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glorious struggle in which we are at present engaged." -This is an old, well tried trick of Pitt, who, upon pressing einergencies, always resorted to it.---The French writers, we are told, are delighted at the proceedings of the Addressers in England. They do not, by-the-by, express much delight at our proceedings; nor is their reasoning correct, that, because our generals are accused of not doing their duty, we are of opinion that the French generals were superior in ability, and their soldiers in bravery. The contrary, as to the soldiers, is not only the obvious conclusion, but has been, and is, the express assertion of the Addressers. And, I, leave the reader to say, whether the fact, that the people of England, of all ranks, are discontented, because our generals did not send Junot and his army prisoners to England; whether our all being discontented because enough has not been done against the enemy; I leave the sensible reader to say, whether the knowledge of this fact is likely to give great delight" to that enemy, and to encourage him in the hope of succeeding in his hostile designs against this country. -But, suppose the affirmative of this question? Suppose a case in which our discontent should be goaded on to the pitch of actual insurrection? That would certainly please the enemy, because he might hope therefrom to profit. Yet, the conclusion insinuated by the Morning Post might be false; because the fault might originate with the ministers; with those whose conduct drove the people to insurrection. Suppose a proclamation were issued to compel us all to wear whiskers upon pain of forfeiting cur goods and chattels. Suppose we were, under a similar penalty, to be ordered to burn off our fingers, to tear out our nails, or knock out our teeth. Would you accuse the people of giving pleasure to the enemy, if they rose in opposition to such precla mation; or, would your accusation be levelled against those who advised the proclamation to be issued? According to this doctrine of the Morning Post, which is only the old hacknied doctrine of Pitt revived, we are to bear any thing, resent nothing, to keep

silent, though we are expiring under the
lash, lest, by uttering our complaints, we
give pleasure to the enemy. In the present
case, as I have shewn, our complaints must
necessarily give pain to the enemy; the
enemy does us the justice to say, that we se
all discontented that more has not been done
against him; and yet these vile defenders of
Sir Arthur Wellesley, these base hirelings
of the press, would fain persuade us, that to
express our discontent upon this occasion is
to excite doubts of our attachment to our
country and its cause !---Now, to" the
alarming situation of Portugal." For this,
too, it seems, that, not our Conven.
tion-making generals, but the people of En-
gland, are answerable. I say, the people of
England, because, whether Addressers or
not, all have expressed their dissatisfaction
at the Convention. We, it seems, and not
those who made the Convention, are answer-
able for the "dissentions, the jealousy, and
distrust," now existing in Portugal. What,
then, such is the fact, is it? Such is the
state of Portugal. The Portuguese are dis
satisfied with what our generals have done
and are doing; this fact is now acknow
ledged; but, the cause of their dissatisf
tion is the Addresses of the people in E
gland. They were very satisfied with the
Convention, at first; they thought it ave
good Convention; but we, by our Addre
to the king, and by persevering in these A
dresses, in the very face of his Majesty's
promise," have made them believe, that it
is a very bad Convention, and, accordingly,
their country is in a most" alarming state of
discontent and disorder." This is all true,
is it? Well, but how does this bear upon
the advisers of the king (for we will keep
clear of the king himself), if the Portuguese
are really in such a situation, and from such
a cause? The people call for inquiry; the
are rebuked; they appear to distrust the sin
cerity of those who advised the answer; but
how could this influence" the Portugues
unless they distrusted too ?-
But, it is
wrong to waste one's time in this way. It
is rank absurdity to suppose, that, if the
people of Portugal had "cruited at the re

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sult of the campaign," they should bare been made discontented by our Addresses al Petitions. It is a barefaced and a base file hood to say, that they ever rejoiced at that result. On the contrary, it is notorious, that their general remonstrated against the Convention, the moment he heard of it; that the Portuguese caused our flag to be pulled down as soon as our generals had had the rolly and the arrogance to hist it; that great delay in the embarkation took place

