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 tyranteit 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 dories 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 comparedtthhietehmoirpe.:st:Tral;::l:
that victory had occasioned, with what appeared to butTi.t(tee reee'suelt"u..P-t;
the commencement of the new Parliament.
plrtovvte,
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"•
toscience, he beheved more might have been done, as he be,ieaea tilL
t
a great exertioe been model 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' Enela:e7. With suctiai.tehnt.;r:`
„c
And such a cause, a comparatively aria I additional it rtesh.
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 leeieee
Wellington might hive had an eye to throe provi ices France it
..shich an insurgent spirit had already manites:ed to mach 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, ought 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, by
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 censure, no catee for
_1
compla or,- and no source tn. apprehension or discouragement.
Was indeed . vident that the prospects of the country were improv.
for if this had rot been broadly founded in tact, he would this
tight
have had mode upon him demands of a very darent nature tMm.
those which had been made. The Right Hon. Gentleman had with
perfect propriety divided the *consideration of le
the subject before
House into two Farts, connected with the external and internal ,at
cr.
thin o' the country,. and had applied himself generally to the fertl he
This in itself was another source of iratiticetioit to lwali arid mug)
ua.