The Sun.
London, England, 1801-02-20 00:00:00

FERROL EXPEDITION.

Mr. STURT rose, in consequence of a. notice.
he had given to move for an Inquiry into the Fer-
rol Expedition. He said, .he had .to bring forward.
a Motion, which hehopeci' the House would feel it
a duty on it to support. First-, he begged it4o be
.tinderstood, that he did not on any account what-
ever mean to say any thing.disrespiafa of the
charaaer of the Hon. General who carrimanded
ihat Expedition, nor any ,thing against the Hon.
Gentleman who planned' it ; .but he did thiniti.
that there was about that subjei samething so
peculiarly unfOrtunate, not to say disgraceful,-
that. the CountrV• had a fair and a just right to
:have ,that Expedition. brought before the House ;
ancLindeed he was more strongly of thiOvinion.
when.he recnileeled. what had been.said upon this'
subjea,. as well as upon another, when a certain
Hon: Gentleman •expressed his regret that aMo-
tion of which notice 'had been given, had not
been brOught before the 1-louse, to afford to the
. persons:whose conduit, was the objet of it, an
opportunity of explaining that --condnecte: He
wished, and indeed' he trusted that thei Hon.
General who,commanded this Expedition, might
explain tin- whole of it to the sa.tisfaaion of the
House and of the Public ; 'but he did think that
the subjea..ought .to' be inquired into,--Ti iit
there W'Ri reason- for', -unglue somewhere upon
this subjea, he took tole a point 'sOcleare that
every min would confess it ; the question then
was,: M,lere: that, censure otiglit 'to rest ?"'lbis
was the only objet'} he had` in view by calling
.for this Inquiry. . He had.no enmity against any
man livin&; he Was only diScharging his public
duty by what he was .now dOing..- it was very
well known :that the Artptimet*Nybieh was so up-
: fortunate-at Ferro_ .had ben lking:for, some tune
.at QUiberon. Upon the conduitollhat Arm..
'tent at Vereol, he, was about eo call the attention:
of thoßOtisc;:and:iliat he thought necessary from
the cniitradi4fintY opinions AO had been-ex.
pressed :by difFerent-Offieers of that Armament,
as wall; as between•the. two: bran Ches of the Ser-
vice of which it, was compnrk He meant ~the
Army and the ;Navy. —Hejaelieeed, it would
!not be denied, that considerable-disappointment •
tbllowed the course which Ow -,F.`xpedition, took.
Some.. or these. copies of • disappointment • he
Woad: touch upon, but he would not'- go any
' farther 'than apPeared to be absolutely. neces.
nary. • Nothing omthe face. of the earth .would
make him exceed "that which appeared to him
to be h4' duty, 'nor, was there any . considera-
tion that Should-induce hini,to :.decline it.•,--
That this Armament ivai'-stiPpOrted ley "naval
skill and abjlity; was beyond! all doubt; ' atid that
there were,,Otlictf who 444 4n;:iquoli-scpiimwas
indisputable. Here he 'describeth-theo:saititig,Of
the Fleet from _Quiberoaraud-of.the landing of
the Troops on the zeth
.of August, ;without a
man being .wounti.:Fl, or the smallesr accident
,happening to any .part of .the , Army, and, the
GenerAt.,said,., in. his official,dispatekes,it*, his
,first 'objea was in landing and gaining the heights,
to; see. how!, fax, it,,was praaicable to carry, the
Town—Mr. Sruttr said, diet although,he was, no
Military man, he thought hc might Judge ofsome
things in this Expedition, and it appeared to kip
extraordinary, that 1 tiOoo men should land and
fail to.gain their objet, when it was the Opinion-of
some, that, 2000 would have been sufficient for
that:purpose; It appeared, that after they land- .
