,«6 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



tion. That Mr. Bathurst denied. 

 They were justifiable in assuming 

 the existence of any papers called 

 for; justifiable in calling for them, 

 in order to ascertain whether they 

 did or did not exist. But, he 

 would ask, was there a man in the 

 House who doubted the existence 

 of the paper ? Did his right ho- 

 nourable friend, the chancellor 

 of the Exchequer, for a moment 

 contend that there was no such 

 paper? — Tiie same question was 

 put by almost every one whospoke 

 on the same side. 



The Attorney General, stand- 

 ing on the same ground that had 

 been taken by the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, contended stre- 

 nuously, that no paper should be 

 moved for that did not exist in 

 any public office of the state. In- 

 deed no paper, he observed, had 

 been specifically called for,orstated 

 to exist. The motion was founded 

 wholly on an assumption, or sup- 

 position. — The Solicitor General, 

 too, asked, whether it was de- 

 manded, that the minister should 

 rummage the king's escrutoire, in 

 search for any communications 

 that might be found there, re- 

 specting the expedition to the 

 Scheldt ? Was it to be contend- 

 ed, that if a private letter, upon 

 a public subject, were addressed 

 to the sovereign, that letter was 

 to be laid before that House, if it 

 had any allusion to the matter of 

 the present motion ? Such argu- 

 ments were not to be endured. 



Mr. Canning said, that as soon 

 as lord Chatham accepted the 

 command of the late expedition, 

 he became as responsible for his 

 conduct as any other officer in the 

 army, or as any man in the ranks. 

 He had no right to cut out for 



himself a royal road to an audience 

 of the king. He was, no doubt, 

 responsible to the king, but only 

 through the regular and ordinary 

 channel. As one of the cabinet, 

 he was responsible, equally witli 

 the rest of his colleagues in office, 

 for the wisdom or policy of the ex- 

 pedition, to the country and to 

 parliament ; but, as commander 

 of the expedition, he was respon- 

 sible to the king, through his se- 

 cretary of state. If the other pa- 

 per, which had been read, had 

 taken the course of going through 

 the medium of the secretary of 

 state into the king's hand, he 

 should most certainly have thought 

 that the papers now moved for did 

 not exist. But when he consider- 

 ed, that the narrative on the table 

 had first got into the king's hand, 

 and was then made official, and 

 that the same adviser had, perhaps, 

 thought it proper not to make the 

 other papers, if they did exist, 

 official, his conviction was pretty 

 strong, that they were not such as 

 ought to have been made official. 

 He did not, however, think that 

 those papers could properly be 

 withheld on the ground of their 

 not being official. 



Mr. Whitbread spoke again at 

 considerable length, and re-stated 

 the principal arguments in support 

 of his motion. To the defence of 

 ministers, respecting the case of 

 lord Chatham, by Mr. R. Ward, 

 he applied the story of a lawyer 

 at a coffee-house, maintaining very 

 eagerly, that there was uo dis- 

 tinction between the words also 

 and likewise ; when a wag denied 

 his assertion, addressing him thus: 

 " Mr. Dunning is a lawjer. Sir, 

 and you also, but not likewise" 

 Lord Chatham had presented a 



