sures of government. A communication of the substance of the secret articles they had, and that from the most unquestionable authority. The conduct of France had annihilated every thing in the world like neutrality there existed but two powers, the enemy's and our own. In the moral character of our government, and of our people, in the wisdom and energy of the one, in the bravery and unanimity of the other, we possessed complete assurance of success in the contest in which we were engaged. We had ample means of carrying on war. In our navy we had not only the most efficient defence, but a greater power of active hostility, than perhaps we were yet ourselves aware of. By directing our naval force in every possible direction, we might shew the enemy that a predominant navy gives a power scarcely inferior to that of a conquering army; we might controul the haughty mind of the ruler of France, and inspire him with that respect for this country, which, alone, would insure permanent tranquillity. Peace, at present, could be nothing more than a suspension of hostilities; no formal act of government could root out rancour, and stifle jealousy; if we did return the sword, our hand must never quit the hilt.

On the other hand, it was maintained, that, to attack a neutral country, was, prima facie, unjustifiable, and proof of its necessity must be produced before the action could be sanctioned. The determination of France to compel the Danes to join a confederacy against this country, could not justify our government in attacking the capital, and seizing the fleet of Denmark, without knowing whether or not she would agree to join that confederacy. We had gained

fifteen or sixteen hulks, but had excited an inextinguishable hatred in the breasts of the Danes, and given the whole maritime population of that country to France. It was urged, that the attack was made in order to prevent Denmark from joining France: but it had shut us out from that country, and thrown its whole resources into the hands of France. We have got the ships, but they have got the men-we have got the body, and our enemy the soul, of the Danish navy. There might be circumstances, said Mr Windham, which would, strictly speaking, give you a right to do what you have done, which, yet, would be very far from rendering such a step either prudent or advisable. Whatever became of the question of right, he had no hesitation in pronouncing, that the measure was wholly unwise and impolitic: and, could it be proved to a certainty, that if the fleet and stores had not been seized as they were, they would inevitably and speedily have fallen into the hands of Buonaparte, still he would say, rather let him have them in the circumstances in which he must have taken them, than us, in the circumstances in which we have taken them. Time would come when the stores would be eaten up, the ships be worn out and lost, and new stores and new ships have been supplied in their room, to the arsenals and dock-yards of Denmark, and when the English government would be left, only with the shame of what it had done, and the serious and lasting consequences which that shame would bring along with it. We had acted, upon this occasion, from the impulse of a principle, often one of the most improvident and shortsighted, namely, that of fear; and had looked only to our temporary

and partial, instead of our general and permanent interest. Nothing could be more transitory than the advantages that we had gained; nothing more durable than the evils at the price of which these advantages had been purchased. Never more were we to look to the Danes for any thing but the most deep-rooted illwill, the most inflamed and bitter enmity. What was of still more consequence than even the friendship or enmity of any people, however powerful, we should have lost the fair fame and character of the country. It had been said by the supporters of the measure, that we had forborne too long, and had too long been patient of the flagitious conduct of France to other countries. Had this country, which had so long been calling upon the living God in defence of morality and social order, now, at length, found out that its conduct was wrong, and that Buonaparte, who had all that time been worshipping Baal, was right? We have thus put it into the mouth of every Frenchman to retort upon us the charge of all those enormities with which we have accused France. We have been imitating the very conduct of the enemy, which, hitherto, it had been our constant and just object to expose and decry; and our imitation, too, was just of a sort to give us a full share in the disgrace, without any share in the benefit. Respecting peace, the opposition seemed to be less unanimous. Lord Sidmouth's party did not touch upon it. Mr Ponsonby said, that, though the first object of any statesman in the country ought to be to procure peace, he hoped that we should never, in any negociation, tamely listen to the demands of the enemy. He was fully aware how much it became

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us, at this particular time, to stand firmly on the high ground to which we were entitled, by our honour, by our dignity, by our resources. If England stooped her head before France, she would never raise it again.—Mr Whitbread, on the contrary, true to a system, which, if it ever should unhappily be pursued, would destroy the spirit, the honour, and the independence of Great Britain, declared that, in his opinion, peace was necessary to the salvation of the country. He added, indeed, that he would rather the country should perish than submit to a dishonourable peace; but this qualifying sentence was done away, when he asked, whether, in spite of our prosperity and our resources, an indefinite war would not be ruin? We had fought fifteen years, he said, against France, and reduced all the powers of Europe, except Sweden, to a state of subserviency to France, to a power the greatest the world ever saw, and governed by an individual, as able to wield that power as any person the world ever produced. He begged to deprecate the use of contumelious language towards a power with which we must sooner or later negociate.-Mr Sheridan also was sorry to observe, that every day brought forth some new accusation against Buonaparte, as an usurper, a tyrant, a murderer, a plunderer, and every thing atrocious and abominable. He was sure that the editors of our public prints would not persevere in such abuse, if they were not encouraged to it, for they were sensible men. Buonaparte acted with humanity towards the enemies who had lost the power of doing him injury, and he might plead, in the jealousy, hatred, and assassinating spirit of his enemies, an excuse for his atrocities.

