The National Register.
London, England, 1809-10-15 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

chance of success; or terininating the present negaciatiou
with more fayourable conditions.. is the result of our
Co-operation. And, when we reflect what Mightliaiebeen
performed, had it been more prompt and eflicient.in point
of numbers and choice of commanders, it is our decided
opinion, that the destinies of this country have a higher
direction, and its energies can be better employed, than to
permit them to languish in ignoble inactivity at home. it
is not by such policy that we. have erected a mighty em-
pire in the two Indies. It was disclaimed
.by every great
statesman we.possessed, at any one period of our history ;
and as we have not suffered, either in reputation, ter
ritory, affluence, or freedom, under the administration
of the great Lord CHATHAM, that of his illustrious son, or
during the memorable reign of Queen ANN, it would be ats
excess. of rashness to abandon their practical maxims, for
the newfangled dcetrines and vapid speculations of modern
theorists. Energetic policy has made its what we now are
—powerful, opulent, and, free. deviation from it might
endanger our fre4dom, and reduce us to poverty and insig-
nificance.

651

" wish we could say formidable from the tnients of its Cities),
•: 46 has been seat by Englaud aad landed in Zealand."--Loudoa
. Paper. • -
The expedition agaiifstland could not have any result for
England. It might occasiou s.ttne embarrassments. some fresh
burdens to the people of FlaitlCe ; hut these they do not cake-
late, w hen any proofs of zeal or devotedness are to be given to
the country ; it could give the LiOish nothing but shame; it
could be attended with tio ether result than to make them lose
an army, whilst it would pro •ere a new aria y to the Emperor.
These prognostics have been perfectly verided.
eay that the expedition colld out be at tendeda it h any re-
sult, because it was necessary to begin by making the siege of
Flushing. Flushing, provided the istued of Walt herrn be Fun-
dated, must be considered by every sensible officer. as a plans
impregnable, by a regular siege, or at toast as presenting eliffiL
cult ics which the labour of fear malts would be unable fa van-
, (wish. Ia this lostauce, the i:est calculations were bneled.—
Flushing, when the besiegers trenches were still three !malted
paces from the body of the firtress, when there was no breach,
when the body of the fortress was untouctred, surrendered :;v the
sole effect. of the terror of a boinhardnicat. Is this cowerdice?
Is it treason ? The sequel of. be inquiry a ill prove whica. •
Thus, thca, the sole opposition of Flushing, which detained
the English expedition only t 0 days, ought to havedetained It
three months.
Oral! the chances of succeeding, certainty the one !easter-
pected by Ow English, must have been such a seeress Obtained
by a bootbarchnent ; they required t «eaty days fur (hat. Now,
twenty days spent in the Istan t of Walcheren, in the month (if
August, must have occasioned a number of sick, which cannot
be computed at le.: than one In four soldiers; and to calculate
otherwise would betray a total ignorance of the effects of that
climate. When we say that t went% days spent in the Island of
Walcherea must cost the quarter of the troops which land in it,
we may add, that the health of the other three quarters must be
essentially impaired, and that all the weakened men are on the
point of fallius,,o• sick. It is therefore a most senseless attempt to
land. brave soldiers in that fatal country, and we must consider
the English army as destroyed, or at least what remains of it, as
unable to do much duty for several months to come.
But in fine, after the siege of Flushing, we had to expect
the siege of fort Batz, which, communicating by water with
Bergeu-op-Zoom, and with fort St. Martin, which the French
have built opposite to it. could, in like manner, tiot Le taken,
but after works and trenches carried on in a country, the cli-
mate of which is as fatal as that of Walchercn. It is true, that
the English were fortunate! A Dutch General, called Bluce,
the shame of the -military name, and whose head the nation
must have to fill upon the scaffold, evacuated this fort through
an unexemplified panic, six hours before Cie English arrived.
Here then ice a;.tain beheld the English enjoying a good fJrtune
upon which they could not rely : hut these fortunate evennp;
purchased with ever increasing dimunition of their army,
whither could they carry them ?„ To burn the French squadron ?
To effect this, it was necessary to .take Antwerp. But in fine,
• the French squadron being taken and burned, it remains to he
knoWn whether such an operation was worth w hat it has cost,
and whether it he very prudent to go to an expellee of many
amen and of 40 or 50 millions, in order to occasion one's enemy
a loss of between 15 and millions. •
But the ships at Antwerp could not he taken. They did not
d.-pend upon the occupation of Flushing, upon that of 14 al=
cheren, nor of any island : they depeeded upon the Continent,
It was necessary to take Antwerp The English, who for
this long time past have not travelled upon the Continent, coo.
stilted information collected six years ago, and imagined that
Antwerp was still an open town as, it was whet) it was only a
trading port ; they did not take into their CalCUlatiall. the wurkt
of these latter years, especially chose which the Emperor has
caused to be raised, since his Journey to Ai twerp. Upon es-
tahlishinga dock-yard in that town,, he ordered its fortis cat land
to be again rained; it is now surrounded with a bastioned ram:
put. The ditch filled with water which coven this rampart, -
has. been repaired; the left of the town is covered by an
intense. inundation which removes. the approaches upwards of:
15902fathoins ; the right is supported by the. citadel, which 1st&
fl .e piece, of fortification; upon this front, several warka have
been established; among ntheraa half-moon with its couute•as-
carp. Upon be left bank ofl he. Soiled r there are no hoaxes,
t the Head of Flanders has been re-established, and•its works.
at* pcosectecl by aia inundation of, bliott fftkitoins iiT extteige,....The
could olio, therefore, take. Antwerp without besieging

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