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West-Indies; and more particu- Our forces, instead of defending larly on the unfortunate attempt our possessions, assisting our allies, made on St. Domingo-an attempt and annoying our enemies, had which had cost millions of money, been cooped up in transports, and and proved destructive to the flow- conveyed from place to place er of the British army. Forbearing without any rational object. Such to enter into these details, he a cloud hung over Ferrol, and so 'meant to confine himself to the much doubt yet remained respecttwo or three last years. The pe- ing that expedition, that he was riod most proper to commence the surprised the general himself had Inquiry appeared to be when we not insisted on an inquiry. Part were told it was necessary to break of our army word intended to have down the old established constitu- been sent into Italy, where they tional force of the kingdom. By a might have been of the most essenmeasure thus violent and unprece- tial service; but they were too dented, a large disposable army late in being dispatched out, and was created; and it was supposed had nearly been taken by the some great achievement would be enemy. Thus all our measures had performed. The first thing at- wanted promptitude, and all our tempted was the expedition to schemes were ill concerted, or ill Holland; the fate of which was executed. The two armies met too well known to need discussion. afterwards, and ours met the sucIt probably might be remembered cess we deserved. Much grief that he then had opposed an inquiry; and disappointment he felt at the and his present conduct might result at Ferrol; but he had no not be thought consistent: he words to express his indignation "wished to explain his reasons. At at our disgraceful attempt on "that time he conceived it would Cadiz. It affixed an indelible "have been discreditable to the stain on our national character, troops, who had behaved in the and rendered us at once the demost gallant manner; and that the testation and derision of Europe. inquiry at such a period "would Yet the men who occasioned it recast a slur upon them. He like- mained unpunished and unknown! wise gave credence to the protes- Here his lordship referred to some tations of ministers; they objected, accounts of this expedition given that a disclosure then would frus- by a French general: he confessed trate other grand enterprises in it was most painful to him to read contemplation, and which other- them; but, if they were true, their wise would certainly succeed. He contents ought to be made known; had also hoped that our troops in and, if false, to be disproved.-It fature would be better appointed was said, that our forces were enand better equipped, and aimple deavouring to wrest Egypt from amends be made for our former the French: this would be an inmischances. When he mentioned portant conquest; but, alas! it these hopes, he need not add his might now have been in our posgreat disappointment at their frus-session, had we not infringed- a tration. A train of disasters and solemn convention. To the imdisgraces had followed, exceeding mortal honour of our commander in all that the most diffident and de- "those seas, he was the only man spondent could have apprehended. that had been able, oven for an in

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stant, to check the victories of Bonaparte; but perhaps he deserved less praise for the defence of Acre than for the treaty of El-Arish. By the latter, without further bloodshed or expense, the French would have been deprived of Egypt, and our eastern possessions placed in security.

Lord Darnley next lamented the conduct of government in the late overtures for peace. That they were not at first accepted, he said, was not strange; Bonaparte was not then established in his seat; and it was highly probable he might soon meet the fate of his predecessors. But those overtures ought not to have been rejected with gross and unmannerly abuse. Ministers manifested littleness of mind, and total want of foresight, to commence a pitiful war of words against a man who had raised himself to the most elevated situation, undermined all their schemes, and joined the sagacity of a statesman to the valour of the hero; and a superior mind, as well as talents, must he possess, if, when he had it in his power, he did not resent these insults.

The manner in which our resources had been exhausted was a subject of very serious inquiry. Our subsidies had been ruinous to the emperor; yes, he would assert it, they had reduced him to a more deplorable situation than he would have been in without them. The folly of making him recommence hostilities it was not easy to describe in terms sufficiently strong. Computing the superior numbers of the French, taking into consideration, that they were flushed with victory, were guided by the councils of Bonaparte; that the Austrian army was broken and disheartened, the Austrian cabinet

distracted, and the state of the Austrian monarchy exhausted, it was absolutely nothing less than madness in the emperor to try again the fate of war. Yet we were told that he received this advice from the British ministers, and we know he was encouraged to the attempt by British gold.

Their lordships were bound, he thought, to go into a committee, were it only to investigate this matter.

