70 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



nish cause, then almost lost, might 

 still be revived. On the 21st of 

 December sir John Moore arrived 

 at Sahagun, and on the 22nd of De- 

 cember the emperor of the French 

 left Madrid with a great force 

 to attack him. On the 24th of 

 that month, such were the effects 

 of this last movement from Ma- 

 drid, that Sir John Moore again 

 found it necessary to retreat, and 

 under such circumstances, that if 

 he had remained for 24 hours 

 longer, and engaged the corps un- 

 der marshal Soult, it was next to 

 a certainty that not a single soldier 

 of his army could have returned 

 home. This Mr. P. stated on the 

 authority of officers with whom 

 he had conversed on the sub- 

 ject. 



In order to account for these 

 proceedings, it was necessary to 

 institute the fullest inquiry; to 

 know in what situation Sir David 

 Baird and Sir John Moore found 

 Spain when they advanced into it ; 

 whether that enthusiastic spirit, 

 which alone could have saved the 

 Spaniards, existed ; whether they 

 were willing and cordial in their 

 assistance to the English army ; 

 whether they received them as 

 their guests with love, or with 

 jealousy and fear, and to ascertain 

 what the English army had to rely 

 on, when they found themselves 

 in the presence of a great hostile 

 army. Lord Castlereagh had ob- 

 served, in a former debate, that 

 it would had been absurd to think 

 of stopping the passes of the 

 Pyrennees, and j reventing the 

 French from sending re-inforce- 

 menfs into Spain, as • there were 

 no less than forty-three passes by 

 which thf! French could enter that 

 country. But if a British army 



landed at St. Andero could be of 

 no avail for that object — if the 

 French could not, by any efforts 

 on our part have been shut out 

 from Spain, Mr. P. would ask the 

 noble lord, whether that was not 

 a good reason why a British army 

 should not have been sent into 

 Spain at all ? For any amount of 

 force this country could send thi- 

 ther could not contend against the 

 4 or 500,000 whom Buonaparte 

 could pour into that country from 

 France. Mr. P. had not convers- 

 ed with any military man on the 

 subject who had not declared 

 that, from the beginning, it was 

 vain and idle to hope for ultimate 

 success in such a contest. If this 

 vast force of France could not be 

 kept out of Spain, he desired to 

 know why Sir John Moore's army 

 should have been so endangered 

 by the imprudent advance that 

 was made? — Mr. P. called on the 

 house, by the gratitude they owed 

 to those who had been so shame- 

 fully sacrificed at Corunna ; by 

 that which they owed to their 

 companions in arms, who were 

 still in existence, and able and 

 willing to defend their country, or 

 to be employed on any service : as 

 they valued the glory of their 

 country, their future power and 

 reputation, as well as their inter- 

 est, and by every thing that could 

 excite the exertions ot brave men, 

 to institute this investigation for 

 the satisfaction of all. He then 

 concluded, by moving, " That it 

 is indispensably necessary that this 

 house should inquire into the 

 causes, conduct, and events of the 

 late campaign in Spain." 



Lord Castlereagh observed, that 

 the only reasons that had been al- 

 leged for the inquiry, were re- 

 ducible 