ed, they had a few skirmishes, but that. they
gaincd..the .1-leights which continanded and over-
look&.1 th:.. Town ;- and they, had Artillery, and ~
every thing that was necessary for the:purpose of
the undertaking. So much .W.ery ,the,Men'satis-
tied,i4 'the advantage they had gained after ;they
lidded;
.and had:gained: the which COlll-
- The• Town, that they congratulated the
General on
.their situation, and.said,v that within
two
,hours. They would be in possession of the
TcA,n: ' "open this occasion an Engineel,• whose
ability and service to his Country were well

'known, said to the General, be thou* the
Town might be taken, for there was to oppose our
Men only a wall of a few feet, on which no.:Can—,

non was mounted, and only a very few ;of the
Encmy-at the Fort, and very few were in the
Town ; and some of our Troops wanted to at-
tack th Fort immediately ;. but he understood
they were ordered to lay under cover of the wall,
but not _petraittedio acivarm„Altrays_Qfkcc,%6
Colonel STEWART, was- ettrir-roettfteled
skirmish ; but if he had not met With that .un.

'fortunate accident, he must --haieygot-into a-place
where he Would have got a considerable quantiry -
of Stores, and if followed up at that time,. ;MW
probably it -would have produced the Surrendiii. ;
of Ferrol. He did -not "say-that this not.being
done was owing-to the conautt of thc-Hon:Gene._
ral who c.9,mmnded the Expedition ; but as..there
was a differcncokon that .subjeaittilieViroi;AZ
the Officers of that Army, the,best, ii;d indeed.the
only regular way for the House to Foceed, ..was
to order, 'anjuqniirinto the,
.IpAtte,•.kriclit .was. '
impossible for the -Hon:General himself to resist
-an Inquiry in that 140nse i taeinaied he thought
-it wpttid -have been -honourable-in--him 4-o ;}taus
dethanded a Military Court of Inquiry 'into his
cOnduel on that occasion: It was stated w him

as a thing Well known, that .at the .time can
'troops landed, there twurei not at Ferro

wards of 2000 men Of-the .Eneink. in all, and bay'
they could poss,ibly, have resisted the force df
rOOOO of our men, it they hid attacked,, he cowl
not conceive: If this be so, he could only say, ix
was very bad tastele &Cline the attempt-of taking
this place, and -a thing which must appear :ex,
traordinary to every Englishman: When it Svaa
remembered what Englishmen had so often dot*,
‘,
to be deterred by the paltry obstacles that were-
preiented to them in this case, Was extraordinary:.
to such men, and a thing that excited his surpriz‘..
HoweVer they were ordered to re.embark,,,,ant
great divisions arose fromlhe orders for the re.
embarkation—very -strong. opiiiihni7 had.: -bee:u.
given against that orders and a small part..of that
force that Was ordered tb ft:etrkbai*.hatt said, -tfutt:
if they had been allowed .to iry, ;they: v.;.041,"
themselves have taken this place:, This, -he
thought; -war. -of-. it7.lfmouoti for an-inettro-- r,
The, Town ..w is siaied :to Trin TO-13F-Tri .stiCh"e
state of :fear,and'abgen,.7that. alt' .the Met-Chant&
had . assembled: tri•gett4,-. .the. Town. v; ms
preparing to capitulak,i but General newer
summondit rti do so. fiLlisiT6ot inquire tc'he..
Cher
.they would capitulateher-rot.— 'his, he
apprehen4d ;tat be mer.frf:Ntilordinary ; hr
could not. conceive why_t&i..teneral 11144 not
think proper lo summon the Town to stxri6fiderz

he was not - very sanguine-gig:the
order this. Intjuity
4bui.4ao-cm. •
fessed it did appear to:littn bt, no rtiote:thax,
common= justice to the.Ofticers.447.4rrny.lii;op-,,
into this Incluitj'; becaihe..tliey-
suppose that a stigma wiis left. upon 'their chi.
raaers itt Consequence of this unfOrtunate business;

such was.thefeeling and apprehensiop. Of .i -g fr.*
many Officers `at. least.—lt-was ''s_tised.Als.o. tli`4 ..,
the General called a Council :of. .•VVr;;-140sv fir: . -
he was right in his stat'ertient, thelion;..Geluird4
himself would say ; but was-ififolitta that the .
