The Sun.
London, England, 1801-02-20 00:00:00

that the Hen. General had clearli, exculpated
himself in this transaCtion, aid that consequently
the whole blame mint fall upon His Majesty's
Ministers, unless they could exonerate themselves
from it.

Mr. DUNDAS said, that the Hon. Gentle.
man had taken rather a singular part in the dis.
cessions upon this question, for he seemed totally
to have forgottcn what fell from both the Gen..
tiemen who spoke before him. The Hon. Gen-
tleman who brought forward the Motion had
(Nine(' a variety.of authorities to slew that the
Expedition was perfeEtly prafficable, and conse-
quently that Ministers were perfedly justifiable
In undertakingit ; but these authorities,. how_
ever respeelable, seemed to have no weight with
the Hon. Gentlemab, for the whole object of 'his
speechwas fo blame Ministers for having sent
out a Force .to efred nn impracticable objett. The
Hon. Gentleman might perhaps prefer. throwing
the blame upon Ministers rather than upon the
Hon.. General ; but in doing so, he expressly
abandoned all those great authorities upon which
. the'Honourable Gentleman who made the Mo.
tion had relied so completely, and therefore he
supposed
.be might now venture .to lay them
entirely out of .his .consideration. He was
extremely glad that the Debate- had taken this
turn, for the only anxiety he 'had 'was, that it
Might have produced soinething like a jealousy
between the two, services, and upon.that ground
it was that he intended to oppose the Motion.
If a Military Inquiry was necessary upon the
• subs, there were proper places for making that
; but it, now appeared, that it was no
longer to be. considered as a Military question..
-The House were no longer to pay.any at-
tention to the statements about the Fleet taking
the place if. they 'had not been encumbered
with an Army, but the question was now
, brought to the polar to which he wished it.
—lf the King's Ministers were sto be attacked,
for want' of wisdom or judgment in
.this Expedi-
tion by the Hon. Gentleman who spoke last, it
appeared at least, that though he 'admitted -the
Hon. General's justification of himself, yet he
paid no kind of attention, to what the Hon. 'Ge-
neral said in vindication of the condu& of Mi-
Pisters in undertaking the Expedition. He seem.
eel totally to have forgotten that the Hon. Gene.
t-al had acknowledged, that he possessed every
infOrmation which His Majesty's Ministers were-
in possession of before_ he sailed upon the Expe,
dition—that ha knew •the grounds upon which
they were induced to hope for success, and that
he hiMself entertained similar hopes. .The Hon.

Gentleman therefore ought not tv talk about Mi.
'misters -having sent out an Army, without know-
. it any thing of the place which they were to
attack. But in point of ilia, the Hon. Gen.
tiemau seemed to have determined' to- lay the
blame upon Ministers, and not to pay any at_
tention -to any thing he heard upon the sub.-
jeit. He had no objection to state, the grounds
and, objett of this, Expedition: Tim the early
part of last Campaign, • Ferrol certainly was
pot the objeet against which the Expedition was
levelled, consequently the Pon. Gentleman wAs
wtong, in suppoSing that all the execnce was
ificurred with a view to the attack upon Ferrol.
He was ready further to declare, that at the early
part of fast Campaign, it was the inteotion.of
IVlinisters to employ the Armament in conjunction
with our Allies, at' that time fighting upon the,
. Continent. •It occurred to His IVlajeky's Mini-
sters, acing in concert with the Allies of this
Country, that it would contribute to the common
Cause if the force of this Country was divided,
and that a part. of it was .to be employed-in the
Mediterranean, to keep the Coasts of France in
alarm, and that another part was to'he employed
on the Western Coasts of France for the-same
purpose, because France would` be then compelled
to allot a-considerable part of its force to defend
its Own Coasts, .which might otherwise' be em-
ployed against our 'Allies. He had no difficulty
in stating further, that Belleisle !vas the place
front which, if our plan had been successful,' our
operations were to be carried on against the Nor-
them parts of France, and that Minorca was the
place from which they
,were to be carried 'on in
the Mediterranean, He need not call to the re-
colleilion of the House , the change that was pro-
duced by the Battle of Marengo. Two objeCts
then engaged theattention'of His Majesty's Mi-
nisters. The first was, ,the threat which had
been made on-the -part of Spain to attack Porto-
gal, and the'other was, the dispositions. of the
Northern •Powersi which at that time began to be'
manifest. If 'it m.;as a desirable objet to provide a
defence for Portugal against the attacks aiSpain, he
did not see how it could be more etfettually attained
titan by alarming the Coasts of Spain. And if
there was a Confederacy of the Northern Powers
against us, he knew 'no.objeo more desirable than
to secure the Fleets'Which were in the Harbours
of Ferrol and Cadiz :* these were the objeas With
whiCh the Armament was undertaken. He wish-
ed to ask the Hon. Gentleman, whether Mini-
sters,havirig adopted this general plan, could at
in any other way than to lay the whele of the in-
formation which' they possessed before the Gene.
rals who were to he entrusted with the Expedi-
tion, and to desire them to consider how far, in
their opinion, the attempt was pradicable and
this the House had been told 'was the plan which
had been pursued, for the' Hon. General had
stated, that he' possessed all the information
which Ministers had obtained, and that with
that information he (lit,' go with a , rational
hope of success. When, therefore, it appear-
ed that such 'evidence had been laid before
Ministers :IS was approved of by the General
who was to command the Expedition, and when
the consequence of success would be that of pre-
yentingSpain from making any attack upon Por-
tugal, and taking time remaining part of the Fleet
belonging to °the former Power ; when these cir-
curnbtanees wkre considered,
/he did not think
that IViittisters cWould appear culpable in the eyes
of the House. The instructions; given were not
to go rashly, and mnake,attacks Without considera-