The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1810-03-31 00:00:00

idr. lhat Idsittt 11 aa h a.e., and eonsequeritiy appliets to L i a r other Generals for their flpilittllol and inform*. Ile had been somewhat surprised at their item, which, clothed in all the formal langunge ' Seidl &moments, really contained nothing. were perfectly inanimate. Weed, tiering Iwo on which to form their °pintos', these could out he expected to he very con:monied ere. Thee, however, peeing Government deter rimed upon an expedition, entered into a speenla ion, on speculative ground., that never did exist , ,ace it as their opinions that the object wan practical, but all united in saying that it was also ,i,i s perate. Genets! Brownridg entered into a de -Al, and stated two ways of acting against Ant erp ; be the first of which, aecosding to his own ~ c ount, it was difficult, and by the other impos . : i le, to teach that place. This grand Experlit 00000 ~,,,, t hen set on foot, to accomplish these object., id the Ntoble Lord contrived to get a distribahle ;•srce of one half invalids, and the other half row airs from the militia, sent to perish in the noxious ..oloaphere of Walcherrn. A. iu the army, the miserable system pervaded the eery. Lord •i dgmve knew nothing about the matt er , an d si r ittchard Strachon as much. They therefore met " co nsult an the mat•er. and Sir Richard fairly upon %hid ) , for he seemed ~,„„re . sed his ignorance; ~ that very circumstance to recommend himself Norsk Lord, he was told it was sill .• y eti . well ;" that they had great confidence i n t o % and he wine therefore go out. Io this i g norant, iinheeile way, wait dispatched, that e mime. which was to bring disgrace and douse neon the country. General Brown i-..' his narrative, informed them, that ti.trarl would be the most trill:Milt achievement; 1, it, t the same time, it would be the most diffi f oh. 39 it could not be taken, and the army reach ; weer", afterwards, in less than fifteen drys. But, in the Expedition, as it venally proceeded, they . found that evert the easiest plan was as difficult, and it took them fifteen dim to take Flushing. Yet, will all this tardiness, delay, and mismauagement, they see.oed all on tiptoe to prairie one another. Mi. niters at hotue teemed with commendations of Lord chash s m—:ita rigour, his rapidity in taking South ;l eve l l ed, and Walehereu, filled their mouths, A n d their Gazettes. His campaign, and his taking rity fishing town, of which one had mover heard h..• same before, were Mixlo .1. #i intolol . Cll LAMP% that they could scarcely be believed to be the pre hallway operations of the army which was to take _baiter) by a trop de main. After all, this im •raelase force was stopped by a wet ditch at Middle.. burgh, Intl this seemed to he the end Lord Chatham's exploits. Thisarmainent was unfortunate from the be,,orming. Cadaand was pointed outas an indispens• ahlepreluninary to their successfnl progress ; and yet, ,li the fleet of Enalaud could not furnish a sufficient timber of Immo to land the men on that shore.— tiistesil of bring inure than provided for the &mom phshinerit of what was considered an indispensable pr.lituiwtry, they were sent forth with much twenty ineaus, as to change the comae of their whole ope rators.. The Marquis of Mnk!, for want of boats, as he tli.tinctly told them, could not land on Cadenul. Sir It Streams, in his letter of 4th Au gust, did not impute the not landing to the want of loaht, but to the weather, which he says was very bad; sthilr,on the other hand, the brave Captain Owen, in hi , letter of the same day, state% the weather to be very tine, and that the cause of the troops not landiug, was from the accutnulated force opposed to them by the enemy. Among these contmdictory mounts, he did not know which I. credit. Fine weather to one might hr foul to another; bat whe ther it was the want of boat , , the weather, or the enemy, Carlene! 0:0 not taken possession of.• and the whole plan of the Expedition wat overturned. They then would try their coup-de-main upon Flushing, but by some means we other they erected their batteries at out h a distance, that they could not seen silence a small fort, one or the out works. What did they do neat ? They ap proached nearer; and, to their eternal disgrace, they did that which in no species of warfare was exerteahle--4hey bombarded the town. • Instead of directsrig their fire to the batteries of their enemy, they directed it against the treople tilty went to de liver from the tyranny of Bonaparte. They got possession of Flushing, nod' something of their humanity was recorded ; they got to Baths and ac quired alone information, but in this unfortunate komedition, in deplorable was the influence under wbieh it was engendered, their iiihumanity and 101.. terir ignorance and their knowledge, alike contributed to swell the catalogue of their (toaster,. Tu. pilot Was the only person who was possestved of the knowledge itecessary, in order to secure even a home of sitete.