The Sun.
London, England, 1808-11-21 00:00:00

30U_'1 OF NQUIRI.

~~ . .

REt- DAY:
Chelsea, /*v. lg.
As the late hour. at.whitth th4,Court adarned on
Saturdaypretentid-us frAirgivitrg the voiffbto of its
proceedings, we think it necessary, in justice to our
Readers, this day to resume the subjeet.
A variety of Documents were read-,--written
HEW DALRYMPLE and General FEEIRE, principally
relating to the plunder which the French had em-
barked.
In one of these Letters? Sir HEW DALRYMPLE
expresses his surpri.ze that so large a sum as 40,0001.
mentioned in the Protest, should have been carried
off, and declares his intention of ordering restitu-
tion. •

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Then followed a Proclamation. signed-by General
rREIRE, against the Convention. It states, that there
could not have been a measure entered into more fa-,
vourable to the French., or more hurtful to t because of
Europe ;
_that the English, army, was to be considered
in no other light than as auxiliary to the Portuguese;
that the stipulations there,MOpkained were such as
never could be agreed .q.0,.-unless it were that
Portugal was a conquered Country. It concludes
with protesting strongly against the conditions of the
Treaty.
Sir Haw, in answer, said, that the General ought
to have stated these objections when be had trans-
mitted the armistice to him before the Convention
had been concluded: -He denied, however, that
dime was any foundation for • stichobie4ions, Ent
as injurious reports might be disseminated by the
enemy,, he declared that, the British acted merely:as
the 'allies of, the Prince Regent, and strict attention
should be paid to the security of the Government.-
General FRIERE wrotea letter to Sir HEW of the
'same date (6th September), observing, that he .fret.
it his duty to male the observations which he had
submitted to Sir HEW, but at thesanie time express-
ing himself, highly satisfied with the contents of Sir
Hewg's letter.
A correspondence was next read, between Sir
Hro.v and. the Portuguese Officer SOUZA, 1:)11 the snh-
jeet of pculishiug certain persons who had been ac-
tive in promoting the views of the French, during
the time they were in possession of' Lisbon, and of
restoring the Government. Sir HEW objected to
such punishinents, on the ground that; it would be
-highly. impolitic to keep aliveatiimosilies, by enter-
ing into an examination of past offences. The lie-
gency, he said, would be restored atter the French
had evacuated the city.' Some letters. were intro-
duced here, which passed between___Sir..HEW and
'General Faisae, in which the former expressed his
*approbation of the resolution of Fat Erie not to bring
the Portuguese troops into Lisbon. till the French
were gone, and the latter referred Sir HEW to..the
Junta of Oporto, on the subje& Of the Governiiient
of Portugal. ,4
A letter from Sir A. WELLESLEY to. ton!
T.LEREAGH, written in rotriequence.;of :an -assertion
in a dispatch from Sir H. DALRYMPLE,. 2S lt, apt
peared in the Gazette, was then- asser-
tim was, " that the several articles of the suspension
of arms were agreed upon and signed by Sir.A..WEL-,
LESLEY," The letter statedihat Sir A.lfacr signed
the Armistice at the desire of Abe:Commander in
Chief; but, That he did not consider himself as re-
sponsible for ate whole of its protisioris.,. He cer-
tainly had concurred in the principle Of.the Conven-
tion, as under all the circumstances, the-French had
a fair claim to terms:- - They had posSession'of the
strong holds, with an army nnited, and might. have
certainly:held out for a considerable time. The
British army, was straitened for supplies,and thediffi-
catty. would be augmented by the increase of num-
bers. No arrangements could be made 'for the
march of troops into Spain till the French had
evacuated 'Portugal, and therefore, the question,
,wfether terms were or were not to be allowed, mar
terially affeeled the future operations of the army.
Sir HEW DALRYMPLE said, that he believed there
were in several instances a. diffaence between the
words in his dispatches, as- originally written, and
as inserted in the Gazette. In the present instance
there appeared to be a matetial transposition of
words. He therefore wished the original dispatch
and the Gazette to be compared. Upon this com-
parison it appeared, that instead of "the severalar-
tides were agreed upon and signed !by Sir A. Wtr.-
iesLEY," as inserted in the Gazette, the wordsMf
the dispatch were, "the several articles agreed upon
(that is-between Sir HEW DALRYMPLE, Sir H. BUR-
HARD, Sir A. WELLESLEY, and General kELLEa-
mAtvx), were signed by Sir A. WELLESLEY."': •
Sir A. -WELLESLEY then said, that in 'Wilting that
letter he never meant to cast the least refleCtionupbn
Sir HEW DALRYMPLE. His object had been merely
to set Government right, upon' a point, with regard
to which they might have been misled by an inaccu-
racy of expression.

