IR Thomas Turton began by

sidered the importance and magnitude of the question to which he was about to call the attention of the house; when he considered the present critical state of public affairs, and the alarming aspect under which they now presented themselves to the contemplation of the country; and when he at the same time considered that the present question had hitherto been introduced to their discussion by some leading member of either of the great contending parties; and that the humble individual who was on that night to bring it before them was wholly unsupported by the aid of any party, or the authority of any influence; when all these considerations crowded on his mind, he confessed that he was but too justly apprehensive of appearing to have acted with a hasty indiscretion and a presumptuous confidence. But the time was now come when public duty should be discharged, independent of every personal consideration. It was not his intention to weary the indulgence of the house, by any very detailed examination into those topics which had been already so amply discussed, or again to tread over the ground long trod

before. He should, in the course

observations, touch upon the

war in the peninsula; but he should not confine himself to that part of the subject-he should take a short review of the leading public events since the right honourable gentleman came into office. He should endeavour to show them what appeared to him to be the awfully alarming state of the country; and what in his mind was not the least alarming symptom, the lethargy of that house, for so long a time, and while such events were passing. He should call upon them, in the name of their country, to rouse from their lethargy, and ask every unpre judiced man, if, seeing the condition to which they were at last reduced, he could conscientiously lay his hand upon his heart, and say there is not sufficient ground for going into a committee. The year 1806 had terminated most disastrously for the liberties of Europe. He should not stop to say any thing upon the ineffectual struggles of Russia against France, or upon the selfish and dastardly policy which at that time dictated the perfidious conduct of the court of Prussia. In the following year the battles of Eylau and Friedland, the last of which was fought, he believed, after

the

the right honourable gentleman had come into power those battles might be said to have decided the fate of the continent, and to have fulfilled the prediction of Sully, that France would one day arrive at the universal dominion of Eurupe. The peace of Tilsit left France no enemy to contend against but England; all her means were immediately directed against our commerce, and the Berlin and Milan decrees had about as much elect against us, as ours taken in retaliation had against them. The first expedition sent out by the new administration was that of CopenAll the applause he could give ministers, they should have from him most willingly-he regretted that their conduct had rendered the portion he could spare them so very inconsiderable; but of the Copenhagen expedition he had originally approved, and his opinion remained the same. If the merits of that expedition were to be considered according to the naked abstract principle merely, nothing could be more atrocious or more profligate; but where was the maxim, however generally true, that must not give way to necessity? and in that case he thought the necessity jestined the expedition. He next advered to the breaking out of the war in the peninsula. A right honourable gentleman, whose fercur on all great public questions was so well known-he meant the number for Ilchester-had come down, and in his place in that house Ead called the immediate attention of ministers to the critical state of Spain. There was, in short, but ote heart, but one mind, but one feeling within that house and throughout the country, as to the necessity of giving Spain the most qpeedy, cordial, and effectual assist

ance. Ministers might be said to have been almost invited by parlia ment to ask for their aid. In such a state, the first duty of ministers was to have so arranged with Spain, as that the assistance of this country might be given and applied in the best and most efficient manner; but there was no such plan resorted to-no method, no regulations or arrangements were thought to be previously necessary. Ministers did nothing in co-operation with the Spanish government, to collect all the feelings of the Spanish people into one energetic form, or to give that effort one great and uniform impulse. Nothing had been done to give tone to the Spanish government

they were left to themselves-for their first act was the publication of their "precautions," calling upon the people to fight as mere partisans, not to hazard a general action, and to think of nothing more than hanging on and harassing the enemy; and this was the government that called for an army of 550,000 men, of which 50,000 should be cavalry. He blamed not ministers for the errors of the Spanish government; but he thought that they were responsible to the country for not providing, as far as they could against the possibility of those errors defeating our cooperation, or rendering our assistance altogether nugatory. Arthur Wellesley sailed on the 28th July, 1809. He should briefly run over the two first campaigns. He was sent to assist the Spaniards, and he landed at Corunna; where, however, he afterwards re-embarked, and sailed for Mondego, where he effected a landing. On the 17th of August the affair took place which was followed up by the battle of Vimiera on the 21st. Arthur Wellesley was the next day superseded

