“ Descended from a long line of ancestors, whose names are recorded in the earliest ages of our history, and characterized with those qualities of prudence, generosity, and valour, which have laid the foundations of English greatness, your race has exhibited many a model of that splendid worth which dignifies the gentlemen of England; always prompt to discharge the laborious duties of civil life, and never slow to take up arms at the call of their country. ”

“ Since I came into office I have proceeded on all questions of augmentation of salaries, on a strong impression of the importance of public economy, and on a full conviction that the advance of any one salary does not rest there, but raises a cry of claim, founded upon relative duties and rank, with an air of justice from precedent; which involves either an excessive increase of charge to the public, or an imputation of harshness and injustice, against the person in authority, who rejects the authority of the precedent, and refuses the increase demanded. ”

“ The kingdom of Galicia has been entirely free from the enemy, and Castille partially relieved. The Spanish army in Galicia have made no movement whatever, as General Mahy says, for want of great coats; but in fact, because they want pay, clothing, means of subsistence, transport, discipline, and every thing which can keep a body of men together in an operation. In Castille nothing has been done, excepting that the guerrillas have been more daring and successful in their robberies.
The relief of Andalusia would, I fear, make no difference in the situation of affairs there. ”

“ I see various and opposite qualities—all the great and all the little passions unfavourable to public tranquillity—united in the breast of one man, and of that man, unhappily, whose personal caprice can scarce fluctuate for an hour without affecting the destiny of Europe. ”

“ If all this be true, our business is not to fight the French army, which we certainly cannot beat out of the Peninsula, but to give occupation to as large a portion of it as we can manage, and to leave the war in Spain to the guerrillas. As long as the French do not interfere with our supplies, or the resources of the Portuguese Government, or any point of our security, I think it very immaterial whether they are in Spain or Portugal. ”

“ The question whether I should attack the enemy in the position which he now occupies has been well considered by me. I have a superior army, I think, by 10,000 men, or one sixth, including the Spaniards; and, notwithstanding some defects in its composition, I think I should succeed. But the loss must necessarily be very great in killed and wounded; and the necessity which would exist of exposing the troops to the weather for some days and nights would throw a great proportion of this convalescent army into the hospital. ”

“ What our men would have done from gallantry, some of the crew of the Santissima Trinidad did to save themselves. Unable to stand the tremendous fire of the Victory, whose larboard guns played against this great four-decker, and not knowing how else to escape them, nor where else to betake themselves for protection, many of them leaped overboard, and swam to the Victory: and were actually helped up her sides by the English during the action. The Spaniards began the battle with less vivacity than their unworthy allies, but they continued it with greater firmness. ”

“ Trained in the same camps, and animated by the same love of glory as the great captain who now commands our armies, and fills the world with his renown, you have bravely followed his brilliant career, and shared in his unexampled triumphs. ”

“ Can you, then, wonder that in times like these, when bankruptcy, convicted fraud, and imputed felony are found in a station not far beneath that of your Lordships, the lowest, though once most useful portion of the people, should forget their duty in their distresses, and become only less guilty than one of their representatives? But while the exalted offender can find means to baffle the law, new capital punishments must be devised, new snares of death must be spread for the wretched mechanic, who is famished into guilt. ”

“ If the very worst happens that is now threatened—if Austria does make a separate peace, and is abolished as a Power, and if Prussia lies down and licks Bonaparte’s feet, and is forgiven and gets Hanover assigned to her for her submission—still, with Russia unpledged to peace and committed in war, we are better off than we were before the Coalition took place. We must then, I think, set about making a new treaty with Russia with a view to joint negotiation hereafter. ”

“ On the contrary, that the British army appears to have been improvidently led into a situation, in which the repulse of the enemy, effected with a great loss, produced neither security from a subsequent attack, nor relief from the distress under which our brave troops were suffering, and was immediately followed by the necessity of a precipitate retreat, whereby our wounded were left to fall into the hands of the enemy. ”

“ That the regulation of the morals and the health of the rising progeny of a state, as conducive to industry and to opulence, demands every attention, it is needless to argue; but let us see the great difficulties which our principal manufacturing towns labour under, such as Birmingham and Manchester, compared with the less contaminated primitive and more hardy poor connected with the manufactories of Scotland.
From several generations past, the manufactories of our great commercial towns have encouraged the most extensive employment to the labouring poor ”

“ And I was encouraged by the confidence reposed in me by His Majesty’s Ministers, and by the Commander-in-Chief, by the gracious favour of H.R.H. the Prince Regent, and by the reliance which I had on the support of my gallant friends, the General Officers of the army, and on the bravery of the officers and troops, to carry on the operations in such a manner as to acquire for me those marks of approbation of this House for which I have now the honour to make my humble acknowledgments. ”

“ England, with her immense colonies, instead of being obliged to keep up a large army to cover Belgium, should withdraw within her Island, and act when and where she chose.” He spoke of the Dutch troops, and appeared to have but a poor opinion of them;—their marine, he said, was much reduced. He expressed himself with much contempt of the Austrian soldiers, who “would not fight without a belly full.”—Referring to the campaign in France, he said that he should have beaten the Allies, had he not been betrayed; for that the peasants were taking arms in their rear. ”

