The National Register.
London, England, 1809-12-10 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER:

sviis, did it not speak volumes ? And he asked how there could

be a greater condemnation of Lord Chatham than what was
contrttt►ed in that extract ? if he could be indifferent to such an

attack, be could not divine of what sort of stuff the Noble Com._

slander most be made.—(A laugh.) But a cause was assigned
for his Lordship's standing still for a fortnight, and not coming
even then to a determination. It appeared that he was terrified
into this magnanimous irresolution, " on account of the increas-
ed force of the enemy." It turned out--but take his own des-
cription, it will answer my purpose, said Mr. Waithman, a 3
well as mine could, for the. same Gazette • that contained Sir
Richard Stachan's extract, contained Lord Chatham's dispatch
from Bathz. In this he says, " that the force of the enemy in
this quarter, distributed in the environs of Bergen-op-Zoom,
Breda, Lill°, and Antwerp, and cantoned on the opposite
coast is not less than 33,000 men :" but in the interim, that had
been lost, what had been done against the army of ship-car-
penters, invalids, and custom-hoase officers ? He contended
fbr it, that there was not in the whole an efficient force of 13,000
men and yet such to be the result !—But reports had gone abroad
with respect to Sir Richard Strachan, that were in themselves
another ground for inquiry. Sir Richard who he believed to
beas brave and as intelligent an officer as any the country could
boast—% hear ! hear 1)-4 was said that this man who feared
nothing in the shape of an enemy, had found something for-
midable:a the frowns of a Cabinet Minister; that he had been
induced to go back from his forme,tr sentiments upon this subject,
and had thus proved himself deficient in that fortitude which
never had forsaken him in fighting the battles of his country.
Whether these rumours were well or ill-founded, still as they
had existed, it was but justice to Sir Richard, as well as to the
Commander in Chief, that an inquiry should be instituted.—
After one year's amount of Income Tax had been squandered,
at a time when we were bending to the earth beneath the
weight of taxes—and how squandered ? In the destruction of
the flower of our armies. One of the books written on this
melancholy subject had stated, that at one time we were
hurrying two hundred and fifty men a week, and that at one
period 5000 out of 15,C00 were sick, and either kept upon the
island, tir thrown like so many blocks of timber into our ships;
and yet were we to endure this tamely ;—were we to gaze on in
a stupid apathy, and make no efforts to redress our wrongs aa
remedy our disgrace, by demanding, in the name of the coun-
try, an inquiry It this last disgrace would net rouse us from
our torpor, ruin alone could do it ; and we were only fit to be
slaves and nothing else. When such scenes have been passing
before us—scenes that even in fiction would excite our commis-
seration—atid when the public behold them with a listless in-
difference, more melancholy than even the misfortunes them-
selves, are we not to assume our station in the country, and at
such an awful crisis make the City of London give the public
tone to the rest of the Empire ? With respect to that part of
the Amendment that related to the call of the Parliament, it was
against his wish that it was put into the Requisition; for, from
what that Parliament had already done, he confessed he hart
no great hopes from it. The Constitution was in every man's
mouth ; but hewished to know what they meant by the word,
if they did not mean that a power of check and coutroul was in
the Cl/1111110M House of Parliament, and a responsibility at-
tached to the servants of the Crown; but if that coutroul was
no longer exercised—if that responsibility was done away, it
was idle to argue about words. In Parliament he wished the
wink of Reform to begin—in Parliament he wished it to end.
Ile wished to add one word with respect to a charge brought
against him as to his wWI to cry down public men. God for-
bid ! he should be anxious to create a general distrust against
all public men more than any other; but, when he saw public
men turn round—when he saw the same men condemning the
Income Tax, and on their coming into power agggroving of that
Tax—when he saw Lord Grey standing on tairles at taverns,
calling on the people to be earnest in the cause of Reform—nay,
even complaining that they were not sufficiently earnest in the
cause—stating that in 1191 ; and when he has seen that '.loblr
Lord turning round, and complaining of the cant of Reform—
w hen he has known Mr. Pitt to have beep a strenuous advocate
for Reform, and recollected what he and his followers after-
wards proved, he could not think it unreasonable in his enter-
taining distrust of such professions. He concluded with mov-
ing--
" That an humble and dutiful Addressand Petition be present-
rd to his Majesty, upon the present deplorable situation of
.Public A claire. •JI, •
Butubly represcutitig to his Nia,;nl7 our grief a4t4 iadioAtion