The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-03-30 00:00:00

F 4 R ST AT RS MAN.

from ealumnistling tie brave soldier*, bet *Mete
bate, n he ought, all dm suffitrings of she Pres-
shin Monarchy to the incapatity of their Relent
sad Ceintnandele, The Right Hon. Gentlemen
had.q?oted some passages from a speech at his
extracted from a London Print Into the Mortilear,
as if some terrible punishment should be ingested
.by theFreoch Ruler on his subjects in consequence.
The [ion. Gent. newt not be apprehensive. Bona-
parte had acted, and will continue to do what he
plemed,without that Right Hon. Gent. being con-
suited. In the irruption of the French, under
Dumourier, into Helfand, all the towns alluded
to had opened their gates, except Willianistadt.
Both the Noble Lord and the Right Honourable
Gentleman had said, that they had nut ex.
rood so much resistance as lead been en-'
countered. He was sorry to couple the Noble
Lord with the Right Hon. Gentleman, bet hi an-
fl
swering. an Argument- urged, by both, however
reluctantly, he was obliged to couple
The lion. Gent. then showed that the progress of
the Expedition had out been retarded by the whole
having been blown into the Ruompot, es the tlivi,
skin of the Marquis of Huntley was to attack
Cadsand, and was prevented only by the want of
boats. The Hon. Member then took a view of.
the arguments of the Noble Lured (Castlereagh,)
who, he ehserved, in vain, bottomed himself
upon Lord Chatham and the Eapedition against 1
Rochefort, and then proceeded to.a height where I
he continued elevated, like the ,poor Monk on'
Pompey's pillar. .Leating the Noble Lord upon
his imaginary height, it would be easy to drive
Mtn Nen Ins.otber holds, when he •woeld be loft
bottomless. The Noble Loral had, however, tried
to bottom himself on Lord Chattier's! the great
Lord Chatham: Why, if the talent of the whole
Administration was united, and cempared with
the single intellect of that one man, it would
look as " Ossa to a Wait." Lord Chatham
dislodged a wretched and intriguing cabal; he
was dismissed from Office;. he relic superior to his
difficulties, gained strength from the fall of the
mean Administration which superseded him, and
raised England to the pinnacle of glory on which,
she stood proudly at the commencement of this'
reign. On such a man's acts, he feared the Noble
Lord could establish no precedent fur his conduct.
Failing here, the Noble Loid next bottomed him.
self upon General Wolfe! tenses! Wolfe went
to Quebec, must probably ignorant of his ultimate
destination ; but he succeeded in his designs,
• and General Wolfe stands, both for us, and for
tuners times, a model of enterprin and discre-
tion. Ow, hear !] • The next person to
whom the. Noble Lord had recourse was Lord
Nelson! Lord .Nelson had a foresight peculiarly
by own, to which he feared the present at-
tempted parallel was but ill suited : at dime-
kir he depended •on himself; he saw
that his ships could sail where those of the
enemy swam, and he made an attack on thaws
only one ship of as gallant U.caplain es any In the
navy went on shore ; and Nelson salt he was glad
of it, as it served the others as a . buoy ; he sue.
meded in his attack, and attained a glory, in the
comparison of which the present imbecility sunk
doubly. [hear, hear!] At Trafalgar, he im-
proved on the expedient of Clarke ; and at 'Co-
peekagen he confirmed all his former successes,
and established his future glory. On this man
either, it was to be feared, the Noble Lord enuld
find no bottom. The nest precedent chosen was
'the expedition to Egypt : that expctlidoo first was.
intended for Belleisle, and bad actually proceeded;
to Ferrol ; it went, however, to Egypt; and the;
event covered itbercromisie and his brave cuaJju.
tors with gluey. On this ales he feared there was'
no bottom. [hear, hear !] He did not know, la-
ded, where the prrsent Ministry could find a pa-
rallel. He would tcmind the House, however) of the
expressions of the Great Frederic relative to the
men who had preceded Lord Chathani. The House
;night apply them. " They were," said he, " a
batch of wretched little lawyers, presutning to com.