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owing to the opposition which the Portuguese gave to the French being allowed to carry off their plunder; that a board of commissioners was formed in consequence of that opposition; that afterwards, when a part of the French were diven into Oporto, the people seized upon their baggage and plunder, in contravention of the terms which our generals had agreed upon. these are notorious facts; and yet wretched East-India hireling has the impudence to assert, that the people of Portugal were very well satisfied, and even delighted at the terms of the Convention, till they heard of our Addresses to the king! So far from tending to create di seat on in Portugal, the Addresses of the people of England must naturally tend to produce a suspension of discontent. The Portuguese would naturally say : though we have been injured "and insulted by the English generals, the people of that country have taken up our cause, and we shall have justice done us upon the heads of those generals, therefore, we must not confound the nation with its "commanders." I leave it to the judgment of the reader, whether such would not be the probable effect of our Addresses. When, indeed, the Portuguese shall see how these Addresses have been received, I will not say, that our addressing may not tend to inflame them; but, then the fault will rest with those, from whose council that reception proceeded, If the answer had been, that such an inquiry would be made, such a mode of procceding adopted, as would insure ample justice to us and to the Portuguese nation; then, indeed, there would have been good reason for the latter to suspend their resentment.--Who, after we heard of the remonstrance of the Portuguese gene. ral, and of the general indignation of the people, expected to see them tranquil ?" Rejoice"! Aye, they did, poor creatures, illuminate their houses in Lisbon; but, it was after our genera's had established their military police! It was after our army had been converic into a roty Brotherhood, I, better than any man living, know how easy it is to inspire a city with joy, and our gene rals, our WELLESLEYS and our HOPES, seem not to be great masters in the art of producing this sort of disposition to illuminate, indeed! Poor souls! What a shame it is thus to insult them. Read general Hope's proclamation; and then say, whether they were likely to refuse to do any thing that might be hinted to them as being the wish of our commanders.Discon tent and disorder never appeared in Portugal, 'till after the Convention was concluded;

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and though, in that bare fact, we have not conclusive evidence, that the latter was the cause of the former, it is not bad presumptive evidence, and, when we take into view the facts before mentioned, the unequivocal marks of disapprobation bestowed upon the Convention, there can remain but little debt of the present dissentions and calamitic having arisen entirely from the Convention. Ten or fifteen thousand men, who ought now to be in Spain to meet the French, are, from this cause, kept in Portugal. The friends of the French would naturally recover their boldness upon finding the people discontented with our conduct; comparisons would not fail to be made, and, as the French were gone, it would not be at all surprising if our army supplied their place, in the opinions and wishes of the people as well as in the forts and barracks. The great object should have been so to act as to be able to leave Portugal to itself. We should have so conducted ourselves as to have had Portugal for a friend and not for a dependant. Give to the thing whatever name we please, the Portuguese nation cannot help perceiving, that, as the matter now stands, they have made merely an exchange of masters. We are disposed to act justly by them, I believe; there is, I think, no doubt, that our object is to secure Portugal for the Prince Regent; but, in the meanwhile, we are masters of the country; we seem to be afraid to leave it to itself; and, this fear arises solely from those indications of hostility, which the Convention has brought forth. -And, if this be the case in Portugal, what must be the effect of the Convention upon the feelings of Spain? The Spaniards have all along shown great suspicions of us. They have heard of our conduct in Portugal; they have seen general HOPE'S Proclamation; they must know all about our Holy Brotherhood; and, can any man imagine, that they will not be shy of us? The Spaniards, if they succeed, must have no sparing of the French; they must have no Conventions of Cintra. This they know well, and, therefore, they must be satisfied, that our commanders will act no such part as that acted in Portugal. They must have novain blown-up fellows to talk about" Dacs d'Abrantes in person." To give them this satisfaction; to give them an assurance that they would be in no danger from such a source; to excite in them a perfect confidence in the future conduct of our generals; to do this, it was necessary to convince them, that the government as well as the people of England, held in abhorrence the transactions in Portugal. But, what, bave

"situation, we are a mere barthen, and "something worse; but, Sir, recollect, "that we are here merely in a state of rea"diness; and, that when we are called

