The Statesman. — London, England, 1810-03-31 00:00:00

r 14 ......--....../. —s— fervent of Austria, het Mil 1 1 the suggestion. It was ash I "eminent that a British for 1 lery might act in '4icily an . bie:isterst ohject, howt vet i • stated in answer) the Fre create a diversion, and e the largest Ex pedilion that of England. to the Island I been stated by a gallant gt ' I in so doing the attentior •erted, and a great part‘o i from the Dinehe : he had Britiah force last been son ~ many the loss would have • ; • be mean to say .that the wounded woe!! have been sick list of Walcheren ? So ?.' 1. • having drawn otf part of th Danube, • the force in that 1 The Hon. Baromet, in col • • tele Expedition, thought it into estimation•the risk th whether that risk was 1 ; l i object. tie ohje:ct was t i ' sod bar of Flustinig ; the; to the means employed to s . t • 1 1,,5,,0al ha. t.onsulted thet,i - Officers, and the concern:, I i litary characters were, that complish the object, great .• 1 was not slink extraordini • consultations, recourse w a of Lord Chatham; nor to it not sinfilar that Ministi consult t ie First and Seca great Expedition, the life a . every thing was to depend ,• then referred to the evidan . to show, that at tau tiitio.c tion, out of an'arny of it 15,000' could not ho Inuit plash the object of taking I and yet my Lord Casderea should he observed—for, the enemy would wit lidra harbour, and go up to Fl was known to the Noble I got out and wt re stAntwei of the Expetlitio.t, the s consequelitly, were out of What was the evidence of who reluctaotly clone fora I the Expedition i 7 -that gall i nisters that be did nut lit had received, and upon all send so large a force out o not know any thing of the to attack. TheJlon. tear ' . • beim in Walcheren, anti Ell seem! the %tor* of the el - - _bar.,; not a hlnclicarehed, . ' soldier; might be insrelied 1 . . :distance of the people of Il strachan had informed Mir 'Might take Flushing, their 'lng it—he had also ti.ssircd wereprepared; :hat it was fur the shi,.l, one its earl they were nut, for fitly oil SePt. The 11011. Geodes' , ; , barn too reeieemended ill der that the it.'xpedil in ,ei healthy season cams on, a; solute necessity of ii a l i, g i )Wary admonition', wt.at 1 4 : Why, he sent nut a 8,,,,,t c the line, the best etitnoped pilots, that ever t iileil l the given to a Nobh- bite wit , I ill of, but of whose arprini the country to the other, surprise were excioel. T ignorant of the situation ill 1 tined to proceed againct, i ledge that Taut--ho did not . . was an arsenal protected yard—he knew nothing Liefkenshoutk—ire short, that on his arrival lie shout The Naval Commander is the Chianti. Would it n these circumstances great Ti Ministeri ? Thu lion. 134 'Slake semi observations HI the force, iii the event of II 1 fereut places in the island, our force %T odd beau deta to cope with the enemy, w :August, at Breda, Bergen. • pity, amounted to upward. ',umber 0,000 were regal , . ...der couseripts. Under I • ~. thought LorilChatham act consultation of General C i sity of evacuating the ,lac unhealthy, add the sick da chard SAraclatis had !titter 1 October, stating, that it wt retain the island any lunge' .- a. a Right lion. Gentleman, I ham arrived in England o and the island was retained bet, we kept possession et fact was not so, for Cons Minister, complained in hi his Court had received iii the North 'of 'Germany in IBinisters could therefore I temptation, but to eeitin hopeless of success. 'rbe originated in the ruble Lc fortunate preditietioli foi spirit and the martial chart which, if persotercd in, opinion, ruin the country. sorely never eiperieiccd 3, the martial spirit of this co tilential vaults of Walchei many thoupail lives. I i . joined the3f),ooo hiave in pedition to the 28,000 ui • . and ordered them to art in have had some hopes, and I Lord could not have dose • oisters did tint atte n d to abed by the Austrian Go (orce of cavalry and at al \nil the Mediterranean. — !r, was to assail (as they .caich territories, and so with this view they sent t ever quitted the shores of Walcherevt. It had Aeneral.(Cra ofurci), that ion of Alie.Frestell was di of Otheir . for ee was drawn lad also argots!, that if the Int to the North of Ger- 1 c been very cleat. 141! le numbers of killed and greater than those on tki p j to far from the Expedition the 'motors force from the ,t quarter was increased. maidering the object of ,t aft but just to take 'hat r. as rim, and to see cooluiensurate with the to destroy the arsenals ten fame the question as secure goat object. Mi.. .opsalionl of .fire General' vat opinions of those mi. 