The National Register. — London, England, 1812-12-06 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTIIII. 758 Mr. CANNING said, it way desirable to come to that vote winch would least pledge the judgment of the House, and leave most sae. to future deliberation. Almost anv sainendment that might have beets rrioved would have ino't probably been more precise than was the Address of the Nnble Leo!, and therefore he thought to any such Amendment he should have been inclined to prefer the Address which had been proposed. The general view of the present stete of things divi led itselt into two points—domestie and lureign. The lereiet: might hr Said to divide itsCl into three wars. The first v. as the war in the North of Europe, in which we were eheerieg others, and, though desplv interested in its issue, not inenediately ere:let:din it ourselves. The o•cond was the war in the Peninsula, which w' , • principally carriedaon by us and by our , esources, thous'', it c enjutic lien.with allies. The third was, the war with Atne.rice, wher we were principals and alone, and for the conduct of whisti we Ws r.. solely and exclusively responsibe. With respect to the ear in the North of Euroee, which it had been well said by the Ni ble Lord, was the child of that in the Peninsula, wsich had been the msaris of causing Eersee to arouse herself to opoose'her tyrant e it was imp •is ble to contemplate it but with one feeling, a fling tit u. b. uncle admiration ! (Near, hear, hear !) But one feeling could exist wink our attention tested - there where the tyrant of the world hal antics. pate:l a tiiumph in an vas, contest, which he doubted vet would", a:• formerly, end in abject peace —there, where he thoiteht he knsw his Irian, out forgot that, through a shilllo of cireuinstaneee I e might find that lie had. a netiqn to conquer—there, where he thought he has but to' bultv and take a fort, and his work was dorie s hut where he found a countle s population rise to oppose him. No man could con template these tho gs without feeling his heat burn within him, not without rejoi: hag that those opinions, founded in false philosophy , which so long misled the world, had ended in misleading those be svlioni they were asserted and maintained. Napoleon had fancied the; among tit .se whom he pleased to call barbarians, no patriotism did exist. lie had thought hey would regard the advances of, an invader with indifference or with saris:action, and forget that instinctive pa triotism, that lore of the soil which attaches! men to the country that gave them birth, would prevail over the vices of positive institution,, and that false maxim which had been industriously inculcated fee the bit tieen•y years, that bef ire the people of a country rase to resist an isvacler, they would sit down end consider if it would be advanta geous to them to do >o, mid compare their present situation with whit their future might be, had it been overthrown. He had found ob etscles to his ambition as peat as they were unexpected ; he had found a sactsd attachment to home, to kindred ties, and estatiished customs, was eeouell to roese people to resist an enemy, let Idea crone welt promises of-freedom, or of improvement, or with whatever hopes he ittay ; not because they thought he could not make these promises good, but because he was an invader and a foreigner. This was not all ; it must now be seen :lilt 3uonaparte , with all his talents and skill. (and to tleny him talents and skill was nonsense,) was placed in a Otuai ion of great difficulty. It was true, his abilities had on former occasions enabled him to extricate himself from difficulties almost as great as those which now seemed clOsing around him, but looking at his present situation, he thought it was impossible for any, man so to chasten his feelings as to view it without hope. He . gave credit to Ministers for having regulated their conduct by principles of sound policy, with respect to Russia. But a question arose, which he did not now call upon them to answer :—" How happened it, after those treaties had been concluded, on which they were called upon to offer their congratulations ' after the note of warlike prepara sun had berg heard in Sweden for the last six months—that theeneans of that power had not been brought to bear uprtn France, at that period when, if ever of importance, suit interference was most desirable ?" At the commencement of the season whenthe treaty was colieluclel, it as peared to him that Lngland did not stand exactly on a tooting of equality with Sweden. She had a horn to bestow, and had a just right to expect an equivalent. In all diplomacy the recognition et a new dynasty, to soy nothing of an usurpation, was a bete,' ter wee It it had always been customary to require an equivalent. Frem tee acknewiseleceieet of the present dynasty, and well it incidentally, is. the henchman who had been insole C town Prince, we had a tight to demand an equivalent. He toost unequivscal'y a,' proved of t-c language he ht . :hey...el to have seen held by Covenenent to Russia. 4 ‘ in a war with France, ;t you think, -shit a view to your own i eerest s, it is advisable 'o do so. We tvitl h 1, yau, it we can, but de,,entl not upon us for military aid,-or pecuniary assistance. We will actively Carr, on the saw in the Peninsula, and that will terse yea: cause inure than ssntAng a subsidy of an army to your assts.