ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



majesty's councils to the scorn and 

 derision of the enemy. That we 

 therefore feel ourselves bound, 

 with a view to the only atonement 

 that can now be made to an in- 

 jured people, to institute, without 

 delay, such rigorous and efl'ectual 

 inquiries and proceedings, as duty 

 impels us to adopt, in a case where 

 our country has been subjected 

 to unexampled calamity and dis- 

 grace." 



Lord Harrowby observed, that 

 the amendment went not only to 

 determine that there should be an 

 inquiry, but to induce their lord- 

 ships now to come to a vote of in- 

 discriminate censure, of absolute 

 condemnation, previous to any in- 

 quiry. Such a mode of proceed- 

 ing was surely unusual and unpre- 

 cedented in the practice of parlia- 

 ment. Plis noble friend, lord 

 Grenville's policy rested on the 

 principle ofabstainingfrom making 

 ourselves parties in a warfare which 

 had long ceased to afford any hope 

 of what had been so emphatically 

 called — the deliverance of Europe. 

 But he might remind his noble 

 friend, that such a principle had 

 not been exactly conformable to 

 liis sentiments on ail occasions. 

 Even in the course of the last ses- 

 sion he had joined in the gene- 

 ral enthusiasm in favour of the 

 Spanish cause, and in the anxiety 

 prompted by that enthusiasm, to 

 afford it every aid in our power. 

 Government did not stimulate and 

 give birth to the exertions on the 

 part of the Spaniards, but they 

 felt it to be their duty, and con- 

 ceived it to be the interest of this 

 country, to encourage and assist 

 them. Neither had they incited 

 other powers on Che continent to 



embark anew in hostilities with 

 France. Austria was inclined to 

 appeal to the chances of war, to 

 the decision of the sword ; but she 

 had been warned by his majesty's 

 ministers of the perils of the 

 attempt, and of the inability of 

 this country to lend her any effec- 

 tual support. As to the points 

 where, in the judgment of lord 

 Grenville, powerful diversions in 

 favour of Austria might have been 

 effected by a large British army, 

 what would have been the expence 

 and difficulty of transporting 

 100,000 men, supposing it possi- 

 ble to have found and collected 

 them, to the Mediterranean or 

 Adriatic ? Not less impracticable 

 and unpromising would have been 

 the plan of sending them to the 

 north of Germany. There might 

 have been men in different districts 

 of Germany who were anxious to 

 rescue themselves from the op- 

 pression and tyranny of the French, 

 but they had neither arms nor uni- 

 forms. Even if they had given 

 greater demonstrations of their de- 

 termination and power to resist, it 

 would havebeen impossible for the 

 British government to send such a 

 force as had bcenmentioncd, and as 

 indeed would have been necessary, 

 to theirassistance; andevenif such 

 a force had been at our disposal, 

 liow could government have found 

 the means of subsisting and paying 

 them in the north of Germany ? — 

 After the armament had been pre- 

 pared, intelligence was received 

 of the armistice between France 

 and Austria ; yet it was still uncer- 

 tain whether that armistice would 

 end in a definitive peace. The 

 contrary, for a while, appeared 

 the more probable. Looking at all 



