84 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



bread, in the course of an animated 

 speech, in reasoning with ministry 

 on their own grounds, observed 

 that it had been asserted both by 

 lord Castiereagh and Gen. Craw- 

 furd, not only that the North of 

 Germany was ripe for insurrection, 

 but that Buonaparte had lost 

 50,000 men at the battle of As- 

 pern. Could it then be doubted, 

 if this statement was true, that an 

 army of 40,000 British troops, 

 landed in the North of Germany, 

 would have turned the fortune of 

 the campaign ? — Mr. Whitbread 

 took an opportunity of stinging 

 Mr. Canning for his inconsistency 

 in pronouncing lord Chatham 

 guilty for making an official com- 

 munication to his majesty with a 

 request of secrecy, while he him- 

 self had made communications to 

 his majesty which he concealed 

 from his colleagues. He stung 

 him also by contrasting the dupli- 

 city of his conduct with the can- 

 dour and manliness exhibited 

 by lord Castiereagh through the 

 wholeprogressof the presentques- 

 tion. Lord Castiereagh had de- 

 clared that he did not shrink from 

 responsibility, and had therefore 

 consistently voted for inquiry. Mr. 

 Canning had always pretended 

 that he sought investigation, but 

 voted steady and staunch against 

 inquiry. He badgered him yet 

 farther on another point. How 

 could he commit so flagrant a 

 breach of his public duty as to al- 

 low; his incompetent colleague (as 

 he conceived him to be) to remain 

 in office ? 



In the course of the last day's 

 debate, March the 30th, on the 

 expedition to the Scheldt, sir Tho- 

 mas Turton observed, that lord 

 Castiereagh; against the opinion of 



five generals of the first respecta- 

 bility, who considered the risk to 

 be encountered too great for the 

 advantages that might possibly ac- 

 crue, and without consulting the 

 earl of Chatham, the commander- 

 in-chief, or even asking a question 

 of sir Eyre Coote, the second in 

 command, dispatched the expedi- 

 tion without a plan ; whilst the su- 

 perior officers were destitute of 

 that confidence which was the soul 

 of energy, and the only basis on 

 which the hope of success could 

 rest. 



It was the common course of an 

 individual, accused of a breach of 

 privilege, to go out of the house, 

 and leave the question to the dis- 

 cussion of those who had to judge 

 of the charge. He asked his ma- 

 jesty '« ministers whether, if they 

 were acquitted by a majority equal 

 to their own number, they would 

 call that, a justification ? Was it 

 not a sufficient reason that there 

 were so many others in the house 

 who were, in some measure, bound 

 to support their patrons, without 

 themselves lending their aid, and 

 not only assisting to acquit, but 

 actually approving their own con- 

 duct ? He would put it to their 

 own honour whether they ought 

 not to retire ? The ministerial 

 benches laughed. 



Sir Francis Burdett said, the 

 defence made by or for ministers, 

 amounted to no more than this, 

 that because it was an object of 

 vital importance to destroy Ant- 

 werp, it was right to undertake it 

 without the necessary information, 

 and without means adequate to its 

 execution. 



Among a number of pretences 

 to preposterous management 

 throughout, sir Francis took par- 



