" which were delivered with such an elaquence as could not soon be forgotten, he cordially concurred; and there was no man in whose sentiments he would be more happy to feel it consistent with his opinions to concur than Sir Francis Burdett." Mr Canning could not help expressing his astonishment and regret at hearing this. "To the talents of Sir Francis," he said, "and to his sincerity also, no man was more willing to do justice than he was; but without meaning any thing disrespectful to that honourable baronet, he must say that he was grieved to hear the noble lord, who was naturally to be ranked among the great men of the country, and who was to be looked to as one of its probable governors, declare such an entire concurrence in sentiments so dangerous in their nature and character. If the evils which Sir Francis Burdett deplored were so grievous, why did he not bring them forward in some distinct and tangible form, and not fasten a general declamation upon a question of this nature? why not propose some practical remedy, a remedy as any minister could apply, and not continue to repeat his doctrine, that the whole frame of the government was not worth preser

such a

There was a cry of No! No! Misrepresentation! from the opposition benches at this part of Mr Canning's speech; and Sir Francis appealed to

the House, whether such an imputation was applicable to him? whether the course which he had pursued that night, as he had uniformly done, in reprobating the abuses that prevailed in the administration of government, could be fairly deemed inconsistent with the profound veneration which he felt for the genuine constitution of the country? Upon this Mr Canning replied, that he referred to the phrase of "absurdly contending for loyalty," which the baronet had introduced in his speech. Sir Francis explained his meaning to be, that the argument respecting loyalty in Spain was pushed to an extrémity inconsistent with the freedom of any nation, and particularly with the constitution of England. But though this particular phrase might thus be fairly explained, and nothing fell from him in this speech contrary to that veneration which he expressed for the constitution, it is not the less certain that, during the whole of the Spanish revolution, Sir Francis Burdett and his partizans have shewn a callousness of feeling toward the patriots, and an indifference toward the best interests of mankind, which were not to have been expected from any true lovers of liberty.

Mr Whitbread found himself too

weak to divide the House upon his amendment, and the address, as originally moved, was carried without a

division.

VOL. II. PART I.

THE campaigns in Portugal and Spain were concluded, but they were to be fought over again in Parliament. A vote of thanks Jan. 23. was moved to Sir Arthur Wellesley, for the battle of Vimiera. Earl Moira protested against it, because Sir Harry Burrard was not included. "That general," he said, "had approved of the dispositions made by Sir Arthur for the battle, and thereby made himself responsible for those dispositions. He had the command; he was present, for a great part of the time, in the hottest of the engagement; and he controuled the opinion of Sir Arthur respecting the advance to Torras Vedras. Had the army been defeated, he must have participated in the shame of the defeat: surely, then, justice required that he should partake of the triumph of the victory, especially as, after what had transpired in the Court of Inquiry, to leave his name out of the vote of thanks would be, in fact, to pass the severest censure upon him." This inference was totally denied by the ministry. Lord Mulgrave said he knew Sir Harry Burrard well, knew his sentiments upon the subject, and that that gallant general

utterly disclaimed all right to thank

which he felt he had not earned This assertion did not preclude a re petition of the same arguments in the House of Jan. 25 Commons, by Lord Folkestone and Mr Whitbread. Gener Stewart replied, that no man coul have a higher respect for Sir Har than he had; but he could not he observing, that if the thanks of Pa liament were to be voted him, would be impossible to make t army understand for what; for t soldiers had seen the activity of S Arthur Wellesley, and knew th Sir Harry Burrard did nothing mo than come into the field.

