with many military men, and those too of no mean authority, on the subject of our entering Portugal, and I do solemnly declare, that I have never met with one military man who ventured to assert, that an expedition to Portugal was, or could be, of the least service to Spain. Now, sir, seeing that the total inconsistency and miscarriage of the military plans of the right hon. gentleman have not been inferior to the futility of his defence this night, I cannot help advising the right hon. gentleman, before he undertakes another expedition, to pursue a different course, and to consult some other high military authorities than those by whose advice the expedition to Portugal was undertaken. The very judicious reference made by my right hon. friend (Mr. Ponsonby) to the prudent conduct of the ministers of our great Elizabeth, when England assisted the Dutch in their contest for liberty, excited at once the indignation and sarcastic jocularity of the right hon. gentleman. What, said he, would have been the feelings of Spain had we demanded pledges of their sincerity and fidelity? Could there have been a proposition more insulting to the feelings of the Spanish nation?-But grauting (continues he, with triumphant levity) that this argument were good; have we not secured the very object of your accusation? have we not Lisbon? if cautionary towns are deemed requisite-is there not Lisbon on which you can retreat? The inhabitants of that city, impressed with gratitude for their deliverance from the French, will receive you with open arms. On this subject, I hope the right hon. gentleman is well-informed. What is the view of men in office in Lisbon, he necessarily knows better than myself; but what the disposition of the people of Lisbon really is, I think I have as good means of knowing as himself. And from those means I do assert, that the people there do not hesitate to declare that they do not like the English.-But of this argument, as it is termed by the right hon. gentleman, of retreating upon Lisbon, even if it were admitted that the inhabitants would receive our army with open arms and grateful hearts, I will dispose by one single question-Will the right hon. gent. assert his credence that any man thinks it now possible for the British army to march to Lisbon? The right hon. gent. has, it seems, with all his military information and acknowledged want of military talents, VOL. XII.

triumphantly announced the prudent retention of a cautionary town for a point of safe retreat, to which there is only one slight inconvenience attached; namely, the utter impracticability; I perhaps should be justified in saying impossibility, of reach. ing this same cautionary town-this prudent point of retreat. So much then for the fruitless attempt of the right hon. gent, to shake the sensible and solid argument of my right hon. friend on this point. At length, however, after having secured this safe point of retreat, ministers proceed to the formation of that mass of force, in which alone the Spaniards were told our military power could be exerted in their favour, and a part of this mass, that was not to have been frittered away in divisions, arrived at Corunna, many hundred miles distant from this safe point of retreat, under the command of sir David Baird. The Spaniards shewed no great alacrity in receiving that army, from what cause I cannot pretend to say, but certain it is, that no arrangement whatever had been made by our government for their reception in Spain, nor was it until the authorities at Corunna had received directions from the Junta of Seville, that our troops, after having been kept for many days cooped up in the transports, in the harbour of Corunna, were permitted to land; and even then, they were restricted to the daily landing of 2000 men only. Thus, sir, we had, at last, one division of an army in Spain; and I am well assured that I incur no hazard of contradiction in asserting, that a more gal lant body of men was never assembled. But, Sir, I will also assert, that of all the armies that have ever taken the field, that of which I am now speaking was provided with the very worst commissariat that ever was attached to any army. But had this commissariat, instead of being the very worst, been composed of a selection of the most experienced, intelligent, and active individuals this empire could produce, it would, nevertheless, have been wholly inefficient, for the commissariat was literally destitute of the means of performing its duty. It did not possess a single sixpence in money, and when the troops arrived at Corunna, they were supplied with those necessaries, which it was the duty and office of the commissariat to have provided, solely at the individual expense and on the individual credit of the officers of that army.-We are told, sir, that the expedition to Portugal was the most judicious disposition that could possibly have been made

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a letter from the American ambassador, Mr. Pinckney, and is dated on the 23d of August to which the right hon. gent. gives no answer, good or bad, until the 24th day of Sept. Why did he delay his answer? Was he aware of what he was doing for France by that delay; for it afforded time to France to conciliate America? Why did he do this? Because, he says, time must be given to find whether France will revoke her decree or not. Now it would have been better for us that France should have refused to do so, because it would have secured to us the benefit of that inestimable blessing to this country-peace with America. We should then have been relieved from all apprehensions of a rupture with the United States. Well, says the right hon. gent. but this must not be done, because then we shall appear to make concessions to France. How so?-Why, the right hon. gent. insists that we cannot agree to any proposition made by America, for rescinding our Orders in Council, unless France shall consent to revoke her decrees. Now, by this principle, and by this doctrine, we are, and must for ever remain, at the mercy of France. We can never rescind our Orders in Council unless France shall consent to revoke her decree! that is, in other words, saying, that while France is perverse we must be obstinate, even though it directly militates against our interest, and against all rational policy and propriety of political conduct. This may suit the sentiments and feelings of the right hon. gent. but will it be an answer to the starving manufacturers of this country? Will he be able to satisfy them for their hardships because he is afraid of making what he calls concessions? Will this be an answer to those who complain of the price of bread, depending so much, as it at this moment does, on the want of importation of flour? The tone and essence of the letter of the right hon. gent. is, in fact, a mere descant on the ability of this country, to persist in whatever she thinks right. That is pretty good nonsense to talk to any body, at any time, but most of all it is nonsensical to talk such nonsense to America, towards whom we have before been in the habit of using our vain boasts and empty threats, although we afterwards felt their lamentable consequences. I well remember when former ministers talked towards America as the right hon. gent. does now. And this is a point on which he will have much

