HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



47 



without waiting until he had made 

 a direct communication to govern- 

 ment upon the subject, and had 

 received their answer. It appear- 

 ed to him, that floating armies, 

 under the command of trust-wor- 

 thy officers, might be of great 

 service, even when acting accord- 

 ing to the circumstances of the 

 times, without any particular di- 

 rections from government ; and he 

 was confldent, that in this manner 

 the corps of General Spencer had 

 been of considerable service in 

 marching from Seville to Aya- 

 monte, and stopping a portion of 

 Junot's army that was coming to 

 the relief of Dupont. — As to the 

 attacks which had been made upon 

 him for not having sent sufficient 

 cavalry with the expedition, he 

 was ready to strengthen tiie right 

 honourable gentleman's argument, 

 and to admit, that it was only by 

 accident that any cavalry at all 

 had been attached to it. It was 

 not supposed that cavalry was a 

 proper description of force to send 

 %vith those floating expeditions, 

 •which might be a long time at sea 

 before they found a favourable op- 

 portunity for landing. Some of 

 the cavalry, however, which were 

 in Portugal, had happened to come 

 from the Mediterranean. He 

 should always protest against the 

 notion, that we were never to en- 

 gage an enemy, unless we were 

 equal or superior to him in caval- 

 ry. He would ask the House, 

 would they wish to blot out from 

 the page of our history, those 

 brilliant victories which we had 

 gained when much inferior in ca- 



valry ? At the glorious battle of 

 Alexandria, Sir Ralph Abercrom- 

 bie had but 150 dragoons, and 

 the French had 2,400 cavalry ; 

 and at the battle of Maida, Sir 

 John Stuart had no cavalry at all. 

 In the expedition to Portugal, 

 the government had made suffi- 

 cient provision even of cavalry. 

 Our army would have been su- 

 perior to the enemy in this re- 

 spect, if the cavalry which was in 

 Mondego Bay on the 20th (the 

 day before the battle) had landed. 

 The 18th dragoons were also very 

 near. He would allow, however, 

 that if Sir Arthur Wellesley had 

 had the cavalry on that day, upon 

 which he routed the French, the 

 result of that victory would have 

 been still more glorious. 



Various strictures were made on 

 the Address, which, however, was 

 not on the whole opposed, by Mr. 

 Whitbread : a long reply was made 

 by Mr. Canning: Mr. Tierney, 

 Mr. G. H. Rose, and Mr. A. Ba- 

 ring, entered at very considerable 

 length into our commercial dis- 

 putes with America ; and Mr. Al- 

 derman Coombe animadverted in se- 

 vere terms on the answer returned 

 by his Majesty's ministers to the 

 address of the City of London on 

 the Convention of Portugal ; a to- 

 pic which had been also touched 

 on, though more briefly by all 

 the speakers opposite to the trea- 

 sury bench. The question was 

 then put and agreed to nem. con. 

 when a committee was appointed 

 to prepare and draw up the Ad- 

 dress. 



CHAP. 



