The National Register. — London, England, 1808-11-27 00:00:00

rs - CY" ... I . •rani Wel• oion Dl. ite a •4•IIPd- Isti(e ed it, it H. &c. nee i - ra s t% e It•en h iv i it in an.l fflciet.t not to firmly nunner Lde by 'ort of Russian er. It les and gularly of have nnained of our' I oilt al b impaign ye been sit flint he main y to it. ,arils the ,tined of With ht have enough Olen no wished Conven t, which rot', but ikularly he v indi had been in hiso%An vithstand trtieles in s in 3 dif truly the t h e y en- e r hodicg. the light eouilir)• es*itY 01 a octions he let, or il k Lord W. 1; 1 ,11o% ea' it had reit se. dulge him eplaoatog ird and " ray W:ul yen. rate's reng by Sir Hew i ma riat 3nriag es ate __,, NOV. 27. t,.ched to the baggage and ordnance of the British army in Por t( gal ; and also another ducument from the department of the A djutant-Geoeral, stating the number of French who embarked after the evacuation, to be 24,133 men, 213 women, and 116 children. Sir A. Wellesley then rose, and said notwithstanding Sir Hew Dalrymple considered the measures he had adopted previous to his arrival to be such as would not justify him in assuming the responsibility for any result which might follow, he felt confi dent that from the means he possessed with 13,000 British troops, and the aid he was taught to expect of 6000 Portuguese troops, he had strength enough to accomplish the purposes he had in contemplation against the army of the French, which . he understood did not exceed 20,500 men ; and that the line of march he proposed to pursue in furtherance of his objects, was in his opinion every way preferable to that chosen by Sir Hew. With respect to the Armistice after the battle of the 21st, be positively denied that he was the negotiator; and although be certainly had signed it, yet he disclaimed all responsibility for its honour. He was present a great part of the time while it was in discussion; but the objections he made, and most of the suggestions he offered, were over-ruled by Gen. Dalrymple; He thought it, for instance, extremely desirable that the Rus sian ships should trot by any means he included in a treaty with the French, but that any thing done with respect to them, should be the subject of a distinct treaty, and with themselves, as they had acted a neutral part while in the Tagus; and as means might be found to detain them there long enough to pre vent their sailing to the Baltic, and sending their men to fight against Sweden. He also distinctly understood that under the term of " all manner of property. ' used in the treaty, mere military baggage and private property were implied ; but with respect to the Armistice itself, with all its canditione, Keller man distinctly asked, during the conference, who was the osteo bible negociator with whom he was treating, and Sir Hew Dal rymple answered, with himself. But after Gen. Kellerman had dictated to the officer who accompanied him as Secretary, the terms, for a fair copy, Sir Hew •Dalrymple himself took the pen in his hand, and was proceeding to sign the instrument without reading it ; but General Kellerman objected, that it was not regular for a Commander in Chief to sign a treaty concludes; with a General of Division. Upon which, he (Sir Arthur) was called by Sir Hew out of another room to which he bad retired; was told the objection of General Keller Man, and the pen handed to him by Sir Hew, to sign the treaty. He then read the instrument throughout; and after making the observation, that it was a most extraordinary paper, and drawn up in a most extraordinary way, he signed it, as he would have signed any other paper, at the desire of his superior officer, but without feeling himself at all responsible for its con tents. He was willing, he said, to suffer any punishment or disgraCe that his own conduct might be deemed to incur ; hut it would be a new and extraordinary principle, to punish or disgrace au Officer for a transaction in which he had no authority nor responsibility, but where both belonged to his Superior in Command. As to the innin object of the Treaty, the Evacuation of Portugal, it was justified in the result ; for w bile our Allies in • Portugal u ere liberated limn the oppressiVe burthen of ha Enemy's Army in their Country, and a large British Force enabled to march for a junction and co-operation with the Spanish Army, not :t man of the French troops who had evacuated Por tugal, and been sent to France, had yet reached the Spanish frontier. But as to the Armistice, such as it was, it remained a dead letter, and was never acted upon, except so far as it pro-I tatted a cessation of hostilities. With respect to the sulkies/tor the sub s e quen t C onvent i on, t h e account g i ve n by Sir Arthur dif fered_ but little, a n d no t mater i a lly, from that given yesterday by Sir Hew Dalrymple, except in that point which respected the discretion given to Colonel Murray, on his mission to Junin at Lisbon, for renewing the suspension of hostilities for forty eight hours pending the discussion about the Russian fleet : for a t: Junut had t h reat e ne d to arm t h e R uss i ans i n a id of his awn re in else the terms were not complied with, to which Ad miral Cotton objected, he suggested that they ought not to be .. allo wed forty-eight h ours ' sus p ens i on to equip the Russians, before the re -commencement of hostilities; and then at the de sireof Sir Hew, h e wrote t h e l etter t o C o l on el