"better than night for evil deeds." If they really thought that we could best maintain the domestic security and tranquillity of the empire upon the anomalies of a tattered legislation, let them avow it boldly; if they admitted measures of conciliation to be necessary, let them not put off those measures till messengers had been sent to the north, and to the south, to the east, and to the west, and till the honourable baronet, like another Sinbad, should return from a series of voyages of discovery, with an abstract of the manners and customs, the religion and polity, of half mankind! For the peace and safety of the country, for their own honour and reputation, he conjured them, if they felt themselves strong enough openly to oppose the Bill, to cast away the armour which they had borrowed from another, and to display their force, effectually and finally, by putting an end to the Bill that night. He conjured the honourable baronet, from whom he said that he had learned all that he knew, and all he wished to know, on abstruse points of theological controversy, and to whose extraordinary erudition, indefatigable industry, and meritorious exertions, he bore the most ample testimony, to pause ere he frustrated all the important services which he had formerly rendered to the cause, by now throwing his great weight into the scale of the enemy. He conjured him to remember his past deeds, and, like another repentant Coriolanus, to

quit the camp of his Volscian allies, and return

LORD CASTLEREAGH moved, "That the thanks of the House be given to Field Marshal the Marquis of Wellington, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, for the energy and distinguished ability with which he had conducted the late operations of the allied forces in Spain, and particularly for the splendid and decisive victory obtained upon the 21st of June last, near Vittoria, when the French army was completely routed, with the loss of all its artillery, stores, and baggage!"

MR. FREEMANTLE seconded the motion.

MR. CANNING* said, he felt in common with the honourable gentleman who had seconded the motion, and with the gallant general (Sir Eyre Coote), who had just addressed them, the difficulty (a difficulty in which no man had more frequently placed his friends, the House, and the country, than Lord Wellington) of expressing, in adequate terms, the feelings which filled the mind of every man in the country. And he was persuaded, that the strongest language he could

use would be but a faint echo of the public sentiment on this glorious occasion. If the honourable gentleman (Mr. Freemantle,) from his private feelings on this occasion, and if the gallant general, from his feelings as a soldier, could not refrain from trespassing on the House, however unnecessary their apology for doing so; he trusted the interest which he had ever taken in the cause of Spain would excuse him for offering a few words on the same subject. It was now five years since this country, involved as it was in difficulties, and engaged in a contest the end of which it was impossible to foresee, had the glorious prospect opened to it of what this splendid achievement led to the hope of having brought to a happy consummation. At that particular period, amidst the pressure of events, and all the troubles peculiarly her own, she had not hesitated one moment in becoming the friend of those whose only claim to her friendship was their being the victims of tyranny and oppression. This choice was crowned with success; but it was a choice which they would not have had cause to regret, even had the struggle ended in hopelessness and disappointment. Thank Heaven, the result was of another character, and proved that generosity and justice, while they were the most liberal, were also the wisest system of policy, and that honourable feeling for others was nearly connected with our own national safety. At the period to which he had alluded, there were many who despaired of the success of the cause, and who, though forced into the current, had expressed their disapprobation of it. That enterprize, which many thought rash and hazardous, which many believed almost hopeless, had ended in a blaze of glory, that will live recorded on the glowing page of history, even if glory should be its only result; but he did not despair to see added to it other pages of political arrangement and final settlement, calculated to promote the happiness and secure the liberties of mankind. With regard

to the honours to be bestowed upon Lord Wellington and his companions in arms, they could not be too lavish of them but to this subject the word lavish' could not be applied-but, while they expressed their sentiments on this subject, they ought also to pay the tribute merited by those whose pains, care, anxiety, solicitude, and attention, had been unceasingly cherished to prepare at home the mighty means for the accomplishment of this mighty achievement. Not only his Majesty's Ministers, but this House and the country had also to congratulate themselves, as well on the generosity and wisdom of their first determination, as on the firmness with which, under every variety of circumstance, and vicissitude of fortune, in the course of a long contest, sometimes unpromising, sometimes leading to despondency, (though never those who felt that confidence in the commanding genius of the great leader of our armies, which this day would render universal,) and amid every difficulty under which the country laboured, they had continued the contest in a way which demonstrated that it never had been the prevailing sentiment of the nation, that they ought to shrink from the task they had undertaken, to be guilty of a dereliction of principle, or give up the glorious cause in despair. The confidence with which he and many others had set out in this contest, the present victory had now made general. It was now that the fruits of their exertions began to appear. It was now that they had to look for the reward of their policy in engaging in, and their constancy in persevering in this arduous conflict. The revolution (as it had been called) of 1808, seemed as if given by Providence in contrast to that mighty and dreadful revolution, whose tremendous successes had almost led mankind to believe that success was inseparably linked to the car of those, who assailed with insatiable fury every established institution. But the Spanish revolution, exhibiting the same

splendid successes as those which marked the early career of that of France, had proved, that triumph is not unachievable by those who are attached to the sovereignty, and whose principle is to conserve rather than to destroy. It was not to Spain alone that the effects of the late victory will be confined. Spain had been the theatre of Lord Wellington's glory, but it would not be the boundary of the beneficial result of his triumph. The same blow which has broken the talisman of the French power in Spain, had disenchanted the North. How was their prospect changed! In those countries, where at most a short struggle had been terminated by a result disastrous to their wishes, if not altogether closing in despair, they had now to contemplate a very different aspect of affairs. Germany crouched no longer, trembling, at the feet of the tyrant, but maintained a balanced contest. The mighty deluge by which the Continent had been overwhelmed began to subside. The limits of nations were again visible, and the spires and turrets of ancient establishments began to re-appear above the subsiding wave.* It was this victory which had defined these objects,

Mr. Canning delivered this passage with great animation; the effect which it produced upon the House was quite electrical. The idea of illustrating the political aspect which the nations of Europe at this time presented, by the sublime image of the earth on its first and gradual reappearance above the subsiding wave of the great deluge, is new, both in its conception and application; and in both it is as beautiful as original. It possesses a Burkelike elevation of style and sentiment, and displays a kindred glow and vigour of imagination to those of that illustrious statesman, which Pitt and Fox never-and Sheridan seldom-reached. Many passages of corresponding excellence are profusely scattered throughout the Speeches in the present collection.

Sir Walter Scott, in his Life of Napoleon, makes the same