'at in attempting to ac.. It risk was creanil. It, mars, when,' that in these 'as not had to the -opinion o Sir Eyre Comte. Was leis ihould not deign to and in Command of this and soul of it, on whom d ? The Ilan. 11 ironet tines of Sir David Daudet, of the projected &sped'. 05,000 men, A force of nerqd to send to *mini. the ships in the harbour, .agh desired that secrecy on the smallest alarm, raw their ships into the 7 lashing. At that time it' Lord that 20 ships had , erp—therefore the übject , ships, were gone, atitl, l 4 the reach of capture.— Sir Richard Straciran, ward to be crisploytal in Ilant Officer hail told Mi. ilse the intelligence they rhich they were going to of the country—they did le plant they were about lonet stated, that he land :hat any person coulgas. thur,h at Middleburgh, ail in a week 10,000 France to the as he • Wand. Sir Richard iniitry, that thott..lO they e in go chance of keep. u. know, whether tr , ..y necessary to have pilots 1 ; it had been pr,veil Ale pilot. was in the whole van said, Sir Home Pup.. early departure, in or.. iglst arrive before the mi. toil he too, urged the ab pilots. After these sa. t did the Nohle Lord ? of upwards uf 30 sail of with the exception of le command of . which oas ham he would not speak ailment from one cud of general expressions of The Noble Commandor, of the place-hi - was des. was obliged- to acknow ,ot even know that there by guns, nor a dock. of Fort Liflo, net of that he did not know ild - obtain any thing.— as nut acquainted with nut be said, that under responsibility attached to laronet then proceeded to Ton the deductions from .heir occupying the I, in order to shew that ached as not to be able whose force un the 11th ).op-Zonai, and its vici. irds of 26,000, of which her troops, the remain. these circumstances, he tied wisely in calling a Officers upon the neves. tee, as the climate was so laity increasing. Sir Ri. en home, on tee 19th of could 'be 'inadvisable .to It had been bald by that though Lord Chat. on- the 14th September, led till the 19th of .oclu of it fur Austria. The' lot Stadion, the Austrian titter terms of the usage net sending a force into instead of Walcheren.— have no object in con inne a project that was t Expedition, he believed, .lord's (Castlereagh) ir evincing the military 'wet. of Great Britain,. would infallibly, in his , The Ruler of France so much joy, ' as in seeing ;ountry buried in the pes. tercet, at the cxpertee of so !f the Noble Lord had men sent out in this Es under Lord IVellitigton, • the Peninsula, he should he was sure the Noble dose the sick mere service .~ l'; R ST AVESM Ml. - T' H . --e-7".4 Ai' s•"""''"rt: ---- I . I than to have sent them 'Spain. T el litughl The Right Pion . Gent. ( r. Causing) from his speech the other night, evidently showertthat from the first he had no hopes of success from the expedi. tion. The Hon. Bart. conk! not conceive what right the Right Honourable Gentleman had to declare, that he alien ld tote against the resolutions. Why, he was ono of the accused, and with equal justice might a ;rimiest jump into the jury-box in a Court of/Justice, and say, 64 Come; I will snake one among you.”—[huor, : hear '.] The proper course to piirsue would be for the Right Honour able Gentleman to withdraw when the vote was about to be takes.—[lteae, hear !] The Ho• nourable Baronet, after making stone further ob. servations, in which he attributed the losses to the disunion in his Majesty's Councils, who were waiting for the Eastern Star (Marquis Wellesley) to illumine the deck horiion, concluded, support. ing the resolutions of th u N o ble Lord. General LOFTUS said, that he had listened with the same degr as of attention to the Honour. able Baronet's speech as he had tu. all that hail been advanced by the Honourable Gentleman who had spoken upon the present important subject, and was convietwil that the mum this Subject was disettesdd, provided it was with that temper' amid patience that had hitherto, so much to the credit avid.huiour of the House, shown itself through. out thealetutte, the more the; country would see ' Iliat Falistwrs were hoiltl4: to undertake such an eaterpaita ae Abet which had been undertaken against die greet and gronieg force of the enemy in , the Scheldt ; that to consider the important question fairly, they must rook 'tee th, actual situation or Europe at