possible for us to do so without degrading the country by any base avidity for little gains, by seizing upon any of those little pieces of plunder, which were so tempting, and apt to overpower our resistance to the temptation. We might leave the country of our ally with the spirit of friendship and the purity of honour. It was of great moment to us, in even that meanest and lowest view of policy, to leave the people of the Peninsula our friends; but we must be actuated by a higher principle, and be regretted and revered by those whom we were forced to abandon. He could not expect this from his majesty’s ministers, and therefore could not think their hands fit to wield the resources, or sustain the character of the British empire.” Lord Holland therefore voted for the amendment, the object of which was, that the cause of the Peninsula should be given up as hopeless. ♦MARCH 9. MR. PERCEVAL;♦ The debate was not less interesting in the Lower House, when Mr. Perceval moved for a sum not exceeding 980,000_l._ for the defence of Portugal; “a vote,” he said “so consistent with the feelings which the house had professed on former occasions, that he should not have expected any opposition to it. He reminded the house how those who opposed it had been always of opinion that it was impossible for Spain to hold out so long; that if she succeeded at all, she must succeed at once; but that she could never maintain a protracted contest against the disciplined armies and enormous resources of France. This was their declared and recorded opinion; but what was the fact? Spain had continued the struggle. France might occupy the country with an army, but her power would be confined within the limits of her military posts, and it would require nearly as large an army to keep possession of it as to make the conquest. There never had existed a military power capable of subduing a population possessing the mind, and heart, and soul of the Spaniards. The very victories of their enemies would teach them discipline, and infuse into them a spirit which would ultimately be the ruin of their oppressors. Under these circumstances, would it be wise to abandon Portugal? The last Austrian war had arisen in great measure out of the contest in the Peninsula; and during the progress of that war, however calamitous the result had proved, it would be in the recollection of the house, that one other day’s successful resistance of the French by the Austrians might have overthrown the accumulated power of the enemy. Such events might again take place, for no man could anticipate, in the present state of the world, what might arise in the course of a short time; but be that as it might, as long as the contest was, or could be, maintained in the Peninsula, the best policy of this country was to support it.” ♦SIR J. NEWPORT;♦