The subject was renewed Jan. 22. the following night in the commons, when the report of the committee, to whom the address had been referred, was brought up. The point of time was pressed upon the ministry, to show that their measures must have been resolved upon, before they could possibly have known that the treaty of Tilsit was signed. In answer to this it was averred, that they were previously informed of the substance of the secret articles, and that the armament was then equipping for a different object, when this secret intelligence made it necessary to employ it against Copenhagen. Respecting the call for documents, Mr Yorke declared it to be his conscientious opinion, that more inconvenience had arisen to this country from improvident grants of information, and from the government being so urgently pressed for the production of papers, than from any other cause. He was old enough, he said, to remember the American war, and he could state, from opportunities which he had of personally knowing the fact, that, in consequence of the production of papers relative to the sailing of the Toulon fleet, on the motion of Mr Fox, the French had been enabled to cut off a source of intelligence which this country had possessed in Holland since the days of Queen Anne. Was there not enough on the face of such papers, to give the enemy means of tracing the source from whence they came? In truth,

the danger and folly of divulging foreign correspondence must have been clearly perceived by all men, who did not suffer the feelings of party to stifle all other considerations. The present opposition had, with great truth, as well as bitterness, complained of their predecessors for a mischievous publication of this kind, which seemed to have been done for the purpose of embarrassing those who supplanted them. In the present case, it was manifestly impossible for ministers to impart the information which was called for without sacrificing the life of their agent. And yet, though no man could be obtuse enough in understanding not to perceive this, and though the fact which Mr Yorke had stated bore so completely upon the point, Mr Whitbread could only say, he believed the great cause of many of the evils with which this country had been afflicted, was owing to the tem that had prevailed so generally for the last fifteen years, of holding back papers and documents from the public! It was his conviction that ministers never had* received, either in substance or form, any such secret information as they pretended. But the most remarkable passage which occurred in the debate, fell from Mr Windham, who declared it to be his opinion, that honour in any peace which should now be concluded, might be considered as totally out of the question. Safety now was all that we need look for, and this was all that he would ask! †

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The subject was revived Jan. 28. on the 28th, when a vote of thanks was moved to the officers employed in the expedition to Copenhagen, and this question the ministry wished to be considered without any reference to the justice or policy of the measure itself. This was an obvious artifice; they wished to make the capture of the Danish fleet appear a splendid as well as a necessary action, and, with that intent, had fired the Park guns, when the dispatches which announced it arrived, and conferred peerages upon the naval and military commanders. The motion was opposed upon this fair ground, that however important the service, and however ably performed, it was not of a nature to justify so high a distinction. Where, said Lord Holland, were the difficulties that were to be encountered and overcome in the performance of that service? Had it any of those brilliant traits which exact admiration and command respect? Had it any thing in it that redounded to the glory of the country, or to render its name and character more respected and memorable?-The same ground was ably taken by Mr Windham. How, he asked, was that to be converted into triumph, which was justified only as being a painful necessity? If pain were to make part of the sensations excited, the joy

could not be very complete. It was not, in fact, nor ought it to be, that unmixed effusion which we witness in the country on any of those occasions which, really and truly, and, as it were, by acclamation, call forth the thanks of this house; but that sort of sober, chastized, subdued joy, if joy was to be felt at all, which a father would feel on hearing that his son's life was safe, but saved by an operation which was to leave him a sufferer and a cripple all the rest of his days. It was not in this state of mind, nor for successes of this de-* scription, that a nation indulged in public rejoicings, or poured forth its acknowledgments to those by whom those successes had been obtained, however meritorious, individually, their conduct might have been. National thanks implied national rejoicings; and national rejoicings did not belong to the present occasion. It was on this principle that he heard, with pain and disgust, the firing of the Park and Tower guns, on the day when the news arrived. It was a call for exultation on an occasion when sorrow for the necessity of using force, and sympathy for the sufferings brought upon the Danes, was in the mouths of his majesty's ministers, and in the hearts of the British people. Passing afterwards to the peerages which had been

*

granted on this occasion, he spoke in a strain of sound philosophy. This sort of grant, he said, was an instance of the worst species of ministerial corruption, inasmuch as it went to the destruction of that fund of honorary rewards, in which the poorest man in the country, if the case were properly explained to him, or even without any explanation, on the pure impulse of feeling, would be sensible, that his interest would be more materially involved and affected than in the most wasteful expenditure of the produce of the taxes. A pension, if unworthily bestowed on one, would remain a recompence of no less value for another; but a title of honour, or a vote of thanks, would sink in value, both as to the past and the future, upon every misapplication that the granting of either were subjected to. This argument was strictly applicable to the question, whether the expedition were justifiable or not; and, if it were followed to its legitimate consequences, would lead Mr Windham into a political free inquiry, from which he, perhaps, would be one of the first to shrink.

Thus had the two Houses of Feb.3. Parliament congratulated his majesty upon the success of the measures taken to secure the Danish fleet, and voted their thanks to the officers employed in the expedi

tion. But the subject was not per mitted to rest here. On the 3d of February, Mr Ponsonby moved for the substances and dates of all information transmitted by his majesty's ministers at the court of Copenhagen, during the last year, respecting the naval force of Denmark; and, particularly, respecting any measures taken for augmenting the same, or putting it in a state of better preparation, or for collecting seamen for the purpose ofmanning the same, or any part thereof. The arguments which were now adduced by the opposition were, that, had Denmark been required to give up its fleet to France, and thus compelled to make a choice between the two contending powers, it would have preferred an alliance with England, because England could take all its foreign possessions, could injure its marine, and employ Sweden to attack Norway. That Denmark had not intended to co-operate with France, because, when admiral Gambier was preparing to sail, many of the Danish captains hearing, among other rumours, that it was as likely that the British fleet was destined against Copenhagen as any other place, consulted the Danish consul on the subject; and he, having applied to the chamber of commerce in that city, which is a branch of the public administration of government, received for answer, that there was