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they now before them? A Petition of the people to the king, praying that the causes of that transaction may be inquired into, and that the guilty may be punished; and an Answer of the king, advised by his ministers, rebuking and reproving his people for making the application. This is what the Spaniards have before them; this is the security which they have for the good behaviour of our generals, and for their heartily co-operating with them against the Duc d'Abrantes and the other potentates and nobles of Buonaparte's creation. Since one of our generals has acknowledged the emperor Napoleon 1. (whom the Spaniards call an usurper and a robber), how shall they be sure, that another of them, acting under the same ministry, will not, upon the first fair occasion, acknowledge Joseph Napoleon, king of Spain? They have seen Sir Arthur Wellesley, after acknowledging the Duc d'Abrantes and the Emperor Napoleon, graciously received by the king, in a few minutes after the petitioners against him had been rebuked by the king. This they know, if they know any thing that passes here; and will this encourage them to expect from our generals that determined hostility, that implacable hatred, against the French, without which no one can be zealous in their cause?- An appeal, in behalf of these generals, has been made to the compassion and gratitude of the people. It has been said, that we should consider, that the army venture their lives for us, while we remain at home in security; and that, therefore, we ought not to act too strictly towards the army.It is, I hope, far from me to be wanting in any of those feelings, which are due to the soldier or the sailor. But, I consider, that, from them, something is due to us; 1 consider, that, after having been paid for years, the soldier actually serves but comparatively a short space of time. If I were to go to the parade at St. James's, or to any of the numerous, the fearfully numerous military stations in this country, and were to say: "What

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are you all doing here? What use are you of? Here we are taxed to our last "shirt to maintain you, a parcel of fellows, "who do nothing in this world but prune "and black-ball your whiskers, hang monkey's tails to your backs, pipe-clay your belts and your breeches, sirut about during "the day, and get drunk at night." If I were to say this; if I were to complain of being taxed to support the soldiery in idleness, or in useless parade, the answer would be this: It is true, that, just at this time,

we are of no use, it is true, that, in this

upon actually to serve the nation, ours is "a service wherein we venture our lives for you, which consideration ought to prevent you from complaining that we are not always at work." Nothing would be more reasonable than this answer; but, then, this venturing of lives is clearly the nation's due. Besides, as to the officers, and more especially the generals, and other considerable commanders, not only do they, in venturing their lives, do no more than render the nation what is its due for having maintained them, for years and years upon the staff without any danger to even a hair of their heads; but, they have, moreover, honours and rewards awaiting them for every distinguished service that they, or the sol diers under them perform., Is all this nothing? And, shall military officers not be as strictly accountable for misconduct as other men? Shall there be honours and rewards for glorious deeds, and no punish ment for disgraceful ones? When the question of flogging the soldiers was before parliament, I did not observe that either the ministers, or the military officers present, urged this feeling of compassion, or grati tude. If the soldier acts amiss, he is g ged: and, punished, in that, or some oth way, he ought to be, and must be; but, then, is there no punishment to await the misbehaviour of generals? Are we, when their conduct is in question, to hear of appeals to our compassion and gratitude, because they venture their lives for us? Does not the private soldier venture his life too? Aye, and that without any hope of obtaining honours or rewards. Yet, if a private soldier, after twenty battles, and covered with scars, were found sleeping on his post, or were to suffer a prisoner to escape, would he not instantly be brought to trial, and, if his life were spared, would there be an inch of skin left whole from bis nape to his waist ? Such punishment would be necessary, though terribly severe. But. then, is not severity equally necessary in the case of the general? Divers lectures have been read, in the parliament and elsewhere, upon the absolute necessity of strict disti pline. Such opinions are become fashionable, and have been maintained by no set of men with more earnestness, than by the present ministers, and their military adbe rents. But, now, it seems, we are to reprobate these notions of severity; or, at least, we are to cntertain them as applicable