% to the expedition. They thought that they would hate taken Coolsand ; and l'adsaini was sto nevesary to the object they hall iii Ilea, so intimately connected r. 411 the sticeras of the whole of the expedition, that they should not Farr tinderiaken it, without having secured that wen tttttt tory %ten ; there should not have eXi.tell ehtniet, ihrit they might not take it. But they w"tt on It as unhappy in their knowledge. than they had been in their ignornnee; Admiral Sir Richard N 'r" l, •on bail considered the East Scheldt as the 1 , ,t 10.1.10 proceed to, and it was adopted. Sir flame l'oplo,ots, the sit tier •eVe of theexpeilit ion, had rile to set k I ,l# pi#.o• 4e b y Smith Weekly', ten be iii 14 .1,1 s a ell go to ti•ol nut the wiry to l ' , lttin-Gardriis by IVeattninst•r.Bridge ; and in ''an onir t i t time had ',ten occupied, as win suf. l'' t ut to Itnolaparte to die eo.oloset of his toisgest Old 0140 t impo.taiot ntidertaktoos. But belong got to fi st h z wit 11111 l t seeing an envois., Sir R. Strachan t %light it would be contrinent to see some plan. No wan however wis to he err rt. Lord Cbutham - ""7. gat to the (flout loon which he ought to set etst,f,,, i „,l it . „ e l i that it was deemed minis e," to atl•.totoi it. It was found that the town , 4 " 111 have beam of 0. (00. Ii t the citadel ; 0 1101 wit. nn;,pn.ad to fotill Ili,: gte.tt Ohio ut h . x;tomiloii, it an. stern s.d ;terry...ley to trine. W,,00l I at.v nor 000 v, after Innkitni to the tr"'o.4 iii, that justice 1101 not call lattillv lr rains! • it of whose 1 ,-..iitm l lll,lll had lirll o 9o t am the 144 ~r•k- of entiotry, eraintsiality WI. #0 I t ilpahlr , t hut there .. " h t s'sreely be w stro.n f er sores ttietst it rest aglinst th an that wl,,th ?to. v bass pot r , rir*rti it, their 11 osi z lot 4,, oh : pct.-of n !hal he wo" 'or! %sem twos t romaiion ;to it he had nit sta.:m . lAl, to the exhoria•iini of an sail ut& cut the wen Pr. 1 lil Ley r of urh the s t ai ON aril rare ien• h- lion. Gent. by entering coolly end di.,paseion ately into the subject. Perhaps l• t was warm ; but it was a sheet which might well justify, nay, which imiserionsly mid irresistibly called for Witnal h. lie contd not, for his part, endure to stand before the public, if, without expressing those feel l i - Pigs wheal the occasion must neceseetrily dictate, he could WI t 11 1 ,6 the ignorance both of Ministers and of Commanders ; eu ignorance for which the Mi nisters should he dismissed, and the Commanders tried by Court martial. The conduct of all who were concerned in t his ioees , appeared to him i nexcu se. bly blameable. The Commander-in-Chief, as he was culled, was an more is Commander-in-Chief than he was; indeed, it was surprising haw any one, pos sessing the feeling,' of a Gentlemao, could hold a situation under such ignorance. There was ano ther point which the Noble Lord (Castlerea ( gh) was desirous to keep nut of sight at present, because it should be made the subject of a separate consi aerittion ; lie n i ean t the Medical Board. It was dreadini to contemplate the fate of men exposed, not merely by ignorance, hut, by neglect; deprived even of au opportunity to signalise themselves in , the battles of their country. But the Noble Lord would probably be surprised at his want of philo sophy, when, contemplating such events, nothing had struck him more than the coolness with which that Noble Lord had treated the sufferings of those brave men. Notwithstanding all he had to answer fur, he was cool and cheerful, and even inclined to jest; hut he wondered that he was not ashamed to mention some illustrious names, which had fallen from him in the course of the debate. The names of Chatham and Wolfe, and Nelson and St. incent, who had contributed to the prosperity and advanced the glory of their country, should, in his opinion, he reserved for other occasions. It was said, and he was certain it was said with truth, that that fatal Expedition had cost the nation more, both in lives and treasure, than any of those lortu tette attempts, which judgment had planned, and • and valour executed; that