THE Parliamentary Register; OR, HISTORY OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS: CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF The most interesting SPEECHES and MOTIONS; accurate DURING THE FIFTH SESSION of the FOURTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. IN SEVENTEEN VOLUMES. VOL. XI. LONDON: REPRINTED FOR JOHN STOCKDALE, PICCADILLY; By WILSON and Co. Wild Court, 1802. Clements Lib 10-22-38 THE HIST TOR Y OF THE PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES Of the FIFTH SESSION of the HOUSE OF COMMONS OF THE Fourteenth Parliament of Great Britain. MB February 23, 1779. R. FOX made the following motion, "That an humble address be presented to his Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions that there be laid before this House, copies or extracts of all letters received by any of his Majesty's ministers, or the lords commissioners of the admiralty, containing any intelligence relative to the equipment, number, and force of the fleet that sailed from Brest, under the command of Mons. D'Orvilliers, in July last." He would not, he said, enter into the whole of the enquiry this motion was intended to produce, but he would so far explain the expediency of it, that ministry, if they mean to refuse the papers, might assign reasons for such refusal. His reasons for desiring these papers were, to know if the ministry. had any intelligence of the force of the French fleet in Brest water, when they first sent Admiral Keppel out with only twenty ships of the line. If they did not know it, they were guilty of the grossest ignorance; for there were many channels open to obtain information. If they did know it, they were culpable in the highest degree for sending out that brave admiral with so unequal a force; that if he had not providentially taken the Pallas and the Licorne, and thereby discovered that the French had thirty-three ships of the line, the British fleet and their gallant commander might have fallen a sacrifice. He wished to know what grounds of defence administration meant to take on the day of enquiry, which must come, and could not be evaded, as the salvation of this VOL. XI. country B country depended upon it. He wished to bring them to a point; would they avow that they had no intelligence, and confirm the opinion long entertained by all unprejudiced people, that they are incapable of managing the affairs of a great empire? If they meant to say, they had intelligence, how came it that, after the boasted declaration of the first lord of the admiralty in the other House of Parliament, and of his colleagues in this, Admiral Keppel found only six ships of the line completely ready when he went first to Portsmouth to take the command; afterwards fourteen; in all twenty, with which he was to face an enemy with thirtytwo; after declarations from the admiralty at the beginning of the last session, that we had thirty-four ships of the line completely manned, ready to put to sea, and in a fortnight after should have forty-two? If they were ignorant, as he really believed, of the French force, it appeared to him very extraordinary that when Admiral Keppel, with a prudence and discretion which did him as much honour as any action of his life, returned into port for a reinforcement, and wrote to the admiralty that he had discovered the real strength of the French, that board never expressed any approbation of this conduct at so critical à juncture, though it had been the means of saving the British fleet, and perhaps this country from invasion. He was sorry to observe, that at this very hour, though the whole nation were sensible of his distinguished services, he had received no token of approbation from his royal master, nor had Sir Hugh Palliser received any mark of the King's displeasure. Lord North opposed it in a short speech; his chief objection being, that exposing intelligence received by government at all times, even at a distant period after the events, would be improper; but so soon as the motion aimed at, might be very prejudicial to this country and to individuals; it might do much harm, and could not do any good. As to the admiral's conduct in returning into port, under the circumstances mentioned, he had not the least doubt of the prudence and discrétion of the measure; and if the admiralty did not express approbation, he was certain nobody ever thought there was any blame. Mr. Townshend said, that artifices were made use of to stop all enquiry into the conduct of ministers; they equivocated; one year they grant papers relative to the Toulon fleet, the next they deny it, under similar circumstances, with respect to the Brest fleet. The nation, however, now called for an enquiry |