Star. — London, England, 1808-05-10 00:00:00

PARLIAMENIARr PROCEEDINGS. HOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 9. Counsel was again beard at the Bar, in the appeal, Wemyss ersus M'Queen, and further pleadings were fixed for Wednes slay next. The Roxburgh Fecrage Cause was postponed to half past one o'clock to-morrow. The LORD CHANCELLOR. moved (in the absence of Lord Ellenborough) the second reading of the Insolvent Debtors Bill on Friday next.—Agreed Lord LAUDERDALE presented a Petition from the Debtors in I. oicaster Gaol, praying relieL—Ordered to lie on the table. Adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. • Sir THOMAS TURTON presented a petition from the Debtors confined in the Marshalsea prison, praying for relief. Sir Robert Salisbury had leave of absence. from the Downpa trick Committee, on account of ill health. The Donegal Committee obtained leave to adjourn, for the purpose of obtaining further information from Ireland. Mr. DICKE.NSON presented a petition from the London aergy against the Stipendiary Curates Bill. Sir Harry Vane Tempest obtained leave of absence from the Mahon Committee, on account of ill health. Lord BINNING gave notice of his intention, on Monday next, of submitting is the House a motion relative to Irish affairs. The Naval Asylum Bill went through a Committee, and the Report was ordered for Wednesday next. The Committee on the Court of Sessions of Scotland was post poned to Thursday, and the Report of the Bill to prevent Child Stealing was fixed for Friday next. The Irish Clergy Residence Rill was read a third time, and passed. The Irish Glebe House Bill was also read a third time, and or- dered to the Lords. • Mr. FOSTER signified his intention of submittirg to the House I motion relative to the Bank of Ireland, upon Friday next. On the motion of Sir A. WELLESLEY, the Bill for allowing the purchase of certain grounds and premises for enlarging and improving the Post Office in Dublin, was read a first time, and ordered to be read a second time to-morrow. On the motion of Mr. FOSTER, several zz. mints were ordered relative to the Bank of Ireland. Several Papers relative to non-resident Clergy were ordered, on the motion of Mr. ROSE. The Irish Militia Pay Bill was read a third time, and ordered to the Lords. The Irish Militia Bill was reported, and ordered for a third reading to-morrow. The Report of the Subaltern Officers' Bill was brought up, and the Bill ordered for a third reading to-morr.w. Sir S. COTTERELL presented at the bar of the House seve ral Accounts relative to the Clergy residence of Ireland. They were ordered to lie on the table. Mr. WHARTON brought up the Report of the Irish Tax )3ifi, which was ordered for a tlArd reading. On the motion of Lord FOLIMSTONE, the papers presented relative to the Droits of the Admiralty were ordered to beprinted. The second reading of the Malt Regulation Bill, and the Com mittee on the Pilots' Bill, were postponed, on the motion of Mr. ROSE, to Friday next. The Exchequer Loan Bills were read a second time, and or dered for committal, 'Elie Committees of Supply, and Ways and Means, were post poned to NrVednesday. TIDANItTZE9 EXPEDITION. Colonel WOOD, after some comments on the failure of the ezpeditiotrto the Dardandies, moved " that there be laid before the House a copy of the Jew-nal of the Royal George." • Admiral HARVEY obleuted unite motion;as no grounds were laid for.authorising the House to come to any conclusion upon It. Colonel WOOD observed, that of his motion was not to attach blame to any particular • ' The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said: that it was quite immaterial what or who was the object of the lion. Gen tleman's motion, as no decision could take place upon it without that person being first heard. Mr. WHITBREAUpaid some compliments to the talent and gallantry of the distinguished Admiral (Duckworth) to whom the allusions were made, and had no doubt but he would be able to give every satisfaction upon the subject. After a few observations from Colonel WOOD and Admiral HARVEY, it was agreed to withdraw the motion, and it was withdrawn accordingly, and fixed, on the suggestion of Sir C. POLE, to Tnursday next. Mr. CANT I AN postponed the consideration of the Catholic wadi the 45th instant. THE ROCHEFORT SQUADRO)f. Mr. CALCRA FT rose to make his promised mo tion. He said nothing was further from his intention than to criminate the conduct of Sir R. Strachan. /Co man was more desirous than he to do justice to the character cf that gallant officer. What he now wanted to establish was, that Sir R. Strachan was unds:r 'the necessity of quitting . his !:ttion off Roche fort, in consequence