MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF SIR JOHN MOORE.

HC Deb 25 January 1809 vol 12 cc138-44

Lord Casilereagh

began by observing, that before he would call the attention of the house to the detail of the splendid services, which they were that night to be called upon to recognise, he could not help remarking, that there seldom occurred an occasion when parliament was so called upon, in which the joy so natural on the event of a glorious victory, was mingled with sensations of deeper and more profound concern than that, which, in bringing to their attention a topic of great national triumph, brought along with it the remembrance of a national loss in the death of a great and invaluable officer, While the country had to deplore so serious a disaster, in being so soon deprived of one of her ablest generals—possessing in an eminent degree every valuable quality that can dignify the man, and enhance the superiority of the soldier; at once in the prime of life, and the prime of professional desert—giving in the evidence of his past life, the best assurance of what might be expected from his zeal, intrepidity, and talents; it was yet matter of grateful consolation, that there were circumstances attending the fatality they deplored, which would in a great degree alleviate the national affliction. Though wounded at an early period of the action of the 10th by a cannon ball, the gallant officer continued in the field, and it w ill be grateful to every man who can enter into the feeling of an intrepid soldier at such a moment, with whom life was but a secondary, a trifling object of consideration; it cannot but be grateful to such men to know, that he continued in the field till he saw success confirm the well-judged dispositions and admirable arrangements, he had previously prepared to secure it, in the event of a contest. He brought with him out of the field not only that consciousness, of which no defeat could have deprived him, that of having done his best for his country; but, that also of having been the means of asserting the military superiority of the British arms, in one of the most splendid and signal instances of unconquerable valour to be found among the annals of our national achievements; it would be further matter of grateful consolation to learn, that this great commander, to the very moment approaching his dissolution, retained the full possession of his faculties, that his mind did not droop with the faintness of his body, but seemed to derive new and increased vigour from the scene, as if the approach of death was forgotten in the approach of victory. (Hear! hear!) The house would know how to appreciate the generous principle, that in such an hour made death indifferent, when the sole and anxious wish of his departing moments was—that his country would think well of him, and do justice to his memory, and that whatever was the sentiment of the country with regard to him, that it would not fail to be marked at the present crisis. All that he regretted was, that he had not been able to fulfil all the duties imposed upon him, and finally to rescue from the tyranny of France, the gallant but oppressed nation, in whose cause he bled. He did think that the house was called upon to give some lasting and distinguished proof of the country's gratitude, for the high and eminent services of this lamented officer, nor should he think it necessary to qualify what he had said, nor should he even rest the pretensions of that great officer upon his services during the late campaign in Spain; for however that expedition had failed in its ultimate object, whatever disappointment or losses might have occurred with respect to it, there could be no doubt whatever, that the failure was not at all attributable to sir John Moore. (Loud cries of hear! hear! from the Opposition benches.) If by that outcry, gentlemen would be understood to mean that the blame devolved elsewhere, and that his majesty's ministers were culpable (hear! hear!)—those gentlemen would have an opportunity of bringing that question to an issue, when without mixing the venom of party-feeling with sentiments more suited to the present solemn occasion, they could enter at once into the inquiry with somewhat less reserve, and certainly mere decency—(loud cries of hear! hear! from the Ministerial benches)—and strong as he felt himself in the cause of that great officer's fame and character, he was bold to say, that he felt himself equally strong in the case his majesty's government had to make out to the country with respect to the conduct of that campaign. It was far from his intention to enter into any detail of the many and signal services performed by sir John Moore, in the course of a life, though short, most active, because he felt that the faint picture his humble abilities enabled him to draw would fall infinitely short of the merits he designed to celebrate. They were sufficiently fresh in the remembrance of the house, and he should rather weaken than strengthen their claims on public gratitude, by dwelling upon them. Still, however, there were one or two points which it would be a failure in gratitude to pass by without particular notice. The first point to which he would call the attention of the House, was the condition of the army on its arrival at Salamanca, after its march from Lisbon—a march which, whether they considered the extent of the country, the unusual inclemency of the season, or the arrangements necessarily resorted to, was difficult beyond description, and imposed upon sir J. Moore as arduous a task as could possibly devolve upon any commanding officer; and yet, owing to his admirable management, never did an army appear in a state of more perfect discipline, of more complete equipment, in higher military condition, and more competent in every respect (with the exception of numbers) to meet and encounter an enemy, than did that army on its arrival, after a severe and fatiguing march, at Salamanca. The march by land was the option of sir John Moore, not from any deficiency of transports, but from the then efficient state of the army, and he (lord C.) did consider it a most judicious preference on the part of sir John Moore; as he did not think, that an army assembled at that period in Gallicia, if conveyed by transports to the northern extremity of Spain, would have had as good an opportunity for co-operation with the natives, as it might have had on its arrival in a more central part of Spain, after its march through Portugal.—The next circumstance he should advert to was, the diversion effected by sir John Moore's retreat in favour of the Spaniards, and never was there in the military history of any country a more complete diversion; for he had completely succeeded in drawing to the northern extremities of the peninsula the efforts of the French forces from the track of the Spanish armies: in effecting this great diversion, sir John Moore had secured an object of not less importance, by asserting the national honour in the brilliant result of the action with Marshal Sotlt's army. The more the circumstances of that action were examined into, the more illustrious an instance would it appear of the matchless gallantry of British troops, after suffering all the hardships of a march of unexampled severity, pressed upon continually by an army of considerably superior force, amid the rigours of a season peculiarly inclement, where human strength was exhausted by the rapidity of their movements, the consequence of forced marches, so that none but the choice troops of each army, who had surmounted all these difficulties, remained to be oppos- ed to each other; notwithstanding all these circumstances to fight a battle, and not only obtain a victory, but obtain it in a way so decisive, that they had leisure to embark every individual of their forces in the presence of a superior army, whom they had beaten the day before, and did not leave a single wounded soldier, nor one solitary piece of artillery behind them, which French artifice could convert into the slightest pretence of national exultation.—He was unwilling to add any other to the splendid instance just mentioned of what British valour could do when properly conducted. It behoved the country to mark, with extraordinary distinction, such extraordinary services. He should move for a Monument to the memory of sir John Moore, as an effectual incitement to those who survived him to merit the same great distinction, by imitating the example he had bequeathed them.—The noble lord then concluded with moving, "That an humble Address be presented to his majesty, That his majesty would be graciously pleased to direct that a Monument be erected in the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul's London, to the memory of lieut.-general sir John Moore, knight of the Bath, late Commander of his majesty's forces in Spain, who after an honourable and meritorious life in the service of his country, which deeply laments his loss, was killed by a cannon bail in the battle of Corunna on the 16th of Jan. 1809, where, by his judicious disposition and successful commencement of the engagement, he secured the complete repulse and signal defeat of the enemy, and the safe and unmolested embarkation of his majesty's Army in the face of a French Army of superior force; and to assure his majesty that this House will make good the expence attending the same."—On the question being put from the chair,

