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previous to that, and during the time that admiral Colpoys was with his fquadron lying off Breft, admiral Richery, with fix French fhips of the line, paffed our squadron and got fafe into Breft; fo that the enemy were at fea, and on the coaft of Ireland, from the 18th of December to the 6th of January. On the 20th of December news arrived in England that the French fleet had quitted Breft, and on the 31ft that it was off the coast of Ireland. On the fame day exactly admiral Colpoys with the fleet under his command arrived at Portfmouth: the reasons given for his return with his fquadron are various and contradictory; one was, that his force was infufficient to encounter that of the enemy. If this be the real caufe (faid Mr. Whitbread), it furnishes additional reafon for inquiring into the conduct of minifters, and of the first lord of the admiralty in particular.

fryftrated by the winds, and the fafety of Ireland entirely abandoned to the chance of the elements.

There was another circumftance which had occurred very remarkable: admiral Elphinstone arrived in Ireland in the Monarch of 74 guns, accompanied by a frigate. He gave notice to the caftle of Dublin that he, with the fhip under his command, and with the frigate, was ready to join any other force that might be allotted for the purpose of going in fearch of the enemy. Admiral Kingfmill alfo iffued orders for feveral frigates to fail on the fame errand; yet on the 3d of January admiral Elphinstone arrived at Spithead with the Monarch, without having feen any of the enemy's fleet. Lord Bridport, who failed the fame day from thence, and went first to Breft, and then thaped his course to Ireland, returned to Spithead equally unfüccefsful; and the defigns of the enemy were only

Another reafon affigned for the return of admiral Colpoys' fquadron into port was, that it was fhort of provifions; but, continued Mr. Whitbread, is it poffible to conceive that, in all the time it lay off Breft, either fresh fhips could not have been fent to relieve him, properly victualled, or tranfports have been forwarded to re-victual the fleet? When information had been received of the active and extenfive preparations going forward at Breft, after the large fums confumed in fecret service money, and with the immenfe navy in our poffeffion, fhall we be told they ought not to have fent out freth thips to have reinforced that fquadron ? He concluded by moving" that it might be referred to a committee to inquire into the conduct of minifters refpecting the late attempt of the French to invade Ireland."

Mr. Dundas replied to Mr. Whitbread in a fpeech of fome length. He exonerated the admiralty from any want of forefight, or failure of duty; faid it was impoffible to decide whether Portugal or Ireland was the object of the French fleet; afferted that it was the wifest meafure our government could adopt to divide our fleets, ftationing one off Breft (to watch the enemy and intercept the failing of the expedition) and the other at home, to relieve it if neceffary, or join it if expedient. He contradicted a ftatement that had gone abroad, that no frigate or fquadron had been appointed by the admiralty to watch over the enemy in Breft harbour, and give an account to admiral Colpoys as circumstances should require. Sir Edward Pellew was ap

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pointed, and did actually cruise there. But notwithstanding the diligence and kill of the admiral, and the experience and courage of fir Edward, their exertions were in vain: for the state of the weather was fuch that it was impoffible for the admiral to keep his own fleet under his obfervation, and the air was fo hazy that the fog guns were continually fired. Could any man doubt fir Edward's inclination to have given, if poffible, the intelligence to the admiral that the enemy had put to fea; or that admiral Colpoys was not defirous to fee it? was it likely he fhould be unwilling, when he had a fleet under his command fo fuperior to that of the enemy? It was the wifeft refolution he could take, not to follow them to Portugal or Ireland till he knew their certain deftination; and he kept his ftation for the chance of intercepting all or part of the fleet in cafe of difperfion by a ftorm; he recollected alfo, that the circumftance of their having failed would he known to the admiralty, and by remaining where he was, he fhould receive fuch authentic intelligence as he could not otherwise expect to obtain.

Refpecting the charge of the want of provifions, Mr. Dundas could not but admit the fquadron had remained longer on its station than was at firft fuppofed neceffary, and not relieved as foon as the admiralty had intended; the reafon was, fir Roger Curtis fhould have been in port the beginning of November, and did not come till the 18th. He had been appointed to cruife off Rochfort, where he remained a fortnight longer than was expected, to intercept the return of Richery's fquadron from Newfoundland. Sir Roger's fquadron confifted of feven