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object to get the French out of Portugal; but, the means were to be taken into view; for, it was not our object to accomplish that purpose with a total disregard of the means. Suppose, for instance, our wise and valiant commanders had got Junot to quit Portugal, in consequence of a Convention, that should have sent him, at once, by the nearest cut, to Bilboa; would.that have been to attain the intended object? Suppose such Convention had put him in possession of our fleet off the Tagus and had put Cadiz harbour into his hands; or suppose, it had stipulated for the surrender to him of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Wight. There can be no doubt, but Junot, for either of these, would have consented to leave Portugal, particularly as he was to have ships to carry him away. French would have been got out of Portugal; but, will any man say, that it was our intention, that it was our "main object," to get the French out of Portugal upon such terms? No: it is a crafty, catching sophism, invented to prop a vile cause. get the French out of Portugal was regarded as the proof of the success of our efforts; but, our main object was, to defeat the French, to humble them in the eyes of the world, and, at the same time, to raise our own character for good faith as well as for military prowess and skill. This was the main object; and does not every man's common sense tell him, that no part of this great object has been accomplished?As to the now magnified numbers, which the French army in Portugal has assumed, it is such a slavish imitation of Falstaff's lying story of the men in Luckram that it were a shame to waste one's time in a refutation of the falsehood; but, I will just put this question to my reader: whether he believes, that, if Junot had had 25,000 fighting men in Portugal, he would not have been instantly shot, upon his arrival in France? -There is yet one topic remaining. -I beg the public to note the arts, which are now making use of, to excite doubts, at least, in the public mind, with regard to the conduct and merits of Sir Arthur Wellesley Scarce

to the soldiers only. Oh! this is shameful. This is base to the last degree.There is, in this appeal, and the nation will not fail to perceive it, something strongly indicative of conscious criminality. When a man, accused of theft and threatened with prosecution, reminds you of his distracted wife and starving family, what is your conclusion? And what are we not to think of those, whose partizans make this appeal to our compassion and gratitude? No: we are not to be diverted from our demand of "strict discipline," our demand of justice, by any such puling appeal. We gave most liberally. We grumbled not at these generals being kept upon the staff for so many, many years, without running the smallest risk of hearing a ball whistle by their heads; we grumbled not that the harvests have partly rotted upon the ground for want of the hands, which were kept in inactivity; we said, take our last penny, but, fight, when the day of fighting comes. That day has come; and, from an expedition, which has probably cost us more, than the whole of one year's poor-rates, we have derived nothing but injury and disgrace. And, shall we not now look for strict justice? Shall our demands of strict justice be answered by appeals to our compassion and our gratitude; gratitude towards those, from whom, in return for our unsparing liberallity, we have received nothing of which we are not ashamed?--In another view of this matter, who can fail to foresee, that if justice be now denied, or withheld (which is exactly the same in effect), the people will, or can, continue cheerfully to contribute towards the means of supporting the war? If they see expedition after expedi tion fail; if they see one year's taxes wasted after another; if they see, battle after battle, and even victory after victory, lead, in the end, to nothing good, but uniformly to something bad; if they see that, having now reached what appears to be the lowest stage of the military bathos, justice is withheld from them: if they see this, is it, I ask, possible, that they should still chearfully contribute to the continuation of military expenditure; an expenditure amounting to nearly one half of the taxes now Before I conclude this article, it occurs to me, that some notice is due to the argument, grounded on the assertion, "that our main object was to get the French "out of Portugal." This argument is plausible, because it evidently was one of our objects to get the French out of Portu gal; but, the conclusion, at which this fact points, is not the less fallacious. It was our

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ly a day passes, but we see some paragraph, in the Nabobs' newspaper, having evidently this object in view. Take the following two, for instance, from the Morning Post of the 8th instant. "Sir A. Wellesley had a party of his friends at a grand "dinner at his residence in the Phoenix "Park, on Tuesday last, being the first ge"neral invitation given by him since his return from Portugal. - The Lord Lieute.

