free burgesses, voters, and electors of the borough of Great Grimsby, in the county of Lincoln, who were voters and voted at the last election for members to serve in this present parliament for the said borough of Great Grimsby, on behalf of themselves and others, free burgesses and voters of the said borough of Great Grimsby, was read; setting forth,

decisions had been established by Orders and Resolutions of the House, persist in discharging the said full court of mayor, aldermen, common councilmen, and burgesses on the evening of the said 5th of October, although he then knew that many persons who had rights and claims to be admitted to their freedoms of and in the said borough were then waiting and remaining in the said borough for that purpose, who had spoken to him the said W. Wardale thereupon, and to whom he had given his promise that the said full court should be adjourned until the next morning, as was usually and heretofore the case, and on which day, being Tuesday, it ought to have been held: but he, finding that the whole, or nearly so, of the persons then within the borough, who were likely to vote for the said sir R. Heron and. J. P. Grant, whose cause and interest he had most publicly and glaringly espoused, had gained their admissions, he, by the most determined, wilful, and flagrant injustice, discharged the court, not only without putting it to the consideration and judgment of the aldermen, common councilmen, and burgesses, but in direct and positive opposition to the almost unanimous claim of them all, upon a motion put by one alderman, a burgess, and seconded by another alderman, a burgess, to have it adjourned to the next morning, as by law and the custom and usage of the said borough he ought to have done, but he actually did order the discharge, and did discharge the said court accord

"That, at the last election for the borough of Great Grimsby, on the 6th of October 1812, John Henry Loft, esq., Ebenezer John Collett, esq., Sir Robert Heron, bart., and John Peter Grant, esq., were candidates; and that the said petitioners, who have thereunto signed their names, were then and now are free burgesses and voters of the said borough, and voted at the said last election; and that, on the 5th of October last, being the day preceding the election, William Wardale, esq., the mayor of the said borough, and returning officer, held a full court of mayor, aldermen, common councilmen, and burgesses of the said borough, at which said court the said W. Wardale did partially and corruptly, wilfully, unlawfully, and of his own authority, admit certain persons to the freedom of the said borough who were not entitled thereto, and did neglect and refuse to submit to the consideration and judgment of the said court, the claimed right of such persons to be admitted to their freedom, which by the constitution and usage of the said borough he ought to have done; that the said W. Wardale did also partially and corruptly, wilfully, unlawfully, and of his own autho-ingly without any adjournment; and that, rity, refuse to admit certain other persons who were entitled and claimed at the said full court to be admitted freemen of the said borough, to their freedom therein, some of whom had been declared, decided, and established by a Committee of the House to have such claims, rights, and titles, and did also neglect and refuse to submit to the aldermen, common councilmen, and burgesses of the said borough, in the said full court assembled, the rights and claims of such persons to be admitted to their freedom of the said borough, and which, by the constitution and usage of the said borough, he ought to have done; that the said W. Wardale did wilfully, partially, corruptly, illegally, and of his own authority, in direct violation of the laws of the realm, the constitution and usage of the said borough, and also in wilful opposition to the decisions of Committees of the House, and which

on the next day, the 6th of October last, being the day of election, great numbers of persons having undoubted rights and claims to be admitted to their freedoms of the said borough, did make application to and demand of the said W. Wardale, in court, to hold a full court, that they might be legally admitted, and did demand and claim to be so admitted to their freedom of the said borough, without which they were incapable of using their elective franchises and birth-rights at the said election for members to serve in this present parliament, and which said demands and applications for the said full court and admissions to the freedom of the said borough were supported by great numbers of the aldermen, common councilmen, and burgesses, to prevent such wilful, determined, and flagrant acts of injustice; but the said W. Wardale, did most wilfully, wantonly, vexatiously, cor

services, although there were many questions of policy, in the consideration of which he would not refer for examples to the councils of the enemy, there could not however be a better policy than theirs, in so far as it regarded rewards for military service. Let them look to France; could they find in that country one general of any merit, who was not loaded with all the rewards and the honours that it was in the power of their ruler to confer?