three times the number of all the glorious men who had fallen in any battle of the victorious navy, had become sa crifices to this calamitous and disgraceful Expedi tion. ( Hear.) How could the Noble Lord talk with tranquillity, under such an impression. and With such a fact staring him in the face ?. How could he contemplate the danger of the country and the lose of his countrymen, and yet talk in the spot. tiveness of familiarity, upon the disasters and dis eases to which they had fallen a prey? The Right Honourable Gentletnari who had spoken also, ap peared to him to have conducted himself with greater propriety ; he had lamented the lam of trea sure and the effusion of human blood ; bat, at 'the same time. he had attempted to contend for what never could be admitted ; he had attempted to con tend that it was owing to extraneous circumstances, and not to the misconduct of Ministers, this disap pointment had taken place; the despotism of Bo naparte, and the freedom of England, were the causes to which lie had attributed it. He had sup posed, that versed as he (Mr. Canning) was, in Greek and Roman literature. he could not have contended for such a position ; if he had resorted to the authority of those authors, he would have found that liberty, so far from being a check, was a stimulant to great actions, and that every a.urPria log effort which marked the history of those times, was dictated and executed by the spirit of freedom. In the excesses of the ACteniaus. the energy of freedom was opposed to the energy of despotism. and the result was known to all. I t was by this. principle that England herself was supported in the proud situation which she occupied. He was surprised to hear the liberty of England cited as a cause of her disaster—he was not only surprised but alarmed ; her liberties had been pretty regularly attacked, hut, to set forth the remnant of her con stitution as a source of her misfortunes , . was going farther than he expected. He thought that Mi nisters deserved to be impeached, and that Courts- Martial should be held upon the Commanders, both naval and military ; but the mere punishing or getting rid of Ministers was not soffit-lent; a change of men, without a change of principle, would never be effectual—(Hear, hear, hear).—lt would require a drawing hack to the constitu tion, to its doctrines and practice, to efford that security to the people, against weak and wicked speculations, which .it was essential to their hap piness that they shoeild possess. The evils which they at present suffered, were not owing to that chill of folly. imbecility, and pri sumption, which was expiring of its own radical weakness. It was owing to this alone, the people of England not having a fair representation in Parliament. If 'lsere was not a change of principle and system. it was in vain to displace Ministers., and was of little e quence whether the calamity ofoppreesion was susinesed under the wing's/inn of a I louse of Com mons or a foreign deepot. If any Minister at. tempo,' to /411.1.11 himself by throwing the blame n.s the Co, 00000 wnder-imthief, lie was sure he e 'odd he mistaken; nothing would satisfy him, (Sir Francis Burdett) fir nothing would satisfy the comas!, but the dismissal of Ministers, soul Courts-Martial upon the commandem. If men in private life had been sent to death in such a manner us they hail sent our brave troops, it emelt' be murder. Did they not know that there were diseases in 'Nal cheren ? did they not send the Expeditirm at a time, as if they had been waiting for the disease ? Ibd they net expose our soldiers to evils, against which bravery and patience were no protection ? Bravery end patience ,hire hid exhibited, hot those qualitieswhoop' have rendered the Government more desi ttttt s to protect, or. ut least, more slow to expose them. It was Isotherm's to talk of diversions nn the Creitinent—the Continent was completely seviell. Ile concluded with observing, that he felt nn didienlty in %ming for the resolution*. The only objection he had to them was. that they were nor +ening enough to meet the occasion, or to eIE• 1111 , 4 t h e ynef and indignation of the House at the ago indering or PO 11111 eh treasure. and the waste of , I) ovine of the lives of our countrymen. Mr. fiasnitY. HATHIALST wondrred that when the fliti ()net spoke of the effect. of freedom, and his instances front the histories of Greece and Rome ; he did not go fitrther„ in triter to coin. ptrte the lemon, and 'hew in what manner and Ily what orieunill it was finally lout. If states liar the