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SUMMARY OF POLITICS. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS (continued from page 171).-I. Vote of Thanks. II. American States. III. Danish Expedition. On Thursday, the 28th January, a motion was made, in both Houses, to give the thanks of parliament to the fleet and army employed in the Copen. bagen expedition. At the time, when the titles and marks of honour were bestowed, upon Admiral Gambier and others, I expressed my opinion, that the measure was wrong; because, though the success of the enterprize was of great national importance, to insure that success required neither courage nor skill, except, perhaps, in a few persons of inferior rank; because, from the very statement of the advocates of the ministers, it appeared, that the means provided were such, as, when compared with the object to be accomplished, rendered failure morally impossible, because it would, have been a crime to fail, and that, therefore, to succeed was little more than a negative merit; because, in short, to bestow honours upon the commanders of such an expedition, was to proclaim to the world, that it was, in English commanders, a great merit, a highly distinguishing characteristic, not to be drivellers, or traitors, since no men of common understanding could have failed, unless from a want of fidelity. These arguments, and some others, which were made use of in the Register, and in other public prints, at the time referred to, have now been repeated in parliament; against these arguments nothing of any weight has been urged; and it does, to me at least, clearly appear, that the vote of thanks, as well as the other honours, have, in this instance, been prostituted to party purposes, that is to say, to the purpose of giving to the whole measure an eclat which it did not deserve, with a view of enhancing, in the minds of the people, the merit of the present ministers. But, while the spirit of party appears to have dictated the motion for a vote of thanks, there has appeared, in the opposition to it, a spirit of exactly

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the same character. Messrs. Windham and Tierney (the latter of whom had al'most sworn, that he never would belong to any ministry or party with the former) seemed to have, for their grand object, the indulgence of their spleen against Sir Home Popham, who, it must be confessed, has been a zealous and formidable opponent to them in politics, but who, upon that very account, should, on this occasion, have escaped particular notice. Mr. Windham bestows many compliments upon Lords Cathcart and Gambier; with respect to them, he takes care to rub off with one hand what he lays on with the other; he brings forward the excellence of the private character of the one, and the past services (though he does not particularize them) of the other; but, of Sir Home Popham he recollects nothing but the demerits. He takes, or rather, he finds out, occasion to observe, that " one ostensible part of the

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expedition had been entrusted to an of"ficer, who could only plead, in his be"half, the approbation of a self-created "tribunal, in opposition to a sentence of "condemnation, which had lately been passed upon him by one legally constitut ed, and who, in his fortune, had exemplified the old adage, " that when the "King loses, the Knave wins ;" an adage, which must be very old indeed, for, I scarcely think that any man now living ever heard of it before. It was travelling quite out of the natural course to notice, in this particular manner, Sir Home Popham and his court martial, especially as no parti cular mention had been made of his services, upon this occasion, by the ministers, and as he had received no sort of reward, though it was pretty generally understood, that of the merit of the execution of the measure, no small share did belong to him. Certainly, the approbation of the Lloyd's men dd him no honour; or, if he were, as he appeared to be, so very proud of the swords and the thanks, which they had to bestow, one might, with little regret, see him left to them as his sole possession in this way;

but, it is, I think, as certain, the " legally constituted tribunal," of which Mr. Windham speaks, was a thing, which he and his late colleagues might as well have kept out of sight; for, though the letter of the law might not be violated in the constituting of that tribunal, no great pains were taken to adhere to its spirit. I am one of those, who censured, in all its parts, the expedition to Buenos Ayres. I looked upon it, and I still look upon it, as a mere money-making adventure; but, it does appear, from the evidence given at the court-martial, that Sir Home Popham was, by the minister, invested with somewhat of discretionary powers, and the public will not fail to recollect, that no court-martial was talked of, until the intelligence arrived, that the place had been re-captured by the Spaniards. Whatever might be the demerits of Sir Home Popham, however, his court-martial should have been constituted in the usual way, and in that way the proceedings against him ought to have been conducted. The law, relative to the constituting of courtsmartial, makes provision, that the members, if there be a sufficient number, shall consist of persons stationed at the place where the court is held; and, it authorizes" the taking in of two or three commanders, if there should not be captains enough present, rather than bring members from another station. Was this law, so well calculated to insure impartiality, by preventing selection on the part of the prosecutor, observed on the occasion referred to? letter perhaps. it was; for several of the admirals, members of the court, did hoist their flags at Portsmouth, during the trial, and a little before the trial; but they struck those flags immediately afterwards, returning from whence they came; and, though they might be said to be stationed at Portsmouth, I shall leave the proceeding to be boasted of by those who were then ministers. There was, it appears from the proceedings of the court, a "learned" counsellor, Mr. Jarvis, sent down by the Admiralty to plead against the prisoner, a thing totally unprecedented in the naval history of England. If, in sending down a counsellor to plead, and in making the court consist of admirals, the object was to give dignity and solemnity to the proceeding, how came it to pass, that neither of these precautions was taken in the case of Captain Whitby, who was tried, at the same port, upon a charge, grounded upon a complaint of the American government, omba violated the law of nations, that en pulty of an act of aggression heir own waters, and that