fail of the line, and was to have been fent to the relief of the fleet off Breft; but the wind was fo adverfe as to render it impoffible for them to come to Spithead before the 18th of November. As to the interval which took place between the arrival of admiral Colpoys and the failing of lord Bridport, the inftructions of fir Edward Pellew reached the admiraly on the 20th of December; and on the 21ft he received information of the failing of the French fleet from Breft, and immediately returned for answer, that all the fleet would be ready four days after, namely, the 25th, [Here Mr. Dundas read the orders of the admiralty, iffued on the 21ft, and another order issued after, counteracting fome part of them, and defiring him to proceed off Cape Clear immediately. He wished it to be observed, that, although the French fleet arrived off the coast of Ireland on the 21st of December, no intelligence of them was received in this country till the 31ft; the admiralty had taken the chance of finding admiral Colpoys on the ftation where they expected him to have been, off the Lizard in cafe of any adverfe winds removing him from the French coaft. Lord Bridport had always been not only a gallant but a fuccefsful admiral'; yet it fo happened, that, although admiral Colpoys had been hovering with his fquadron off Breft to intercept the enemy upon their leaving that harbour, although lord Bridport afterwards proceeded off Cape Clear and the Irish coat with the fame defign, and although the Duke and the Majeftic, with two other fhips of war, were fent in fearch of them, they were fo covered by the fog, and protected by fortune, as to efcape them all. The honourable

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gentleman, Mr. Whitbread, had faid, that Ireland was faved by the elements; but he fhould have remembered that the fame wind which difperfed the enemy prevented our fleets from meeting them.

Mr. Dundas confidered invafion as nothing but a bugbear; yet did not with us to relax in our precautions on the one hand, or to defpond on the other. Exclufive of our naval forces in the Eaft and West Indies, the North Seas, and the Meditterranean, we had fifty fail of the line for the defence of Britain and Ire land, and upwards of two hundred thousand men under arms. Hither to both the government and force of this country had been calumniated; he hoped he had proved fatisfactorily that no blame was imputable to the admiralty or to the of ficers, though he by no means wifhed to prevent inquiry; their conduct he thought could well fuftain the test.

Mr. Grey obferved, that minifters had for a long time laboured to create an alarm in that house and in this country; they had fo far fucceeded as to fecure the confidence of a majority of parliament, who upon all occafions during this war had uniformly voted against any inquiry into their conduct; but they had abufed that confidence fo much, and had brought the country into fo deplorable a state, that even their moft confidential friends and adhe. rents began at last to speak of the neceffity of inquiry: how far they were fincere would be feen by their votes. But minifters now began to be alarmed for themselves; that was, for their own fafety; and, to rettore confidence, they found it necefiary to do away the alarm themselves had created: whilft it continued it fuited the purpofe of

the right honourable gentleman well enough; but when it was such as to make his adherents think it proper to inquire into the conduct of adminiftration, it became effential to do it away as foon as poffible.

But to purfue the idea of the "bug'sar," invafion, Mr. Grey obferved, that in the place where an attack of the enemy was apprehended, and where it was actually, made, there was neither a cavalry nor a fupplementary militia bill; in the place where there was no apprehenfion of attack, there were both: the place againft which it was not expected to be made, was to be defended in an extraordinary manuer, and the place where it was likely to be made, left perfectly defenceless! And he would fay, that the enemy's not fucceeding in Ireland was rot owing to the wisdom of his majefty's minifters, but to the interpofition of Providence.

The right honourable fecretary had flated, that on the 21st of De cember inftructions had been fent to lord Bridport to put to fea immediately. Why did he not do so, when the wind was fair, on the 22d, 23d, and 24th It was no excufe to fay that his fquadron was not ready, or that admiral Curtis had not returned from his cruize: the admiralty ought to be impeached for not having a fleet ready to fail on the 22d. Mr. Grey afcribed it wholly to the neglect of adminiftration, that the enemy's fleet had remained fourteen days

molefted off the coaft of Ireland; there was no adequate force in that part of it to oppaie them. The expedition had been confidered as a fortunate event, as it had proved the loyalty of the Irith in that quarter. Their loyalty, indeed, he faid, was meritorious in proportion

to the few obligations which they were under to their government; he condemned the restrictions on the catholics, and infifted that nothing could add more to the difcontents of Ireland than the neglect which the people of that country had met with at different periods from adminiftration.

