, Magna Charta, and trial by jury had been violated. Mr Jones was imprisoned for an act, the illegality of which had not been proved, the facts not ascertained, nor the law determined. And what was there to prevent Mr Yorke from preferring a bill of indictment, according to law, against him; in which case, if they

could suppose that any twelve lawful men in England could find a verdict of guilty, then would he be punished twice for the same offence. If, on the other hand, a verdict of acquittal were returned, then would he have been sentenced to undergo the most severe punishment short of death, that of indefinite imprisonment, by an order of the House of Commons, for having done an act not proved to be a crime. It was a doctrine clearly laid down by Lord Coke, that no man could be fined, or confined, but by a Court of Record; no court but that in which forty shillings damages might be given could be a Court of Record; the necessary conclusion was, that the power of fine and imprisonment was not in that house. No right to fine was assumed. Why then was the greater power retained, when the smaller one was admitted to be illegal? The warrant of committal, too, he contended, was illegal in all its parts, but eminently so in its conclusion. A legal warrant must conclude with the words, 'till the party be delivered by due course of law;' this warrant ended with the words, 'during the pleasure of the house.' The house, by such a proceeding as it had resorted to, involved the assumption of the judicial, executive, and legislative powers, which was in the very teeth of the law. In the due administration of the law it was wisely provided, that the same men shall not take two steps together; one set find the bill, another decide on the fact, another the law; but that house, which administers no oath, which squares itself by no form, which makes no previous examination of the fact, jumps at once upon its dangerous and most alarming conclusion, and finds the accused guilty. And for what? for their pri

vilege. The privilege talked of resembled the bye laws of a corporation, sufficient to bind themselves, but which could not overturn the law of the land. This was to shew the house to be as great as kings, lords, and commons. It was, besides, an encroachment on the prerogative of the crown, whose privilege it was to see that no unlawful restraint was laid on the liberty of the subject.” Sir Francis concluded in these words: "Sir Fletcher Norton has said, that he would pay no more attention to a resolution of the House of Commons than to that of a set of drunken porters in an alehouse. The observa. tion was coarse, but it was just. If gentlemen, therefore, are of opinion that a resolution of this house is equal to that of all the branches of the con stitution, they will then reject my proposition; but if, with me, they think that they cannot overturn the law of the land, and the acts of parliament solemnly passed, by any assumed power exercised by that house alone, they will agree with me that John Gale Jones must be discharged."

Upon this Mr Williams Wynn said, "that if a motion had been brought forward for the liberation of John Gale Jones, upon the ground of his contrition for the offence which he had confessed at the bar, he should not have objected to it; but the proposal of that liberation had been so interwoven with other topics, that he really knew not how to proceed." Then taking up the historical argument which Sir Francis had produced, he shewed him that there were cases on record of the assertion of this right as early as the reign of Henry VIII. "It was indeed true, that no instance of committal for a libel was to be met with prior to the reign of Elizabeth; but the fact was, that in

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