pare themselves to Prince Eugene, whom the great
Lord Chatham ousted." pear, hear, head]
Having in vain tried to baiter:a themselves, then,
upon great precedents, they had recourse to such
authority as existed among themselves ; and a
Right Honourable Gentle Man declared, that Gt.-
'weal Brow urigg gave an opinion in favour of the
Expedition. The fact was, however, he did no
such thing. The Right Honourable Gentleman
then said, the Dutch were sluggish, and would not
rebel. The General was here against him ; bat
the Right Honourable Gentleman used his evi.
deuce must conveniently ; affirming it where it
made for him, and totally disregarding it where
against, him. It was said, however, that they
wished to discredit this evidence. They eel.,
tainly did Ault ; they merely contrasted it .
with the evidence of others, and finding three to
rine against a gallant General, and the gallant Ge..
tiers! against .the Right lieu. Gentleman' klmseltt
the ArestAineolasiom ;infer eweir.-4-StraTtlct
• .11 ind came badly from those who thought pro-
per themselves to disregard Colette{ Gordon.
.it had been found out that Colonel Gordon
.was
young man without experience. Now, really he
would much sooner beu young man without expe-
rience, than an old man in the same situation. He
meant no disrespectful allusions, but he certainly.
bad no fear in putting the experience of 'Colonel
Gordon against that of LOrd Chatham—[/401]
By way of an excuse for the appointment of turd
Chatham, it had been said he had served heAme.
rice. This was not the case; he never had served
in America. lie had served, indeed, in 'the dig.
estrous campaign of Holland; and, as Sir David
Dundas had said, he had no doubt be had
behaved very bravely - there ; but -still that
was no reason for now. giving; him the eons-
.'nand of 40,000 men [hear !] • The Noble Lord,
hsweeer, had chosen to rely on his qwn judgment
head his appointments ; he disdained military
nions they were, in the Noble liottl's language,
I
like lawyers! opinions—lawyers, vrhu would first
deity the erdidity of a title.detal, and then rust and.
pnechsee the estate themselves. Why, what rogues
of lawyers must the Noble Lord time etteantoi
wide, Ekcar, ! hear, ! Year Whatin aspersiog
did he -cast upon lip old comptanions (hear 1
kyr a The Noble Lisrd disdained.
, .

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The,. Masao anecdote related of Bonaparte on this
*shine, when he went totals the command of the
army la Italy. He Weight with him a plea of -
the campaign, which had been digested in Paris;
this plin he read to his General Officers, and af-
ter reading it he tore it. He had a plan of his
own, and so had the Noble. Lord. The only
difference was, that the one prodeced vidtory,aud
the-other calamitous disgraces, for whith an in.
dignaut country was now demanding a iteageance.
[hear, heir 1] There was another anecdote re.
corded of Bonaparte, which would show his re..
spent fur miliiary opinions, and the description
persons from whom he chose to derive them. After
a failure in one of hi, eimpaigat, lie did not choosti
like the Noble Lord, to depend upon himself, nor,
' did be choose to depend either upon his Generals
pr Captains, but he collected his non-commissioned
officer% together, and abided by their decision.
Thu Noble Lord had, however, not only thought
proper to reject opinions in the first instance, bat
even now the common vocabulary could not sup.
ply him with a phrase strong enough to express
his ridicule of them ; he had absolutely coined a
new word to express his disregard of the evidence
of Sir William Erskine.; it was, (said this' Noble
Lard) grotesque and 46 chivalrous." It might
be dulness of comprehension in him, but homily
did not comprehend the term. " Chivalrous,"
however, as might bo Sir William Erskine, he
• was outwit to take kilo as Commander of his,
army, tinittio would glee General Brownrlgg to
the Noble Lord, and they would take the field
thus arranged—he had no tear for the issue; and
he saw by the Noble Lord's 'Smile, that ho was
willing to fight hini on his own terms. The cvi.
duce of his General he must defend from the im-
putations cast on it; and he had no hesitation in
pronouncing it as clear, distinct', and erudite, as
any he hid ever hear heard. It was now, most
consistently, discredited, because it was true ; and
all his predictions were ridiculed and denied, be-
cause every one of (Lem had been calamitously
realized. [Wear !] The Noble Lord had con.
demued them fur conceiving speculative campaigns,
and insisting that they should have been acted on.
