The Sun.
London, England, 1810-01-24 00:00:00

Duke of Portland eamointo office.; but in tleciding
upon the chargter of an Administration, it was ne-
cessary to compare their claims with those of others,
and he should be .glad to know what reason there
1 , was .to suppose that the state of this country Was'
worse, with regard either to its foreign or domestic
• - relations, Under their Adhiinistrstion, than it would.
. ' have been if the Gentlemen opposite to him had re-
• tnained in office.? , Russia, indeed, when the Duke
of Portland's Administration came. into office, was at
war with France, but she soon made peace; and
became the Ally of, Franee ; but no blame could be
• attributed to the Noble-Duke or'his Colleagues for
the Treaty of, Tilsit; indeed, from the language of
Russia (who constantly com Pained of the preceding
. Administration, for their unwillingness to make any
. exertions in the common cause), it is obvious• that
the defedion of Russia must be attributed to them.
He knew it would be said, that it arose,frotri the
t armament which had been sent against Copenhagen ;
but did any map seriously'believe that there'was no-
,thing in the Treaty of Tilsit which would have in-
, duce(' Russia to take part .with France, eved if .the
armament tO Copenhagen had not taken, place ? The
_only:difference would' have been, that if that measure
had net been, adopted, we should have all 'the.
Northern Powers against us - with
.much greater
means of annoyance than they now possess, and
that we should have been shut out of the Baltic' in-
stead of having the command of that Sea. With
respe& to the affairs of the Peninsula, he could
not tell how the Hon. 'Gentlemen opposite to him
.would have aeed, if they had remained in office,
but he was inclined to think that upon every prin-
t' ciple of policy and feeling_they would have felt it
expedient to.give every assistance in their poWer to
Spain. Judging, however, as well as he could of
.the state of the world, he was firmly convinced
that the state of Spain was much better - now, as
far as concerned this country, than it was when the
Duke of Portland's Administration came into office.
Nay, if France' should conquer, Spain, an eient
which he sincerely deprecated, she twould hold that
country in a manner which would afford her much
less means of annoying this- country than she did
then. France then drew immense supplies from
Spain; and- in feet commanded all her resources,
pecuniary, naval and military. It was unnecessary
to point out how different the case was now,
or even how different it would ,be if France
should succeed in her -atrooiOus designs against
Spain. Having said, thus much, he should now
advert to a subjeEt which would certainly be much
better discussed when the materials were before tha
House. He. had been asked, what were the means'
ing of that part of the Address relative to' the In-
qiury ? It did not appear to him that it required any
explanation. 'The Address certainly did notpledge
the House to institute inquiry, bu it did not pre-
vent it; it left that point open toithe'decision of the
House, when the documents, were produced'. Cer-
tain information would be laid before the- House,
and then it wouldbe for the House to decide w'he-
ther it would, call for more, whether it would insti-
tute an inquiry at the Bar, whether it, would order
an inquiry in a Committee, or whether it would
institute any inquiry at all- With respeo to the
Expedition to the Scheldt, that subjed had been so
ably discussed by his Noble Friend (Lord Castle-
reagh), and by his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. tan-
ning); that it was not necessaiy, for him to say
much about. it. He wished; however, that the
House would bear in mind the state of Austria, of
the 'Tyrol, and of the North of Germany, at the
time that Expedition was undertaken,, and he was
sure that Gentlemen would admit the proprietyiand
even the necessity, of attempting some diversion to
distraa the power of the enemy'. The, Honour-
able Gentleman had stated,
_that there was a 'differ-