of want of supplies. His charge was a7ainst the Board of Admiralty, and he was happy that all the Papers n'.cessary to substantiate that clrirge were now before ;.iie house. He did not theret;re bring it forward on light - grounds. He kl,cw the imp'.rtance of it, inasmuch as it affected the Board of Admiralty an.l the country at large. It, was a rule in the Navy, that when a squadron was blockading any place, it should be so provided with t all necessaries as to prevent the possibility of the ene my's escaping ; and as that could not at all fillies be , effected by the utmost vigilance of a blockading squa dron, it sh' uld be prepared to follow the enemy which had escaped, wherever they went . It appea red, that on the Silith of October Lord Gardner, with that foresight which so eminently distinguished him, sent a ship to r , Leve Sir IL Strachan. With this warning before them, the Board of Admiralty ne glected to send provisions to this squadron until the beginning of December. It appeared that on the 11th of December there were only eight weeks pro visions on board the squadron. This circumstance was stated to the Board of Admiralty by Lord Gar dner, in a letter to them. On the Sd of December an order was issued for shipping a quantity of provisions on board the Mediator for the squadron; but this supply did not reach it until the 12th of January, when it was too late. The squadron ought to have been relieved by fresh ships, instead of having provi sions sent out in that way ; because the latter mode of relieving a squadron was always liable to acci. dents and delay, so as to defeat the object in view, as it hafirened in the present case. Lord Gardner made anoher representation, and the Admiralty thought they did their duty by sending two other ships, the Superb and Spencer, to join the squadron. Nothing was 'heard of the'Sugrb till the 23d of Ja nuary, and the Superb did not arrive till the 12th. A considerable delay had occurred in fitting out the Superb. Meanwhile Sir R. Strachao was extremely tiae.:sy, and sent letters to the Admiralty on the sub ject. How, he would ask, could all this distress have bezn occasioned, except through the neglect of the Board of Admiralty ? They must have known the precarinitsness of 't ictualling asquactron in tlfatplace; and was is of no consequence, that they acted in such a manner as to enable an enemy's beet to escape, un der the rirofst active of the*French officers, and put to Sea, nobody knew Where ? • For he was confident we 'revs ~tra '.grorant 'of the destination of this 'fleet : 4 1chwA g r. an ;lonourable Gentleman, sometime ago, pinbably for die purpose of pining a momentary iheer, did inforrn'the Heusi that it had one . to the At4t er r a ßf a ß: PR 02t of i!".4q ar l§if 4444 Strachan's squadron was reduced to three weeks pro visions. On the 11th supplies arrived, whin it was too lats. Had the enemy's squadron escaped sooner Sir Richard could not have pursued them. kludareci not to have risked stielf a pursuit, even ;f he saw the enemy's pendants flying, without endangering the lives of his men. This, then, was the situation he found himself placed in he was obliged by necessity to quit his station, and.afterwards, in consequence of being short of provisions, and in order to meet the expected supplies, he was forced to quit his cruizing ground. Between the 12th and 19th of January the weather was very bad; in this interval the enemy escaped. It was evident, that had Sir R. Strachan been provided with necessaries, he might have follow ed and come up with the enemy ; for they were seen the 17th January by the Phcenix frigate, one of his squadron, and therefore he might have been equally well able to keep them in view, had he been relieved. But he was obliged to quit his post, to seek the trans ports he expected with provisions. The first thing he should now do would be to move a resolution as to the general facts founded on the documents before the House. If this were agreed to, it would be a subject of future consideration, whether he should bring forward a charge. The Honourable Gentle man concluded with moving a long string of resolu tions, which coinprized all the facts detailed in his speech, calling on the House to declare that such were the facts. On the first Resolution being read from the Chair, The Hon. WELLESLEY POLE rose, and said, that as the Honourable Gentleman had thought proper to move a series of Resolutions without at present fol lowing them tip with any thing expressive of the ob ject avowed, he would feel it his duty to move the previous question upon t'he first Resolution. He was, he confessed, not a little surprised to hear that object still avowed by the Honourable