HISTORY OF EUROPE, 



65 



that some inquiry would take 

 place. He knew that the moment 

 the paper was in an official iorm, 

 it would be called for. He wished 

 it to remain private for a short 

 time, and not to offer it officially 

 before it became necessary lo his 

 defence. If it were possible that 

 he could have harboured the views 

 attributed to him, would he have 

 kei)t it back from the time of his 

 arrival in October, until the Ja- 

 nuary following? Why did he de- 

 liver it then ? Because parliament 

 was about to meet. Had not lord 

 Chatham daily opportunities of 

 personal communication with his 

 majesty ? And, therefore, had it 

 been his intention to prejudice the 

 kin>; against the gallant admiral, 

 would he not have used any of 

 those opportunities for conveying 

 his accusations verbally, in a way 

 which would have left no trace 

 behind, instead of making his 

 statement in a written narrative, 

 which he knew must remain as a 

 document, and which he meant 

 to become official. 



Mr. C. W. Wynne observed, 

 that it was now admitted, even by 

 the honourable general who had 

 just sat down, that the conduct 

 of lord Chatham had been erro- 

 neous. Was the House of Com- 

 mons then, by not agreeing to 

 the resolutions of his honourable 

 friend, to put it on their journals 

 that such conduct was not erro- 

 neous ? For that would be the 

 effect of voting the previous ques- 

 tion to be moved for. It would 

 be to hold out to all military men 

 an encouragement to follow the 

 same practice with lord Chatham. 

 It would, in any such case, be 

 open to them to give in any state- 

 ment, containing any charges, 



Vol. LII. 



against other officers, with a re- 

 quest of secrecy, and without com- 

 municating it to the confidential 

 servants of the crown, at least 

 those who were formerly consider- 

 ed as confidential servants. And 

 then, if it was likely that the 

 paper should be called for by that 

 House, all they would have to do 

 would be, to demand the state- 

 ment back, and expunge such 

 passages as contained the most 

 objectionable charges. This prin- 

 ciple, hewaspersiiaded, the House 

 would never sanction. It had 

 been argued, that the statement 

 was not official till the 14th of 

 February, when lord Chatham, 

 by his majesty's command, had 

 given it in to the Secretary of 

 State. Mr. Wynne could not con- 

 ceive any thing that could ever 

 more satisfactorily prove ihestate- 

 ment to be official, than that it was 

 given to his majesty, with the sig- 

 nature, •< Chatham, Lieutenant- 

 General." If it had not been an 

 official document till the 14th of 

 February, what act of lord Chat- 

 ham made it official then ? If his 

 majesty had directed the noble 

 earl to give the narrative in the 

 regular way to the Secretary of 

 State in the first instance, could it 

 be said that the paper was not of- 

 ficial ? When they recollected 

 how they had come at the know- 

 ledge of such a paper having been 

 presented to his majesty — wheQ 

 theyweighedall the circumstances 

 of the case, and looked to the 

 conduct of lord Chatham, it was 

 impossible for them to be so in- 

 sensible to what was due to their 

 own character and dignity, as to 

 declare, by their vote, that such 

 conduct was in the slightest de- 

 gree justifiable. 

 F 