Sir

Sir

superseded in the chief command by sir Harry Burrard, who was himself, shortly after, again superseded by sir Hugh Dalrymple. Such fluctuation was there in his majesty's councils, as to the selection of a fit person for this command. He should not dwell upon the disgraceful convention of Ĉintra, which, amongst other mortifying conditions, stipulated to place general Junot at the head of 25,000 men, in that place from whence he could most speedily march to that part of Spain where he could act against Spain and her allies most seasonably and effectually. From the 30th of August till the 16th of October, when sir John Moore was sent out, no one step had been taken by ministers, though there was not, for the same length of time, a period since the commencement of the war in which so much might have been effected. He then adverted to the campaign of sir John Moore, who, he contended, had received no sort of co-operation from the Spaniards. He had reached Salamanca before he met with a single Spanish piquet. He thought the conduct of ministers, in risking the safety of the British army, without any knowledge of the intentions of the Spaniards, extremely reprehensible. He then passed to the battle of Talave. ra; and, giving lord Wellington every credit for his skill and conduct in other particulars, he could not help censuring his march to Talavera as a most imprudent one, when, even after a repulse of the enemy, he was obliged to make a precipitate retreat, to the desertion of the sick and wounded in the hospital. The remaining campaigns had, in every respect, the character of the two that preceded them: hard-fought battles terminating in the repulse of the enemy-brilliant

perhaps, but certainly very unpro ductive. He came now to that me morable expedition, of which it would hardly be necessary to remind the noble lord opposite (Cas tlereagh). It surely never could be out of his recollection. He was astonished to see the noble lord smile at any allusion to the dreadful tra gedy of the Walcheren expedition; though, indeed, that noble lord might well smile to think that he had himself escaped the ruin to which he had devoted so many thousands. The avowed object of that expedition was to create a di version in favour of Austria-and how had that object been answered? The battles of Essling and Asperne had been fought on the 21st and 26th of May; and on the 28th of July, three weeks after the battle of Wagram, that laid Austria at the foot of France, sailed the Walcheren expedition, to co-operate at Flushing with the ruins of the Austrian army in Bohemia. But he should not dwell on the melancholy catastrophe-11,000 brave men left, for three months, to rot in the most pestilential climate in Europe, and then the whole object of the expedition totally abandoned. Though, indeed, they had been gravely told by a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Yorke), that the expedition had in part succeeded in its object, because, forsooth, we had destroyed a basin! As to the present state of Spain, though he had no hopes, he would not even yet abandon it, if the Spanish government could be brought to do its duty. He next went to Sicily: things there, at all events, could not be worse, and yet this alliance cost the country 300,000l. a year subsidy, and a million and a half a year to support an army there. He should pass to the East Indies. He had long thought

that

that the extension of our territorial possessions in India was working the ruin of our national character, and essentially impairing the financal produce of our government in that quarter. The question of charter, likely so soon to be agitated, was one of extreme importance. He complained in strong terms of the interference, on the part of the government in India, with the criminal judicature, instanced in the punishment of jurors for she conscientious discharge of their duty. The discussions with America had been an idle war of words. The rule as established in the war of 1756 he thought a just one, but denied that we had adhered to it. He regretted that, when the Americans had notified to us the repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees, we did not then repeal our orders in council. We had no right to insist upon neutrals first touching at our ports. The belligerent could not relieve itself from the pressure of war, by departing from those navigation laws efficient in time of peace with respect to neutrals. Hostility with America was, in his mind, big with ruin to this country. He ad verted next to the affairs of Ireland. He was grieved at the late debate upon that subject, for it appeared to him to be a mere dispute whether the conventionists or the anti-conventionists should triumph. This was not the way to come at a great national question of such vital importance. As to the stipulations previously required, he admitted that some security might be necessary; but surely he was not to refuse going into a committee, because he. might wish for certain regulations, which it would be the business of that committee to adjust; and as to the impatient conduct that had been imputed to 4 or 500 men as