Gentleman, after his having perused the papers that had been laid upon the table of the House, because he thought that those Papers must impress the mind of every candid man with a conviction of the r. - cal, vigilance, and activity of the present Board of Admiralty—( Hear! hear !) —The Hon. Gentleman had brou'ht two most serious charges against the Board--,one was, that the Board paid no attention whatever to the repeated and earnest requisitions of the several commanders of the block ading squadrons, complaining of want of provisions, and requiring relief and supply. The other was, that Sir Richard Strachan had_ been compelled to abandon his station off Rochefort, in consequence of want of provisions. Here lie "would . oliserve, that the rendez vous appointed ' by the Admirilty foit Sir Richard Strachan's squadrun in case of their being dispersed by had weather, was off the Chasseron Light-house, east-and-by-soutb, twenty leagues, or thereabouts, as the weather might permit. He was on the station but from the .16th to the 19th December. That might surprize:the Hon. Gentleman; but he hid too much patriotism not to be glad, in case he was satin lied that the Admiralty had done their duty. The Honourable Gentleman had asked, why Sir Richard was not able to pursue the enemy ? It-would appear from a letter he should read to the House, that the weather, and not the want of victuals, was the true and only cause that prevented the pursuit. The House would judge from the letter w,hich_he- should now read to them, that so far from-- Mr. TIERNEY rose to order. .All papers neces sary to the present question had been moved for ; the letter which the Honourable Gentleman was about to addnce in evidence, w.is not before the House.— The practice of resorting to such extracts had already gone too far, and been productive of considerable in convenience and well-grounded complaint. He called upon the House to put an end to it, by marking its disapprolsation of it in present instance. The SPEAKER said, that much had passed with in that House upon the practice alluded to. He did , not think himself warranted by any authority to de• nounce it as irrgular. If he di I so, he knew of no precise rule or existing order by which he could have justified his having done so. Tne simmer was with, the discretion of the House, mil it was for that dig-1 cretion to decide upon it Mr. PONSONBY, to order, said, that if there was no rule hitherto, the House should now adopt one, to prevent a practice so novel and opposite to general's usage; for if that practice was persisted in, what must be the consequence ? might not any Honourable Member get up in his place— The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER here rose to order, and said, that, the Right Hon. Gentlemun was hitnielf deviating from-order, for he was proceeding to argue the propriety. of adopting a rule not now existing, and of course that could not now be violated. Mr. PONSONBY, to order, said, that the Right Honourable Gentleman had mis-stated his intentions, and that if he had been permitted to proceed, he would have added, that if the Honourable Gentle man persisted in a practice so censurable, he (Mr. P.) should instantly move to adjourn the debate. The Honourable WELLESLEY POLE then rose, and said, that he should be sorry to persist in any thing unpleasant to the House (a cry of Read ! Read ! ) and should not press doing what might be offensive to the Gentlemen opposite. He would therefore not read the letter, bht content himself with stating the substance of what he got from that letter, and let the House give it whatever credit lie thought due to his character ( Hear! Hear!) He would then take upon himself to assert, that Sir Richard Strachan, after leaving the Bay, passed the Ferrol squadron, without applying for provision of any kind, or doing more than exchanging the usual signals by telegraph ; that he passed also the Lisbon squadron without any such application, or doing more than exchangiqg signals • and that he passed in the ' same way GibOltar,- This much he would state, and he Pledged his character to the truth of-that statement. On the SOth October Lord Gardner wrote to the Admiralty, acquainting them that the - Conqueror had joined him eel Ushant, and that he had ordered her to proceed to Cawiand Bay to refit, and then proceed-and relieve one of *e s { hips off Rochefort„ and that he wished it to be remembered this ship was then ordered tc convey as 'much provision and as many live bullocks as she conveniently could; this ship arrived, agree able to Lord 'Gardner's orders, on the Ist of No vembcr, and on the 15th of the same month it was ordered to repair-to the ships