410 PENINSULAR WAR [1808. 



tra, and also what he thought of the conduct of min- 

 isters and their treatment of Sir John Moore : 



FROM EARL GREY. 



" HOWICK, Sept 29, 1808. 



" MY DEAR BROUGHAM, I received your letter last 

 night. There can be but one sentiment with respect 

 to the convention, and I believe there has never 

 existed a case in which the public feeling was so 

 generally and so strongly excited. It is therefore an 

 opportunity of attack too favourable to be neglected. 

 But that it will overset the Administration I am not 

 sanguine enough to believe. Nothing can do so till 

 there is a body of men capable of succeeding them ; 

 and while the Catholic question remains in its present 

 state, where are they to be found ? 



"The leading features of the case are sufficiently 

 obvious, and the circumstances which led to the delay 

 of the expedition, and to its being sent piecemeal, as 

 it was, are all, I think, adverted to by you. 



" The folly of sending Sir John Moore to the Baltic, 

 where it was impossible he could do anything, and 

 where, by his prudence alone, I believe, we were 

 saved from a scrape which ministers had in a manner 

 contrived for him, productive as it was of so heavy 

 a loss both of time and means, is undoubtedly one of 

 the points chiefly to be insisted on. With respect to 

 the choice of a commander, I am in general inclined 

 to be very tolerant, not only because the attack 

 coming from us, I am aware of the obvious retort 