Murray at Lis bon, desiring him, if the terms proposed by the British were not agreed t o , th en to d eclare the A rm i st i ce at a n en d on the h of August at noon, and depart immediately. As to the terms concluded with regard to the Hessians, he thought them much more preferable for the object of the public service, than to have hoisted on their unconditional surrender ; fur he judged, b t ..., .11.... N ... iirAlkak . • I iii 12Satia lr % 4 ~i~roir u¢_ ''~"' 7 .r" THE NATIONAL REGISTER. hat as soon as the Portuguese colours should be hoisted at Lis bon, the Government there would have claimed for the Rus sians the neutrality of 'the Tagus;whieh would have obliged Sir Chat les Cotton to send home for instructions. This would have led to a protracted discussion between the two Governments, and have impeded toe object of the txpedition. But there was • one thing in the Treaty which he most decidedly condemned, namely, that no conditions whatever were tttpulnted fur the five thousand Spanish prisoners in hulks on the Tagus, whit were left entirely at the mercy and disposal of the French, when there might have been an exchange negotiate.: for them, fibres many french prisoners detained in their own country, and to which the Government of Gallicia would have readily ac ceded. As to the Convention of Cintra, he never saw it until his arrival in England. Sir Hew Dalrymple observed, that with respect to the nego tiation of toe. Armistice, certa illy Sir Arthur Wellesley dis cuSse.d the point for a considerable time in the French language at the table with General Kellerman, and that in the. mean time a Frenchman, who bad accompanied General Kellerman, anti whom he (Sir flew) had seen in London some three years be fore, hut did not immediately recollect his face or figure, took him aside to the window, claimed acquaintance with him, and :n very had English, asked him if he understood French ? to which he answered, yes, as much as he had occasion fur. Then this cunning Frenchman, under pretence of aiding him in under standing the word.: of General Kellerman, who was in conver. satioa with Ric _Arthur IVelle,ley. and to impress hint with the idea that the Russians were friendly to the English, said that it would be imprudent to insist on any terms offensive to them ; awl that fr the terms proposed by the French respecting them were rejected,. they would be armed against the English. Ile repeat ed frequently, like a starling, after Kellerman, the words, dear vingt-quatce henres noes 11110)71 Id: milks lit“,es (in four-awl twenty boors there will be ten thousand Russians). With respect to the intimation to Sir Arthur Wellesley of his intention not to supersede him in his command, he had forwarded it to him by an Aid-du-Camp, front on board his vessel, soon after his arrival on the. coast, but he understood that Officer had not the good fortune to meet with Sir Arhur, to communicate the message. Sir A. Wellesley then made some observations on the Articles, elite'. which he differed in opinion from the Commander in Chief. As to the Article which related to the French being allowed their baggage, eke. it was perfectly understood at the time, that, property belonging to churches, to libraries, and museums, or galleries of pictures, did not come within the meaning or the letter of the articles; as to property absolutely purchased, the Military Commanders could not intertere. Sir flew Dalrymple flatted that he was convinced that a great part of the hostility. which appeared against him in Portugal, arose from this circumstance : lite Bishop 01 0 porto, with hir e Junta, wished to be considered as the actual Goverument of.Pur top!, and the Representative. of the Prince Regent. This was a claim which lie conceived it Ms duty to resist, and he did re sist it very early. Ile therefore had no correspondence with he Bishop of blow° after the Convention, hut lie knew that fir Arthur ‘Velleslcy had. because lie hint-elf received the an swer to a letter which he hail soot to the Bishop, from the acci dental circumstance of the letter being directed to " the General in Chief of the British Forces." This letter he had now among his papers. . Sir Arthur said. that he always coincided in opinion with Sir Hew, stbdut the claim of the Bishop and Alum of Oporto. lie really could not recollect whether he had ever written the letter Imputed to him or not. If lie had the written letter, and the terms . were such ns the newspapers stated, he thought it might well he 'ustitied ; for if he had said there was nothing extraordinary in, the terms of the Convention, it was what might very fairly be Said as applying only to the Portuguese. As far as respected be Portuguese, he would still say, that there was nothing extra ordinary in the terms of the Armistice, except that article which elated to the neutrality of the port of Lisbon. • Capt. Bligh was then examined, who confirmed the testimony given on a former day by Capt. Malcolm, as to the great diffi culty of landing provisions, stores, or artillery, on the coast of Portugal during the months of August and September, on account of the swell and surf which is always upon the beach during these months. General Ferguson was then introduced as a witness, but the President sheering him the written questions, put it to his optima whether be would answer them, or take time to coasider oicw. and seed to writtea aaswers. ;$ • • f, eit,* F . ...rrrrr ~. ~~~~~ l • 757 Pri