Ile was content, however, to take the campaigns
of the Ministry themselves. They were two in
number; the first was thexanupaign of the Noble
Lord and General litownrigg. They commencsd
most. valiantly. On they went, fighting side fiy
side, and bearing down every impediment. No-
thing could withstand' them, until at last, unfor-
tunately, the Nobjle Liord advised the gallant Ge-
neral to take fire-brandr, proceed na the Scheldt
boldly, and burn the ships.—" Indeed (said the
gallant General) I am tired," and so ended the
exploits of the combined Commanders, and, the
glorious hopes whit* they had osigiosated:—[hear,
hear!] The other muipilige was that'of General
Crauturd ; and most valiantly did he cut and dash
at every thing before him, *oda most noble issue
bad he conjured up, when, alas !I the • slsion
vanished, and the army appeared perishiag in the
marshes of Walchereu The cainpsign of the
Noble Lord disdained any limitations of time; he
" was not bound to a day." Hare was a slight
difference between the plan of General Brownrigg
and his; the gallant General tees bound to a day—
aN his success depended upon being in such a plane'
ea a certain day; itud must dismally for. Ms nisi-
paign did it fall uutthat he timid ant laths utile*
of poseibillity arrive at that place on that day....
[Hear ! hear!)
.lle wool's!, for instance, in the
ardour of his fancy, buoy the, whole fleet lip the
.Scheldt asinine!, in a few hoots. This it reqnired
fully a week at lust to accomplish ; and thee the
General's famous plats fat to the ground, bocaese
lit was impossible. Hun in attempting to bear up
before Flushing,the two Admirals' ship timeshare ;
and had it nnt been for the panic of the enelliy,taight
have been instantly consented with red-hot shot.
Who would believe, then, that the gallant Gents 4,
ral' enterprising u he was, could ;inthly, in *„
few hours, bear up above one hundred ships,
through the more exteeded and'ilitficult navigation
of the whole river? There was, now that he had
disposed of the gallant General's' faiscifid cam-
paign, one circumstance in the evidence which he
must allude to, and which, in his opinion, sub.,
jected the Noble Lord, to the roost severe account.
It apphred that Lord Chatham did not Anew the
situation of the arsenals at Antwerp. Now, fioni
istelligence laid before the Secret Committee, it
alas pioved that the Noble Lord did. What was
treason ho did not, as in rely bound, Worm
rd Chatham ? (hear, hear !) How would lie
answer to the country, for this most culpable neg..
legit ? How could the Right Hon. Gentleniao
avert the still more serious responsibility of al.
lowing his incompetent colleague (as he conceived
him) to remain in office ?, (hear, 'hear!) He did
not wish, indeed, to produce ady comparison be.
tween the Noble Lord and the Right lion. Gee:
Oman. The Noble Lord bad, .the ugh that
Q ifrOgeessaaf—eisisea;seetiove; contrieto
in the most candid and minty manner ; • he had do.:
Glared he did not shrink from responsibility, and
he consistently voted .fire inquiry. (hear, hear I)
.Tke,Hight Hou. Gentleman, un the other hand,
WO affected candour, end acted with duplicity ; he
kat pretended that he seeght investigation, and
yee be voted staunch • against inquiry. Hu
1110WOOldoctl, talked of the benefits of this inquiry,
'when he could no longer avert it, anal pretend to
penegyriae that which could have no plod rem alt,
aimless it involved hies in• merited condemnation.
[hear, head] Since this inquiry had proceed-
ed, he had only au ecgret that the names of
the differaut Members did nut go forth coupled
with the questions which they had separately.
asked the witeesses • soesidering from whine many
of the questions had come, the effect would have
been extremely diverting. The Noble Lord, for
instance, hadosked Captain Woodrille (who had
surveyed the whole .country frem the top of a.
church steeple), what gpod he could foresee from;
the Expedition j Thu witness linswerod; ' none
at alt ;" [head]. Foiled in this, the _Noble
Lord begged of every one to tell what a desperate
weapon Cimgreve's rockets were. Nu* this 'vu
hardly feir ;it was like aOrailesman puffing off
goods, in which lath Ist coocern : but in the aid,
the Roble Lord. ludo wo see whatever of them
dntractive hatriestak is itupeoch. ffit begged witnisa 04
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