An account of the number of troops under the
command of Sir_H. D. in Portugal was then read, as
also the copy of a letter from Colonel MURRAY ac-
cepting the conditions of the Armistice, without the
stipulation as to the.RusS:an Fleet. Sir HEW DAL-
RYMPLE stated, that JUNOT. had written a letter to
him on the subjea, which seemed to imply that the
negociation for the evacuation of Portugal by the
French, and that respeaing the Russian Fleet, were
to go hand in'hand ; and that if the one failed the
other should be at an end: This did not appear in
Colonel MURRAY'S letter, and he had written to him
to recohcile the two statements. ' But Colonel Mutt-
RAY'S answer had, by some mistake or other, been
lost. The instruaions to Sir A. 'WELLESLEY and
Sir H. DALRYMPLE were then read, and also the
copy of a dispatch, with instruaions from the Corn-
wander in Chief the Duke of York to Sir H. Butt-
BARD, together with Sir HARRY'S answer.

The reading of the written documents being
fi-
nished,

.' Sir ARTHUR WELLESLEY rose and observed, that
having received instruationS, to attend the Board, he
had most cheerfully complied. He had already given
in copies of his dispatches, detailing his proceedings
during the,time he had the chief command of the
army in Portugal. He • was perfe&ly willing to rest
his case on these dispatches, and to leave it to the
.Court to form its 9pinlan from them.. But as it was
the wish of the Court that he should give a-narrative
Of his proceedings, he had no objedions. Fle then;
from a paper which he held' in his hand, read a nar-
rative of his proceedings. from the time that he first
took the command of the army. It stated, that Inc
bailed in the Donegal from Cork, on the lilt 4 of