Engineer who had given his tlpinion to the C;enertit
that the Town might easily be;i:aktft, was ncr-:
'sunlnioneci to this Council of .War
he appieheoded, was sufficient ground for dr.:
House to go into ;in Inquiry into this.,Ant4inetkez:
:because, supposing that tivo or Ilirielitiricfrisk
men might have. been-lost in the enterprise (the .1
value of whose lives he did not mean to under,...'
rate), j7ret still heappreheitdo thst,-speakingli.F
a military sense, theacrplisition would have been,
worth the sacrifice.' • The Army were,however,,
kept resting on their: Arms. . They could see.;
every thing,of the Town from the Heights, anal. -
so confident 7/ere the Sailor's of vi&Ory; that .lin '
the sight of the place they gaVe threc,,eheera.--,
They wanted to' land,. for they had promise'
themselves a great deld of wealth... Such. Alibi. si
the alarm of the Enemy in• the ciarris*
..
-that they' - got across the water,
.nod went awif.', '.
The . Ships were not above ii‘'e hundred ya*, ' •
from, the ~lFos,t,i and if. ..we, had then:taken.pos,..• '..
session of 'tfie Fort, stlitre. wilulpnbt ' Wave :lief*
arly.resiaanee 'of . the rEst., F,rorn- these' 4irCtlirt.:-
, stances,. he thought the-,Nation..*l4ge:widterfl
. and 'called *for all In qDi rk-i ii to .-fhius.);,lll“,,..':ltk.
wished :to.knoW whethertthu, treasurcol,;lll4..j'ain.i
tion was to -be squandbred •-aW/4•'.Winfitlfai2".. .
fruitless • EkphiitiOnS, withoqt :Atm.f,./.111(101r,t14:-
itr.lg Made .into them ? -He apprcheiured An -4tbr,c•.:
Expedition did not-cost Less ithan.f6pr tuilfigais4S*'•
money. :fife: did not lao‘s• otizely • sVhatb.o•::
sum wm,:htit - he 'believed it Nos thereabouts, 'ter;
these Expeditions.wite eno imousl v 'eypensie::,•;-•,,' 3
Such. was the. _opinion: Of,- tli,,,Nay.y tiptu
_thin ,
stibjea, .that -a body of seven :hundred.. men ••tin..
derfook to -take she Fort in 7.s,eninittes. l'hef.le.:,''
neral,lOwever, would riot allow, thes_Atfack.:Ai*s; •
'Made, for. which he would, of
.courto:nthtitt,a‘.7.
sigrrhis- IGaDVII 1- tur-.,,, diartsfaelory--yas-Afts‘,.
condutli-tO some of.mit Ith.ret,
.tha .on.stiti-iiitte.. I
•was a mob,. vlli'cli..l;r64 „nut into iticaost open . I
mutiny, and it xi•a-s..ivit,ll great klitiiculty ibat they .!
were, kept. under. ;11;ii ,vv..ts- an4„t*r roco...3thirc,
the•HouSe should.' institute, ariiiltitiity iiiiciltits'
nratt-er. - The ISltilorS tt'utetittiiii 1:14 tl et of itit • '
General With deiisijn, ' foi wheil -,therlooliit‘,
Prix-ateer; they said they did it as..i...lesson'to the"...;,
. -
General: 'Here' Mr. Swtmur :proceeded :to re,adr _
certain •.Letter; which 'he- bad retteived Ilia ioai(,:.:
Offie.lts of the twolirunches-..0f ;I 15.e.l.','„iZ6.'c'Pn- .•
cerned in this Expedition, in confitmationlf .!, ~,,,,
what he had said on the subjeCt—Being asked
by . an.' Honourahlr • Member •to ' nine -:the
:Authors, he said that if ) the, Inquiry was,'
ranted he should think hiMself hound in honour
to give in the naipcs of the Officers from ,Whom,
these letters came, but he d?d not cilia.' it 'would
be either icgtilar or,:fair •td.do SO if, the lipuse. ,
should refuse the inviry. lie said tharhe had
no personal enmity :whatever...against .any indivi- :
dual, to adate hilii in the concluet which- he was , •
now
,pursuing,, bUt he thought the Public Ought'.