1812.

sembling in one room, that could never be admitted as a grave argument against the constitutional claims of a whole people. The honourable baronet said he should now proceed to take a view of the situation of this country, and of her` commerce, &c. Our army, it appeared from the returns, amounted, including local militia, to 807,000 men. Now, he asked, what population had we to support such an immense military establishment, and to carry on the agriculture of the country? Our male population was calculated at 6 millions, and taking that of Ireland at 2 millions, this formed a total of 8 millions; so that our army of every description constituted one in ten of our whole male population. He should be told, that this was a war of an unusual character, and that it had become necessary for us, in a great measure, to become a military nation. He regretted that it was so ; and he was sorry to observe, that while we were decking our warriors with laurels, we had also too frequent occasion to plant their tombs with cypress. He begged to press it on the consideration of the house, that this was a war which could only be supported by economy, and by husbanding our resources. An armament so much above our popu lation, he contended, this country could not continue to afford. Again, as to the expenses of the war, the estimates for the present year, so far as they could be calcu lated, might amount to 31 millions, or about 7 millions sterling more than its amount for the last year. This was an expenditure which, he needed hardly say, the country could not bear for any length of time. What then was the state of our revenue? Our funded and unfunded debt amounted to 650 odd mil

lions:

lions; and it had increased 114 millions in the course of the present war. With whatever spirit, therefore, the war was carried on, if we did not begin to husband our resources m time, we should not, in all probability, have the means of prosecuting it to a conclusion, and might be obliged eventually to stop short at the very moment when victory was within our grasp. The necessity, therefore, of at least inquiring into our situation, he subnitted, could not but be apparent. He knew it would be said, nobody was with him; the country was against him, and did not wish that the cause of Spain should be abandonéd. Neither did he wish this, if he saw any likelihood of rendering the Spaniards effectual service. Might we not try what could be done by peace? In the speeches from the throne we heard not a word of peace: but ought the house not to inquire if something might not be effected by a pacific spirit? He had heard the right honourable gentleman opposite say that government had no personal objection against Bonaparte. Then why did he hear so much of his mala fides? If this country ought not to make peace with bad monarchs, why should our ancestors have made peace with Louis XIV. at the time he was oppressing this very country, Spain and the Palatinate? Why, on the same principle, had the powers on the continent made peace with this country during the usurpation of Cromwell? Might they not have held out to him, in terms of reproach, that he had murdered his master, and that he was a canting hypocrite? If they had, would this country have tolerated such language? And why should we use such taunting expressions, which could be of no use but

to irritate? Peace with any of the Bourbons, he was satisfied, would no more be to be relied on, and would be of no longer continuance, than peace with Bonaparte. Then why not try to meet him in the spi rit of peace? If this country chose to conciliate America by repealing the orders in council, a measure from the adoption of which nothing but false pride prevented, then would an opening be once more given to our commerce and manufactures, and we should find the people of that country anxious to throw themselves into our arms. This was a measure peculiarly required for the preservation and prosperity of the country. If we talked of the prosperity of the country at the present moment, where was it to be found? In a highminded aristocracy? No; our nobility were content to hide their heads in retirement, or to seek refuge at a watering-place, instead of keeping open house, and showing the ancient English hospitality. Was it to be found among our great capitalists? They indeed had for a time employed their wealth in swelling the customs, and had since unfortunately swelled the columns of the gazette. Was it among our manufacturers? Their trade was at a complete stand, themselves were starving, and were thrown a burden on the community, or had become inhabitants of the workhouse! Was it to be found in the trade by licenses so hurtful in itself and so disgracefully abused? Or was it to be found in the total disappearance of the legal current coin of the realm? an evil which had grown to such a height that we might expect, if the system were persevered in, to see our circulating medium more debased even than that which had caused such complaints in

Sweden.