possession of it for great virtues, thee owed the loss of it. and of tho.e virtues, to it. alAuse. It Will by listenin g to the harangues of far tiatis imitators, who were always prepaeed tO take advantage of la.entiou,ness t and rouze the people into a state o f a n eechy, toconsistent with the commonweal, or the rules of true government. But they might !ook nearer to their own house, and their own times, for a stroll:rev. instance than ancient history could produce. I' he Revolt' trail of France attlirded an example of the great est despotism resulting from the acts of those who atom' forward as the pretended advocates and cham pions in the cause of liberty. But he would treat this subject with greeter temperance than the lion. Baronet seemed iisclined to dn. Ile agreed with him in many things. He agreed that t h e Noble Lord and Right lion. Gentleman opposite, had not stated the gotta:ion fairly, when they raid, that hav ing a force, it inu , t be disposed of—and having no other place to send it, it must be sent to Antwerp. He knew of ho policy which called upon a nation to expose itself for the sake of au ally. He, therefore, areed with him all those argument s whi c h s t o o d upon that foundation. One of the objections to their arguing the present question, was, that it was a military ques tion. He regretted the: it was so; but while it was part of the duty of Ministers to dispose of the military force of the country, so long was it part of the duty of that House to watch over such dispositions, and to argue upon them. If the House did not exercise this privilete, then. indeed. there would be some reason to dread the evils of which the Hon Baronet appeared to be so appreheusive. The question before theist, was, as to the propriety And practicability of the undertaking ? As a diver sion, it was coiifeased, that it could not continue for any length of time; andeconsidtriog the fortifi cations with which that part of the country abounded, it was likely that our armament would be detained. until a force should be col lected strong enough to cut off its retreat. —But. with this object of diversion in view, how did Ministers proceed ? They lilted out a great Expeditiop, when, if the obj• ct had been to take the to and destroy the docks, a smaller would have beei .Iffieient. They lied made it one of the. greatest enterprises with respect to number I end equipment ; de of the most deficient with re spect to object an success. They undertook it without ally military or naval authority, whose com bined sanction should justify it to the country.— The Noble Lord had 'WM. that he had no written cap' 'orbs, and laid IL feat stress upon the word "smitten." But if lie had any opinions whatsoever to justify the course which he had Wonted , he might have celled the 'officers to re-state them, as he had done. but without being stile to establish the fact. There were, however, some written opi pions too, but it was to be observed, their leaguage was 't you may do so if you meet uo obstruction. " They were given under circumstances that were mis-stated or misconceived, mid led to conclusions that did not fairly apply. The questions which were put to these officers did not relate to the ge neral practicability of the undertaking, but to the comparative merits of two plans submitted to their coundcration.—This was a most extmordinary way of coming at military opinions upon the subject. Sir D. Dundee and Gen. Craufurd had siren their opinions of the state of Antwerp; they had !ere ranted it as a respectable fortress. *hash would SO' quire a siege, and this opinion was the result of experience and actual observation. The next fal lacy, was that they assumed the whole previous question. The Noble Lord thought they should not canvass the merits of the pl an . that they should leave the whole previous matter out of their consi deration ; because the ulterior objects of the Ex pedition were abandoned; but it was most material to consider whether there was a probability of their arriving at all ? A gallant officer had despaired of success on the very first application; but the an swer he received was, " I do not care about it."