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should have been placed in Spain in a situation, the only one which the country afforded, where it would have been safe from the risk of total loss or capture, and would not have been kept down by the idea that the deposit was too great for the country to hazard. This should have been the great foundation, the base-line of the campaign. On this the country might have given a loose to all its exertions, with the consolatory reflection that the greater its exertions, the greater its security; that the more it made its preparations effectual for their purpose, the less was the risk at which it acted. From this, other operations might have branched in different directions, as circumstances pointed out. It was scandalous that nothing had been ever done to assist our friends or annoy our enemies on the east side of Spain, where to a power having the complete command of the sea, the finest opportunities were presented, and had been most unaccountably neglected. Ministers had forgotten that there was such a coast as the eastern coast of Spain; that it was accessible every where to our ships; placed as the high road for the entry of troops from France; inhabited by the race of men who fought at Saragossa and Gerona: and on the other hand, that we had a large army doing nothing in Sicily, or who, if we were to attempt to employ them in the quarter where they were, must be employed in worse than doing nothing. For all operations in this quarter of Spain, Gibraltar afforded the most marked facilities.

With a large army stationed in

the south, the enemy could never know what detachments were slipping out behind us, nor with what descents they might be threatened in their rear or their flanks: the army needed never to have been idle: or, what was hardly less advantageous, to have been supposed to be idle. A great army assembled at such a nation would have had the farther advantage, that it would have given us an ascendancy in the Spanish councils, highly advantageous to them, and such as with tolerable good conduct, might have been made not less popular.

Mr. W. observed that the great and pregnant source of error in the conduct of the present administration, next to their misinformation and general ignorance, was, what they had in common with many other ministers, and what he had signally witnessed in some of his own time, their mistaking bustling for activity; and supposing that they were doing a great deal, when they were only making a great noise and spending a great deal of money. While they were writing long dispatches, issuing orders in all directions, keeping up clerks to unusual hours, covering the roads with messengers, and putting the whole country into a ferment, they were very apt to fancy that the public service must be making prodigious advances. It was thus too, they supposed, that an administration was to acquire the character of vigour! They looked at every measure, not with a view to the effect it was to produce abroad, but to the appearance which it was to make at home: and the public, it appeared, joined them heartily

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in the delusion; as if any military preparations could avail without a proper plan for the direction of military exertions.-Mr. W. concluded with expressing his determination to support the motion for an inquiry.

Mr. Ponsonby replied to some statements in the speech of the right hon. gentleman opposite. Lord Castlereagh said, that the government of Spain considered its salvation to depend upon the appearance of an English army in Spain, and yet gave no reason for the extraordinary delay of sending that army; or why, when it did arrive at Corunna, that government had given no orders for its landing. From keeping an army waiting for intelligence, what could be expected but defeat?-Mr. P. observed, that Mr.

Secretary Canning thought proper to pass over his speech in silence. He had not replied to one of his arguments; nor yet to those of his right honourable friend Mr. Windham.* Mr. P. therefore supposed that Mr. C. had prepared his speech+ before he heard either what he or his right honourable friend had to say.Mr. Ponsonby concluded by saying, that if ministers were sanctioned, and their councils approved by the house, they could expect nothing but similar results in future.

The question being loudly called for, a division took place: when there appeared

For Mr. Ponsonby's motion,

127.

Against it, 220.

*When Mr. W. sat down, the eyes of both sides of the house were turned on Mr. Canning,

+ Generally alleged to have been his practice in most of his speeches.

CHAP.

CHAP. V.

The Proceedings and Debates in Parliament, either retrospective or prospective-The prospective arranged into general Heads.-The House of Commons in a Committee of Ways and Means.-The Budget.―The Irish Budget.-Proceedings of the House of Commons on the Fourth Report of the Committee of Public Expenditure: which related to the Misconduct of the Commissioners appointed for the Disposal of Dutch Captured Property.-Resolutions on the Subject of Finance moved by Mr. VansittartAgreed to.-Abuses brought to light by the Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Revision-Resolutions moved thereon in the House of Commons, by Sir C. Pole-Negatived.Reports of the Commissioners of Military Inquiry-Enormous Abuses and Frauds.

