16 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



to the Supreme Junta, on the 29th 

 of May last, but he did not depart 

 from England till the end of July. 

 In Spain there was not the least 

 hope of our arms having ultimately 

 success. Whenever we succeeded 

 by land against the French they 

 were in an insulated situation, 

 where their chief had no means of 

 re-inforcing them : but into Spain 

 he could pour his legions at plea- 

 sure, and compel us to retreat.— 

 Mr. Bathurst had come down to 

 the house, with the hope, not 

 only that ministers would have put 

 into the speech a declaration of 

 their readiness to afford every in- 

 formation that could be required, 

 but that the mover and seconder 

 of the address would have intro- 

 duced into it a pledge, on the 

 part of parliament, to take the 

 calamities and disorders that had 

 befallen us into immediate consi- 

 deration. The amendment, how- 

 ever, went too far, and rather pre- 

 cluded inquiry, by prejudging the 

 case that was to be inquired into. 

 It would have been a sufficient 

 pledge to the country,, to have 

 stated, after thanking his majesty 

 for the communication of the 

 necessary documents, that they 

 should immediatelj' proceed to in- 

 stitute a parliamentary inquiry into 

 the failures of the late campaign. 

 Mr. Bathurstobjected particularly 

 to the position in the amendment, 

 that our last campaign had been 

 " marked only by a repetition of 

 former error." The battle of Tala- 

 vera had placed the valour of our 

 troops on a height on which it had 

 never before stood. 



Mr. Ponsonby observed, that 

 Mr. Bathurst had much misunder- 

 stood the amendment. It did not 

 criminate in the lirst instance any 



particular person in any particular 

 transaction. Its onl)-^ object was 

 to tell his majesty that that House 

 felt deeply the calamities and dis- 

 graces of the last campaign ; and 

 that they were resolved to inquire 

 into the causes of them, and to 

 punish their authors. Did the ho- 

 nourable gentleman now deny that 

 the public had been exposed to 

 calamity and disgrace i That it 

 was never exposed to so great ca- 

 lamity and disgrace, at any former 

 period ? What had been publish- 

 ed by the enemy, on the subject 

 of our last campaign, justly held 

 up the British government to the 

 derision of Europe. If our forces 

 had been concentrated in thenorth 

 of Germany instead of being dis- 

 persed in Spain, Walcheren, and 

 Sicily, Austria would have received 

 effectual succour,andperhaps been 

 delivered from her perils, with 

 great glory, inasmuch as the Bri- 

 tish army, thus collected, would 

 have been more numerous than 

 that which defeated the French at 

 Essling. What was the state of 

 the country, and of Europe, at the 

 end of the first campaign, in the 

 peninsula? That general, who had 

 been much and most unjustly tra- 

 duced, fell in the month of Janu- 

 ary 1809, in the battle of Corunna, 

 at the moment of victory, which 

 he sealed with his blood : a battle, 

 notwithstanding what had been 

 said by Mr. Bathurst, at least as 

 brilliant and glorious as that of 

 Talavera : a battle fought when 

 the commander was carrying a 

 retreatingarmyoutof the country; 

 not one where the rashness and 

 presumption of the general in- 

 duced him to risk an engagement, 

 which there was no call on him to 

 hazard, and where there was not 



