The National Register. — London, England, 1809-08-06 00:00:00

AU mine—and whether he expected that his threat would fititni date me to silence, L know not:. .But if these were his ideas, assure myielf the result wilLprove to him that they ere found ed in error; for I will never permit any Man to proceed as Lord Cochrane has done, without availing myself of the Means which the laws of the country afford, to show the futility and injustice of such an attack. By the letter of the SleretarY of the Admiralty to Lord Cochrane, after mak ins; his it: defined aocusatioo against his Admiral, he excuses himself f:aim expla nation by a general reference to Abe log and signal books of the fleet,w ithout knowing, if It may judge from the imperf. - .. !state of his own log, w hat that general reference might ;mottle... There fore, because he does not accord pith me in opinioo, Cochrane, whose extent of responsibility has perhaps never exceeded the charge of ft single ship, and to whom in judgment I will not reduce my experience to a comparison, becomes my accuser ; whilst, from situation, Lam responsible for every act of my fleet, and for the fate of every ship composing it. lam so confident, and I hope it is already evident to the Court, that Lord Cochrane has no cause whatever for accusing me of any dereliction of dutya that it might almost be supposed something had occurred in my personal conduct towards his Lordship which afforded him grounds of dissatisfaction. The contrary, however, is the fact. More liberality could not have been ahewn than Lord Cochrane received at my hands; and although a considerable degree of disappointment was manifested through out the fleet on his arrival to conduct the tervice to he performed by fire vessels, yet every Officer in the fleet rendered him the most steady assistance, not only in valuable suggestions, the en tire credit of which seems to have bee n assumed by hi s ordship, but by every other means that zeal and courage could afford.— Lord Cochrane, on presenting himself to me after the action, was general in complaint of the officers who commanded the other ships engaged at the some time with himself, in the attack ("he enemy ; but having equal means with his Lordship of judging of the conduct of those officers, I do aver, that it was highly meritorious. At the time Lord Cochrane made this ge neral complaint, I had not the smallest suspicion that there ex isted in his mind those sentiments of disapprobation of my con duct, which, by his proceedings since his retorts home, I ant to suppose he then entertained. I t would, in such case, have been liberal, and s I think, also his duty, to have made a communica tion to me to that effect. I shatild then have been enabled to have guarded in some measure against his attack upon my cha racter, en his arrival in England. I scarcely need observe to the Court, that boo ever highly courage is to be valued in an Officer, it is always incomplete in its consequences without tla: equal excercise of judgment and discretion; it being the duty of a Commander not ouly-to destroy his enemy, but to :le coaplish that destruction with the least loss on his part ; and, I submit to the Conrt, whether there ever was a service which, under all circumstances, more required the exercise of Chose qualities than the one in question. The effect produced exceed. ed say most sanguine expectations ; and, I believe, the expect ations of the whole fleet. The points under the considerattot of the kocurt appear to he the following : Whether the lapse of time het weeo the discovery in the morning of the enemy's ships being on shore, and the attack, was not, under all circum stauces, absolutely necessary I;v the advantageous accomplish ment of the neended service; whether it was not my duty, as Commander in Chief, to be governed by a generill view of the whole of all those circumstances, rather than yield to the sug gestions of one, and that a very junior officer ; and o 'tether an earlier attack would have been attended with greater advan tages ; in short, was there not accomplished, at the time the at tack was made, all that could at any time have been lafected.— It is in support of,these propositions l undertake to shew, as indeed is already in evidence before you, that had I not delayed sending in•the shins to the attack, until the toue 1 did, the loser of ships, and of the lives of valuable seamen, w ould, in the o pi nion„of all the officers in tile fleet, have amounted to a large pro portion of the fume so employed. And yet-it seems that lam stow represented as deserving of censure, for having prevented that wanton destruction ; but I am satisfied the Court sv ill, by the result of their investigation, find, that not a single additional ship of the enemy would have been destroyed by a .more early adoption of those measures which. it is imputed • to ate I. dekty aed or neglected., I shall now proceed to the direct matter of inquiry and charge to which my letter to the Lords. Commissioners of the Admiralty of the 10th of May partly applies. This letter was written on my being informed that my public dispatch of the_ 14th of Apr.l kad tiemconsidered as not sufficieutly explanatory ; but event hat :.fetter proves Otani of what hat now become necessary to sttJhn-t • 6. THE NATIONAL REGISTER,. to the Court, put as lamon my defence. I will venture tiere to express my firm t‘onvict ion. lout during the whole period which . is the subject of inquiry, and inure particularly on the very day on which I am char..y.d wit►• -1 der:•liction of duty, it will he found by this Honourable Court, that io the previous a. range ment t exerted the titai , l-t facultie- of my mind to prevent any ircumstance escaping me which f►►rethought cou'd dir•tate; and that at the time of attack, r acted with ail the zeal for the sue t oss of the service an Of could e , ince, whose duty it was to ( I:Fider the proper a ppl tea tiou ;Ind p 1 eservation of Ilk own fleet s as well as the destruction of that of it , en. my. --.