employed in the ser vice of conveying the Royal Family from Lisbon to the Brazils ; and to the squadron under Sir Sidney §mitli, four s;01 of tite line were then cletiche4 7 * Here he observed that some of the ships had been five months at sea before they had reached the squadrons they were destined to relieve. He referred to page 11, NO.B and 9 ; the one an order from the Admiralty to the Victualling Board, requiring them to send out provisions of potatoes, onions, and live bullocks for the :several squadrons off L'Orient, Rochefort, and Fer ; the potatoes, three pounds a man per week for Itwo months, the onions, half a pound a man per week, and as many live bullocks as she could conveniently stow. The other was a letter from Mr. Barrow to Lord Gardner, acquainting his Lordship with those direc tions, and both dated 3d December, 1407. He next referred to No. 10, pages 12, 13, 14, to shew the actual. stat" of Sir Richard Strachan's squadron on the Ist of December ; on the 3d December, the order was issued for forwarding the supplies by the Mediator, page 15, No. 11, but no requisition was received at the Admiralty till .the 18th of December, and yet provisionary orders had been issued on the 3d of the same month. That letter was written on the 11th by Lord Gardner, and did certainly state that there were not more than eight weeks provisions on board. On the 21st, another letter from Lord Gardner, covering another from Sir Richard Strachan, of the Ist De cember, and two days after, the 23d, the Mediator went into Portsmouth, and though then ready to sail, was not able to do so till the 6th January, merely be 1r cause the present Board had not ingenuity enough to controul the winds and weather. On the 21st, an order is issued for the sailing of the Superb and Spen eee• page 18, Nes. 19, 20, and 21. But it had been objected, why were not those ships sent direct to Sir Richard, without being first sent to Lord Gardner ? The objection he was surprised at, because it betrayed such ignorance of the general routine, which was, that all blockading squadrons are subject to the controul of the Commander of the Channel fleet. He next referred to No. 22, page 19, dated the 20th Decem ber, and received at the Admiralty the 224, from Ad miral Young, beginning, " As a very considerable supply of provisions has been sent to the ships off 1 Ferrol, and the Audacious will sail on Tuesday for that squadron with six months' provisions, I submit to their Lordships, whether it may not be adviseable to 1 allow the provisions carried out by the Mediator to be 1 divided between the squadrons off L'Orient and IRochefort," &c. He next adverted to page 21, No. 28, Lord Gardner's letter, transmitting state of Sir R. Strachan's squadron, the bread being at two-thirds al lowance on the 21st December, and then reminded the House of Admiral Young's letter, of the follow ing day, recommending a division of the provisions. The relief was ready to sail eight or nine days before, but prevented by bad weather • and as soon as the weather permitted, the Spencer, and Cumber. land were sent direct to Sir R. Strachan. He here took occasion to pay i high tralute to the professional merits of Admiral Young, as the best Port Admiral in the Navy. On the Slst December the Colossus was ordered to join; and in page 30, No. 41, would be found the letter of Admiral Young, requiring two transports sent into Catwater, to be forthwith laden -.with two months provisions for four thousand fir hundred men, for the immediate relief of the Roche-' fort Squadron. He then entered upon the second di. vision of the subject; the other serious charge was,that Sir Richard had been compelled to abandon his station in consequence of want of' provisions. He sheaved what had been the state of the weather from the 21st of December till the 6th of January, and that it was, so tempestuous as to prevent the relief going out, and that it and it only was what compelled Sir Richard Strachan to abandon his station. He was anxious, in proof of this, to call the attention of the House to' Sir Richard's letter, dated the 21st December, an' not received till the 30th, page 25, No. 29. " . We have been driven If (.4 cry of Hear! Hear !) and jus. got hold of the land. Nothing mate-ial has occurred. AVe have had very tempestuous weather" ( Hear ! Hear!) He then cited Sir Richard's next letter of the 25th December, mentioning the reduced state of the provisions ' and stating, that " the weather has been such, we have not been able to proportion the re mains of provisions to each ship." He text cited, an extract from Sir Richard's letter to Lord Gardner, dated the2Bth December, off Roche Bonnes, in which he says, " I