64 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



gentlemen meant to take it ? whether 

 they meant to describe themselves 

 as dupes upon that occasion, or 

 as only intending to dupe the na- 

 tion ? In the first case they must 

 be content to be set down as per- 

 sons who were unable to discover 

 that this convention was a bad 

 measure, till they had received the 

 comment of the public voice ; till 

 they were assailed by the univer- 

 sal cry of the country, by the 

 groans and murmurs, and hissings, 

 and cat-calls, and cries of " off, 

 ofF," from boxes, pit, and gallery. 

 One merit, however, might be al- 

 lowed them ; they did not, like 

 many authors, set themselves ob- 

 stinately to resist thef public judg- 

 ment, but, after the hints they 

 had received, appeared willing at 

 length to withdraw their piece, 

 and to confess that, to be sure, it 

 was a most wretched performance. 

 But there was another, and a 

 weightier ground of accusation 

 against the right honourable gentle- 

 men ; which was, their total want 

 of foresight in all their military 

 measures, and the culpable ab- 

 sence of any general or compre« 

 hensive plan. This lamentable 

 defect was no less obvious in the 

 more enlarged operations of the 

 campaign, than in the particular 

 arrangements that led to the con- 

 vention. This proposition Mr. 

 W. proceeded to prove and illus- 

 trate.— This speech of Mr. Wind- 

 ham, in reply to Lord Castlereagh, 

 was strikingly characterised by the 

 acuteness of the metaphysician and 

 the reasoning habits of the mathe- 

 matician. Gentlemen present in 

 the debate, well qualified to judge, 

 have assured us, that, abstractedly 

 from its political importance, it af- 

 forded the same species of entertain- 



ment that accompanies the demon- 

 stration of a proposition in Euclid. 

 — A number of other speakers 

 followed Mr. Windham ; but we 

 have already stated the principal 

 arguments pro and con. perhaps at 

 too great length. — General Fergu- 

 son was aware that many general 

 officers of great eminence had ap- 

 proved of this convention. He. 

 was not of rank to be consulted 

 upon it. But if he had, he had no 

 hesitation in saying, that it should 

 have met with his decided negative. 

 Lord H. Petty replied to the 

 main drift of the reasoning on the 

 other side of the house. In the 

 course of his speech he animad- 

 verted on an inconsistency be- 

 tween the statement, that Sir A. 

 W. had a particular view in agree- 

 ing to the convention, namely, 

 that of dispatching a British army 

 into Spain ; and a declaration made 

 very recently in that house by 

 Mr. Canning, that it was deter- 

 mined on the part of administra- 

 tion, not to send a British army 

 into Spain until a Central Junta 

 was formed. — What degree of con- 

 cert and union could there have 

 been between ministers and their 

 generals ? — As to the grounds on 

 which the motion for the previous 

 question had been supported, they 

 seemed to his mind to rest upon 

 this proposition, that although 

 his majesty, and almost every 

 public body, had recorded an opi- 

 nion upon the measure under con- 

 sideration, that house should be 

 restrained from declaring any opi- 

 nion whatever concerning it : thus 

 encouraging the dangerous doc- 

 trine, that the people should look 

 any where rather than to that 

 house, for a decision upon a great 

 public event. 



Upon 