On these questions no division to place, all parties being agreed th the services of Sir Arthur Well ley and the army under his co mand deserved the thanks of the country. The question upon t convention of Cintra was a trial strength. Lord Henry Petty mov two resolutions, stating that it had disappointed Feb. 9 the hopes and expectations of the country, and that t causes and circumstances which to it had in a great measure aris

from the misconduct and negligence of his Majesty's ministers. These reso. lutions were introduced by a speech of considerable length. Lord Henry began by saying, that "no proceedings which had yet taken place upon this subject were of a nature to preclude the expediency and necessity of a parliamentary investigation; for the Board of Inquiry was a tribunal incompetent to give satisfaction to the country, and irreconcileable with all the received principles of law and equity:-Opening its doors to the public, calling upon the very parties to give their testimony, and drawing from them information by which they were to be subjected to criminal prosecution, it was calculated rather to defeat than to promote the ends of justice.

"It is not my intention," he pursued, "to discuss the extent of the insurrections which broke out in Spain; but if they afforded any room for military exertion on our part, government could not have been found more fortunately situated with regard to military means than it was. There was at that time a consider able expedition prepared for distant service, there was another force in the Mediterranean, under General Spencer: it had been sent to take possession of Ceuta, but when it arrived, the attack upon Ceuta was found impracticable. Soon after wards a new prospect of vigorous exertion opened upon Lord Castlereagh, and a third army was sent upon a voyage of discovery and observation, to look for an expedition in the Baltic. Thus, then, when government was called upon to co-operate with Spain, it had in actual readiness three distinct masses of disposable force. Lord Castlereagh was actually rich in his own failures. It was

resolved to send a force to assist the Spanish patriots: Sir Arthur Wellesley was appointed to the command; and the ultimate destination of the expedition was Portugal. There was nothing in the possession of Portugal itself,-nothing in the possession of the port of Lisbon, as a source of immediate succour to the Spaniards,

nothing connected with the real interests of our faithful ally the Queen of Portugal, or of her subjects, that could point out, much less justify that destination; for of all the calamities that can be inflicted upon a country, the conquest of it by a power not able to retain it is the greatest; because it is thereby exposed to all the calamities and horrors of two revolutions. It subjects a country to calamities, of which the immediate evil inflicted by the conqueror is the least; for it draws out all the lurking vices that are concealed in the bosom of society, and brings all those dormant bad qualities into play, which never fail to accompany and aggravate the convulsions of a country. These evils are inflicted even by a change from good to better; but how much more must they be increased when the change is from bad to worse! Such an assistance this country could not be called upon to afford, neither was Portugal inclined to require it; and such was the only assistance we could give to Portugal, independent of Spain. But we now have been taught that it is not on the Tagus that Buonaparte was to be restrained in his pursuits. In the progress of his unlimited schemes of ambition, it is not to momentary triumphs, to the eclat of public rejoicings, or to the firing of Park guns, that his exertions are directed. Because he aims at ultimate advantage, and hopes for ultimate success

and ultimate glory, he looks with utter contempt at Portugal, whilst he presses without cessation upon the provinces of Spain. Do I say, however, that there were no objects in Portugal which claimed our attention? By no means. There was in that country a French army, and in its port a Russian fleet. The capture of that army and the possession of that fleet were of the highest importance; and we stood not only ourselves, but beheld the enemy in such a relative situation as we had never before the good fortune to witness. We saw a French army in a position in which it was cut off from all means of assistance,-situated in an unfriendly country,-deprived of every succour by sea and land. Every man who looked to it might say, that, whatever should be the fate of the other armies of Buonaparte, whatever views of aggrandisement they might be the means of promoting, here at least was an army cut off from all possibility of relief-an army that must be forced to pay the tribute due to British valour, and submit, by British exertions, to confusion and defeat. This expedition, however, required several important and necessary considerations to be attended to most particularly. It required that the most positive and clear instructions should be given to the officer who was to have the conduct of it. Being intended to act in different situations, according to dif. ferent circumstances, it was, above all things, necessary that it should be properly equipped for the service; that the commander should at least have had the opportunity afforded him of choosing his own ground; that after such discretion was confided to him, he should at least be continued in his command. This

was essentially necessary to insure its success. But the shores of Portugal were not the first object of the expedition. It fluctuated between the northern and southern coasts of Spain; and the suggestion of carrying it to Portugal, far from having been founded upon any previous original determination, was taken up in forty-eight hours, upon the suggestion of the Spanish deputies.

