The National Register. — London, England, 1809-04-23 00:00:00

V3O THE• NkTIONAL REGISTER.. way, united under one Sovereign, would be more able to coon terari Russia than separately . Some rely im the Wisdom of our Government, and the strength of the nation ; some till Alex-. antleFi expressed Pelinp,-: for tiw Swedes; and others, still inure absurd, on the genero •ity of Bonaparte. Sweden, poor Sweden,', is placed bet • een two fire-, and 1 hope she will not be coll imated to ashes by both. IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS. .41onday, April 17. The Earl of Liverpool moved the thanks of the House to the ()dicers and men who had reduced the island of Martinique. Lord OaExvit.t.t: did not oppose the Vote of Thanks. It was merited by the Naval and Land Commanders, Officers, and Ale). lie wished only not to he thought to approve the policy, or rAther impolicy, of ohich Government had been guilty, in sating another sugar island to those which we &heady possessed, and the produce of which could find no market. The Earl of LivEnrOOL vindicated the conquest of Marti pique, on account or the strength and position tiftfm island. Had lite viewed it merely in a commercial light, would have pro bably entertained the same opinion as the Noble Lord. The Vote of Thanks to the Generals, Naval Commander, Mi lers, and Men, then passed nern. di.is.—Adjourned. Tuesday, April SIWIISII CAMPAIGV. • 'rte. Earl of Livl ttroor. observed, that, notkrstanding it w t, the intention of the Noble Earl (Grey ) to move for certain papers, forwarded in the month of October last to this country h , the (facto. of Gallicia, he had searched for the documents al lu ed to in the office, and they could no where be found. There w •re page a of the 2d of October, but not of the 10th and I Ith ; but in case thoy should be found, they would be laid before the House forthwith. It was insisted by Lord GREY, that the instructions sent to Mr. Frere, connected with the advance of the British troops into Spain, and the communications made by that Minister to Sir John Moore, in consequence of those instructions, ought to have : been laid before the withont reserve, and though the in t oloation nfl'orded the Rouse by his Majesty's "'Ministers might he ample in Some points, yet it was not bullicient, and more was wanted to render the information required cmplete. Lord LI V I:ttro0I. replied generally to these and other sug gestions by say in;, that the information already afforded the "louse upon the subject of the Spanish campaign was ample in the extreme, and that his Majesty's (.; overnment meant Wrest the justification of their conduct upon that information. Adjourned. • •,•• • APRIL 23. wally led to misrepresentations of facts, or to erroneous mean sores. .Both haditaken place during the late contests in Spain. He recollected the glowing pictures that had been given of the patriotism 'of the 'Spaniards, and the exaggeration of their mili tary force, which was said to have amounted to 400,000 soldiers, v. ith are serve of more than 600,000 men. But after lookieg .over the defective documents which had been laid on the table •he found that Lord W. Bentinck, at the commencement of the• .contest, had sent the most discouraging accounts to• this country. As to the spirit which %YRS displayed by the Spa niards, he would refer their Lordships to a letter of Sir John ;More, dated the 21th of November, in which he staled, that. it had been entirely damped by their first defeats. In Mr. t'rot's letter of the nth of November, in. answer to Sir John Moore, they would find that he described the provinces through sit Mich the British army were then passing, as the Last distio guished for patriotic spirit. Front other testimonies, his Lord ship strongly suspected that that letter had sutfvred strange alte rations; that passages had been omitted, and that what now scented to refer to one Small part of the country .alone, in the original extended to the whale of Lr.tn and both C: stile'. Blake had tt,st::t 80,,C01 men, Paiafoy 12,00 4 i, Castarms 'A3,000, all badly clothed, and in e ant of arms, and the Fre,tch upwards of 100,600. It w;!