530 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



assurances, which I have already 

 described, on behalf of "Lord 

 Castlereagh's friends ;" and had re- 

 lied upon those assurances. 



It was not till the 6th of Sep- 

 tember that I learnt that those as- 

 surances had not been carried into 

 effect. It was not till the 19th of 

 September that I learnt that your 

 lordship had been no party to them. 

 Then indeed I learnt that yourlord- 

 fihip had not only " not engaged" 

 to make the communication previ- 

 ously to the " issue of the expedi- 

 tion being known here'' — but that 

 in July you had " stated to one of 

 our colleagues," (not the duke of 

 Portland) — "who was urgins an 

 earlier communication, that the 

 " time of communication, so far as 

 you were concerned, was for you 

 to decide ; but that no one had a 

 right to say you did not perform 

 that part in the transaction in which 

 you were concerned, if you did not 

 open your lips to lord Castlereagh 

 before the issue of the expedition was 

 inoxvn here.'' 



This information I received from 

 your lordship, in a letter dated the 

 i9th of September. It was then 

 perfectly new to me. 



I leave your lordship to judge 

 what must have been my surprise, 

 when, after receiving from your 

 lordship, on the evening of the 19th 

 of September, this frank avowal of 

 the real origin of the concealment 

 maintained, during this latter and 

 most important period, towards 

 lord Castlereagh, I received on the 

 following morning lord Castle- 

 reagh's letter of the same date, 

 making me responsible for that con- 

 cealment. 



I have not to trojble your lord- 

 ship with any farther observations. 



I have confined myself to matter» 

 growing out of lord Castlereagh'* 

 letter, and out of your lordship's 

 statement; on those alone have I 

 any right to claim your lordship's 

 attention. 



To this address to your lordship 

 I have been compelled to resort, 

 however reluctantly, to vindicate 

 my private honour. As to any 

 charges against ray public conduct 

 — this is not the mode to reply to 

 them. If any such shall be brought 

 against me, at the proper time and 

 in the proper place I shall be pre- 

 pared to meet and to repel them. 



I have the honour to be, &c. 



George Canning. 



Letter from Vice- Admiral Lord 

 CoUinswood, Commander in 

 Chief in the Mediterranean, ad- 

 dressed to Mr. W. IV. Pole, da- 

 ted on board the Ville de Paris, 

 (ff St. Sebastian, the 30th of 

 October, 1809. 



Sir,— My letter of the 4.th Aug. 

 informed their lordshipsof the pro- 

 posal I had made to lieut.-gen. 

 sir John Stuart, that the islands of 

 Zante, Cephalonia, «&c. should be 

 seized on before the French could 

 turn their regard from the defence 

 of Naples, to strengthen other 

 points, and in which letter 1 inclos- 

 ed to you a copy of the instructions 

 I had sent to rear-admiral Martin, 

 to be delivered to captain Spran- 

 ger, of the Warrior, whom I had 

 selected to command the naval part 

 of the expedition. The change 

 which at that time had taken place 

 in the state of the armies in the 

 North, required the lieut.-general's 

 consideration, whether an adequate 



force 



