COBBETT'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER.
VOL. XV. No. 1.] LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1809.
"The interposition of the City of London was not necessary for inducing me to direct due inquiry to be "made into a transaction, which has disappointed the hopes and expectations of the nation."- -KING'S ANSWER TO THE CITIZENS OF LONDON.
Who would not have expected these men, versed in the art military, to say, "from this evidence, it appears to us, "that the acts were good (or bad); and "that, therefore, we think, that no fur"ther, (or some further) proceedings are
necessary, in this case?" Who would not have expected a decision in this way Instead of which, we have, and the king has been mortified, not to say insulted, with a heavy narrative of transactions, before known in substance, and quite uninteresting and fatiguing in the detail; to which narrative is added no decision, or opinion, with regard to the acts, which the whole nation had deemed a wrong done to its interest and its honour; and yet, we are told, by these same inquirers, that no further proceedings are neces ary; because, during the whole of the service, great "zeal and firmness" were displayed by the parties accused.-If, indeed, those parties had been accused of a want of zeal or of firmness, then there would have been some sense in this decision; but, they were accused of no such thing. Zeal and firmness are mere qualities of the mind. These generals were accused of acts; of what, in the jargon of the law, are called overt acts; of what, in plain language, are rightly called, open and visible acts: namely, the making of an Armistice and a Convention. What had their general zeal and firmness, supposing them to possess those mental qualities, and to have displayed them in Portugal, to do with the commission of these acts? The Court might as well have reported, that they found Sir Arthur Welles ley and his associates to have been excellent psalm-singers, and that, therefore, they. saw no necessity for any further proceedings, relative to the Conventions, which those gentlemen had made in Poringal. The absurdity of such a reason would have been a little more flagrant than that given by the Court of Inquiry; but, it would not, in the smallest degree, have been more absurd in reality. If a man, accused of high-way robbery were to be acquitted upon the ground of his having a black or a yellow beard, the acquittal would not be less con
"" hopes and expectations of the nation; for, in this whole kingdom, there was not one living soul, who expected from it any thing satisfactory.The Report of the members will be found in another part of this sheet; which report, after a very dull narrative of facts, with which every one was before acquainted, concludes with the expression of an unanimous opinion, that no further military inquiry or proceeding, relative to the conduct of any of the generals, concerned in the transaction, is necessary; and that for this very curious reason, that they had, during the whole of the service, discovered great.... ...great what? Great courage and skill? No: but great real and firmness."- -A man who simply utters his opinion has afterwards to be heard as to his reasons for that opinion; but, here we have both the opinion and the reason; and such a reason, such a ground, for such a decision, was, I am fully persuaded, never heard of before, since any thing like judicial inquiries have made a part of the practices of mankind. -What the nation deemed a great military fault, or crime, had been committed ; a great national wrong had been deemed to have been done by some one of three generals, or by all the three together; the king, after waiting for the calls of his people, causes a board of General Officers to be assembled to inquire into the matter; and, as the acts, which were deemed criminal, consisted of an Armistice and a Convention, they were charged to ascertain, and to state to the king, what was the nature of those acts, the fact of the acts having been committed by the parties being notorious and undeniable. Now, who would not have expected from these generals an expression of their opinion upon the nature of those acts? Who would not have expected to see the Report concluded with a regular deduction, from the evidence, as to this particular