-- The squadron under my command, including the advenced frl ;Ant's, havicg. been driven From their station off Brest, by the continued yer.afence of teitipe.toons westerly wend,. it was on my return off that port, on rat v.ld of Feb. that I ascertained the escape of the Freer!' fleet; I had no information of the time when tile enemy escaped from their port, or of the course they had taken; consequently had no erouncis upeu which I could ex ercise any discretion. This reduced me to the unavoidable neces sity of follow in; my orders, w hich such an event distinctly directed me to detach•the senior Flag Officer with such force as I might conclude mas equal to the enemy, and to return myself to Cawsand Bay for further orders. I accordingly detached Sir J. Duck woet!i. with eight sail of the line and u frigate, in pursuit of the Fr-cell fleet, on the course pointed out in their Lordships' ordess bet-re referred to, which left me, with the Caledonia alone, in the mortifying situation of being obliged to retura to port. I refer back to this event, in order to shew why the Caledonia, bearing my flag, became detached from the fleet. In proceeding to Cawsand Bay, the Nasade joined me off Fal mouth, when Captain Dmidas informed me, that the enemy's fleet from Brest, consisting of eight sail of the line, and two frigates, had entered Basque Roads on the 24th of February, where they had been reinforced by the four sail of the line and two frigates previously lying in the Aix Roads. This communication being made to the Admiralty, 1 received orders from their Lrdships', the 3d Afarch, to put to sea with the Caledonia, Tennant, Illus trious, Resolution, and_ Bellona, together with any frigates and smaller vessels under toy command that might be ready for sea at Plymouth, to form a junction with Rear-Adiniral Stopford, commanding his Majesty's squadron off Rochfort. On my arrival off Rochfort, on the 7th of March, I found that Rear- Admiral !itopford with the Csesar, Defiance, Donegal, and four Frigates had, in the course of the 24th of February, been joined by Captain Beresford, with the Theseus, Triumph, Valiant, Revenge, and one frigate, and shortly after by the Hero; and that the French fleet had moved from ✓ Basque into Aix Roads, and taken anchorage there with 11 sail of the line and four frigates. In consequence of the intricacy of the - navigation, one of their ships was totally wrecked. Judging - that the occu pation of Basque Roads by the fleet under my command would be most effectual, either tOr blockading the enemy, or for car,y ing on offensive operations, should they proVe practicable, I im mediately ordered some of the Masters of the fleet to prifceed in, rind to take e ery advantage ef weather, in sOundin,:• and survey the anchorage, in order to st-certain the pdrt most advise i,ble to be ocettpifil by a fleet of the magnitude of thit under my orders. On the i'lth of March I went myself in the Unico'en, with Sir !Larry Neale, the Captain of the fleet, and Captain Bedford, of the Caledonia, to reconnoitrea he enemy's fleet, and the firltifien. lions of the. late it Air, which appeared, notwithstandlng Lord Cochrane seeks by •ce to make a contrary impression, to be of considerable fori.:?. Observing t :at the enemy were re settling their works oe the litiovart shoal. • with the view of affording to their fl get in Ai% •ttoads au attlititnial protection, I sent in the-Neaelia and tos.fl'A, ne the Ist 'of April, to dtoperse the people employedoll these w ort s, which service they effected. • That the service Might proceed with the utmost celerity, I ordered eight of the largeir transports 'then - with the' fleet, to be selected and prepared as- tire--hips, in lic i tt of the si expected from Plymouth, that they inigh t he rezittlyib act withilie 12 from Woolwich, immediately we theit,rieri l 4i:: v the-Mediator, were accordingly titled bk means Oc rosin and t fortunately found on board some chaise Otprees“ecentt% c.,p..' hired, and other emnbustible materials iliriiished by,the This service was performed under (he 'it - node - dime superihtend ance (tithe captains of the line of _bat ps. - „ivlio evinced the most unremitting activity. upon Ihe .. bi•rasiop. Itte .. l.osh of April, at •half past four, (plO.l the: 13raglc"arrivrd, with the 12 fire-ships, from Fatglanth Wheii I . is.seest : ordersto the-com iit 'fl• 1 ti manders of sloops and ships witicu I had prepared, it was foistid iee,....eticaisle to ' 11 oceed. to the'attsck. 444y;t1 he - :"..;'. r . 4.: It ir I. 1 ! .. • • •