inclose the state of the squadron on the 23d, since which the weather' has prevented much communication." On the 4th of January, Sir Richard, when stationed ten leagues of Belleisle, that since the Emerald and Euridicc had parted in chace, they have had constant gales ; and on the 22d off January, the received a letter from Sir Richard, dated the 16th, then lying ten leagues South-west of the Roche Bonnes, in which he states, that the Superb and Mediator joined on the 12th, the Lavinia op the 11th, and the Colossus yesterday ;—and adds, " but it was not till this morning that the weather would' permit us to communicate by boats ;" this then was Sir R. Strachan versus the Honourable Gentleman,. and let the House decide between the two authori ties. The Honourable Gentleman then proceeded to spew, by a variety of documents which 'he cited, that Sir Richard was compelled to abandon his position by the weather, arid not by want of provisions • and concluded, by wishing the Honourable Gentleman would net put it off, but as they were then at it to fight it out before they parted. He then• moved the previous question. Sir CHARLES POLE adverted to an inaccuracy 'as to the 30th of November. He contended that the squadron was not provisoned as it ought to have been, and that the supply of the Mediator afforded but 16 days provision of bread to the ships of the line exclu. sivoly. It was but too evident that Sir Richard quit ted his station to look for the victuallers, and that if he had remained at anchor in Basque roads, the enemy could not have escaped ; the squadron had then but 316 tons of water till the Superb and Colossus oined it. Giving the Admiralty credit for their zeal, and for all the provisions which they had sent ; still the squadron was not sufficiently supplied to enable it to folldw the enemy to the Cape of Good Hppe, or any considerable distance. All this was owing to the sys tem of sending out transports, instead of fresh ships, in winter. He dwelt particularly upon the novel and distressing situation in which Sir R. Strachan seas placed. On the 12th of January, the provisions were only 16 days bread, four days wine and spirits, and 25 days water ; so that this gallant officer could not Chace the enemy out to sea for more than three or four days, and must, at the end of that time, have given over the pursuit, even if he had seen' the enemy from the mast head. If he had to give his ofiniou on the uestion, sitting on a court Martial, he would say that this squadron had not been kept in a proper condition ; and even after the 'boasted supply had been furnished from the Mediator, the provisions were not sufficient to enable die squa dron to follow the enemy to any great distnir:e. Th e vital interests of the navy required that due attention should be paid to the supply of provisions for the fleet. The Right Hon. Gentleman had talked of a new sy s . tern for that purpose; but he hoped that the system would not go to•prevent the relieving of the s hi ps o f blockading squadrons froni time to time, whether we ll provisioned or not. He mentioned. that one ship hat been at sea for eleven months, and that she had not :been in port for so many days, when she was orde tts l to sea again—the name of the ship was the Defi ance . 'Great merit had been assumed from this circuthstanee„ but it was a sort of merit which he disclaimed. Thi s mode of keeping ships for such a length of time at sea. might be attended with bad consequences, and any Sys„ tern would be bad in which such a plan should beadopt ed. He would not willingly censure the Admiralty, no t because. the papers would not bear him out, but becau se the proper man agemont of the navy was a matter of stele importance, that he should wish to have evidence at the bars of neglect in this point before he finally deter. mined to condemn. He was, therefore, in some' measure sorry that the papers had been laid h e f ose the House. and as ha was called upon to pronounc e upon their contents, he could not but express his opi. mon, that what ought_ to have been done in this in. stance had no: been done. Mr. W. POLE esplaiwzd, that in the new provit,lon was f o r madere lieving from inn , . , li in the ships to time. _ . Mr. R. WARD, after adverting to the vehement manner in which the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Cal craft) was accustomed to attack h;s political oppo. nents—a specimen of which spirit, he said, appeared in his considering the letter of Sir Richard Strachan as ironical, stated the nature of the blockading sys. tern. One part of the plan was, tle_keepieg t h e squadrons well supplied with stores, and relieving them ship by ship at diffekent periods Another