The next important point which ought to be the subject of it was, the conduct of government towards the powers of the north. He did not mean to discuss the matter of right, whether it were divine and inherent, or conferred by positive institution: admitting all our claims to be well founded, and that the privileges in dispute certainly belonged to us, had those rights been exercised leniently or rigorously, with mildness or with oppression? We had treated the governments of the north according to their respective power. The insults of Russia we endured with tameness: she dismissed our ambassador, she seized on our ships, confiscated our property, and insolently refused to make satisfaction for these aggravated injuries; but our behaviour was mean and dastardly. Had we acted in a spirited tone, and sent a squadron to the Baltic, we not only should have saved our reputation, but might have prevented all the calamities which were ready to burst upon us. He firmly hoped that the bravery of our sailors, and the skill of our admirals, would enable us to defeat the efforts of all our enemies, and to maintain our empire on the scas. But why were we precipitated into these dangers? Why did ministers put such language

into the mouth of the sovereign? They must then have known the hosule dispositions of Prussia: from the notes of count Bernstorff and count Haugwitz, it was long before notorious that the king of Prussia was a party to the northern confederacy. But Prussia, like Russia, was a powerful state, and capable of doing us much mischief: it would not have been quite convenient to go to war with him, who was the real sovereign of Hamburg; and, therefore, to him also ministers had meanly truckled. Upon their own principles they ought to have declared war against him long ago. But Denmark and Sweden, particularly the former, were the objects of their resentment. To these powers their language was bold and menacing, because they considered them as weak and defenceless. He was far from desponding; still he gloried in his country, and thought of its resources with pride and exultation. If they were properly applied, we had nothing to fear; but he doubted the safety of confiding longer in a government which had brought us into this situation. His lordship then alluded to the scarcity; censured the measures which had been taken to alleviate it, and maintained that they had rendered the sufferings of the people more severe. Parliament ought never to have interfered: the committees had trusted to ignorant self-sufficient men, who had completely misled them. He next adverted to the catholic question, and seemed to think it had been prematurely agitated. He condemned the Irish government in the severest terms; and maintained, that from their measures had sprung all the sedition and treason which had appeared in that country. He touched upon the

change in the cabinet; disapproved the conduct of the ex-ministers, whatever might be the causes or nature of that change: it was most probably nothing but a juggle; and, if it were not, they had criminally relinquished their posts in a time of danger. His lordship concluded with an energetic address to the bishops and nobles. He called upon the right reverend bench to support him, when, year after year, they saw the human race wasted by the ravages of war, and no prospect held out of a termination of those horrors: he entreated them to take pity upon their brethren, and to show themselves animated by the benevolent spirit of the religion they professed. He appealed to those who had taken their seats in the house from the sister kingdom: those who, in a peculiar manner, had witnessed the effects of a blind confidence, let them be the foremost on this occasion to vote for inquiry. But his great reliance was upon the ancient nobles of England, whose ancestors had for ages supported the cause of liberty in the senate, and bled for it in the field. He would not doubt their contending for the rights of parliament, and evincing a jealousy of the executive govern ment. They knew that, though ministers must be trusted, they were called to give an account of their trust, and to be punished if they had abused it. He implored them to agree to this motion, as they valued their property, their happiness, and their glory.

The duke of Montrose said, that he did not question the right of any lord to move an inquiry, such as the present; but that right was restrained in its nature by discretion, and the utility of its object: before the house subjected itself to

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the inconvenience of an inquiry, it ought first to ascertain the necessity of the measure, and to estimate the magnitude of the undertaking it would require the attendance of many officers to go into aan investigation which embraced such a variety of topics, and employ ministers in idle speculations, when the most important national ;affairs so peculiarly demanded their labours. But there was another objection-an objection of the greatest weight-it would alarm the country. Failures in the conduct of the war were no reason for an inquiry to that extent: the Ferrol expedition might require it, but not the -state of the nation. There might be reason to agitate the question for Ireland; but a specific motion would be the proper inode to answer any good purpose. The subject of the neutral powers had been discussed on a former day; and so ably discussed by lord Elgin, that he should not touch upon that point any further than to remark that the difference, seemed to be forgotten when we complained that ministers went to war with Denmark, and did not attack Russia: we could not come at Russia for the ice, but Denmark we could reach. It might be more sounding and magnanimous to say, "We will not take you, Danes, for you are weak, till we have attacked Russia, whom it is difficult to attempt." Ministers, in his humble opinion, had taken a wiser method: they had seized upon those of our enemies.. whom it was in their power to seize, and maintained the country in its rights as long as it could be maintained. The scarcity of provisions, and ..their high price, were mentioned also as objects of inquiry: his mlerdship had not spoken very cour

