HISTORY OF EUROPE 



57 



narrative, and sir Richard Stra- 

 chan might present a narrative. 

 But sir Richard's narrative was to 

 be put not into the hands of the 

 king, but of lord Mulgrave. 



Upon a division of the House, 

 the numbers were, 



For the motion 178, 



Against it, 171. 



House of Commons, February 

 26th. The chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer reported to the House, 

 that his majesty had been waited 

 upon with their address of Friday 

 last, to which he had been gra- 

 ciously pleased to direct the fol- 

 lowing answer to be given: " The 

 earl of Chatham having requested 

 his majesty to permit him to pre- 

 sent his report to his majesty, and 

 having also requested that his 

 majesty would not communicate 

 it for the present, his majesty re- 

 ceived it on the 15th of January 

 last, and kept it till the 10th of 

 this month, when, in consequence 

 of a wish expressed by the earl of 

 Chatham, on the 7th of this month, 

 to make some alterations in it, his 

 majesty returned it to the earl of 

 Chatham. The report, as altered, 

 was again tendered to his majesty, 

 by the earl of Chatham, on the 

 14th of this month, when his ma- 

 jesty directed it to be delivered to 

 his secretary of state, and his ma- 

 jesty has not kept any copy or 

 minute of this report as delivered 

 at either of these times ; nor has 

 he had, at any time, any other 

 report, memorandum, narrative, 

 or paper, submitted to him by the 

 earl of Chatham, relating to the 

 late expedition to the Scheldt." 



Mr. Whitbread requested to 

 know who was the privy counsel- 

 lor, a member of that House, who 

 took his majesty's pleasure upon 



the address. The chancellor of 

 the Exchequer said, " 1 was the 

 privy counsellor who took his ma- 

 jesty's pleasure upon the address." 

 Mr. Ponsonby, without wishing to 

 give any opinion at present upon 

 the answer now given, trusted that 

 it would be inserted in the jour- 

 nals, in order that, if necessary, 

 reference might be made to it on 

 any future occasion. The speaker 

 said, that this was the uniform rule 

 of the House. 



The city of London had pre- 

 sented, in December, 1809, a pe- 

 tition to his majesty, that he would 

 be graciously pleased to direct an 

 immediate and effectual inquiry 

 into the causes of the calamitous 

 failure which had attended the 

 expedition to Walcheren. The 

 answer given by ministers was, that 

 his majesty had not deemed it ne- 

 cessary to institute any inquiry. 



House of Lords, March 2nd. 

 The order of the day having been 

 read, the marquis of Lansdowa 

 desired that the narrative present- 

 ed to his majesty, by lord Chat- 

 ham, might be read. The narra- 

 tive was read accordingly. The 

 marquis then rose, to submit to 

 the consideration of their lord- 

 ships the motion of which he had 

 given notice for a previous day, 

 but which he had postponed, in 

 the hope that on the present day, 

 the noble earl, the author of the 

 narrative, would have been in his 

 place. It was deeply to be re- 

 gretted, that the author of the 

 narrative, should have attempted 

 to cast a blot upon the navy ; upon 

 that profession, to weaken public 

 conSdence in which, was to dark- 

 en the horizon, and dim the pros- 

 pects of the country. The author 

 of the narrative was one of his ma- 