the time thket'esnedition took p'etee, partit;ulatly to the • of the French and Austrian omit s .. ok, .:Rantibe, I and the severe check' the French it Alet with, Ts which obliged Bonaparte to lay" tiptd. his tients for such a length of time, waiting for reinforce meets from the interior of France, from the lute. rior of Holland, from the Netherlands, and from the very shores of the Scheldt. Therefore, if there ever was a time for this country to make a great exertion, it was at the time this expedition look piece, which was nut only a great diversion fur our-Ally, the Eniperor of Austria, but also , way that w hiels • we .4 ere called upon to make (torn nor own situation, cost what it would. That a Government that consulted the good Of the poo. ple ought ever to be mindful in preparitig against any snitch'', attack ; and whatever the people may say or think, whatever those who have only the interest of the people at heart may wish for, yet a Government who are mindful of the true interest of the State, ought to he prepared for the preserve tion of that Stale. • The Honourable General then desired they would look to France is it's all her gigantic powers at present...Au look at her in pos. session of the Netherlands—to look at her in possession of the Flemish !torts, and then to look at the narrow seas, snot • tii recollect, that Hul: land was uut that Hollaod. that once could and did preserve the balance of Europe, and then fair. ly to lay their hands upon' their and say, if a Government, consulting e security of the country, were nut bound to • undertake sacs an enteroriee as that which had been 'iandettaken agaiost the enenis's aleraiing and growing force in the Scheldt ? That it• moat have tont since - been seen, that if. France was allowed to keep posses sion of the Netherlands for eity length of time, that.it would not be in the power of all . Europe to.set any bounds to the progress (Alter arms. That we had seen the United Provinces falling under her power, and that she had all the corn. mend of that praiser at present ; she bid carried her arms into Germany, and tier coequal there as,far as she pleased ; and that her great object now a as, to possess herself of the cenvmatel of the narrow seas, so that our trade shield neither go Out or re. turn, but at her pleasure; that it was almost fatal to England that Frence thorild be in possessien of the Flemish ports, for . if any accident was to be. fat our ['eats at sea, that great extent LC coast, onr North-East coast, was *int ke.i and open to the enemy—that the failure of the Expedition led Trim to call upon Ministers to nay attention to that Nurth.East coast, particularly to Yarmouth; and the neglected batteries there, also to flue neglected bettertes at Lowestolf, and the point of Lothian had one of the most important features in this country, fur he could venture to say, that if the enemy possessed himself of that position, it would i be difficult to remove him from it. It was full of resources, and one of the strongest positions in this Country, but that which had been least thought of, and the moat neglected. The Hon. General then desired to-draw the attent' of the House to what had been advanced as to the impression an argosy might have upon a fortified town, fully in. habittel, and strewed that the great Duke of Marlborough, after the battle of Ramillies, up. peared before Antwerp, them in a strong state of defence, which-had in it twelve regiments ; but' that the Duke being in possession of the avenues to the place, the inhabitant* induced the -Genevai. to surrender rather than risk the destruction o f the town. That in the same •campaigu the Duke of Marlborough appeared before Ostend, one of the strongest towns in the Low Countries, which after three days siege surrendered by the influence of the populace. He now drew conclusions ' (rem these histurical facts, that Govertiment was justified to entertain such an Expedition as that which had been andertakeu against the Scheldt, and against AntwerN even if there was only a single chance of success, the , ob. jcct •begng so great; but he maintained that. hail Cadsand been possessed according to the plats, and had oat the Admiral been obliged, by the weather, to awry the fleet into the Itoompot, the Expedition must 'have succeeded, that the enemy not being able- to .defend the important peat of Baths, was a rouf of the weakness "or their force in Antwerp, fur had they !teen strong there,' they never worth, have given up Baths• in the manlier