HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



11 



their first exertions. Anil he 

 would not, in the day of their dif- 

 ficulties, withdraw that aid which 

 he had offered to their early cause, 

 &c. &c. Lord Barnard concluded 

 by moving an address, which was, 

 as usual, an echo of his majesty's 

 speech.— The motion for an ad- 

 dress was seconded by, 



Mr. Peel, who, in the course 

 of an animated speech, maintained 

 its propriety by the same kind of 

 reasoning that had been used by 

 speakers on the same side of the 

 question, in the House of Lords. 

 Having come to the affairs of 

 America, he said, that it might be 

 indecorous in him to advert to 

 these in their present situation ; 

 nor would he, after the observa- 

 tions in his majesty's speech, en- 

 ter into any inquiry as to the con- 

 duct of his majesty's ministers ; 

 but of the effects of a war with 

 America, on the commerce of this 

 country, we might be able to form 

 some judgment from former expe- 

 rience. During the embargo, the 

 amount of exports to and imports 

 from the United States, was un- 

 questionably decreased ; but this 

 loss was amply counterbalanced by 

 llie direct trade carried on by our 

 merchants, to Spain and her de- 

 pendencies. England desired nei- 

 ther peace nor war ; but she would 

 suffer no indignity, and make no 

 unbecoming concessions. With 

 every engine of power and per- 

 fidy against us, the situation of 

 this country had proved to Buona- 

 parte, that it was invulnerable in 

 the very point to wliich all his 

 efforts were directed. The ac- 

 counts of the exports of British 

 manufactures would be found to 

 exceed, by several millions, those 

 of any former period. And with 



regard to our internal condition, 

 while France had been stripped of 

 the flower of her youth, England 

 had continued to flourish. The 

 only alteration had been, the sub- 

 stitution of machinery for manual 

 labour. The address contained 

 nothing that could prevent its una- 

 nimous adoption. It called for no 

 pledge to approve of what had 

 passed, and opposed no impedi- 

 ment in the way of inquiry. The 

 aggression, usurpation, and ty- 

 ranny of Buonaparte, was a point 

 on which all parties agreed. But, 

 to resist him effectually they must 

 be unanimous. Every heart and 

 hand must be joined to give 

 strength to the common cause. 



Lord Go wer proposed an amend- 

 ment, nearly in the same terms 

 with that which had been present- 

 ed to the House of Peers. The 

 arguments too by which he sup- 

 ported it, were nearly the same. 

 He exposed our plans of the cam- 

 paign, bothin Spain and Germany. 

 The failure of the campaign of 

 1808, in Spain, seemed to have no 

 other consequence than to induce 

 ministers to risk a repetition of its 

 fatal issue, by a renewal of the 

 same blind confidence in the co- 

 operation of the Spanish armies 

 and government, and a recurrence 

 to the same destructive policy. 

 What a plan of a campaign must 

 that have been, when even victory 

 led to inevitable and disastrous re- 

 treat, in which our army was 

 obliged to leave two thousand of 

 its sick and wounded to the mercy 

 of the foe, over whom we wei-e 

 said to have obtained a decisive 

 victory ? As to the Walcheren 

 expedition, they were told in the 

 dispatches of lord Chatham, al- 

 most in so many words, that the 



