Star.
London, England, 1808-03-04 00:00:00

THE COPENHAGEN EXPEDITION.

The Order of the Day was then read, and
Lord DARNLEY ruse to make his promised motion respecting
the justice and morality of the attack on Copenhagen. The Noble
Lord cor.terded that the attack on Copenhagen and the seizure of
the Danish fleet; was a flagrant act of injustice and immorality, an
open violation of the Law of Nations, a dereliction of the prin-
ciples upon which Great Britain had hitherto acted, and which
gave her a proud consciousness in the justice of our cause, a con-
ciousness of which that act must now deprive her, • while it se-''
cured to her no advantages to counterbalance the injurious con-
sequences by which such an unparalleled ::nd unjustifiable attack
on the capital of an independent nation must necessarily ist at-
tended. '1 he Noble Lord concluded with moving an address to his
Majesty, setting forth the injurious tendency of that measure, to
prove the necetsity of which the documents laid on the table were
wholly imperfect and unsatisfactory.
I.crd ELLIOT rose to oppose the address. So far from any
fair ground existing in support of such an address, to him it ap-
peared that there was abundant cause to commend, instead of cen-
surirg the conduct of Ministers in that respect. Their Lordships
would recollect that this was a topic which had already been fre-
quently discussed, and that the question had been repeatedly sanc-
tioned by the decisions of that House. They would not now incur
the charge of inconsistency, and withdraw the approbation they had
already so often bestowed upon that measure, the design and exe-
cution of which had argued so much sagacity, foresight, promp-
titude, and decision on the part of his Majesty's Government. The
Noble Lord then took a survey of all the cireanr.stances which had
masked the transaction, and concluded with reading a Resolution
of approbation, which it was his intention to move, if the address
movedby the Noble Earl should be negatived.
Lord HOLLAND spoke at great length in support of the Ad-
dress. In all the papers that had been laid on the table to justify
the attack upon Copenhagen, he could only discover symptoms
of prevarication, weakness aad inconsistency, in the defence that
was set up fork. It was impossible that a knowledge of what was
Felled the Secret Engagements contracted at Tilsit could have been
the ground of that expedition. That information was said to have,
beerf circuitously obtained from Denmark, through Portugal and
Jreland. The Treaty of Task was concluded on the 7th of June,
and the Baltic expedition sailed from this country about the 18th
of July. Could then the alledged information have reached us in
that period through the channels to which it had keen ascribed ?
Absurd..--Equally ungrounded were all the arguments used to
prove the hostile mind of Denmark against this country.—
Denmark was represented as the instigator of the maritime con-
federacy of 1760; yet it was now well known that the Courts of
Berlin and of Spain had been the real Instruments in bringing
about that confederacy ; a fact which was clearly shewn by the
defence of Ids conduct laid before his Spanish Majesty, by his Mi-
nister, Count Florida Blanca, wherein the fact of the Court of
Madrid having instigated the Danish Government to enter into
that confederacy, was satisfactorily proved. The Noble Lord
also contended, that instead of being gainers, we should be losers
by the Baltic expedition; that the ships we had brought home
were unfit for British service ; or that to adapt them to that ser-
vice will prove more expensive than preparing for sea as many
British ships; while we had left Copenhagen with all her usual
facilities for constructing ships, collecting nayal stores, &e. toge-
ther with a population whose hearts and hands would for ever be
turned against us. In every view he could take of the measure,
there was nothing to prove its necessity, or to atone for its vio-
lence and Injustice. He must, therefore, vote fur the address of
his Noble Friend.
Lord BORINGDON expressed his intention to support the
Resolution proposed by Lord Elliot, and controverted and refu-
ted the assertions of Lord Holland.
Lord HOLLAND shortly explained--after which the question
was put, and the House divided on Lord Darnley's motion.
• Contents, - - present 26—Proxies 25 51
Non-Contents, present 56—Proxies 54-110
Majority - - —59
Strangers were not re-admitted after the first division ; hut we
understood that a short debate took place on Lord Elliot's Resolu-
tion, upon which the House again divided,
Contents, - present 64—Proxies 61-125
Non-Contents, present 29—Proxies 28— 57
Majority - -—6 B
Adjourued at Half-past Ten o'Clock.