The Sun.
London, England, 1809-04-15 00:00:00

. .
ly produced or argued upon. tveil the depart,.
meat to which such a coreespondence Mole regular.
ly belonged, not believe that Much was known
of t he,nat nleof dm message upOn which the Noble
Lord had laid so much htreic; but whatever was
known would no • duubt be communicated, when
that point, cap te more immediatly under their Lord-
ship's consideration. With respell to the losses said
to be sustained by the British army in its retreat front
Salamanca to Corunna, an account of them had been
laid before the House in as. complete a shape as it
could well be made out" but he must entreat the
House.to remember, that in estimating these losses
they would take into the acconnt the losses sustained
in Portugal in the battles.of Roleia and Vimiera, as
well as what resulted from the retreat of the army to
Corunna, and the memorable battle at that place.—
The whole should bp erribraced in a comprehensive
view, and not frittered into 'separate and minute par-
ticulars. .

. .
Lord GOEY could not consider the points touched
upon by his Noble'Friend (Lord Auckland) as mere
matter of argument, betas questions which called
for a Mil and explicit explanation. Could any thing
.bentore important and urgent to ascertain than what
was the real meaning of the, Most important article
of the recent treaty with Stiain'? 'That article bound
this country to ,make nu peace 'with- France until
Ferdinand VII. or his lawful, successor, was restored
In. the thYone 'Spain. Why, in. the first place,
Ferdinand the Wlth was his right to the
throne in preterenee;to Charles IV. ? Or what au-
thentic information was the House in possession of
Yeapeaing that right) Charles IV. was said to have
abdicated in favo'rr of Ids son ; but did we know that
that abdication was a Voluntary one ?• Besides, if the
Spanish nation hid thought proper to make choke
of Ferdinand in place of his Whet', were we to ac-
knowledge and sanelion the-Propriety of that choice?
It was true, Ferdinand, would in the courseof things
have succeeded to his father as the lawful successor ;
but upon whitt ground did we sanction his actual
Towssion of the Supreme Power while his father
lived ? In this respect, the House were in possession
Of no accurate and official intbrmation; and there-
fore, in thus badingt he country to persevere in a war
fer his restoration, or that olltislawful,auccessor, he
held to be matter of the most serious consideration.
Ministers bad, however, in various documents,
described Ferdinand as Prince of Asturiasi ,upon
what ground. was it that they now conSidered, him
as the only legitimate .Sovereign of Spain, iii Whose
Cause we were to co-operate with the Supreme
"Junta of Spain'? if by lawmt successor was to he
understood any' persOn whom the Spanish nation
blight acknOwledge as their Sovereign, then it might
apply to the' present Usurper ; and in that case he
must join with his Noble Friend in considering, the
Treaty as wholly nugatory. On the stibjeCt of the
losses sustained by the,British Army in the retreat
from Salamanca, the 'House were by no means ac-
curately inforMed. In its consequeucesohat retreat
would be found to have proved extremely. fatal.
Such was the, extreme fatigue to which 'it exposed
both officers and men, that many of those who had
escaped Iran, Spain . had died since their return.—
These conscrtnences'tnest greatly aggraVate the ori-
ginal loss, and" in order to ascertain at mote accurate-
ly, he should on Monday. next for some addi-
tional accounts to that effea. • •
Lord AUCKLANII made some further observatiOns
on the dates of some of the articles of the treaty with
Spain, such as the date of the last article, widen
.purported 'to be of the 1 tst March last. It was itia-
possible that this article, at -least, could have been
ratified. It would therefore. follow that what was
before site House as a treaty, could not as yet be re-
gularly considered as such.
Lord LIVVRPOOI. seemed tnedmit the force of the
observation, but defeered any explanation respeding
it to a' future occasion.
Lord ORLY then obsersied, that in order to meet
the WisheS Of same Noble Lords to whom it was in-
ctinienient to attend on Tuesday nett, he would,
with the permission of the House, defer his motion
respecting the late campaign in Spain till this day
sennight; on ‘Vhich day he was determined to bring
it furwaru.

SIR j. VRADDoCK.,
Lord BIICICiNGHAMSIIIIIS rose",,to bring under the
'consideration of their Lordships the unpleasant Sittla-
Lion in which Sir.J. Craddock was now placed. Sir
.A. 'Wellesley
.had jnit been
,appointed to take the
commancl.of the British forces in Portugal, and that
at a moment the most crifical.,for thee • feelings and
.fame of the Officer who now commanded them.. Of
the military talents of Sir A. Wellesley, it was. itn-
poss*!ble for any ',Man to entertain .a higher opinion
than he did. Neither could any man
,feel more ad-
miration and esteem than he did tor. that gallant and
distinguished Officer. lie still, however, could not*
iluppress his feelings with regard to the cruel situa-
tion to which Sir J. Craddock must now be exposed.
Every measure adopted by Sir J. Craddock since his
arrival in Portugal, had, he believed, received the
folks' approbation of Governownt. It was such as
Might be expeCted Itunt an ()dicer who had so ably
himself in in(!ia,. in Egypt, zt:.c. and
which was disiingui„ilted.by such flattering. testimo.
1004 front Lord Hutchinson, and tad distio•
guiAtri Commanders. in4ler whom, he had served.
As to the insiouatiems which had gone_ Wood, le-
imprudent Measures tot his part respeNing
the •Native troops, he took upon himself to assert,
that in no one in stair 'lntd,Sir J. Craddock acted
in alnaiiner repugnant toltheir feeljtigs, or:contrary
to the customs of the 11:11ive IteepS.. , There' were
docuttwilts which he Might bring forward to prove
these assertions, and he was certainly' prepkireil
to take every step fur the vindication of the costae-
ter of an honourable Officer, which,. to hien, on
many accounts, WO3 extremely dear. What was
thepreSellt. Sittthtiou Portugal ? By the intelli-
gence arrived t his day, it appeared that Oporto Was
now its the hands of the French. He had also in•
formation on which he Could rely, that a large hos-
tile army was now pouring into Portugal,
and that
they were alrttatty on their march against LiSbon.—
That such was the impression made by the idea en-
tertained there of Ole numbers and strength of this
hostile force, that it had been in agitation to re-em-
bark the British troops io that country, and to leave
it to its fate) that such, however, were the exer-
tions made by Sir J. Craddock to eollett the British
force, ond se to station it as to prepare a decided re-
sistetieo to Jthe enemy, that the. resolution of aban.,
doning the country was givert,up.- Alter all these
efforts on the part .of Sir John Craddock, and at a
womakt. when such a proved of adding to 'his tni-