It is at least reasonable to impute miscarriages rather to those, who are known to have given, formerly, such orders as a brave admiral perished under the ignominious necessity of observing, than to those of whom it cannot be said that any former part of their lives has been stained with the reproach of cowardice; at least it is necessary to suspend our judgment, till the truth shall be made apparent by a rigid inquiry; and it is, therefore, proper to offer an address in general terms, by which neither the actions or counsels of any man shall be condemned nor approved.
It would be more unreasonable to charge our soldiers or our sailors with cowardice, because they have shown, even in those actions which have failed of success, that they miscarried rather through temerity than fear; and that whenever they are suffered to attack their enemies, they are ready to march forward even where there is no possibility of returning, and that they are only to be withheld from conquest by obstacles which human prowess cannot surmount.
Such, my lords, was the state of those heroes who died under the walls of Carthagena; that died in an enterprise so ill concerted, that I ventured, with no great skill in war, and without the least pretence to prescience, to foretell in this house that it would miscarry.
That it would, that it must miscarry; that it was even intended only to amuse the nation with the appearance of an expedition, without any design of weakening our enemies, was easily discovered; for why else, my lords, was the army composed of men newly drawn from the shop, and from the plough, unacquainted with the use of arms, and ignorant of the very terms of military discipline, when we had among us large bodies of troops long kept up under the appearance of a regular establishment; troops of whom we have long felt the expense, but of which the time is not, it seems, yet come, that we are to know the use.
These men, my lords, who have so long practised the motions of battle, and who have given in the park so many proofs of their dexterity and activity, who have at least learned to distinguish the different sounds of the drum, and know the faces and voices of the subaltern officers, at least, might have been imagined better qualified for an attempt upon a foreign kingdom, than those who were necessarily strangers to every part of the military operations, and might have been sent upon our first declaration of war, while the new-raised forces acquired at home the same arts under the same inspection.
But, my lords, whether it was imagined that new forces would be long before they learned the implicit obedience necessary to a soldier; whether it was imagined that it would not be easy on a sudden to collect troops of men so tall and well proportioned, or so well skilled in the martial arts of curling and powdering their hair; or whether it would have been dangerous to have deprived the other house of the counsels and votes of many worthy members, who had at the same time a seat in the senate, and a commission in the army, it was thought necessary to send out raw forces to attack our enemies, and to keep our disciplined troops at home to awe the nation.
Nor did the minister, my lords, think it sufficient to obstruct the expedition to America by employing new-raised troops, unless they were likewise placed under the command of a man, who, though of undoubted courage, was, with respect to the conduct of an army, as ignorant as themselves. It was therefore determined, my lords, that all those officers who had gained experience in former wars, and purchased military knowledge by personal danger, should be disappointed and rejected for the sake of advancing a man, who, as he had less skill, was less likely to be successful, and was, therefore, more proper to direct an expedition proposed only to intimidate the British nation.
That the event was such as might be expected from the means, your lordships need not to be informed, nor can it be questioned with what intentions these means were contrived.
I am very far, my lords, from charging our ministers with ignorance, or upbraiding them with mistakes on this occasion, for their whole conduct has been uniform, and all their schemes consistent with each other: nor do I doubt their knowledge of the consequence of their measures, so far as it was to be foreseen by human prudence.
Whether they have carried on negotiations, or made war; whether they have conducted our own affairs, or those of our ally the queen of Hungary, they have still discovered the same intention, and promoted it by the same means. They have suffered the Spanish fleets to sail first for supplies from one port to another, and then from the coasts of Spain to those of America. They have permitted the Spaniards, without opposition, to land in Italy, when it was not necessary even to withhold them from it by any actual violence; for had the fleet, my lords, been under my command, I would have only sent the Spanish admiral a prohibition to sail, and am sure it would have been observed.