38 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



Was the noble lord (Castlereagh) 

 opposite, so stinted as to that spe- 

 cies of force : or so stinted as to 

 the means of its conveyance, that 

 for a British army, destined to act 

 in the field against the enemy, he 

 could only obtain 200 cavalry ? 

 Who that reverts to the proceed- 

 ings of this House, in the last ses- 

 sion, but must remember that no- 

 ble lord, almost with tears in his 

 .eyes, and in a tone of despond- 

 ence that arrested commiseration, 

 regretting the exhausted state in 

 which he asserted that department 

 of the public service was, through 

 a feeling of false economy, left by 

 a right honourable friend (Mr. T. 

 Grenville) not now in the House. 

 It was then, we were told by him, 

 that by having transports when 

 they were not wanted, we were 

 sure to have them at hand in the 

 moment of urgency. By what fa- 

 tality I ask the noble lord is it, 

 that all his characteristic energy 

 seems to have sat upon the present 

 state of things? Is this the territory, 

 which under the administration of 

 the noble lord, Great Britain ex- 

 emplifies to the continent of Eu- 

 rope, of her military powers, and 

 of the strength and comprehension 

 of those who manage her resources ? 

 Indeed, if their effects had not 

 proved most lamentable to the se- 

 curity of Europe, and the charac- 

 ter of this empire, it would afford 

 a most prolific source of ridicule 

 to review the ministerial operations 

 of the noble lord. An array sent 

 without instructions, without plan, 

 almost destitute of cavalry, and 

 deficient in stores •, the artillery not 

 fit for the operations which should 

 Iiave been pursued, whilst the 

 horses (the accounts given of the 

 ^tate of which, if it were not for 



the melancholy consequences, were 

 truly ridiculous) were represented 

 as blind and lame, and some even 

 as dying of old age. These, at 

 least, are the statements of the ge- 

 neral officers whom the noble lord 

 had selected ; and if they are not 

 satisfactory to himself, he alone is 

 lo blame for their inaccuracy, hav- 

 ing appointed three commanders in 

 chief with a rapidity greater than 

 the relays of post horses, frora 

 whom, of course, no very intelli- 

 gent accounts were to be ex- 

 pected. 



Now, let us examine the reasons 

 stated by the generals for ac- 

 quiescing in the Convention. Time, 

 say they, was thus obtained to for- 

 ward the British army to Spain. 

 The Convention was signed de- 

 finitively on the 30th of August ; 

 and yet the British army was not 

 ready for action in Spain for two 

 months, nay, some of the troops 

 did not leave Portugal for ten 

 iveeks after. Is it only for the 

 conveyance of the troops of France 

 that the noble lord can find trans- 

 ports ? Tliese he can convey in 

 British shipping, to be again, al- 

 most immediately on their debark- 

 ation, employed in Spain, whilst 

 by that very measure he subjects, 

 in a dreadful season, the British 

 army to a march of 500 miles. It 

 is impossible to pronounce ade- 

 quately upon that disgraceful mea- 

 sure ; there is so much in every 

 part of it of mystery, enigma, and 

 riddle. We are now told, that 

 his Majesty has expressed his for- 

 mal disapprobation of some parts 

 of the Convention ; and yet his 

 ministers thought proper to fire 

 the tower guns in approbation of 

 it. His Majesty, it appears, had 

 a different feehng of what affects 



the 