• • s
once of' opinion ..between the- language 'of the
Speech and that of his Right Honourable Friend
(Mr.. Canning). There appeared, however, :to be
no difference- whatever between them. The Expedi-
tion would not have been undertaken merely,for the
purpose of destroying these works ; but- it by no
means followed that it was not a very desirable
object to attain, and he was sure tbat when the'
question came,to
,be examined, it . would not be
found .to be one Of slight consequence. " The Hon.
Gentleman had stated, that the destrUCtion of these

works was a matter of little •importance to France.
He wished to know how the Hon.. Gent. knew that

fact ;, to him it appeared a -matter (livery great im-
portance ,to deprive the enemy,lor two or three years,
of the uad of a most important naval station. But
the expedition had undoubtedly d much greater ob-
ject,viz. the destruction of the French Naval force in
the Scheldt, and their naval arsenals. Gentlemen, he
believed, were not, aware of.,the extent of the Fre'och
•Naval'fdree in that -quarter : nine or ten sail of the
line had actually been launched, and an equal num-
ber were in a state of preparation ; it surely then
could not require much. argument to shew the pro-
priety of making the. greatest 'exertions to destroy
such a force.. When that expedition was undertaken,
Ministers did not look, upon its accomplishment as

certain, neither did they think it would have the,ef.

feCt of making Buonaparre withdraw a large portion
of his troops from tLe Danube ; but they did think
that it would have the effect nt preventing him from
drawing reinforcements thither, and cottidering how
nearly the armies of-France and Austria were at one

time balanced, it surely would have been a most lin-

portant service to Austria to prevent Buonaparte from
reinforcing his, armies . with 20 or 25,000 men.
This would have been a most desirable object, even
afier the armistice was concluded. Upon this
point, whatever might,be the opinion of the Gen-
tlemen opposite to him, he was .happy to say, that
Ministers had the evidence of Austria in their fa-

your for it was a fact that Austria had approved of
the expedition, and hid even sent to request that the
island of Waleheren -should not be given up, as it
would afford the means of making an important
diversion in her favour, if hostilities should be re-
newed. With regard
,to the,appointment of Lord
Chic-' ham to the command of the expedition, the Gen-

ilemen,opposite Lad 'indulged, themselves in some
_ _

observations which he thought might very well have
been spared.. They must be aware that if an ingtiry
was to take place, it was most essential to ju4tice
that,it should take place:.without any prejudication
of the individuals. He would osk these Gentlemen
whether they, considered it as fair, &cause a man