Mr. Wyndham, in reply to the laft fpeaker, ftated, that general prefumptions of neglect were fufficient caufes for inquiry, but thofe prefumptions ought first to be fubftantiated. He vindicated the conduct of the admiralty; affirmed it was impoffible to keep a fleet for any length of time in fuch a ftate of preparation as to be ready to fail at a moment's warning, and that it would have been rafhinefs to have fent lord Bridport out with an inferior fleet when government did not know but that the French were out with fixteen fail of the line. He denied the poffibility of Cork falling into their hands, even had the enemy landed; complimented the inhabitants of the fouthern parts of Ireland on their loyalty, and obferved, that it was fingular thofe very men who were fuppofed the moft oppreffed in that kingdom, had manifefted the most firm attachment to government; while thofe in the North, who were not faid to have any caufe of complaint, had shown a difpofition to infurrection. He thought this went a good way towards proving that it was poffible for men to make groundless complaints against thofe by whom they were governed. He did not abfolutely charge the oppofition with evil intentions, when they talked of thofe parts of his majefty's dominions most liable to attack, but he wished them to recollect, obfervations of this kind

partook of the nature of a twoedged fword: they might happen to convey information to the enemy what place might be most fuccefsfully attacked, as well as expofe the negligence of minifters.

Mr. Fox took up this part of the speech first. It was, he faid, a ftale and profligate argument always ufed againft thofe who had oppofed the meafures of adminiftration; and when minifters were charged with neglecting the defence of the country, the real patriots were confidered as holding out an invitation to the eremy to invade us. If this were true, we had better at once put an end to the forms, as we had done to the fubftance, of the conftitution ; and, inftead of making members take the oath against tranfubstantiation, let no man enter the house who would not previously declare that he would never in any way fay any thing against the conduct of the executive government.

In a state of war every complaint, must be of the nature of a twoedged inftrument. If we point out that one part of the country is weak, we may be told, it is communicating to the enemy which is the leaft defenfible fide of the empire. But to whom is this complaint to be made? Are minifters the only perfons permitted to give advice in fuch exigencies?

Ireland, Mr. Fox faid, was divided into two parties; the contented, and the difcontented: the catholics were in a state of unjust exclufion, but he was far from affirming, that the proteftants had no reafon for complaint, or that they were not flut out from the effence and the fubftance of the British constitution. He conceived the north, the fouth, and the eastern part of Ireland to be in fuch a state,

that,

that, if a speedy remedy were not applied, the minifter would not do juffice to the British empire.

The grievances of Ireland were real, deep, well founded: but whether they were fo, or not, we heard the people in the South were loyal; yet all the reward they obtained for their loyalty was not a redrefs of grievances, not a ceffation of exclufions. No! it is empty praife, and barren teftimony! He admired the conduct which they had manifefted upon the late occafion, and he should have expected it would have been deemed an/unanfwerable reafon for giving the people without delay thofe privileges to which they were entitled by juftice. No fuch project, however, had yet been adopted, and that country remained in the fame ftate in which it was at the recal of lord Fitzwilliam. He left them after having had the authority of government for their tantalizing expectations, and the cup of happinefs was on a fudden dafhed from their lips. Would the right honourable gentleman affert, that thofe who fupported lord Fitzwilliam were inclined to jacobinifm, of which the true patriots of England had been fo often accufed? Look, continued Mr. Fox, to men of as great refpectability and of as fplendid talents in that country as any in this look to the name of Grattan, and fay whether Ireland has no grievances! But perhaps I fhall be told I am holding out an invitation to the French; far from it: he was inviting, he faid, his majefty's minifters to remove that difcontent, and to redress those evils of which the Irish had fo much reafon to complain. Mr. Fox ridiculed the fecretary of war, who had asked how we poffibly could be invaded having a fuperior force,

when the subject of inquiry was, how came the enemy actually to invade us? Without expreffing diffatisfaction at the conduct of admiral Colpoys, he faid, we ought to have had a fecond fleet at home, ready to fail from Portsmouth as foon as the news reached England. Mr. Fox ended his fpeech with ftrenu oufly maintaining that it was the duty of that house not to take the words of one fet of minifters in defence of another. It might be injurious to the reputation of lord Spencer, as it had been to his predeceffor, lord Chatham; for the former had a majority of the commons in his favour, when an inquiry was moved to examine his conduct, and yet fhortly after he was com pelled to refign his office of first lord of the admiralty.

Mr. Sturt complained of the repeated infults offered to our coafts, which he infifted fully juftified inquiry. Admiral Colpoys' fhip came into port fhort of provifions. He was aftonished at nothing which Mr. Dundas afferted, well knowing his boldness, confidence, and affurance; his whole ftatement of the fecurity of Ireland was a mif-ítatement; he read a letter to prove it; and he hoped that the prefent minifters would not much longer have the direction of affairs.

Mr. chancellor Pitt re-echoed all that his friend Mr. Dundas had faid-affirming, that nothing more could have been done than to have one fleet on the French coaft, and another ready for fea. The French admiral and general Hoche (he faid) who were in the fecret, and failed in the fame expedition, as well as other captains of the fleet, had never been able to join it from the fame causes of weather. expatiated on the prodigies of valour which might have been expected, had

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