The Sun.
London, England, 1810-02-02 00:00:00

th,;o9'ssesi,ion -of the enemy under Ney and Sot,lt,
and - were menaced by 'Vidor. The-Noble Lord
left the Taps in the posse4siOn of General Mai:kw).

zie, with ash Out twelve thonsand men, and Marched
on to Spain: It would 13.2 recolleded that ;the tem.:
per of the country at that time would not permit,
.his remaining inactive. The,instruaions which the
Noble 'Lord received was to relieve Portugal. , What
WartlS- situation 'after he • left MrantOs to join
Cue,sta, with whorn'heNwas to co-operate ? At that

time he '1)1 received inform. anon ihat thv bade of

Aipein had been f6ught,. and ke.ponceived that it

was the precise momat when-the Oman's might
free themselves (or antearThake an attempt of that
nature) from the yoke of France. In that situation
of -things, the Noble Lurd imagined that he was

juAifiedin rendering that assistauat which his in-
strudions anthorisoi tcido; eoniiStent with the

safety of Portugal, ,which was. The • first Objeet.—
Cuesta was expressly desired notto:go furtlitr than.
the Alherche, until he knew what uete the inten-

tions of the French army in thtt North of

The relief of Ferrol was owing to the movrnieirts Nf
the Noble Lord, and it was entirely.owing to those

circtitrislances that we had at this motpent a fleet ill

the harbour of

-Cadiz. Sy these rridveme the

enemy were competled to draw all their forces frtim
the North of Spain in order to meet him.at.Tala-
_

volt, The avack was begun on. the -23 d of July,

and he knew that if Cuesta: did 'not him that

, .
General Vanegass, was to move on to Argandti with
a corps of 2.5,000 men ; instead.of marching to that
point, Vanegas took post at Toledo, whither Sebas-
tiani was also posted. It had heeii said tha-t. SOnit's
army had woved doN,vn to the Tegns to the arnotiht;

in point of numbers, of ,31,000 ; that was an error,

fur there never was more :than 4000; the army

. ,
which adually was engaged there k'ere the cone=
billed forces of Ney, of Matier, and anothei Gene-
ral, whose naine.he did not. recollea. The Noble
Lord insisted that there: was nothing which could
be stated with respeCt to the campaign that could
deprive Lord 'Wellington of his Well-earned 'botiotirs
at the battle of Talavera, or of that character whiCh

he possessed for great military prudence, and for au-
dacity and boldness in action. A battle more dig-.
tii3guished for its brilliancy. could not be formd in
history. The battle: of Agincourt, to which the
Honourable General had compared it, this House
knew little of, and therefore could not sufficiently
appreciate its merits. It would require- •something
mere of ingenuity. than, the Hon." Geueral had dis-
played in his reasoning before he could strip the
Noble Lord of one of his laurels. A battle so
brilliant-had hardlY occurred, in which two armies;
after fighting , bravely, remained for two days in
sight of each other. -lt, was a battle fought: with
Unequal numbers. if my Lord Wellington court-,
ed- it, then indeed' his condo& might furnish
subject for- comment; but he 'had not courted
it. The aaion was commenced ,by. the enemy.
Instead of there being a force to cu-operate -of
45,00'0 Spaniards) Only 26,600 appeared' to assist.
The Noble Lord then descanted; in' eloquent 'lan-
guage, on the progress of the contest: No inter-
mission:had taken place in the struggle-7-A was con-
tinued through the day, and when night set in, a
shorn interval only was afforded for repose, from
which the arthies rose to.renew .the 'combat ; when
the soldiers of the opposing armies met, by , the
brook; on the ensuing morning to drink, they shook
hands, as became -valiant men;' and then renewed
the desperate conflict. This meeting was an ear
nest that if our brave troops fell into the hands of
the enemy, they would meet good treatment, and be
respected by them. To say that 'such 'a Conflia
was not' calculated. to call forth the \feelings of the
House, and' that the decision of-such a battle,' ho.;•
nourable to the valour and skill of Lord Wellington,
was-not to be tnet with rewards, was but an ill
requital for deeds .of military bravery. The Noble '
Lord deprecated any such ideas—he 'deprecated •any •
attempt to lessen, that military ardour which• had
placed the'charaaer of this nation in so high a point
of view, and had rendered us a formidable opponent'
to France. With respett to. the loss, he should on
a future day call for the rettlin, when. it would'
found, that the battle had been obtained with very
little loss, the numbers killed and wounded (iiclud-'
ing the 1500 sick which had Hien into the hands
of the French) did not exceed 6000 rriert Taking
into consideration the whole of the merits of Lora-
Wellington; it appeared that he had matched his
army a most difficult route from Coimbra to Bada-
joz, a distance of upwards of twelve hundred miles,
with little loss. Soult lost one-third 'of his army,
and didnot save a single piece of cannon. The No-
ble Lord had-no disposition, although he was aware
that responsibility attached to Member's higher
in office, of taking it on himself. The Military "cha-
racter of my Lord Wellington was not to be esti-
mated alone by the' battle, of Talavera ; : he 'had
fought battles, and successful ones, in -all parts of the
world„at Assaye, at Roleia, at Vimeira, gene,-
rally'againstsuperior, numbers. Whenever he had
met the enemy, he had defeated them.' He•was
still in the vigour of life,- and his country might ex-
peat .he would • add to his victories. The Noble
Lord concluded a very eloquent speech (which our
limits will not allow us to detail) amidst the univer-
sal cheers of the House.

Mr. WHITBREAD congratulated the House that
Lord Wellington had found sucli,an eloquent sup-
Toner in the person of the Noble Lord. It was
impossible, however, not to lament the British `
blood which had been sacrificed by the incapacity
•and folly of Ministers. The Hon. Gentleman con-
tended that Lord Wellington had strewn want of
judgment in not taking care to provide for the sus-
tenance of the army before he ventnred,to march.
'lt was that care which' rendered the armies of Boo-
:naPai te so-conspicuous. • With respe6i to the battle
,ofTalaera, that, Mr. W. maintained, he was juslitied
in considering
{as " a
,surprise upon the Noble Lard.,
;He referred to various passages in the dispatches, in
which it was evident that Lord Wellington • had not
:reconnoitered as became a skilful General. With
every disposition to praise and acknowledge the
'bravery, of the Noble bird; he could not consent to
vote Thanks to him.
Lord CASTLEREAGH explained. ,
General CEA:FORD spoke in support of the mo;-
tion, and expieiSed himself happy in having it in his
power to offer a tribute of applause to one of the
most glorions.feats which ever graced the history
military achievements, and to gi% e the humble mead
of his praise to 'a great, distinguished, and glorious'!
brother officer.