they did, and e hick opened the whole :west Scheldt to our fleet on the '2(l of August; this picture was we strong a one, so strongly im. pressed upon the Cionimander in Chief of lhe land forces, that he early detached that gallant and ex. cellent officer Sir Jahn Hope, to secure that fort, and had the wind allowed of the tiair.ports getting up the West Scheldt, the Hbnourable General ' maintained that the Expedition Would, in all human . probability, have succeeded. Sir ranNcts IAYRDErr was very much surprised st the doctrine which ho had hoard, that because it was an object of vital importance to. destroy Antwerp, we should therefore have undertaken it with means inadequate to its exe. cutimin. He had thought, that in proportion to the importance of the object ought to be the means employed. Surprised as he was at this', however, he confessed his astonishment was in creased in a tenfold degree at the cool indifference with which this Noble Lord opposite had affected to argue on calamities which had been derived to the country from his auspices—calamities more disastritu , , more disgraceful, and more dreadful than had arisen from any other expedition in the history of the war down to the present period.— The Noble Lord had expressed a wish to have this expedition tried by the fact. In his opinion, that owl precisely the ordeal by which, in order to suit the interest •of the Noble Lord, it ought nut to he tried; because there .was not one single fact •. which did not militate directly against its atlop. tiun.—The Right Honourable Gentleman. up. posite had, on last night, entered into a long and laboured defence of the Expedition ;—and in order to distract the mind of the House from the only point to which. it should be directed, he took a survey of the situation of the whole world ; and argued, that an Expedition ought to have been sent somewhere.. He stated that it could nut be sent to the North, or to Germany, or to Trieste, without considerable danger ; danger, in. deed, of total failure. Ile had even, in his fancied speculations, talked of treading the Straits of Gib. • raltar, and prophesied great danger' from such an attempt. He was nut disposed to deny' that every one of those Expeditions might have been abortive and ill-advised in the adoption ; but he would deny that any one of them could have met with more complete failure, or more cala. mitous consequences, than did the one which was acted wt.—[lleat., hear l]Neither the menaced Prussian criny, nor the Straits of Gibraltar, nor the Mediterranean Sea, could be inure frightfully fatal than themandate which sent our brave and pa tient troops to fall before an iovincible enemy, the plague, its the marshes of ‘Valcheren. Ministers, however, did not think so ; they determined to send out an Expedition, and out they sent one, without having obtained one particle of information as to how it s!toutti proceed, or, taking one single ' pre. caution against the many perils which impeded their progress. In March last, the Noble Lord con. ceived the idea of this campaign ; fie thought he had a disposable force, and since he had it he was de termined ha waste it; and so he sent to the Common. derin Chief fur his opinion off thesubject.TheCom. mander in Chief sent, back for answer, that he could not spare 16,000 men fur the purpose ! Sixteias 'thousand men out of the enormous establishment pail forty the country The Expedition could • not therefore sail in March. No; necessity and the )irutletice of the Ministry prevented it. The rove -was not then to be met with, and the ships might then have been taken; and so the Expedi lion was defcrted until the raging of the disease, and the safety of the armament. In July then they set out to carry the fever, Antwerp, and the jive', by a coup.de-)Hain—[Haar !]—*" coup.tk. vita! and yet it appeared eby the orders of the french Emperor to his Officers, that he was ape . prised - of the intention even so far back as March. If het,fstl not this certainty, such were the ca bals andiracillation of the Ministry, that he would not believe they had themselves conceived the project at that period. He could out help now making one inference, however, from our poverty of force in March last ; - 'which was, that the House and the country had been most grossly deceived in the estimate of our loss daring the preceding cam. paign in Spain, which had been laid before them by Ministers. if this estimate had been true, it was impussiblo that we should not have had forces enough to