to be acquainted with the real.6use of our retreat
from Ferrol, when there appeared to be •so m.tich4'.-
reason for -expeding; -therac9bmpltslirrient .ofzthac ! ~:1
Expedition. .As fir as fie had known or heard ..r:

of the .Honourable Getieral' WhO• had th&Cotii-
mand
,of that. Expedition, +there • was. nothing
against him, his chatallier, was . always- full of
manliness. and courage; that
.he had never.flinched, even when it .was a_sisk of life.; ...but
he apprehended that an excellent cha.raCter
.of,
the General was no reason for not going: into an.
Inquiry.- He had no ;doubt, the Honorable.
General could give .a very fall explanation of
this business, -and he should be glad to hear him ;
but he should have .thought, • that he deserted the
duty he.ewed to the Public, if he had omitted the
lilotion with which he was now about to con-
chide. There was one thing which he had for-
gotten.to state, which was stated to him; for the
truth of.it.he did not. vouch, •but if true, it was
a. latnentable event ; It Was this—That in this
Etxpedition,,a, Transport of ours, with 4.00 Men,
sunk, .and every -soul perished, .1-le,, concluded
with moving, " That this House do resolve itself
into a Committee. of the whdle House,_ to inquire
into the failure o the Expedition against Fer_
to]."
. goirat Sir JAMES, NATENEY said, he
thought he ought to make an apology to. the
House for offering himself now to its not e, but'
he trusted the House would excuse him for a 'reason
which Was too obvious for him to mention.—
After what had been said on this subject, it
was natural for him to wish to explain himself;
hitt much, as he might wish to do so, yet if the
doing it could in the least degree involve him in.
the necessity of disclosing any secrets which
might have been entrusted to him as Commander
of this Expedition, he should. have forgone all
his wishes, because he should have then thought
it his duty to be silent, and he hoped.he should
be,.always ready to sacrifice his wishes to his
duty ; but he apprehended that no Instrudions
which he
,received,, or any thing which ought to
remain a secret, would be at all involved in the
statement
,which he had to make to the House
upon this' subjeft—He should. therefore state the
casein the fidleSt manner, and then the House would
consider whether. any Inquiry would be neces-
sary or not. In the first 'place, he would ob-
serge, and he was not• afraid of being contras
dided when he did so; that all Expeditions have
•irt•Thein•sotterhitig th'at'is.• mote difficult' and ar-
duous than any other branch. of• Military Service.
That they should be undertaken with 'caution, he
apprehended, also, would- be readily allowed, and
that an °Meet should,well' weigh the danger to
which an .etiterpsie. will expose his force, and-
calculate uporytht risk-, he apprehended, would
not. be denied, . He would nut dwell very nukli
on. the probabls 'loss of z or •300- Men in the en_
terpri ze ; he should, as a man, lament the loss,-
if. it happened ; but 'as a .Commander of a Milis
tary. linterprize, hii consideration would- be
confined to 'the objeCl 'to be obtained,
,and
as *much. as possible.' to the general state of
the "Corps. he could have attained the
cibjea with the loss of zoo men;. or a. much
,greater number, he should not have. thought
.. himself justified in.desisting cm that 'aceOunt.'
that, however, was not , the case, as it ap-
reared,. for not only.• that loss most probably
would have taken place, but also the whole Army
• •
*night either 'have been destroyed or ruined.—
With that impression, he certainly thought that it
was his duty to desist froth the attack, for un.
questionably in his mind it would have involved
the safety -of the whole body...of the Corps; and
without entering into the Insttudions which he
had from GOVerlillloll., he should spew- that to
issake the attacks,. as the !-lon. Gentleman had ex..
pressed, and others :might have expressed, not only
would.. hay.e.-expesect a great body; of the Troops
to' loss, but ,might have-pet. to hazard some.,
thjilg hat could!