tomed to victory, to armies commanded operations. It was not necessary to press by men of the first military talents, trained these things upon the attention of the in the school of danger and experience, House, they were in the recollection of confident of success, for they had been every person. The questions now for accustomed to conquest, with their laurels them to consider were; first, What was fresh and yet blooming round them. Such the policy; and, 2dly, What were the were the armies, such were the captains means of rewarding such services? With whose laurels withered before the bright-respect to the policy of rewarding military ness of his fame. Fortunately for the world, those laurels had been transplanted to another region where they would flourish, he hoped, for ever, not for the destruction of mankind, but for the protection of their liberties and their religion, and their rights. Never did the country produce a man who had received so large a measure of parliamentary and national approbation. No man had been ever so greatly and so justly distinguished. In the peninsula, taking all together, his cata-Different, indeed, far different were they logue of successes unchequered by any thing to diminish their glory, was the greatest that any individual ever before had to boast of. Those successes were in the recollection of the House. Every person who heard him must recollect the battle of Busaço, in which a victory was gained over nearly double numbers; the Battle of Fuente de Honore, and other battles which, if not fought immediately under his eye, were fought at least under his direction; also the battle of Albuera; but, above all, the attack upon the bridge of Almarez, conducted by general Hill, under the direction of lord Wellington. Soult confessed, that from the moment of that successful attack, the measures he had planned with Marmont were completely deranged. The army of Spain was forced to act in two divisions, and its generals were prevented from their intended cooperation. It was indeed true, that his splendid course of military successes was not unchequered by retreat. Retreat, however, was not defeat: and in the retreat to which circumstances obliged him, he still gave evidence that the resources of a great mind did not forsake him. In short, within the space of four years, he had beaten the proudest marshals of France. He had beaten Marmont, he had beaten Soult, who was himself considered as a host; he had beaten Massena and Ney, and Jourdan. In no one instance did he lead a British army into the field, in which they were not crowned with glory and success. He presented the new and grand spectacle of four years successes, without any of the disasters that are naturally attendant upon military

from the rewards and the honours of the gallant marquis; different in the grace that belonged to them; different in the services that gained them, and in the principle on which they were bestowed. They, it was true, were highly rewarded, but their rewards were such as the brave Wellington would disdain to accept. A right hon. gentleman (Mr. Canning) had truly stated upon a former occasion, that though placed at the head of the Portuguese army, the pay attendant upon which situation was not less than 8,000l. a year, when asked to accept that pay, be answered, that whatever services were in his power, he would be always willing to perform for Portugal; but as he received the pay of his own sovereign, he would not accept of it from another. The pay had been suffered to accumulate in the expectation that his feelings might at some time be prevailed upon to accept it. He was apprised that the money was to be delivered to him, but with a generosity never before excelled, with the noble self-denial of a soldier, he begged it should be disposed of for the Portuguese army.Reverting to the system of the French army, the noble lord observed, that not only were the successful officers of that army rewarded with such honours as could be bestowed on them, but with possessions (which it was a disgrace to ac cept) granted out of the countries which they had devastated, in pursuance of that unjustifiable principle on which modern France had uniformly acted, of making the territory of one sovereign afford the means of desolating the dominions of another-Happily a different system pre

[206 vailed, and he trusted would ever prevail into the possession of an individual who in this country. The troops of Great would be too happy, if parliament agreed Britain went forth to fight for the interests to the proposed vote, to surrender it in and tranquillity of other nations as well as order that it might be handed down to of their own; and their officers, although posterity, as the spot granted by the legis they might accept the honours conferred lature in testimony of their approbation of on them by the legitimate sovereigns of the services of that illustrious individual the countries in whose cause they were by whom that title was first assumed. contending, were not disposed to avail With this view, he was persuaded that the themselves of any pecuniary advantage, Committee would deem that he best disunless it flowed from the country to which charged his duty by proposing that a sum they belonged. He now came to consider of money should be vested in trustees for what, under all the circumstances of the the purchase of lauds to descend with the case, it appeared to him to be becoming title of Wellington, and to be enjoyed by in parliament to grant in the present in the future representatives of the noble mar stance. If he had to consider lord Wel- quis. He would, therefore, not trespass lington's services in a similar point of further on the time of the House, but conview to that which called forth the muni- clude with moving, "That it is the opificence of parliament on a former occasion nion of this Committee, that a sum, not -if he had to consider them under cir- exceeding 100,000l. be granted to his cumstances similar to those under which Majesty, to be vested in trustees, for the lord Nelson's services had been considered use of the marquis of Wellington and such -if such a calamity had occurred as the other persons on whom the title of marquis death of the noble marquis (and no greater of Wellington shall descend, and to be calamity could befall the country than employed in the purchase of lands, tene the loss of such a treasure); if the noble ments and hereditaments to accompany marquis were by such a melancholy oc- the said title, and that the said sum be currence put out of the reach of the fur-issued and paid without any fee or other ther favour of the crown and the further deduction whatsoever." notice of parliament, he should then, in submitting a proposition to the Committee on behalf of the noble marquis's family, be influenced by a very different feeling; but, considering that lord Wellington was comparatively young in the service, considering that he was placed in a great crisis, which had, indeed, principally arisen out of the noble lord's own exertions in the peninsula; considering that he might yet render important advantages to his country and to the world, he was not willing, however high his merit, that the honours of the crown and the bounty of parliament should be at once exhausted upon him. Under these circumstances he was anxious to submit to the Commit-gone farther. tee such a proposition as should at once mark their sense of his great and glorious services, and their recollection that he might, and in all probability would, experience the further favour of the sovereign and the further bounty of parliament. An additional motive to a concurrence in the vote which he should have the honour to propose, and which he was sure that the Committee would seize with avidity, was, that by a happy coincidence of circumstances, the manor of Wellington, from which the noble lord derived his title, had passed from its former owner