send the expedition to Wal clieren ; but the estimate was not true. We ha‘l lost much more than the Ministers chose tot disclose, and the country was duped into .as opinion, that' its situation • was more - pros. perous than it was. [near ) hear!] At length, however, the Noble Lord undertuok the Ex, podition with what disposable force ho could ma- I ter, against the great skill of the French Em.l peror, and the great power of France , ' • wilich was now, in elfect, all Europe. The Noble Lord, however, wrote a most curious letter to the Commander in Chief, pointing out the advan. tages of the Expedition, and declaring, if it was nut then undertaken, that Antwerp would soap be impregnable. After this, shat did he do ? Why, commenced this important Expedition, without one single iota of itiformation I He sent out an immense armament, merely to see whether a blow might not be somewhere struck against the enemy. The Noble Lord dispatched the Expedi. Hien .at last withomit information oft - . which to I proceed, without a plan to guide it, or the sup posed opposition of any dasiger, until it reached Bathz, where all its operations terminated! From !.the departure of the expedition, till its arrival at Bathz,. there was not one step which did nut de mand enquiry. It was sent out without an idea of • danger till it came to Bath; and yet at that very place did this great army, conducted by gritder folly, end its catalogue of disease arid,', disasters by an announced failure—[/tear I hear !]' To semi out this expedition, however, time Noble Lord was determined, because lie considertil that there was a fit disposable fur& in the country; a supposition taken up in direct opposition to every military opinion he had asked.. The Noble 1...r.1 was like the poor man in Horace, who could not 1w persuaded that all the wealth in the country. did not belong to him. The indifferenve of the Noble Lord was now detestable; the cafe mitie's which he entailed on the country o cre hor rible, frightful beyond expression, Auld the levity 'with which he treated the subject now truly dread. fill. The Noble Lord had an idea, that because Antwerp was at the moment is ithout truoes, he might take it at once without difficulty. This aas a most fallacious idea. • There was nut, most Fru : bably, at this moment, a perfect praiser, either at .e,A ~~ • Toelob or Brest ; and yet whiti i "--- cuuld conceive the notion of tak n iii: coup-de-maim ft If these things were is : slsl. to b e !: 1 sisted in—if the forces of the Country w ere ,„'"": thus unnecessarily and unpro fi tably sq uan i er 'L" Thewas i N ni t i: l o il s e sitl e e rd ii i e l it ad t , o fio f:r e e t w e e r e , how* thought pro - per - ': it w ou ld end. t a a f k t eh the o rcts m i:ae e i nun i tat o pinions ctdiricerybi, o , ul ti C !hiui indeed,oi e t f h ; e h possibili t y referredci k s a i ebtwil producedi if t lo y oudt o hre f i c ta kekg:con,al:e t i i Antwerp by a coup-de-main. He asked the op* i:, o ab is ou cc t in reply, full of official form, full of a ff ec - 14 - science, assittned pomp, and perfect b o o. ) o vii s f ue i l t h i i i e u h a:s e ll i e es t t u tiiii sti o : All of them said, if you do so and so, you ma; succeed ; yeeall agree upon the idea of th e coto , h p e u o t i i:i i t al i t i l g the fever tes t : de-main upon Antwerp being absurd. Gir d ' i Brownrigg prop a o i s id es o t ti w o o m p er la w ce a s s of ira p e r az ik: ak 4 : there were some slight objeetiuns to both; the eat'; was impossibic, ' a l n h d e attemptthe otherbyp was hiOns,teeuvlleii v w e a r s y t Do u btfulhem i litary r pa r t success. of t out; the same miserable deficiency in means, pl an, l j information, attended the navy ; th e N ob ; Lord at the heal of the Admiralty knew n u en nt at all—he was quite ignorant on every :abject 0 . 