ABSTRACT
The Whigs, as a whole, had long since got over their Napoleonic phase; but an appreciable section of them held that it was futile to continue the war, and that peace might be had for the asking. Most important of these was Whitbread. In the Commons the Whigs took the same attitude; but they found it very difficult to make Canning produce the papers they desired. Canning indeed behaved with quite unnecessary tortuousness, and gave every ground for the suspicion entertained by some of the Whigs that the reasons publicly assigned for the attack would not bear inspection. They believed, or affected to believe, that the Danes could and would have made effective resistance to Napoleon. For a moment the Whigs were in full agreement with their adversaries as to the policy to be adopted: they differed from them only in being relieved from the necessity of considering its practicability.
