The Sun.
London, England, 1810-03-03 00:00:00

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on Lord Chatham,, and-hold- him up . to public cen-
sure -and obloquy-.. .In thus speaking of Lord. Cha-
tham, he wisheilto be speaking from himself alone.
,He was in noitabits of intimacy oath that Noble
E ,r 1
.; "indeed, previous to that Expedition, he had
scarcely any atquaint-ance wit t; him. He Must there,
tore he understood in any thing-shim had said concern-
ing he,wh.ole of these transactions,-to have spoken
solely teem his own Opinton,and riot to be imagined to
advancesa-wOici. from any previous confelenee with
that Noble Person on the subject Of the Expedition.-
He wont-id again repeat his conviction that DO charge
was c- et- intended by one service against the/other,
and ihit consequently-he could not conceive that
any 111-%v bad been excited between thetn.
LordHOLILkNi) oti;erved, thit question be-
fore them rniist, be considered with a reference to
two distin6t dricumehts.— the public diSpatcheS froth
`the Cormiranders of the Expedition, and the priVate
Narrative presented by Lord Chatham to his Ma-
jesty. 'The answer which his. Majesty had been ad-
vised to give to the-Address of ,t;te. City of Lendon
involved this' dilemma ; either- that his Ma-
jesty's Mieisteri had 'deceived ,his Alajcsiye„ or
that 'they had themselves been. deceived by one of
their, osvif . colleagues. _ Either they had not been
informed by their colleague -that he was dissatisfied-
with the- conduet WI the naval- tart of 'the Expedi-
tion ; or, having received from him - that.intorma-'
tier), ihey hadwithheid it from his M eest:;, ; for- it_
was iinpossi'Dle to conceive; that had his lajestY
knoWn 'tire iniptititions -which, were thrown out by
the Commander in Chief of- the Land Pones in the
Expedition, on his associate conim.in.ier of the"
Navy, he would have told the City of Londonlhat -
he did not ' think any 'inquir, into' the general con 7
dud of that _Expedition to be at all uecessary: r II:it
slu'iuld turn out that his Majesty's Ministers had not
ieujoyed the confidence of their c:olieague, he would...
say,:that were it pu4sebie for him -to etitertaincorri-
pa,sion for individuals whoSe condua demanded in-.,
dignation rattier,than•pity, be should feel it for his.
.MajeAy's Ministers,•degraded as they - would be by
suety an avowal. then appear that the
existence of that' secret influence, that unconstitu-
tional influence which had so frequently been es-
serted, and as frequernly' denied, was proved beyond
the- posSibility pf doubt. , -
The Earl .of WESTMORLAND declared_ that hiS'
Majesty's present Ministers were,dezermined never
to shrink from their duty.by an endeavour to re-
move theresponiibility Which ought to rest on_thern
upon the shoulders of arty other individuals. The
present questionlay_•in a very. narrow Compass. As
tt<td been truly stated by the NoiAe Barop who had
jut spokeo, it must be determined upon a consider-
ation Of the doculnents on the table. But what were
those documents ?'The public dispatches alone, most
unquestionably. On an examination of those dis-
patches, he defittd any' nitt%to adduce a , single in-
stance of the necessity of 4!?inqiiiry into condu&
of either, the Military or Naval Commander of the
_Expedition; and he could not conceive, therefore,
how it was possible -to 'adviSe his Majesty to give
any other•-enswer to the Addres of the City of
London than that which had actually been given.—
With respeCt to the NarratiVe, that had been pre-
sented to his Majesty by Lord Chatham, he by no.
means allowed that it deserved the 'reprobation, which.
had been bestowed upon it. It must be recolleCted,
-that on this subject the:interests of the Noble Earl
and those.Of sins colleagues might be at variance.
,That which might exculpate him might- inculpate
them,as that which might inculpate hind might excul-
pate theme A Noble Earl hadon a former oCcasion very
compassionately expressed his apprehension that the
present Administration did -not possess the cgriti-
7,dence -of the Crown. He begged to relieve the No-
ble Lorti train such painful anxiety, by assuring
Lim that-they were themselves perfectly at ease on
hiat score. • As to the inquiry into the Expedition
itself, his Majesty's" Ministers felt the utmost con-
fidence that its result would bein the highest de-
gree satisfadiory. He was convinced, that so tar
would Ministers be from'being proved not to haVe
done their duty on this occasion, that had they not
availed themselves of the great resources of the coun-
try to engage in an enterprise of the magnitude and
insportance of the Expedition to the Scheldt; they
might justly have been charaeterised as fit and he.,
rediiary successors to all the torpor and imbecility
of their predecessors in office.
Earl- GaE‘t expressed his astonishment that the
Noble tar' should anticipate any satiOattion from,
the result of an inquiry into- an Expedition so com-
pletely disgraceful; so extensively CalarnitaS as,
the Expedition tb the Scheldt, an. Expedition by
which the national honour had been degraded,
and which bad • converted almost every house,
in the country- law " a house Of •mourning."--.--
The Noble Earl (Liverpool) had declared that the,
Expedition had 'failed' in consequence of A departure
from the original plan. -Why then advise his Ma-
jesty to tell the Ciiy of London that no inquiry was,
necessary when, if there ever be a groUnd for an',
inquiry inn) the conduct of any enterprize, a de,
parture fromthe-original plan upon which the en-,
terprize was undertaken must be that ground ? The
Noble Earl had then stated-the difficulty Of ;Institut-
ing an inquiry in a case in 'which ,the military and
naval services were combined; and in which dif,
ferent' Courts, Must necessarily be resorted to. To
this objection he could allow no validity. whatever,
lf, on the
~,face of the original dispatches- the ut-
most culpability had been apparent, he would ask
the Noble Earl whether an inquiry would; not have
been impertonslY demanded, notwithstanding • its
having • been a Joint service?—" But,'! said the
Noble Earl,' "-the dispatches themselves 'did not
edntain any thing to warrant an inquiry." The
Noble Earl had, however, very dexterously omitted
to notice the bearing of die Narrative-of the'Earl pf
Chatham on the subject ; q bearing, the 'force of
which had been so 'ably illustrated by. his -Noble
Friend near him, that he could not repeat his argu-
ments to the ROUSe.
• Lord INIULGRAVE entered into an able defence of
tlie.eonduCt of Sir Richard' Strachan, which be
considered, as wholly free from the slightest pos-
sibility of imputation. He had been induced to
give the advice which he had given lo his Majesty.
on the subject' of the answer to the Address of the
City-'of., London
_by a conviction impressed. on
hi's mind by it-most attentive, perusal of thedis-
patches, and which nothing had.
_since occurred to
alter, that no blame was imputable to either of the
Commanders for the result of the Expedition. He
declared' not only that he had- never seen or heard