.hardly be ,calculated in, its
value, as to the effeel it might have op the..whole,
Campaign, an the certainty of a great loss. and
diminution of Force. ',Me hoped he should be
able to make this manifest 'to the House, and
also to answer, to the satisfadion of the House,
04jeaiops• which had been made, to his con-
di/4 in the command,of the Force in that Expe-
claton. He should endeavour, although treating
of a military subjed, to speak. in
,such a manner
-a-s-to be perfectly understoo4 by every MeMber
oFthe House, ItOwever unacquainted with mill-
ra'y:opetationi. should refer to, and rely on,
sit-cirtopies as mast" likely had, certainly might,
ciiine to the
.possession of every Gentleman of
rtiat House,.-and should not rest on any assertion
of Ms •dwn, • The Honotirahle' Gentleman had,
ste7y properly; stated hOw the"FrOopi'latided and
got possession of the Heights. That possession
gave them a full' opportunity of observing the
ToWn and Fort, and•certainly, in softie dc!gree,
ituinbeeof the- Enemy who were :he'll opposed
to them. The number of the Enemy, from -his
own obServation, and the •observation of (Alters
on -whose•judgment he, was hound in a certain de
grce to depend, •as well ;a4 from information
which he'-collided from.',SOme Prisoners, that is,
the numbers of theEnentv in and out. of, but near
the Town, at the time the' Force under-Min-corn-
inanded the Heights, wasat•lcait 6000 men. As
to the observations- he -made 'on the'lVot•ks and the
situation of the -place, helound•Ferrol was pro-
toded on three Sides by the. 'sea, or rather arms
of the sea. • The fourth was regularly fortified
for the extent of from sixteen to eighteen Mins
dred yards. It• had six bastions and a curtain -
which conrieded them - with a. stone parapet, or
rather stone wall. These works• were all of per_
fefilfgood order andlate construdion.• 00 one
pirt,,where- the-arm of the sea extended, there
was a rings of i-ocks, which gitve great iirbtedion
refftteirriTSftreifzftlit' tittbrks; and whi.slr-ite mitt.
tioneci only to give an idea of the works, and
which every one thereladdn opportunity of ob.
serving, and. which were very
w attentively ob-
served by other, Officers as well: as himself. This
being the state.of the place, thus .strong by nature
and fortified by art, and maintained by force, it
did certainly appear 'to hiM that, morally spea-
ing, there was no chance of success if he had at-
tacked it. Hehad doubt then, frrim his own Ob-
servations, that thiewits a right conclusion. The
Officers Ite—sonv-ersed -wi th had • no doubt : —tha t
Opinion had since been confirmed by that which ap=
peared to him the best authority upon this subject,

. . .
namely, the authority of His .T.Viajestrs'EnemieS—
Here he quoted that which had been published
from the Madrid Gazette, as a 'thnfirmation of
the opinion he had)fUemed•of the strength fertile
Oita—and maintained, that this disposed ;at once:
of the whole Question, as far as ,it- regarded the'
supposed facility;of taking the Tewn. 'He ob. :
servest, that the observations he made were;early.•
in the. morning of -the 26th
.of August-. At
two o'clock on the same day he perceived a Canip
of Grenadiers and Chasseurs, which made a very
formidable appearance. . Besides this, the Troops
which-came - from Corunna to Ferrol, made the
,Enethy at this time amount to about 7 or 8000
men: Now this being- the -case; he could not
agree to the assertion that the Town of Ferrol
was at this time open and defenceless ; indeed the
Enemy themselves had acknowledged that they
were very strongly garrisoned there. Such in- ,
. deed was their feeling- of the strength of the
place, that zOOO men who were in a certain po-
sition, changed it so as to pot-our. Troops be-
tween them and the -town ; .this chewed they
: were confident of their strength, and this•appear-
ed from the account published by the Enemy,
and, the General said, confirmed the ideas he had
formed of the place. He could not, therefore,
assent to the assertion, that the opinion he formed
of the place was 'lightly taken up, on a ground
that- was proved to be erroneous. There was'
another, part of the assertion of the Hon. Gentle-
man which demanded an explanation from. him—
He observed, that .the Fort had no artillery. There
certainly was no time lost in the landing of our
Troops, nor any , delay in gaining the Heights.