part of the plan was, that the Commander in Chief was the person to see to the state of the different squa drons, and to correspond with the Port-Admirals about . provisions, &c. independent of 'the Admi. ralty, who might, however, order any relief they judged necessary. But from the accumulated pres sure that came upon the Admiralty at some periods, this plan must of necessity be occasionally suspended. The Gentlemen on the other side would at least allow the present Admiralty credit for alacrity in fitting out the Danish Expedition. When the ships came home ir,,m Copenhagen, they wore in such a situation. with their crews scattered in various quar ters. that no use could be immediately made of them. —The Admiralty had also a squadron at the Tagus —they had s )me ships on their way to the Brazils with the Royal Family of Portugal—they had a squa ll-on at St. Helen's, to wait for the Russian fleet be fore it was known they had entered the Tagus—and -hey had sent four ships of the line to Madeira—so that .t was necessary at that particular time to suspend -the usual mode of acting under the blockading system. He admitted that the want of provisions in any aqua. dron was a prima facie. case ageiest the Admiralty. But, if this question was examined with candour, he felt no anxiety as to the result. The Admiralty, lie observed, ever alive to •the wants of the Navy, had given orders for a supply to this squadron before any representations had been made to them. It was not meant then to give a temporary supply until the usual course of the blockading system could be resumed.— That only six out of ten transports reached Sir R. Strachan. That the Mediator could not sail was not the fault of the Admiralty, but the weather. Tem pestuous westerly winds prevailed for '27 days in Dc. cember, and 28 days in January, which prevented diy operations of the Mediator, &c. He denied that Sir R. Strachan had quitted his station. The Admiralty could not be expected to answer for the consequences of tempestuous weather. They might as well be blamed for the loss of well-equipped vessels founder, ing in a storm. They were no more blame in this instance than the then Admiralty were for the loss of the Royal George, that went down at Spithead. He concluded by requesting the Hon. Gentleman who proposed the Resolution, to have as much candour as Phillip 11. of Spain, why, upon the news of the loss of the Armada, said, that he had not fitted out a fleet tie overcome the winds and the waves ; and thanked Goo that the calamity was not greater. The Right Honourable GEORGE PONSONBY observed, that the Resolution went to say that Sir Richard Strachau's squadron was not supplied with provision, and that was . proved by the documents on the table, beyond 'redemption. It had been said that Sir Richard had never left his station on account the want of provisions. A letter from him, dated the 21st of November, says, The wind having veered to the Northward, he stretched out to sea, to try to meet some. of the transports that he had exe petted." Why proceed to sea, in an uncertain pure suit, to look after transports, if not in want 'of proe visions ? and, if he did proce d to sea, he must have gone off his station. The letter of Sir Richard Strachan, upon which the Honourable Gentlemen prided themselves so much, contained not a particle of any thing that could support them. Sir Rl chard had written several letters to his commending officer, Admiral Lord Gardner, stating the situation of the squadron, and its want of provisions ; but finding the supplies did not come, he wrote to the Board of Admiralty. The consequence was, he received a supply ; and this boasted prize, this letter, commending the Board, goes just so far as to say, he thanked them for the attention they had paid to his communication. Did this exculpate them ? Did he say any thing about what had been the situation of the fleet ? No : but look to his letter of the 23d of January, four days afto the French had got out, and what does he say, after all the boasted supplies reached him I t 4 That if his provision and weier would last him, be , would follow the enemy over the world." A bloekadif squadron ought to have erovision on board equaf to what the fleet they were blockading could Foe! sibly procure. The Board of Admiralty could nee think that the enemy's Squadron would go no farther than what two months provision would allow hem. That must have been their supposition, or that diem was an understanding between the board and the enemy; for when Sir Richard went in pursuit, he 4. 1 4 but two months provision. He would challenge alit pereian in that House to prove the squadron erg s , a L sters a rj C ga - Ira p •