"was 4n adversary in politics, that he was to be at-

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ticked in such a Matinet, and his' military chat
ter assailed, without any inquiry whaiever.,
Host, General opposite to him (Tarleton), would,l►
was sure, feel himself most unjustly treated, if
military condu& was attacked merely on ~the sco
of his politics, and if he were to be condemned on
heard. Upon this point he should only make
more'observation„ viz, that the result of the ingo;
would in a great measure decide the question 0°
tive to the propriety ,or the impropriety of the .0'
pointment of that Noble Lord to the commaed
the Expedition. He could not, also, upon this oc:
casion, avoid expressing his regret at the manner
which' another Noble Lord (Wellington)
been - attacked- in his absence ; if this prat'icol
were persisted in, it old damp the ardour, 0
check the spirit of our Officers, for they would r
out to fight the battles of the country with the Pie'
lancholy cotiviaion that however great their exec'
tions might
,be, their political .adversaries would iQ
their absence eagerly seize npon , every little eves'
that could be construed ieto adisaster, for the pet'
pose of Wounding their feelings, and attacking that.
chara6terS. The Hon. Gentleman who Mad second.°
the Address had also, in his opinion,, in an uniustifil
able inanner, commented 4011sereeral military 015'
cers employed on most important services In Spain,b
had called them military missionaries. Surely it could
not be supposedt hat gentlemen of high private!chariC-:'
ter and professional reputation could feel any thingslike
a.personal interest in keeping up the delusion, as it
was called, with respect to the real state of Spiv.
But in the whole of the speech of the Gentleman to
whom he was row alluding, there was no part which
he more sincerely regretted than that part of it ie
which he spoke of the affairs of Spain,. and of the
exertions of the Spanish people.- • Did-the defenders '
of Saragossa and Gerona deserve the epithet',
which the Honourable Gentleman had bestowee
upon them. He begged the House to • look at tits
nature of Ole contest whiche Spain had to sustain,
and at the resistance sloe had so )long made to Of
immense force employed by France against her
and he would then ask, .whether the gallant people
of that cotintry deserved the abuse 'which had iteeti•
heaped upon them ? Spain was not yet subdued,
,nor was she fleapit : her spirit was not subdued, nor
,were her resources exhausted. Surely then such lan-
guage ds they had heard that 'night, qught not ta
have been used ? He begged to ask what effect that,
language might produce in Spain, if it was
believed by the. Spaniards that such was thee
opinion entertained of them br the people and
the Parliament of England. But even supposing,
that the contest in which Spain was now este-,,
gaged could be looked on merely on British
grounds, still we were bound by every principle of
policy to give them as much assistance as we could,
as the most effeetual mode of weakening the power
'of France. With respeft to the - late campaign,
he could not agree with the Honourable Gentle-
men on the other side of the 'House ; he could
not. agree that in any instance disgrace had fold
lowed. our arms. The movements of General Moons
had, he was convinced, saved the south of Spain in
1808 ; the march of SirArtlicr Wellesley bad saved
it in 180 g. An Hon. General opposite to him had
given a confident opinion that Portugal 'could not be.
defended with 30;000 ; but the Hon. General
seemed to forget that there was a o...tive force of
40,000 Portuguese, trained and disciplined by British
officers. There was only one pip t more to which.
he wished to advert, the HOnourafile Gentleman-,
who spoke' last had asked his Right Hon. Friend
(Mr. Canning, when he had not an opportunity of
answering, w /ether he had not kept from Parlia-
ment last hsession a document_ which would
have justified Mr. Erskine for signing the Treaty
with America. If there existed such a document it
had escaped,his recollection, and he was convinced
that whoever had given the Hon._ Genflernan his
information- had misled -him. When this sub-
jeCt was • undor discussion last session his Right
Honourable Firiend (Mr. Canning) bad stated •
his reasonstfor producing the document which was
then produced* viz: to justify his Majesty's Govern,.
ment for refusing to agree to the Treaty signed by Mr.
Erskihe. He produced the instructions.sont to that
'Gent; to sheW that they did not warrant him in sign-
ing that Treaty. His Rt. Hen. Friend also states, at
that lime that what he was then saying, was not in-
tended as an attack 'upon 'Mr. Erskine, but that there
were other documents which might be produced if
that Gent. 'felt them necessary for his justificatiob..
Upon the whole be was convinced that the House .
could not agree' to the Amendment, even upon the
:grounds stated by,a Right Hon. Gentleman opposite
te. him (Mr. -Bathurst) and it -would. Sae that the
Amendment did not pledge it either to enter into an
inquiry, or tu'avoid one, nor did it pledge the, House
to any opinion, upon any-one point, of the concluti
of-Ministers.

Mr. TIERNEY spoke at some length, and ‘Vas re_
plied to by Mr: • Wharton.'

The House then divided on '-the; Amendment,
when the nurnpers were,
For Miniters. - - 2,3
For the Ammdment
Majority -
The AddreSs, it originally stood, was then car-
Tied withoet a division, and at Hail-past Five o'clock
the Rouse adjourned.

THE SU N.

SOLISI QUIS DICIKS FALSUAS AUDtILT ?

LONDON,
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1810.

Our Falmouth Letter, dated the. 21st instant,
says, —H s Majesty's gun-brig Crocus arrived here
yesterday, having recaptured a pani'bh brig ftern.
Alicant bound to London, laden *ith Spanish wool.
She was] taken, on the 16th instant, by a
French schooner . privateer of sixteen' guns, a
few leagues to -the west -of &illy, which priva-
teer had also captured five others, among 'which was.
the Greyhound lugger, of Guernsey. The Master and
five of the crew were on board the privateer.