- trite, t hr.? at the beginning or the campaign some splendid feats iought he 'pointed oft!. After the Freoch had retreated over Gas Ebra, had not the legions of Spain stalk into spine anti careless indolence ? What had they done to secure the italependcace of country? Fort s -ti ve thousand Freoch alone n ere left, and they were permitted, unmolested, to possess nearly one-third of Spain, until the reinforcements which they re ceived had sworn theta once more inw an invading army. The• Governments tvitich had been formed in every province, had weakened by dividing the ruling authority. The J tunas had lost the confidence of the people, and all hopes of success:: must have been giveaup by the impartial and clear-sighted. Under these circumstances, he thought that assistance might have been Skid-. ed, but not such a had been sent. Au army . was flu required, bat arms, money, and provisions. Ministers ought to have followed a regular plan, sprung front mature consideration, and tried infor mation. But how had they disposed of the forces of this tout try. They had first sent Sir John Moore, with 11.,000 men to Sweden, to assist that small kingdom against the gigantic power of its assailants, France, Russia, and Denmark. But they had sent Sir John Moore, scarcely knowing what he should do, and leaving him in total ignorance of their intentions. The digrace ' ful result of that expedition was well known. lie then coins pared the conduct of Bonaparte, who in three short weeks had annihilated all the Spanish artuies,who were to co-operate with ours, and had.reached Burgos, the point where our troops were to unite themselves, before Sir' David Baird had begun his march from Corinn', and a day before Sir John Moore lit:cl entered Salamanca. lie thought that the second advance of the • British army, when not a single Spanish sword was raised in its support, and toe greatest part of the country was occupied by the enemy, 14110FC cavalry scoured the plains unresisted, and raised contributions unopposed, a measure, which, although dig nified by the Secretary of State with the name of useful, was, as its reshtt had proved, destrective of our best troops, and fatal to the interests of Spain. Had Sir John Moore retired to a situas lion where he could make a stand, the dispersed patriots might have gathered around hint, and raised. once inure the banner of freedom. The frontiers of Portugal or Andalusia would halt, afforded him a Safe retreat ; and in the latter, the initireguablF fortress of Gibraltar would have secured him a safe embarkation. The Noble Secretary of State bad asserted that this advance had been made in consequence of Mr. Frew:4 message; but this was incredible. The. fact was, that Mr. Frere was miserably. deficient in information. The Noble Earl then alluded to thd subsequent correspoudence of Mr. Frere, to the false infor mation contained in which he attributed .llrno,t the whole of the unfortunato events which betel the British Army. Having stated the principal .reason on which he founded his charges against his Majesty's :Ministers, he should not enter now into the minute ramifications of this important question, in almoscall of which, he imputed blame to his Majesty's Goverumeot. The, N Lord concluded, after a most able weed', by moving " That an humble Address should be presetatil to his Majesty, mewing-that the disgrace which bas attended tine expedition to Sp:tin was i t consequence of the want of sudi cieotinfor illation on the part ()fills 1.114: lay's Ministers, with respect to the state of affairs in that, country, autt• their steAleet in not forming a plan'of operation*, ta ud of those means which alone. could have enabled tag Mritisb aoas tcs be. of itaisartasi& to the ap.mish cause." . if - eduesda.y, _I prii 19. Jr. Ureters, from the liana/ter Office in Ireland, presented the lli.ttlem; relative to the Lie&lion of Lord V im7ountißountjoy as a Temporal Peer of Ireland, in the room of the biarquis o' -*lip, deceased. CAMPAIGN IN SPAIN, SC. The End of Liverpool laid on the table a letter from the Junta of Gallicia to Captain Kennedy. Lord Auckland adverted to the Returns of the loss :sustained , by our troop% in Spain, and observed, that no notice had been 4aken of the number of deserters from the enemy INN) had joined our army, be should therefore move for a Return of the number of persons so recrhitea in Spain. Agreed to.—Adjourned. l'riday, April 21. SI'ANISU esitratt;:g. Earl Grey said, he was not one of those who thought that Mini-ter , ;, at that moment, were lying on a bed of roses —Their situation was fraught with difficulties and dangers, hut their conduct had not been such as to cooper the one and ward nil' the other. Yet u o twithstanding the heavy lose,, which thronli their mismanagement e had suffered, in lives, magr.zines, treasures, tint] the still heavier loss of honour, Se firmly thought that iu the bands of prudent men, treat Bri tain would still prove equal to the desperate contest in which she wad engaged. lie thought it would have been the duty •f Ministers, a few months ago, t e abate, instead of inflam ing tiy false representations, t he enthusiasm of the British people, cooloess alone wald hcre isvorei becccisi Untireviass fro-