Lord H. Petty

rose and said; There can, sir, be but one sentiment in this house upon the present motion; nor is there, I am persuaded, an individual within its walls who does not feel that sentiment fully and forcibly. All minor considerations are forgotten in the involuntary tribute of national gratitude to the services that have added new splendour to the national character; and when such a subject is before us, it is well that no feeling arising out of any political differences be allowed for a moment to interfere with the nobler sympathy by which we are bound, in common, to acknowledge and commemorate distinguished service rendered to our common country. Sincere as was the pleasure I felt at hearing the motion of the noble lord, I experienced no less satisfaction in hearing the speech which prefaced it. I was glad to hear the noble lord do such justice to departed worth, and glad to perceive that he was so well inclined to do that justice. In all his sentiments relating to the merits and claims of the great man we have lost, I entirely concur, and join with him in the strong terms in which he has expressed them, as terms no less just than emphatic; and if I had had no other cause for rising than merely to express my satisfaction at the speech of the noble lord, I should have risen to have done so. But, sir, I cannot possibly stop here, injustice to the great man who was the object of the noble lord's culogium. I trust that his sentiments may go forth, that the public may know what he and his colleagues really think of the services we are now called upon to recompence; that they may be satisfied that the government of this country does know how to appreciate the value of one of her greatest ornaments, and that they may not be so far deceived by the obtrusive servility of a venal press as to conclude its sentiments on the merits of that admirable officer to be merely the echo of its masters. We are now assembled, with one accord, to do justice to the memory of a man whose loss has thrown a shade upon the splendour of victory; and while we are so employed; while we are paying the last pious tribute of our country to the sacred memory of her departed brave; while we are rearing lasting memorials at once of our gratitude and our glory—is it to go abroad that a part of that venal press, which would enlist itself into the service of the minister, was authorised to counteract the professions of ministers themselves, the sense of that house, and the wishes of the country, by assiduously circulating slanders, poisonous to the fair fame of that great character which is now peculiarly our own, and which our vote of this night will go to identify with the honour of the country? I would be far from imputing to the noble lord the having given the print in question any such authority. I have a right to conclude, that his opinion of the transcendant merit of the distinguished officer whose loss we have so much reason to deplore, is as high as any entertained by any member of this house [here lord Castlereagh signified his assent;] and when I allude to this pitiful attempt of a journalist to tear from a gallant soldier's grave the laurels his country's wishes have planted there for ever, it is merely that the attempt may be marked and exposed to merited reprobation—an attempt which, when once the sentiments avowed by the noble lord this night shall be made public, will never again be repeated: the editor will see his error, in his mistaken anticipation of the opinions of those he wishes to please, and desist from a repetition of his calumnies. It becomes us, however, as the guardians of the public honour, in vindication of our judgment in discriminating, and our sincerity in rewarding, while we are erecting a monument in commemoration of the great general who is gone, not to look with indifference at any base attack upon that less perishable memorial he has left us—his character—dearer to him than monuments, and more durable than marble. (Hear! hear!) In saying this, I would not be understood to insinuate, that though death canonized great men, it should yet be a shelter for misconduct. If there has been misconduct, trace it to its proper source; visit its consequences upon its proper authors; but let every vile attempt to transfer the blame from the guilty living to the blameless dead be scouted with a manly and an honest indignation. I am not for repressing useful investigation, but for restraining wanton calumny; and at least until those brave partners in his hardships and his glory are landed on our shores, who are the most competent evidences to his merit, it is not too much to expect, that till then, at least, the voice of censure be suspended.—The noble lord repeated his approbation of the motion, and sat down amid cries of Hear! hear! from all parts of the house.

The motion was then put, and passed nem. con.