Our Troops arrived at the Heights at five
o'clock in the morning, and he observed can-
;non mounted upon the Ramparts, and our Troops
had•a pretty severe adion in the evening. This
being the state of things, the General saicL cer-
tainly he did think, and certainly does now think,
that it was not advisable for us to attack that
place. He did take upon himself the whole re-
IsponEibility of the measure of the Retreat from
that place. At the same-time he begged to he
(understood, as being of opinion that he should
have been to blame if he had nos endeavoured to
profit by the experience of the Officers he had
with him, whose advice *he thought it hi's duty
to take, and'did take.—They were most respea-
able Officers. He did therefore take their
. opinion, nor in the form of a Council of War,
as. the Honourable Gentleman had btst
i in another way: ' They were, however, all-
of opinion-that an attack upon that -place • of-
fered -.no' adequate prospedt of success—There
was one `Officer'. who: did hot • then make up his
mind on the subject, and he gave the General his
reason for it ;.hersincelie had -deciared to the
General, from-what he then saw, and what he had
since-learnt, •he was of the opinion- which the
General had entertained- and - acted upoh in this
• business. An Officer - of Engineers had - been
alluded to this night, and it was said that that
I Officer had declared it to beihis opinion that the
place might be taken by Escalade in the night ;
but this. was ;an iimperfed -recital of the opinion
of chat Officer, for although he had said he thought
the. Town might be taken -by Escalade in • the
night, yet even •he ;had. said there• was much
risk and danger in -the-attempt ; he only. thought
it _ ,might be. successful ..--The General then
isaid; he' should nor' enter 'minutely into these
i points; at. present ; • hiss opinion then was -en-
tirely ditiercnt from thel'opiltion..of that Engineer
upon that ; stilsjeet; mid his opinion now was the
'same-as it .was.then.-- Undoubtedly, Ferrol was
not, a; very strongly fortified Town ; but he was
lconvinced; it,otfered us much difficulty to- an Es.
„ .. .
learadeior a Coup--deeetaine. as a strongly fortified
I Towm These were the; circumStanees, the-: Ge-
neral said; under which lie .had.formed his opinion
;then, an opinion' which he certainly adhered to,
•:which was, that. the operation 'of attacking' to
' take this place, could not have succeeded. As
to the-remarks of the Engineer, he must observe,
that if the. Engineer had madeean-•Otrer of any
Plana-the Place, or of the:Attack.; or had taken
1 any measures in his own professiorr to, make him.
sellunasterof the subje6l, or - had attempted. to
' devise Me-tins-for carrying it. into execution,
• the opinion of ' an Engineer must have had •a
great effeet ;• but, upon the 'bare sohjeti of
an. Escalade-, without any thing else to'be joined
with the opinion-of an Engineerei was no. better
than the opinion. of any other .Officer ; - for the
subject. of an • Escalade was as easily .judged • of by
one Officer as by-another ; a man's being an .En-
gineer gave-him no 'superiority in that respeel ;
arid the General added, that :apeaking: on this
subjeel impartially, as he ought to do, on therquali,
ties _of those who-were under:his command,- he
was bound- to 'say, that those who diared from
this:Engineer, ill opinion upon this -subjeet, were
persons who had seen more general service, than
he,-had seen, and they.deeided':that: an Escalade
could note without' -imminent danger, be under-
taken.. Why, then the only-remaining question
was,- whether it was prudenvto have entered into
a regular siege. Now that ;could not • be 'done
without brin*ing -up' heavy' cannon, and much
preparation for a.-batter)% - He' did :not know
whether the' House -would 'wish •him to go
much in detail upon that subjesEt, he would only
say; that his opinion. was 'against making that at..
tempt, and every Officer he conversed with upon
the subject, was of his opinion ; . this opinion they
formed from the nature of the Coast, and the
'tnountains• by which the place is environed : he
trust have taken Fort St. Philip, during-which
time the Fleet would. have remained in a very
hazardous situation ; he must then have made a
large detachment. to -the 'opposite side oldie Har-
bour to protedt it ; so that. he would' only 'have
had 7 or 8000 been to airre, on the Siege.