HE campaign in Spain was brought into discussion, yet farther, in both houses, whether in the regular form of motions, or on a variety of incidental occasions. In the house of lords, February the 7th, the Earl of Grosvenor moved, that the house should resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the state of the nation; in doing which, the principal object he had in view, was the campaign in Spain, on which he proceeded to make his observations: contending that it ought by all means to be made a subject of parliamentary inquiry. On the 27th of March, to assist the house in deciding upon the measures adopted during the campaigns in Spain and Portugal.

The Earl of Rosslyn moved, "That a copy of all instructions and communications, which had passed between the three secretaries of state, and any of the ministers in Spain and Portugal, respecting the arrangement of military measures, and every provision for carrying them into effect, be

laid before the house;" which motion, it is superfluous to say, was negatived. Fresh discussion took place on these and other occasions. The subject was indeed of vast magnitude, and of an importance paramount to every other. But it is more than time to go on from the retrospective considerations and views of parliament, with regard to our foreign relations prospective; between which, however, there is a natural or intimate connection. Among the prospective proceedings of parliament are such as relate to finance, the grand spring of government; to external defence and internal tranquillity; and to national improvements, civil and political, economical and moral. Following this order, we begin with finance.

House of Commons, May the 12th. The house having resolved itself into a committee of ways and means, the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose, pursuant to notice, to submit to the committee a statement of the ways and means of the year. The committee, he

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He had next to state to the committee,

The number of seamen that had been voted for this year, 1809, was the same as that for the last, 1808, viz. 130,000 including 31,400 royal marines. The estimates, too, for the number of seamen and marines were precisely the same in amount with those of last year, though it had been thought desirable to make some alterations in the comparative amount of some of the branches. The allowance for wear and tear of ships, was last year taken at three pounds per man, whilst the provision for victuals was estimated at 17. 19s. per man per month. The latter estimate had been found to fall greatly short of the actual expenditure, whilst the wear and tear fell considerably above the actual expenditure: a guinea, therefore, had been taken from the allowance for wear, and added to the allowance for victuals. The army estimates, too, as stated by the secretary at war, were nearly the same as those of last year, with the exception of 200,000 arising from the actual increase of the establishment, which would be ascertained by comparing the estimates now offered with the last year's account. G

VOL. LI.

committee, and it was with satisfaction he should state the terms upon which the loan had been contracted for, that morning. The whole of the loan for the year was fourteen millions six hundred thousand pounds, of which three millions were for Ireland, and six hundred thousand pounds for the Prince Regent of Portugal, so that the loan for the service of England was 11,000,000l. This loan had been taken in part in the four per cents, partly in the three per cents, and partly in the long annuities. The particulars for every 100% subscribed were,

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upon this capital was 495,2211.; the total charge upon the loan was 651,345; making the grand total charge upon both operations 1,146,5667. Lord H. Petty had suggested the propriety of suspending the progress of taxation for three years. All those who supported the proposition of the noble lord, would, he was sure, approve the adoption of the principle for the present year, and think it a wise policy to abstain from new taxes to meet the charges arising out of the financial arrangements of the present year. It was not, however, proposed "that the whole of the charge s. d. should be defrayed out of the war taxes. There was a bill at present before the house, for the consolidation of the customs, by the operation of which, he expected to obtain an addition to the permanent taxes of 105,000: an addition, to nearly the same amount, was to be expected from the operation of the consolidation bill in the war taxes. The sum so gained would be applied in diminution of the annual charge: so that he should not have to apply to the war taxes for much more than one million. He had suggested the propriety of taking a vote of credit for three millions for England. An explanation of the manner in which that sum might be applied would not be expected. There was, however, one circumstance arising out of the present state of the Continent which he conceived to be his duty to communicate to the house. It was not, at the present moment, thought desirable that any de finitive arrangement should be

The amount of interest that would thus be paid on each 100%. by the public, calculating it upon the present prices of the respective funds in which the loan was contracted for, would be 4l. 12s. 10d. a rate of interest, at which the public had never before been able to borrow money-a rate at which it was hardly possible for any individual, however well secured, or prompt his payment might be, to procure a loan.

In a former part of the session he had submitted a proposition for funding eight millions of exchequer bills, which proposition had received the sanction of that house. The capital created by that operation amounted in the five per cents to 7,877,3087.; in the three per cents 386,3361.; amounting in the whole to capital created 8,258,6541. The total charge for management and sinking fund

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