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"nant of Ireland gave a grand military din-officers to the Duke of Marlborough or Lord

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Nelson, or to any other of our justly re nowned commanders. They left it for the nation, the counties, the cities, the bo roughs, and other bodies of the people at home; they left it to the admiration and gratitude of those whom they had served, to present them with Addresses and tokens of regard. The Adressers in Portugal did not think of a sword to present to their hero. A piece of plate they seem to have thought more appropriate; and, to say the truth, their taste was not a little commendable, though a man of the right stamp would as suredly have used it for the purpose of knock

ner in honour of Sir A. Wellesley, at the "vice rega: lodge yesterday se'nnight, to "which all the general officers were invited." Now, whether the facts be true or false, the intention, obviously, is, to make the public believe, that Sir Arthur has done nothing that he is ashamed of, and that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and "all the general "officers" are of the same opinion. But, whatever this Lord Lieutenant (the Duke of Richmond) may be, in other respects, we all know, that he is one of the ministry; and therefore, his honouring of Sir Arthur Wellesley ought to have no more weight with us, than if the honour had been bestoweding their teeth down their throats. Had they, by Lord Hawkesbury or Lord Castlereagh. These lords honoured him by presenting him to the king, on the very day, and in the very room, when and where a petition was presented to the king against an act, in which he had a principal share; but, that honour did not silence the nation, who still continue to censure that act, and to express their indignation that my attempt should be made to screen its authors from justice.But, the most bareficed trick of this sort, is, the Address, which has been published, as presented to Sir Arthur Wellesley, by the officers of the army in Portugal, eulogising his character and his conduct. There are persons, who have had the impudence to appeal to this Address as a proof of the meriterions conduct of Sir Arthur Wellesley, and Even as a proof of his innocence of the misconduct, which the nation imputes to him.

In the first place, this is something quite novel in the army. The army has not been looked upon, since the days of Cromwell, as a body proper to deliberate, and especially as to matters relating to the merits of those who are to command it, or who have commanded it.- -Next, we may be pretty sure, that where such means of ob. taining praise are resorted to, there exists a consciousness of a want of what is really deserving of praise. We see how easy it is for the ministers, at any time, and upon any occasion, to obtain flattering Addresses from their creatures: and, let it be remembered, that Sir Arthur Wellesley was not only known to be one of the ministers, but one of the most powerful of them. People in the army are, as well as other people, sagacious enough to discover which is the road to promotion, and if the reader should happen to think, that none of the officers of our numerous army, have any thoughts about any thing but fighting, he is egregiously deceived. We never heard of any Addresses

or pieces of plate being prescuted, by their

indeed, presented him with any of the stand-
ards, which, doubtless, during such a ric-
torious battle, they took from the enemy,
the example of a great captain of the last
century, who. with such tropines, made a
bed of honour for the king of France, might
have been cited; but, to present him with
a piece of plate, bought ont of their pay,
that is to say, out of the taxes; to come
to him with a thing, the like of which is
given by underwriters to a master of a ves
sel, who has saved a cargo from the wars;
a thing which is given to a meritorious sheep
feeder, or a discoverer of the means of
ling the fly in turnips, to furnish him with
an article symbolical of thrift, a comm
dity for a pawnbroker's shop; thus n
fit him out! Why, it was very well for
them and for him; but, let them not ima
gine, if another thought of the same cast
should come athwart their brains, that the
people of England are thus to be duped. No,
no, gentlemen, we beg you to leave to us
the agreeable task of making due acknow
ledgment of the merits of your commanders.
We, who have long and most patiently been
paying you, desire to be left to judge of
your merits by your deeds, and not by your
words. We wish to hear less of your wri-
ting and more of your fighting. Send us
home standards; club your swords for that
purpose, and do not club your shillings to
buy pieces of plate for those, who are able
to obtain you promotion. We have sense
enough left to perceive, that that general,
who is least fond of dangerous enterprizes,
may frequently be most in favour with his
officers. And, as a closing hint (in case
this sheet should reach you) you may be as
sured, that much more acceptable to ps,
than your endless list of endless letters, abu-
sing the French, would be one single letter
of three lines, letting us know that
you
beaten them.

Botley, Nov. 10, 1809.

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