"Spain was the original destination of this army; and, on the 21st of June, Lord Castlereagh says, in his letter to Sir Arthur, that it was better to bring the whole force together than to trust to a junction on the coast of Spain: but from that moment every thing was trusted to a junction there. Sir Arthur's expedition sailed separately, the cavalry belonging to it sailed separately, General Moore's expedition sailed separately, General Auckland's expedition sailed separately, the whole of the ordnance sailed separately,and the junction of all these forces and equipments was left to be effect ed on the coast of Spain. On the 28th one letter was written to Ad miral Purvis, directing him to send intelligence to Sir Arthur, on the north coast of Spain; and another t General Spencer, telling him that Si Arthur was to co-operate with him so that the machinery by which the expedition was to be worked was that Admiral Purvis, who was of Cadiz, was to send requisites to Si Arthur Wellesley, who was in th north of Spain, which were to induc Sir Arthur to send orders to Genera Spencer, who was in the south. Tw days afterwards the whole plan altered, in consequence of an opinio given by the Spanish deputies! London; and in opposition to all th previous plans, Sir Arthur is instruct

ed to expel the French from Portugal;'-words of which Sir Hew Dalrymple has said, that if they were selected for being equivocal, they could not have been more so. These instructions were sent on the morning of the 30th, and on the evening of the same day new instructions were written, in consequence of fresh dispatches from Sir Charles Cotton, that there were only 4000 men left to defend the forts on the Tagus. This information,-incredible as it ought to have appeared, and false as it was, was believed without hesi tation! The expedition proceeds upon this account,-its falsehood is discovered, and the British commander is reduced to the necessity of executing very imperfectly the service to which he had been appointed.

"The expedition was equipped as imperfectly as it was planned. Ac. cording to the authority of Sir Arthur Wellesley himself, there was not a point in which cavalry would not have been serviceable; and yet the expedition was set on foot with only three hundred horse. When the noble lord learnt that, instead of 4000 men, Junot had 20,000, with a large proportion of cavalry, he then informed Sir Arthur that a proportion of cavalry would accompany the troops; yet there were only 700 embarked; and there were never more than 1500 in Portugal, even including General Stewart's expedition, which did not arrive at the Tagus till September. Now, in 1807, when there was neither hope nor intention of attempting ay thing upon the continent, Lord Castlereagh felt so much dissatisfactiva at the preceding administration's want of cavalry, that he put a resolation on the table of that House, declaring that he had provided trans

ports for 4000 horse,-that there they were,-that they wanted nothing but services. In 1808 he tells Sir Arthur Wellesley, that as great a proportion of cavalry as his means of transport will enable him shall be sent and that great proportion turns out to be 700 men!-The equipment of the artillery was even more singular. Sir Arthur says, that when the expedition sailed, it being uncertain whether it might not remain long at sea, and it being doubtful in what part of the peninsula it might be serviceable, it was thought advisable not to take good horses to draw the guns. I have heard," said Lord Henry, "of cases where it has been necessary to have particularly good artillery horses; I have heard of cases where it has not been necessary to have artillery horses at all; but this is the first time that I have ever heard of an expedition in which it was necessary to have bad artillery horses.

The horses were sick, lame, blind, cast off, and unfit for service; and this not by accident, but by concert between Lord Hawkesbury and the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland!

"Sir Arthur Wellesley sailed, conceiving himself to be commander-inchief of the expedition which was to effect the destruction of the enemy in Portugal; yet six general officers, superior to him in rank, are successively sent out! Having sent General Burrard to supersede General Wellesley, and General Dalrymple to supersede General Burrard, and designing to send another general to supersede General Dalrymple, it is entertaining to see Lord Castlereagh recommending persons so superseding each other to act together in harmony! The noble leader of the band puts all his instruments out of tune,