to answer to his country-I say he will have to answer-for I am persuaded, that nothing that ever was written in this country produced such unfavourable elects on the sentiments of America, as the letter of the right hon. gent. to Mr. Pinckney. Indeed the very style of the letter is such that nobody can read it without feeling that it is calculated to goad an independent mind almost to madness. And here let me intreat the right hon. gent. to rcflect on the effect which it has already produced in America: and let us remember too, that the sentiments of such a meeting as the Congress of America, whenever they are expressed, must be taken to be genuine, for in America there is no influence of the crown to give a false colour to majorities. There majorities must be taken to be genuine. Now, the lamentable effect of this letter was to produce a unanimous Vore in Congress, where, on reading it, there was one general expression of indignation throughout the whole assembly. As to what the right hon. gent. has said respecting the distinction which America has made between our ships of war and those of France; and the complaint on which he dwelt so forcibly, on the partiality of America towards France, in the instance of admitting her ships of war whilst ours were excluded-he has tctally forgotten, that this exclusion is the consequence of the outrage committed on the Chesapeake, and had nothing whatever to do with our Orders in Council. Americans having no such cause of complaint against France, had no pretext for excluding her ships of war. As neutrals, the Americans could not refuse admission to the ships of war of France. France would naturally demand the reason for the exclusion of her ships, which as none could be assigned, must be construed into an act of hostility. To England America says, until reparation shall have been made for the outrage committed on the Chesapeake, your ships shall find no admission to our waters. This, sir, has nothing to do with the Orders in Council or the question of the Embargo, and is but perplexing the subject unnecessarily. It has been said that the Embargo in America was laid on before our Orders in Council were known in America-this I apprehend to be a mistake; for, in the National Intelligencer, an American Paper of the first respectability and authority, a report of a Committee of Congress, renders it clear that our Orders in Council were known there before the

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hold her present rank in the scale of nations without commerce, and if she has the misfortune to be at war with America, her commerce will be greatly endangered. I have thought much and deeply upon these subjects, and it has appeared to me to be my duty to call the attention of the house to them. I recommend them also to the most serious attention of his Majesty's ministers. But above all let me express a hope, that if hereafter any offers should be made by America, they will be received in a more conciliatory manner; and in a better temper than they have hitherto been, and with prompt and perfect readiness to treat in the sincere and true spirit of peace for a reconciliation of all differences between two Empires, which the identity of customs, language, laws, and religion, ought ever to hold in the strictest bonds of amity. As to the address, I have no wish to oppose any part of it. It has of late been the general practice of ministers, in deference to the general feeling of the house, so to word the speech from the throne, as not to provoke any division on the address. This principle has not perhaps been sufficiently attended to in the present instance. I shall hereafter have occasion to touch on various topics embraced in this address, but for the present I shall rest satisfied with what 1 have already offered.

Mr. G. H. Rose had not intended to trouble the house with any observations upon this occasion, and should have contented himself with a silent vote, if it had not been for certain observations, which had been thrown out by the right hon. gent. who had just sat down, with respect to the question between America and this country. That right hon. gent. had stated, that the British Orders in Council of the 11th Nov. 1807 had been the cause of the American embargo; and, in support of that statement, quoted an assertion to that effect, contained in a late report from a committee of the American Congress, and the evidence of a respectable gentleman at the bar of the house last session, shewing, that he had communicated, by letter to America, the intention of the British government, to issue such Orders in Council. As to the first ground of the right hon. gent.'s statement, he had only to observe, that it bad been declared, in the American legislature, by one of the most respectable members of that body, eminently distinguished for his eloquence, his attainments, and patriotism, Mr. Randolph, that,

in the report alluded to by the right hon. gent., a ground totally false had been assigned for the embargo, when it was stated to have been produced by the British Orders in Council. It could not be supposed, that that very distinguished member of the American representative could have forgotten the grounds assigned for a measure, in the discussion of which he had taken a conspicuous part. As to the gentleman whose evidence at the bar had been referred to, he made no doubt that he was a gentleman of respectability; though he was inclined to question the fact of his having been able to communicate to any person. in America any intelligence respec ing the Orders in Council, which could have reached America before the passing of the Embargo Act. To this point he could speak with some confidence, because he had proceeded on a mission to America in that year, and when he sailed from this country on the 11th or 12th of Nov. 107, he had not known of the Orders in Council. He arrived in the American waters on the 27th Dec. and on the 10th Jan. following at Washington. At the time he reached the American waters, no more recent intelli.. gence had been received, than that brought by the vessel in which he sailed, nor had any ship arrived but one from Glasgow that had sailed from that port, two days later than the date of his sailing from England, which, however, did not bring as recent intelligence as he had. No letter, consequently, could have been received, communicating the Orders in Council. The statement of the gent. at the bar might be true, but it did not appear whether his letter had reached America, or when. He had also to add, that, from the time when he arrived in America, to the time of his departure in April 1808; he had never heard the Orders in Council assigned as the ground of the Embargo, and he was convinced it had never been so stated in the debates, with closed doors, wherein the Embargo measure was discussed previous to its passing. The first time he had heard such a statement made, was, when on his return to England he learned the proceedings in parliament upon the Orders in Council.

The Hon. Ashley Cooper stated in justification of the Ordnance Department, that it was not from any neglect in this department, that any deficiency of ordnance appointments had been felt in the expedition to Portugal, as every necessary supply could have been instantaneously afforded,