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he had wounded many, and murdered one, of their seamen? This trial, in which the good-understanding and, perhaps, the peace, of two nations were involved, did, surely require as much dignity and solemnity as it was possible to give it; yet, Captain Whitby was tried in the usual way; no admirals assumed temporary command upon the occasion, and no counsellor was sent down by the admiralty to plead against him. These are facts, which nobody will attempt to deny; and, with these facts before them, I shall leave my readers to judge, whether it would not have been full as well, if Mr. Windham had suffered the recollection of Sir Home Popham's court-martial, to remain as a source of secret consolation to those by whom that court-martial was ordered and organized. Mr. Tierney is reported to have said: "Why should not the house attend "to the dignified example set them by ano"ther distinguished assembly-Lloyd's Cof"fee-house Men?Those gentlemen "knew the true value of their approbation, "and were resolved not to be lavish of it; "for they had not yet honoured this extra"ordinary service with their notice, notwith

standing their great favourite (sir Home "Popham) was captain of the fleet. He "believed for his part that those gentlemen "had been disappointed: it was well "known that they had not received the

slightest notice of the signature of the "capitulation in sufficient time to apprize "them of the period at which the Danes

begun to be at open war with us. Would "ministers affect to be ignorant of the "sentiments of merchants in the Rus"sion trade upon that head? Had "they not actually been furnished with a list, setting forth the number of "vessels captured? This must have been

for the king can be of no other sort than that which a man feels for his country. The idea of any personal affection, in this case, is ridiculous. The feeling is that of love for the king, as king; for the kingly office, in fact, and for that only because it is looked upon as being the repository of the honour and guardianship of the country. To use, therefore, an epithet of ardent affection to the former, and, one of suber, after-marriage regard to the latter, was, to say the least of it, to shew no great degree of judgment, and night, if coining from a person less enthusiastic, give rise to suspicions, that the motive was not altogether disinterested II. On Tuesday, the 2d. instant, Mr. Eden. (Lord Aukland's eldest son, and the new Teller of the Exchequer, I presume) made a motion for laying before the house a copy of Mr. Jefferson's message to the senate of the American States, relating to the nonratification of the treaty, made with us, during the late administration. The professed motive of this motion was to shew, that the president had not the power of Tejecting the treaty, without the consent of the senate; that that consent had not been obtained, and that, in fact, it might yet be ratified, though the king had said, in his speech, that the ratification had been refused Mr. Eden appears to be deeply read in the little pamphlet, called "the Constitution of the United States of America; but, if I recollect rightly, that pamphlet, which is, however, a very flexible piece of stuff, says not a word about non-ratification of treaties. The president is to make treaties, and when he is satisfied with them himself, he is to lay them before the senate for their approbation, or disapprobation; but, if he be not himself satisfied with what his negociators have done, he wants no vote of the senate to authorize him to send a treaty back again; or, if it so please him, to put an end to the negociation; so that, he has the power, at all times, to refuse to ratify a treaty, and, in the case before us, that refusal was given. The collateral matter of Mr. Eden's speech was, however, of the most importance. He expressed his hope, that the treaty might yet be ratified. It may, if the president should be induced to change. his opinion of us; but, if he does change that opinion, it certainly will not be owing to the expression, on our part, of any such hopes, and particularly if we express them in parliament. Such

hopes, if they are very dear to Mr. Eden's heart, are, I am convinced, much more likely to be realized from the effect of the king's proclamation relating to English sea

men and others becoming citizens of America, his orders in council relating to commerce, and his orders for the sending out of ships, troops, and powder and ball to America. Speculations are afloat as to what the Americans will next do; for to remain as they are is a moral impossibility. They have, for a long time, been complaining of our laws of blockade; and, as the end of all their ridiculous threats, all their swaggering denunciations, they blockade themselves, and that, too, in their own ports, Some think, that their next measure will be, when they have got in all their ships, to invade Canada. This they can do, but not without men and arms and cannon and ammunition; and these cost money. They would easily penetrate into the country; but the country without Quebec is nothing, and they know from disgraceful experience, what it is to attack Quebec. They will, besides, have upper Canada first to subdue; and in that country, they will have to de feat a good number of Scotchmen, who are not apt to lay down their arms till they have made their assailants feel the effects of them. They inust defeat these Scotchinen, or they will have them in their rear, together with a company or two of artillery. So that, even an inroad into Canada, though it may be, by a vast superiority of numbers, effected, will be, by no means, a holiday enterprize, nor an enterprize of little expense. And, whence is the money to come? I have before stated, that there are, in the American States, no internal taxes, and have shewn, that, in case of war, with us, it will be impossible to collect an internal tax; that the whole of the revenue arises from custom-house duties; that fourfifths of these arise from commerce with us; that the whole annual revenne is about 15,000,000 of dollars; that more than one half of this is required to meet the annual expenses of the national debt;,,and,, that, of course, a war with us, while it will add ten fold to the expenses, will almost totally destroy the revenue, leaving the national debt to pay its own interest and the govern ment to maintain itself. What, then, if they resolve upon war, is to be done? Why, it appears to me, that the first step must be an act of confiscation of all debts, private as well as public, due to England, and of all property owned by Englishinen. The amount of these debts and of this property may be about 12,000,000 of pounds sterling. But, an act of confiscation would not bring more than a third or fourth part of that sum into the treasury. What it would bring in would, however, enable the government to go on for