— But there was one thing which :nest strikethein all; theymust see the proprity of a plan concerted between both Commanders, some general understanding. as to the manner in which the operations were to be conducted ; no such plan, no such understanding did exist ! he even doubted whether it was intended to push the army up the West Scheldt, and regretted thpt no combination was made to secure Cadeand, which he considered an object so important, that it should have been provided for at the outset. The time at which it was sent, formed another very strong objection to the conduct of His Majesty's Ministers ; they should not have sent out the troops when the disorder was most fatal, they should not have exposed them to the certainty. but to the chance of disease. Sir Flame Popham had given them warning of this. Upon the whole view of the case,'the question was, did the expedition so con ducted call upon the justice of the House for some degree of censure? Ile acquitted his Majesty's Mi nisters of any intention to injure their country; on the contrary, he was sure they were willing to serve it, but the hare circumstance of intention could never justify such error as they had committed. Mr. Peet said, thnt he was unwilling, or ra ther unable. to go into thr variety of evidence be fore them 'l l ion the subject; but he would state the principle upois which he preferred the amend ment to the resolutions. From the speech of the Hon. Gentleman oppos;te, it would seene,dhat some disputed the policy of any such attempt ; while others, edroittine the 'volley, objected to the plan and execution of that 'milieu's,. one. It was con tended, that it was not wise to attempt such an tici ! dertaking. without a probability of success ; that they should not embark in any wild impracticable ad ermines. he would allow ; but he appealed to the voice of the country. at the period of the Expedi tion, whether it would be for them to remain inac tive, lest they should be exposed to danger. and continue listless, because they were safe ? The fart was, dint the Government had a jealiniey of the on sal efforts of Framer. and particularly of the facility which Antwerp istfirded her of extending and pro tecting it. '('het had concerted plan., with a view to destroy the dark* and arsenals; and were they to give up their pheis, mid relinquish that object, merely beelii‘e Austria went to war. .The way in which such • eircunistimer 40,1111 operate, if it ope rated sr all, we.. to col& in them in that intention. Bear.i—The lEtproileno. however. being wolf-f t :Arm. it ass olleeted at the% want ti nr rather procvviled mull contradictory and emilinied arcannte. as aimt mi•detl it m. Nature appeared in have twi.,l on• or lit forfora naval situation; and suppwsiog we day to come when the enemy, taking 'Armitage of it, would place himself in a condition to hr as successful at - Pea is hr had hitherto been on laud. what would the lino. Gerd. whose eloquence he ehntabi some to compliment, whin tented he say to llfifmiete no„. • id, what force of colouring and sirsingth of Romeo, would he set forth the bliliderss of thug's; whocoold not calculate upon an event en probable. or their remissneso and criminal neglei't in not proo• siding agancit it? How forcibly, and how itr.tly would lie bring bill charge ? Fle depriicAttd the notion, that no stoic ks should be made hut such is the cool calculation of Cabiort f:ouncils would venture to recommend ; by such a policy they would entirely preset ve their orioles from the chance of deft at. they must deprive them of the chance of compest too, end mast be content to blot nut the bright* st pages of their Watley.. Hazard was of two kinds, the hazard of defeat, and that of failure ;and lb. opinions of the officers which wer e quoted against them, stated only the hazard of failure. With respect to the failure of the expedition. the testimony of General Broworigg, who said that • there existed a strong necessity for but+ en under taking, was worthy of implicit credence; he hid as serted that an attack upon Cadrand was not only justiti ibte but expedient ; end that the efforts of the British army, but fur the interposition of ill fortune. 'loon hare in. needed. Sir Home Pop.- ham. Sir R. Keats, and Sir Richard Strattan, hod stated, that if the posse,sion of the two banks bad been obtained, the reduction of the place would positively have been effected. But whs., in Sir R. • Strachan't opinion. neensioned the-Faitortrwere, the ioclemencin of the season; which were .eztroordi. nary, and unheard-of before the time of the cuter prize. and the cons. quest delay of the ffeet in passing up the Scheldt. rut the motive forthia undertaking was a complicated one, involving the service and the interests of this country. with the hope of res cuing Austria, whose spirit, though attacked, was not destroyed ; and was this country, so elevated among the Power, of Europe, to be yielded to the 'burnt power of the tyrant who threatened it ? It • might be said, that there was no probability of enc. ceediug in giving relief to Austria ; and even if the chalices were against such a circumstance, was the ides to be relincpaisbed ; and would Gentlemen think it advisabie to abandon Vlislehereu, before that ovation would come on, which would preclude the necessity of such a measure ? There were oboe- dant documents to prove. that the season of the year was fast approaching, at which all dia. - ease and distemper vanish.. Little was he dia. posed to under-rate the treasure expended upon the enterprise, or to undervalue the Ines of At gallant heroes who adorned it ; bat he did think, they had been immolated to the erases of Austria,' • or to ministerial intrigue. Were we, while Antrim was falling under the force of France, to accelerate the fall of that proud and sinking tower, by re moving tht milyfakiewse by which it was sr:Timer. ed The House could not suppose, that Ministers were destitute of the feelings of tool s or that they felt has compassion for those who had perished, be. cause they were not encircled with glory. Convioeed. as the House most be. that the chances of failure were by no means proportioned to the chaste" of success, and that the cause of failure was not justly ottrihistabloAn-Illirsistoor r his hoped- Assam immo.- . moos concurrence with the Amendment. The CHANCELLOR of the Examines said, that it pofortanately fell to his lot to rise et the time of his own exhaastioo, and of the exhaustion of argu ment upon the present subject. The attention off the House had been stretched for the last five nights, and there existed nothing in him to coat. mend its attention; but his silence mould, apes the aconites, be construed into disrespect far those with whom be was in conjunction, and who had already combated and vanquished the 'satire series of argument which had bees urged against them ; and, lodeed, the victory was not very glorious, if its splendour was to be estimated by its difficulty. Those arguments had been uniformly directed to one object, and that was to effect the removal of him and his colleagues; and, upon their removal, to supply their place. Notwithstanding the late period of the debate, be felt it peculiarly fortunate that he had to follow those who had not offered a single expression to streagthen the aide of the question wbich they pretend ed to advocate, who were turn ing this tragedy into • comedy, and conceived, that the farthest way about was the shortest way heave ; they had, indeed, according to their doctrine, beta 'efficiently circuitous, but had not yet reached their destination. which was still far distant. It bad Brea asserted, that the Expedition was one which even 'access could not justify; but that opi nion was soon after acknowledged to be confined ' to an individual.—(Ne, no.)—None, who were acquainted with the object of the enterprise, could say, that the interest which Great Britain had in it was trivial; it was of immense, of vital import. ance, and much regret did he feel that the scqui. sition could not be retained. But Gentlemen had talked of tht failure of all the expeditions, and ascribed those dreadful consequences to the ince pocky of Ministers ; this was rather so extraordi nary assertion, especially when it was considered from whom it proceeded, and that every syllable uttered upon the opposite side, did the very con trary of confuting or invalidating these strong mod rational positions to which he had adhered. No allusion had been made to Buenos Ayres. by Gentlemen who spoke of the late expedition, as ill-judged and rash; the expediency nr the impropriety of that undertaking had not been mentioned.—/ flew, dear./—Here then were comparative noents,—(no, no.)—and the country would decide to which to scribe the honi .1 intenuop,„ and refuse lobs directed by councils un der the ineuence of on much iniere.ted, i.e nod it- sincerity. But as to the crimpett tiry ~f the t had hsedj'aPidn"ge of the dbdoublibitit;ari:stlPedi o.oipisnuico expediency 11: 1 those particulars, be yielded to a het every 'lndy must deempoperior authority—the authority of rev pertencrd military men—of Brownrigg, a d others, high in professional knowledge. %t realist to the policy of the enterprise, lino evidence. hr Erred, had not been looked to with the iicenr.ey it demanded ; the demolition of the arsenal, he is., ice wicch formed so greet a pert of the etienii'll sire. i.rt Is, was net considered by Gentlemen UP atilt.. tit.. . to justify an attack apse them. But if the i,utboriiy of Nelms, Sir Home l'ophow, and Capt.