1 which he should be informed ; so was Sir Itirh ar a Straehau; he told Lord Mulgrave so, .but L e h Mulgrave was nut to be persuaded even by fee. 4t N 0 ,,, said he, ' 6 you ceitainly du 'MOW N . thing, but that is the reason I have great ca n dence in yen." Thus went forth this disaste e , Expedition, to diminish the honour of our arse, and destroy the best hopes of England. D et i r, hear!] in 15 days, it was calculated we flesh have reached Antwerp by Ostend; this was t., dilatory for a coup-de-muin, and was abandoned; the other plan of landing in Waleheren ir e adopted, and even before we gut to Katlic the 3 days were exhansted. [hear, hear!] But still ti e Ministers and Oft.: Commanders weredelighted-se. tual compliments passed between them—it was Ile most goud.itat st red cahmlition lie east heard of. Tie Ministers praised Chatham for his vigour, audio praised the Ministers for their preparations; asil so he went on gaining laurels and battles, care. ing towns never beard of before, by a oath. de-main, and bearing down every thing bef og him, fur the very best of reasons, became heels not opposed, until at last a wet ditch at Middle burg arrested his progress, and ended his achieve meets; [hear 1 hear !] As ' to the Nan), the occupation of Cadsand had been Mid as an indispensible preliminary,_ and thee areortlingly the Marquis of Huntley preemie]; but when he arrived, the whole fleet of England could not furnish him st itli boats to land his sot. diets, and so the indispensable object was relin. quished [Hear, heart]. Some persons, it wit true, had said, that this (entire was nut attribute ble to the want of boats ; but the Marquis of Iluntly gave a different oi. Ilion, and that Was all the answer he would give to the objection. Tro letters were written on the suhjcet—one from die Admiral, and the ether teem Captain Owen: one .of those said the weather was very fine, and the other said it wet very bad ; one. said there was plenty of boats, and the other said there 'eremite; and in this pleasing state of uncertainty, which he would not seek to obviate, rested the question. At last, however, after many doubts, and fail. ures, and disasters, the batteries were opened upon Flushing, but at such a distance, that they .could not even silence a little adianced battery be. fore the town. The hattery, however, was Mut t and the dreadful bombardment succeeded. Thus it was with ruin its our acts, met hypocrisy in our promises, we attempted to conciliate the people whom we affected to compassitiane , under the iron despotism of Buriaparte. %Ye destrojed their habitations ; we desolated their land, and we then told them we Came for their preservation ! Inhuman in our prosperity tu• wards the natiees, the ague attacked us, and then our minds changed ; we became suddenly humane to all, except to our own poor suldien, whom, lest we should offend the island, we left in their sicEncss to perish, without a dry spot ' whereon to lie, or a roof to protect them ! This humanity was perfectly - consistent with our as. nagement all through. Fur instance, Sir Bone Popham was the only person, except the pilot of the fleet, who was supposed to know the naviga tion of the .Rcheiilt. To him was eotrusted that the conduct of the Fleet up to Baths. What " he do ? Why, he attempted to go by the West 'Scheldt, until, by his failure, he found out he might to have tried the East Scheldt. Thus the best-informed man in the fleet took the count the most contrary to his interest.--Tile cal. lint Captain next wont itioegit the Veer Gat, and Lord Chatham seenied to think; bccawie Oil had been accomplished, that the ene my must!). totally titconifeed. All they hat to depend on was the utter impossibility 'of thee passage'! Sir , Heine was next sent to. aki - rtsia the 111 03 0 to South Be' etantl, and be proceeded to the north. Ile might just as well bare set out from that Hutise fur Kensington over Westaiiii , ter• bridge!—[Hear, heart]—On the filth, at Vet , upthvY gut to Battle, and then t he y came to .a stop. Sir It. Straehati, taking adva ti tser of the 1 pause, venturedto hint that 'it woul ,l I” e'' " '' venient to knew upon w hat plan the conitim ' l , - , [sedition meant to proceed. A . Cohitcil of War ** s callvd—i hey bad now come to the grand poiaf(pito, which in future all their operations were toproc" .. l;: What did. they , d u '?— They sit of bonne.Peg!: head] Trios ceded an Elp edition which ass_a!: i. dertaken.by igivorratstkoind executed by iit bs ,, , litY — gh Expeditio n . which wasted the what're . ~1 . . the country., the fleet of our troops, and the l' ,. icier of our flinty—all Expedition platoteil by V% ranee and iopildence the most un paraili•leal• l ML' l t might censure him for nooccevary * 3 " ) ",.. 1 .. lot cloth) not help reeling,• nor email he dna ~ e pression strung enough fur that feeling: a ttintislit sincerely, that every wan wilt' hail any concern whatever in this .I.2spetli4 o " 3toisi 11, ^ 4 he,irq lac ! criminal before tjle country— [Mar! , itiros I Ministers Iv ere presuinpluous, ant/ the hi both services ignorant ; line nu!"n, li, 6„ ft . ‘ than the impeichmut of the Arc s atiu a r . r . , "' • . -.. _