Ally, and arrived at Corunna on the 20th. r--it
~
landed there ; and had frequent conferences with the
Supreme Junta, of Galicia,eq He was there inforrned6
commandthatth of Generalseart-nyof Castile
CtJEsTA
and BA
aridGalicia,LenEe, r hadthe
been defeated at Rio Seco, by the French, u-
der the command of Marshal BESSIERES. Ile
offered the Junta of Galicia the assistance -0"36
_ . ...
man
force 'under his command, but was told by them',
expressly, that they did not want men, but owl
money, arms, and ammunition. They at the same
time expressed the utmost anxiety that the Frencat
should be driven from Portugal, and declared that
this would be the most valuable service the British.
troops could render to the cause of. Spain. They
also recommended him to go with his troops to the
northOf Portugal, in order to assist,,as much as Pes"
sible,. the insurrection which had taken place in the
neighbourhood of Oporto. After these conference",
had taken place, he left Corunna on the ~e2d, aria
joined the next day hiS fleet off Finisterre. Their,
then went to Oporto, where he landed, and bed r''
veral conferences with the Bishop.' The Bisbe_;lP '3'-
formed. him that the Portuguese force consibteu -t
about 5000 men, regularsand m l-7°-
ilitia, besides a„
1500 Spaniards,- and: nel'rly as many Portuguese:
scattered over the country:. He al;-..03 promiEed to
thrtAlt Mules for the conveyance of the artillery and
ammunition waggons. After having received all r`.o
information he could get at Oporto, he left hislo"rirli
off that port and sailed on the math, to join .4-"1--qie.
Sir C. COTTON, and consult with' him about 'es
means of entering the Tagus, and attacking trae
forts ih 'the neighbourhood of Lisbon. Wile"'
Genera
SPENCER, of Lisbon, he received a letter from Geneee
SI!ENCER, who waited his- cruets, but it was at r,' t
same Aline' uncertain, Whether in the. situation that
Andalusia was:(Duro&T not having thou surrende!'
ed) he would not a6t more for the common ousel
remaining in his situation off Cadiz. - The Junta of
Seville; however, did not' conSidet the presence °_
- General SPENCER as absolutely necessary for the
operations [het) going forward in Andalusia' ,'os t
that
was his (Sir A. W the IELLESLEY'S) opinion that ,
objeat. was to drive the French out of Portugal;
neither of
.the two corps could do much g°.°,
-thing Separately, and that it was necessary that the/
should be united, - He therefore gave ordersito GI
SPENCER AO jUill him. Toe first information wh'°
he received of the strength of the French in Pertt;
gal was, that they amounted to about sixteen en
seventeen thousand men,. of which about fourteen
thousand were in Lisbon, and the forts. in the n 4 d
bourhood, and that the remainder were dispelliee
in small garrisons in the different strong places• i,
had heard that there were about 600 in garris°3i'rts
Almeida, .and about an equal number in ,tl;e„,retted
df Elvasaind Evora. He, however, afterwards le`'l.l-,0.
that there were near 24,000. Under tliesd cir°,l-:n.
stances, he conceived that it would be extrernelY ",- ,5
genius to attempt a lauding in any of the small '.3)3,
to the:North of the Tagus, where he would be 'nil,
mediately exposed to. the at eck from the ",I!ed
body, of the French arrny. c therefore resoiv
that the landing should be effe6ted at Mondegeny'
4
where he could speedily co-operate with the Pt);tu-
a
desiforce which' had advanced o Coimbra. NV°e,, A,
he was oft' Mondego Bay, he received a letter front
Lord . CASTLUREAGH stating that 5000 Hier: wer
proceeding to join ,him, under Vero ANSTAUTIIO!
and that above
General MOORE. "'He also received an account
CASTANOA itiaOly over DupeNT, !Ind also of jou.
1.0,000 more w.tii-'?„ to arrive undoq
' Lorsosr having been detached with four or fiver' 5s
deran French4o the province of Alailkthjo, to sePoL.,det
an insurrection in the, South of Portugal. u'l'ioti
these circumstances, he thought a disembarl°oB3
might be safely efteEted at, Mondego 8aYi,„4.31)10
fanding was, howevet, attended with consin",,fl-
difficulties, ,on account of the surf. His force "'de,'
ed on the sth and 6th, and General SPENCO lan sr-
On the 7th and Btll. As; soon as the necessarYch
rangements were completed, he determined to 03a`tht,
fotward to LiAtion. 'Having then aseertahlecio.c
force of the enemy, he wrote a lettei to Sir' joil'i)01
BußnAanron the' Bth; recommending a certain kota,
of operations for the corps that he was to brl-ithe
Portugal. ,00.tlie 9th the adVanced guard of the
army marched forward.- Upon that day he rocn; left
the aceonotoof .JaSEPkL IIIJONAPARTE haunt 34. " ac
Madrid, and also a Jetter from Colonel DeY'-gar-
Coruuna, ofhi.eli::rnade it appear probable thgtto the.
.shalr,A:-.SSlEitgs syotild:. make an irruptioa i:° orne
'North. of Portugal. eit. :was necessary to old° shAve
important advantages hefore.,BEssirs Oti • a- ~
, • an the
time to carry. .CiOja,p,;;M'antri execution, -G Gene"
'army continued. itsomarchi. . The Portweese —erii
rats :soon...deo-lauded :to,be supplied- with
from the British stOrfs ;';;viiich de ''tid it was Illd
. ' Ina - . te '
possible to comply with: tie Portuguese sePoar;aoish
and. ermtinriett urreriralifTerufare. ffoin the Plery, ,
till after th,e'2,2d .dirgiigtist.' "" He had that ev-.a.
proposal that he ebillit &Ake to induce the co-01),e' a
tion of the PorthattSer,;,' He 'ltad,dem47oed:o' 0;
rcinjOrtement Of 1060 zi.;j'antry,-,400,,1ight tad
and 200 cavalry, and'ihad- *xornised that they ''' de yd
lid
receive provisiohs froth, qt,ffe''llfitisil stock:.a."'" .1,
provisi.ol.,
the•Portagilese Generali would n©t consent 41111'30
On the lath instant_
.the...gritcsb_ troops den by
aelion With °nab, rrqrleh troops, commau'i;at ib....v-
LABORDE and Lorsox.. The particu'ars of I-- es,
thin were detailed in the Gazette, and it` was 141-eeiod.
sarynow to repeat them. Before that,aaion,.ll° ot; -.!
thought of attacking the French post upon the °Dot.
but when he had been so severely disappointed il
to, --,
meeting the expe6ted co-operation from the ,F, ,°, if try f:
guese, and when he had also witnessed the ga"-oie,
which the French displayed in the atlion of the 'oe;
he resolved to change his plan, and to march "'woo),
the French position of Torre Vedras. Therifeooh
Gen. AisTrtuTosn's force ' appeared in the ' here
and effeded their landing. On the same day i t,, in
was some skirmishing with 'the enemy's cava,a:,' in-
the neigh.)ourhood of Vimiera. It had been `3.,, the
tention on the 21st to march forward and turn
French position at Torre Vedras, having an exeerived
,ir
de.
map of the country; but Sir H. BotittAat)
in the. evening and took the command. 1,„1-!e ..o.
tails of the battle of Vimiera were ill the ua. o
-.
. /
and with that battle his command of the Briti° 4'
'
in Portugal ceased. ,
,
Sir ARTHUR WELLESLEY having COnclUded ''
c''''' a . ;
reading of the narrative, delivered it to ", 0
the oii;C:
dent to be entered on the thinwes with Ine i,„-o
proceedings of the Board. The Court was tlle°r ad. ~
mediately cleared, and in a few tlinutes 41.
~.

jourtied till Modc y (this day). were,
Among the company present in the Court
the Duku CAMBRIDGIi and CumBEriLAND-