Mr. Whitshed Keene did not rise for the purpose of opposing the motion. In all military cases, when a reward was asked, proper attention should be paid in proportioning it to the quantity of forces by which the achievement had been performed; but the success of the marquis of Wellington, especially considering the means he had at his disposal, had far surpassed the most sanguine expectations. Considering the price of landed property, he did not conceive the present grant as too considerable, and when he reflected that the marquis of Wellington's services were warm in the minds of every one, he even thought that the House might have

Sir Francis Burdett said, that however strong the claims of lord Wellington might be, he could not think that they were much advanced by the advocacy of the noble lord or of the hon. gentleman who had just sat down. The noble lord had dwelt, with much satifaction, on the pecu. liar advantages and blessings of our happy constitution, under which such opportunities were afforded of rewarding merit; but before this praise was entirely ac quiesced in, there were two considerations which presented themselves to those who were appointed the guardians of the pub

that of general Moore. Though a retreat might be no proof of demerit on the part of a general, he could not think it furnished grounds on which to call for parliamentary remuneration. To him, as a man of a plain way of thinking, it appeared, that the results of the campaign had been disaster and defeat. The victory of Salamanca appeared to be a victory forced upon lord Wellington. After that victory he could wish it to be explained whether it was good conduct to proceed against Burgos, whether in the conduct of that siege there was a want of ability in the commander, whether the project was a bad one, or whether the ministers of this country had given him positive orders to advance against it without furnishing him with the means of taking it. In one of lord Wellington's dispatches there was a singular paragraph; "Your lordship is aware I had little hopes of success at Burgos; yet after the battle of Salamanca it was necessary to proceed against Burgos, to ensure the success of the campaign." Thus, then, the consequence of that victory was disaster. He did not wish to undervalue the services of Lord Wellington, but the victories he had gained in Spain had none of the characteristics which distinguished those of the duke of Marlborough. The advantages that ge. neral gained he retained; yet it was not till after the decisive battle of Blenheim that parliament rewarded his services. Now in the peninsula it had been observed, and by military men too, that marquis Wellington had brought his army into dif ficulties, but his men had fought him out of them again, and that in the capture of the fortresses which he had won, a waste of life was to be complained of. This be understood to have been the case at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, which places had been stormed without a breach being previously made. A similar complaint he had heard respecting Burgos. He did not wish to divide the House on the grant, but he wished to move that the consideration of the grant should be de

lic property-namely, the merit of the claimant in the first place, and in the second, one of not inferior importance, out of what fund the proposed remuneration ought to come. On this last point he was of opinion, that while such enormous funds were in the hands and at the disposal of government, and while the amount of taxation was so great and so complicated, as to render its collection in a great degree impossible-while all this was the case, ministers ought to be ashained to apply to the public parse. In the resources and the patronage they possessed, there were surely abundant means of remuneration; and it should be recollected, that when there was a general outcry against the number of sinecure places, the ready and constant answer was, that these places in the hands of government enabled them to reward the services performed by the servants of the public. If this were the defence, there could be no doubt that the funds accruing from those places should be appropriated as they were said to be. But there was also another fund on which it would have been more becoming in ministers to have drawn-he meant the Droits of Admiralty, which strictly ought to be appropriated to reward the services of naval officers, except where they were applied to the purpose which had been stated the other night, of indemnity in the case of American captures, in the event of a peace with that power. But when this fund was employed in grants to the princes of the blood, who did not hesitate to accept of them, and in other purposes equally foreign from their original and proper designation, he then thought that it night also be found fit to apply them on the present occasion also. With respect to the conduct of the noble marquis who was the subject of the present motion, the noble lord had told them that retreat was no proof of demerit; unquestionably not; and there were many instances on record of late years, in which retreats had been conducted in such a manner, and under such circumstances, as placed them far beyond the most bril-ferred till some enquiry had been made liant victories; but this was the first time he ever heard that there was merit or glory in a most disastrous retreat. He was not perfectly sure that the military hospitals had not been abandoned, but from all that could be known from returns, private letters, &c. there was reason to believe that the losses incurred in the retreat from Burgos were not much less than in

