216] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1S12. 



and be proportioned to the demand 

 made upon it from other quarters ? 

 He desired to know what addi- 

 tional exertions could have betn 

 made. They had, in effect, grown 

 with the progress of the war. 

 Three or four years ago it would 

 not have been thought practicable 

 to make those efforts in the Penin- 

 sula which the country had re- 

 cently witnessed. He then made 

 the following statement; that in- 

 dependently of the force required 

 for the maintenance of our Indian 

 empire, our colonial possessions, 

 and for our domestic defence, we 

 had, on the 25th of June,.in Sicily, 

 the Mediterranean, and the Penin- 

 sula, a force of 127,000 men, of 

 ■which the British iroops (including 

 the Germans) amounted to 91,000, 

 and the Portuguese to 36,000. In 

 June last. Lord Wellington had 

 under his command 58,000 British 

 troops, exclusive of Portuguese. 

 Since the 24th of December last, 

 mot fewer than 20,000 men and 

 7,000 horses had been conveyed 

 to the Peninsula. He said further, 

 that never had any requisition been 

 made by Lord Wellington that 

 had not been complied with. Lord 

 Liverpool made observations on 

 some other points in which the 

 marquis had formed objections to 

 the speech ; and with respect to 

 the omission of mentioning the 

 Catholic question,heacknowledged 

 that for his part he had not been 

 able to see his way to any satis- 

 factory adjustment. 



Lord Grenville restated the 

 views on which he had originally 

 opposed the war in the Peninsula, 

 and attributed the disappointments 

 there chiefly to the delusion of 

 ministers in trusting to the co- 



operation of the Spanish armies. 

 In adverting to the American war, 

 he said, he could not repress his 

 astonishment and indignation at 

 the language of those who pro- 

 fessed their belief that the aban- 

 donment of the orders in council 

 would necessarily lead to the re- 

 storation of peace. There was a 

 time when such a concession would 

 have produced both peace and 

 alliance ; but, as in the first fatal 

 war with America, concession was 

 made too late. He thought the 

 house was indecently pledged in 

 the address to the prosecution of 

 this war, though not a document 

 was produced to prove its justice. 



After some other speaking on 

 the occasion, the address wasagreed 

 to without a division. 



In the House of Commons, the 

 address on the speech was moved 

 by Lord Clive, who was seconded 

 by Mr. Hart Davis. Mr. Canning 

 then arose, and very exactly pur- 

 sued the same line of argument 

 and eloquence with that followed 

 by Marquis Wellesley in the other 

 house. The vigorous prosecution 

 of the war in every quarter was 

 the point which he principally 

 laboured to enforce, and he con- 

 cluded amidst expressions of ap- 

 plause from different parts of the 

 house. Lord Castlereagh then 

 took up the ministerial cause, on 

 the ground that Lord Liverpool 

 maintained in the House of Lords. 

 Mr. Whitbread afterwards made a 

 number of observations, the gene- 

 ral tenor of which was, to moderate 

 the high-wrought descriptions and 

 sanguine expectations presented in 

 the speeches of those who preceded 

 him, and to inculcate the propriety 

 of taking the opportunity of a time 



at 