- tree." And he he:ieved it wAild, and this was the langtois aeJech he thought it wi , e in Gevernmeot to hcsd; nut havins ecld it, it bel,oved es to trai• v nerve 1 , 1 ca, ry our tireis to he utieest heigle o welch it was po steabit: to carry them. Ft elini; tins, while 'he ecrourred eeith the Address in rejoe log in all the achievememe-et our brave army, and ir. all the pions of its galla..t and heroic Leader, yet when he was called u 1). ,; to concur in recording the result as most satiatactory to the country, he wished to bar h mself against beteg tirieersreeet vdo this. " Do 1," said the Ri,ht Hon. Gentle man, " consider the battle ef Saleirlancs nothing ?" Certainty not, even if its consseueoces had enued en the plains ash: re it was taught I who torinerle - held up eie barren as it was called) but Ittri-us feht of Talavera to the admiration of the na4on ! I coultrnef have I)EC. fk withheld my praise from the fight of Salamatica, if all that gained horn it had termirated there.'' But he took a diffilert view circumstances of the Peninsula, when he compared t t h h iet eh m o i r p e . :s t : Tr a l ;::l: that victory had occasioned, with what appeared to b ut T i. t ( tee r e e e 'su e lt " u .. P - t; the commencement of the new Parliament. p l r t ov vt e , diff.tilt and invidious for one out of office to a:ative rf the pesition, th.it mote might have been done ; but if called give his opinion from the information he had, he must • say . , in s c"• to science, he beheved more might have been done, as he be,ieaea tilL t a great exertioe been mode l it must have been emioentl and an. clusiv: Iy-successful . . Never, he weuld not ;ay Inn nt f the present Vrar, but never since tie cammencement I. 're; ch Revolutionary war, h.al the poe er and means it France beta fully occupied, never had the enemy p'aed a game so (:e( p, was the risk so much favour tat' En e la:e7. With suctia i. te hnt. ; r :` „c And such a cause, a comparatively aria I additional it rte s h. enabled him A only to occups Ivladride hut to make it m in catered !.is operations. and enable hint to advaoce not on:v to the Lbin,i ) • t nearly to the Pyrenees. Then, while in Russia, "her hardy ptio:: ion pressing round the tyrant, diminishe his f.enishof le e iee e Wellington might hive had an eye to throe provi ices France it ..shich an insurgent spirit had already manites:ed to ma c h over the rising spirit of resistance, and give the we-di at the proper is hal it rise to action. That economy iu war, which under bud' C'rClinistances restacted and husbanded *flat efforts of our army, was the worst sort of economy. A great eta' At which ptauced a bud :at decision, though tenfold the expence, was the best policy ferthe • ountry. If he felt this applicai . ee to the wars in Russia anti the P. ninsula, still noire applicable did he feel it to be to the war with America. The best way of 'carrying on war was that which led soonest to a peace. He wou1:1 go to the extremest verge ef corcession to avoid a war, but, when war was avec cernmcnced, he would not dilute its measures, in the hope that a feeble regimen would ptodace selutary eif.cts. Any man who two years ago contemplated a war w th America, and compared the might and the grandeur, the weal. ness and the resources of England, with the means of America, could he have imagined, that after six months of war, the on'y maritime -ropily would be on the side of America, and that our only ckns..latinn for not having corquered at sea, would be that we had not been heated by land ? Ile admitted we had not been defeated on - land. Ile was ready to render every praise to the troops who had fought, and to the hero who had fallen—for individual heroism aed iotividnil seat devotion were glorious under anv-rircumstances, however direct. ed ; but he could not think our rot having been defeated was a maim of great triumph. He had Inver thought we should be conquered by America. It had neveoentered his mind, and he had never theug:it that the mighty naval power of England would sleep while her com merce was swept from the American seas, nor had he expected that at the end of six mouths it would be nroclaime , : by the Executive , that the thunder of Etigl iota was to burst . forth for the first time. He lad never expected that 'a beet would be sent out to be lodged in our levn harbours in North America, and only approach the American crest with a flag of truce. Canada, he would obset ve, which had been so well defended by its population, and which had been so superior to the seductive arts of the encnev, was the only speck in the lintich Empire where the Catholic fought side by side with the Protestant, in the Legislature and in the Army. (Hear, hear, hear !) The system of forbearance in war, of m;tigated and half afraid' hostility, he stone. ly deprecated. The American Declaration of War imputed to Eng• land substantial grounds of quarrel, which to this day had not been contradicted. He thought withiti a month after it appeared it ought to have been answered in the face of all Europe. It stated that we ' had demanded of America that she should insist on the introduction of British manufactures' into France. If such a demand-wer. made, he did not hesitate to sly it was unjust, but lie could not believe that it was true. 1 t ought therefore to be denied. It was also said that 1809, while a friendly negociation was on foot, a mission was sent, -he object of which was to work the dissolution of the Union. 1 his, as he was thi-n Secretary of State, he felt individually, oug ht in lest cc 'o have hee:t immediately contradicted. He now for himself, tor his S-wereigo, and his Country, disclaimed a'l knowledge of such a mis sion. 'Chi Right lion. Getriernan then took notice that no mention was made in the Speech of the Ca*holic claims. This ornistion he did El' t MC, as the IttOt UM he hart made did not impose upon the Executive the task of origin. - ting a measure. He concluded , b y givirg his cordia! approbation to the general tenour of the Address. Lord CAS ' L Lit FAGH said, it was no small goeitication to the coon: tit, and to the Pill= Regent's Ministers, at this rnomentous3nd difficult crisis of the world, to find, on the opening of tile new 'lament. tha. the only claim upon them was for an ex famines of the general principles of policy by which their future action , were t° .' regelated, and that there appeared no ground - for cen sure, no catee for _ 1 compla or, - and no source tn . apprehension or discou ra g ement. Was indeed . vident that the prospects of the country were improv. for if this had rot been broadly founded in tact, he wo uld this tight have had mode upon him demands of a very darent nature tMm. those which had been made. The Right Hon. Gentl eman had with perfect propriety divided the *consideration of le the subject before House into two Farts, connected with the external and inte rnal ,at cr. thin o' the country,. and had applied himself g eneral ly to the fertl he This in itself was another source of iratiticetioit to lwali arid mu g ) ua. I‘l,lj Pgre Cfl fo sr