into this extraordinary campaign. He did not see that flattering success which the noble lord thought he saw in the siege of Cadiz having been raised by the enemy. The cause of Spain to him appeared infinitely more hopeless than it was at the commencement of the campaign. If lord Wellington had never marched to Madrid, and if he had not

gained the battle of Salamanca, there | would have been infinitely more hope than there was after those events had taken place, seeing the Spaniards had not joined us with that spirit with which ministers deluded themselves, and would fain delude the House to believe in existence. The reverse of this appeared to him to be the fact, and therefore he thought the case of the peninsula more deplorable than ever. He wished to move," that the consideration of the grant be deferred till after the holidays."

Mr. Robinson observed, that though the hon. baronet had professed his ignorance of military affairs, he had nevertheless dealt with no sparing hand in military cǝnsures. The hon. baronet's opinions were so erroneous, that he could not possibly conceive how he had formed them, or where he bad procured his information. He had talked indeed of military authorities, but without naming them, and he was aware that it would be useless to press the hon. baronet on that head. He had asserted that Ciudad Rodrigo had been stormed before a breach had been effected; the contrary was notorious; a breach had been first effected, and that breach, although most gallantly defended, was stormed afterwards; nor did he think that all the anonymous military authorities, quoted by the hon. baronet, could point out to him any other way of taking a town. At Badajoz two breaches had been effected, and it was owing to the attention of the enemy being diverted by a front attack on those very breaches, that general Picton succeeded in converting his false attack on the castle into a real one-a case not unfrequent in war, and always within the calculations of the general, as was the case with the marquis of Wellington. The same mistake seemed as if fatally to follow the hon. baronet when talking of the attack on Burgos, for no less than five breaches had been effected in that fortress, by sapping and mining. It was true the storming did not succeed, because the place was most bravely and ably defended; indeed such a resistance seldom was exhibited; but in the failure of that enterprize, of which he never entertained any sanguine hopes, he was at a loss to discover how lord Wellington was to blame. The hon. gentleman next adverted to the picture drawn of lord Wellington's retreat by the hon. baronet, at which he could not sufficiently express his astonishment. Where could the hon. (VOL. XXIV.)

baronet possibly have got his information? He had talked of our hospitals having been abandoned; in this, however, he could assure him, that he had been completely misinformed. Some few of our sick, whose removal would have been attended with certain death, had been, perhaps, left behind in the hospitals, as was usual in such cases; but he could assure the hon. baronet for his satisfaction, that the retreat had been effected in the most complete order. There was no baste, no trepidation, no uncertainty; the measure had been foreseen, formed a part of a general plan, and all the necessary precautions had been taken. The enemy did not come up in force against our army-there were only partial affairs between the van-guards and the rearguards, and the amount of the loss on each day, except the last, had been transmitted by the marquis of Wellington, and regularly inserted in the Gazette. On that last day, the noble general had indeed mentioned that our troops had suffered severely, but nothing very disastrous could be concluded from that expression, as the distant cannonading had lasted only one day, and as the enemy had afterwards desisted from following our troops.-Adverting next to the hon. baronet's historical recollections, the hon. gentleman was sorry to find that in this he was no more at home than he was on military affairs.-The hon, baronet had stated that it was not till after the battle of Blenheim that the duke of Marlborough had received parliamentary remuneration; it was a fact, however, that long before that battle, and as early as the 10th of December in the year 1702, the duke of Marlborough had received from parliament an annuity of 5,000l. ;* and Blenheim was, besides, the first victory of any importance he had obtained. Not so with the marquis of Wellington it was not for the victory of Salamanca alone that the vote of 100,000l. was demanded for the noble marquis. The whole of his life had been devoted to the service of his country. All the advantages obtained in Spain were owing to his military genius, and if ever there was a case which called for an expression of national gratitude, it was the case of the marquis of Wellington.

Sir Frederick Flood was sorry that the defalcation in the revenue, during the two

* See the Parliamentary History, vol. 6, p. 57.

(P)