teously of the committee employed on this occasion, for which he . thanked him, in the name of them all; perhaps lord Darnley could have given much information had he been a member of it: the com→ -mittee, however, were diligent, had dedicated a great part of their time, and he hoped their labours would not be useless, though they were not so fortunate as to hit upon plans which might rival the celebrity of those his lordship might have laid down. The system of alliance, and the system of the war, were recommended to consideration: he would merely suggest the difficulty of the proceeding so strenuously enforced. Their lordships could not summon genera! Bellegarde to their bar: he should be glad himself to ask the generals of the allies a few, questions to satisfy his curiosity, but the house must be contented without possessing that power; nor were their lordships made acquainted with those better schemes which resided in the mind of the noble lord. The money expended was to be another object of inquiry; and he ever would maintain, that it had been wisely expended in drawing the enemy from an attention to their marine and colonial interests, to oppose the allies which we had subsidised. It was a policy adopted by all former ministers, even by persons who decried the practice when they came into office. The danger of invasion would have been great, had there been no allies to divert the immense force of the enemy. With the resources of that prodigious state, and 300,000 men in arms, and no enemy on the continent, what might not France have attempted? and it was and it was too well known how much it could accom

plish. There was reason rather to lament our too great economy both of blood and treasure. His grace maintained that the last campaign was a plan of the greatest wisdom and policy: the object of England was to divert the attention of the enemy; in that the success had been complete; nor did the troops remain in the manner stated at Ferrol. They were disembarked at the various garrisons by which they were relieved. He would add no more than his decided negative to such a perplexing motion. Lord Holland rose-not, he said, with an intention to follow the noble duke through his vein of pleasantry, lest he should mistake it for argument: indeed he feared common minds now might mistake what had been meant as joke, as what was intended in earnest.

The right of the house to inquire, is acknowledged; but it would be unwise to inquire in a time of danger: it was necessary to defend the country, but improper to take counsel on the occasion, or devise measures by which impending evils might be averted; interference was only needed when no difficulties embarrassed, and no emergencies arose. The noble duke seemed to insinuate that lord Darnley had fallen into a contradiction, and blamed ministers for going to war with some nations, and not for going to war with all; but his fordship had complained, not that ministers did not go to war with other nations, but that they directed all their vengeance against the weak. It was indeed matter of reproach, that, while all Europe was against us, on the pretence that our policy was so narrow, and confined the commerce of other nations, we should have justified these accusations, and fallen upon those only who had most com1801.

merce, though weakest in resource. Doctrines had been held in that house by a noble lord, fortunately no longer in office, the tendency of which was to show to Europe that, during every war between England and France, there could be no neutral nation at all. Was it just, was it wise, to hold forth such doctrines? Let the policy of maintaining what is considered as our naval rights be what it may, there was ample ground for inquiry, were it only to ascertain, at this critical moment, by what means we had been drawn into the present hostile discussion.

The duke had indulged himself in a strain of mirth, on the idea of bringing the Austrian generals to the bar of the house, to give an account of their defeats: this raillery, however, did not disprove the fact, that we had instigated the emperor to maintain a hopeless contest; that our subsidies had been large in their amount, unsuccessful in their application, and had ever been attended with calamity.

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The various expeditions which ministers had undertaken, we were strangely told, had been advantageous to the country: one advantage was very clear; it was this, the constitutional defence of England was broken down to form armies for these enterprises. Ferrol was adduced as a singular instance of the benefits of diversion: we went there, we were told, to make a descent, and found an army ready to receive us. This afforded a curious illustration of the wisdom with which the expedition was planned;-but it had a further destination: wasthis Egypt? and had our troops been kept on shipboard for almost sixteen months, and carried round so many parts of Europe, in order to be prepared for

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