Star.
London, England, 1809-01-20 00:00:00

aen a ship sets sail, it
carries all within itself of which it expects to stand in
need, but how different is the case with an army just
landed on the shores of a foreign country? But it
might be, that if we landed an army on his princi-
ples, it should stand about as still as this country did
stand during the period of the last Administration,
when the Right Hon. Gentleman and his friends were
in power. But supposing that we had landed our army
at Santander,. or Gijon, or Bilboa, or St. Sebastian,
which is still nearer to the Pyrenees, I can assure
the Right Honourable Gentleman that there would
hAve been the greatest inconveniences, and indeed in-
surmountable difficulties to their advancing. This
he might know from the circumstances that attended
the army of General Blake, and the necessary dis-
persion of the soldiers from the want of sufficient
means. Our army could not have taken positions
there, and might now have come back ; and of all
imaginary campaigns that have entered into the minds
of people in this country, the most preposterous, per-
hips, is that of a campaign in the Pyrenees; a: least I.
believe, such as no military man ever set his face to.
Although the French troops were not strongly re-
inforced, yet they were preparing their march from
Paris, and from more distant situations, and the
knowledge of such preparations would not have jus-
tified our measures. With respect to our option
of effecting a landing in Spain or Portugal, the
Right Honourable Gentleman had said that our
army appeared to go out to Portugal to seek its for-
tune. Whether the object was gain or not, I assert
that it did not go out on such a principle ; but
that it went to the Tagus, and not to Corunna.•
—The Noble Lord then proceeded to' state, that
a degree of discretion was given to the gallant
Officer who commanded the British force sent out
from Cork, and that the object there was founded, in
some part, on the information received from Sir
Charles Cotton, but which proved erroneous, that
with five thousand men he could get into the Tagus,
and gain all the naval means that the port of Lisbon
offered to the French. The Noble Lord then pro-
ceeded to notice the observations which had been made
on the answer given by his Majesty to the address of
the City of London. He was sure that it would be
difficult to persuade the City of London that it was
not a sense cf public duty that dictated that answer,
and that it would be their last consideration to think
that there was any disrespect intended to them in that
answer."

Mr. WHITBREAD said, that he had no intention
of answering all that had fallen from the Noble Lord,
A great part of his speech had been taken up in plan-
ning imaginary campaigns, in order to flew how ri-
diculcus they would be. He could not agree with
t!le Noble Lord as to the happy result of the cam-
paign in Portugal, although he felt as strongly as any
man the glory which had been gained at Vimiera, and
which, indeed, elated the spirits of every man in the
country. The Noble Lord, however, must recollect,
that that which was brilliant in the campaign had
been announced for weeks before the Park and Tower
guns had been fired to announce the Armistice and
Convention. The Noble Lord asks us, " What !

would you not rejoice at the successful termination of
the campaign in Portugal i" The answer, however,
w.s obvious. It was impossible to rejoice at that
which was a subject of deep regret—that the cam-
paign in Portugal should have terminated by such an
Armistice and Convention. The Noble Lord had
said, that the City of London had been mildly and
moderately reproved for condemning without infor-
mation. Not to speak of the mildness or moderation
of the reproof, he must sae, that it was extraordinary,
:hat precisely the thing or which the City of Lon-
don was reproved, Parliament was now called upon to
co. [Cries of hear hear I) They were then called
rpcn to concur in that part of his Majesty's Speech
bleb expressed disapprobation of some of the Arti-
c. Es of the Armistice and the Convention, without any
h formation at all upon the subject 'being before the
licuse. It appeared to him, that no inconsistency
c uld be greater than that. He should not go into
a discussion of the details of the equipment of the er-
r edition but common rumour reported that there
was a difference of opinion between the Goveinment
;Ltd the Commander in Chief upon that subject,
acd that the latter asked in vain for cavalry and
1-.( rses to draw his artillery, and was finally obliged
to buy many of them at his own expence. He could
not 'kip noticing and condemning the light and fan-
ciful manner in which the Noble Lord spoke of our
campaign in Spain. When it was' considered that
one of the greatest armies which this country had ever
stt in the field was now in Spain ; that it was under
an Officer of the first merit in his profession, and that
nevertheless it was under the necessity of retreating ;
%,ben it was considered, that news had arrived this
very day of Bonaparte, with an army three times su-
perior, hovering near it, and threatening its right
wing ; and when it was also considered, that perhaps
Letore the Hottse should break up that night, it Is as
not improbable that intelligerice might arrive of still
greater calamities, he did not conceive the Noble Lord
was justified in talking so lightly of our operations in
Spain. Hemustdeclare, that thg country was now corn-
ing to that state, wlfetherby the mismanagement of Mi-
nisters, or by the force of events, that party-consi-
derations must cease [cries of hear! hear!) He should
rejoice much to find that Ministers could clear them-
selves from any charge of mismanaging the resources
of the country, and prove that all the disasters which
have recently happened, proceeded only from that
course of events which was beyond their controul.—
If, however, these disasters should appear to proceed
f ona the misconduct of Ministers, he thought the
House should demand condign punishment on their
heads. He could not blame the Ministers for sending.
e British force, in the first instance, to co-operate with
the Spaniards ; but since then, they had had time
enough to consider whether the sending a British army
into Spain was likely to be of any service ; or whe-
ther, on the contrary, the retreat of it would not do
a positive mischief, by disheartening the Spanish Pa-
triots It was now doubtful whether we had not been
proceeding on false informat oa all along, both with
respect to Spain and Portugal. We were not now so
sure as we formerly thought ourselves, of the feelings
of Spain ; we were not perfectly content with the re-
ception which we had met with in the different pro-
vinces of that country. The Marquis de Romana
complained of the reception which the inhabitants of
the North gave to the French troops, which made it
sccm as if they would be well content that the French

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