“ I see all the captious jealousy of conscious usurpation dreaded, detested, and obeyed—the giddiness and intoxication of splendid but unmerited success—the arrogance, the presumption, the self-will of unlimited and idolized power, and—more dreadful than all in the plenitude of authority—the restless and incessant activity of guilty but unsated ambition. ”

“ The big and little Endians in Gulliver have not yet taught us the folly of mere party: and one of the most ridiculous inconsistencies in the human character is that enjoyment which all ages have expressed in satirical productions, without receiving benefit from them: they drink the physic with a bold and pleasant countenance, and instantly prepare to counteract its effect; or rather, every man thinks the physic excellent for everybody but himself.—“Party,” says Swift, “is the madness of many for the gain of a few.” ”

“ But, Sir, when the path of early life lay open to your choice,{87} the then warlike state of the world called forth a congenial spirit, and your military ardour led you to encounter the toils and dangers of war in distant climes. ”

“ A few minutes afterwards a shot struck the fore-brace bits on the quarter-deck, and passed between Nelson and Hardy, a splinter from the bit tearing off Hardy’s buckle, and bruising his foot. Both stopped, and looked anxiously at each other; each supposed the other to be wounded. Nelson then smiled, and said, “This is too warm work, Hardy, to last long.”
The Victory had not yet returned a single gun. Fifty of her men had been by this time killed or wounded, and her main-topmast, with all her studding sails and her booms, shot away. ”

“ This is a formidable and tremendous state of the world; but all the part of it which is particularly harassing to English interests was existing through the new severity with which Buonaparte’s decrees of exclusion against our trade were called into action.
Our proceeding does not aggravate our distress from it. If he can keep out our trade he will; and he would do so if he could, independent of our orders. Our orders only add this circumstance: they say to the enemy, if you will not have our trade, as far as we can help it you shall have none. ”

“ Such, in an eminent degree, was that venerated person from whom you have immediately derived your own hereditary honours, endeared by his active virtues to the public men of his own time, not unknown to some who still sit among us, and ever remembered by myself with the sincerest sentiments of respect and affection. ”

“ When a match at football is made, two parties, each containing an equal number of competitors, take the field, and stand between two goals, placed at the distance of 80 or 100 yards the one from the other. The goal is usually made with two sticks driven into the ground, about two or three feet apart. The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder, and cased with leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of their antagonists, which being achieved the game is won. ”

“ When we are told that these men are leagued together not only for the destruction{79} of their own comfort, but of their very means of subsistence, can we forget that it is the bitter policy, the destructive warfare of the last eighteen years, which has destroyed their comfort, your comfort, all men’s comfort? that policy, which, originating with “great statesmen now no more,” has survived the dead to become a curse on the living, unto the third and fourth generation! These men never destroyed their looms till they were become useless, worse than useless ”

“ Yet all history may convince us,{53} that he who resolutely professes himself attached to any party, is in danger of yielding to every extreme for the mere reputation of his opinion: he will argue for the most manifest errors of this or that statesman, because he has hitherto agreed with him—an obstinacy as stupid, as if a pedestrian were to express his satisfaction with a tempest at night, because he had enjoyed sunshine in the morning. ”

“ The possession of Malta appears to be of the most essential importance to great and valuable interests of our own, and to our means of connexion and co-operation with other Powers. Some naval station in the Mediterranean is absolutely indispensable; but none can be found so desirable and secure as Malta. ”

“ I am aware that I have created much dissatisfaction by holding the public purse-strings so close; but it is from an apprehension that without very rigid economy we can neither retain the goodwill of the public, nor hold out against the perseverance and resources of the enemy. ”

“ The town of Toulouse is surrounded on three sides by the canal of Languedoc and the Garonne. On the left of that river, the suburb, which the enemy had fortified with strong field works in front of the ancient wall, formed a good tête de pont. They had likewise formed a tête de pont at each bridge of the canal, which was besides defended by the fire in some places of musketry, and in all of artillery from the ancient wall of the town. ”

“ Thus the cook can take upon himself to be the man of consequence, for he has the opportunity of inviting a friend to partake of a glass, or of paying any little debt he may have{32} contracted. It may not be known to everyone that it is grog which pays debts, and not money, in a man-of-war. Notwithstanding the cook’s apparently pre-eminent situation, yet, on some occasions, he is subject to censure or punishment by his messmates, for not attending to the dinner properly, or suffering the utensils of his department to be in a dirty condition. ”

“ Advantages to be given to any Power if necessary should be regulated with a view to the future safety of Europe, and the zeal shown by each Power. It is supposed nothing can be proposed for Prussia consistent with the safety and interests of the rest of Europe, except the provinces she ceded to France. Austria is expected from the little which has passed to be very moderate, and content with inconsiderable acquisitions in Germany and Italy. ”