—Now, upon the subject of Siege; general-
ly speaking, it had been understood, as not ad:
visabie, unless • the Besiegers were three to one
in number; to the Besieged.tt Certainly it had
never been -thought prudent . to undertake • it
with an inferior number to the Besieged,- and
in this case, there would have been: twelve--'or
thirteen thousand of-the Enemy ready, la •- ad-
dition to the Garrison, before we could have ,
opened the Trenches 4. and in that case,' to open

siege, would havebeen-perfect madness. These •
were tee reasons, .the General said, which induced
him- ty:-desist from the 'operation intended by: the
Exs*dirions There. had' been many. reports upon •
this .subject.; it-was. Unnecessary- for him to take.
notice of them all—but some of the reports he
would. just touch upon. It had been said, that
the Town was ready to capitulate; and that the
Governor came out with the Keys, and that there
were only a few Hundred Men in the Town ; and
that the Admiral offered' to take it at once with
a few Men : these stories were such palpable von-
sense, that. the House would excuse him from,
saying a • word upon them. But he would say
a few words on some reports said to be pre-
valent among some part of- the , Land Force.
—And first, as to the pannic with which
the Enemy was supposed to be struck, he was
confident there was no foundation for that idea,
for although they lost t 30 -men in the skirmish,
they did not appear to be in any confusion what-
ever.—As to the confusion which was seen in•the
Town, it was only the cenfusion Which is to be
seen in any town among the inhabitants who are
not military persons:, whenever they apprehend any
attack from an Enemy, and this was the case here;
a number of Merchants and Tradesmen-appeared
to be confused from this eppreltension, but this
had not the smallest conneaion with the strength
of the place.—As to the facility of taking Fort
St. Philip, and that it was abandoned as had been
said, and that there were only: about 5o men 'in
it ; he saw many men going oft he saw about
Roo retire from the Fort, not out of fear,' but
because these men were more than the Fort could
conveniently hold. Another report which was
extremely important for the House to• coh,isler
was, that the Admiral offered -to go ih with
his Fleet and take the place ; and thia acco et
had been very much relied on, and the Ad o%•••
had been repeatedly represented as hay ing'''
monstrated with the General on the broaching of
the idea of a Retreat ; but the • truth was, the
General said, the Admiral never offered the
slightest obje4lion to the General's Retreat, nor
did any one of the Officers offer any objdtion to
such Retreat ; nor did any conversation he had
.previously had with the Admiral, ever tend in the
least degree to give the General an idea that the
Admiral had any" such objeCt in view as had
been stated that •he had. The HOuse, however,
might be assured that he did not mean to cast on
any of these Gallant (Akers' the least;.reflettion..
whatever ; he only.meant to ailedge, .that iio spat
proposal vs as made to him as had been so often and
so confidently stated. Another point deserved par-
ticular notice. It had: been stated, the General
said, that he had retreated on this
.occasion, in
consequence of private orders from the Com-
mender in Chief. How Such a thing could have
been asserted, or how it grew up Into a report,
lie knew not, but certain it was, there was, no
foundation for it : he said - he-wanted no >such-.
apology ; and on. that subject a single sentence
was enough ; that Illustrious Fersonage was in-
capable of giving any order that was contrary to
the interest of> his Country. There were other
reports of an absurd natute upon 'this subjeCt—
andanany of them turned s upon some opinions
which had been given by Officers in the two
Ilieinches of the Sers ice. As to the opinions
which lukue been entertained by. some
Officers of the Navy, the House would consider,
whether they wet e, or were not the best judges of
Military affairs; as to the Officers of inferior rank
in theA tiny, 'ilany of them disapproved of the Re-
treat, the observation upon them .was, that they
were in a situation for the most part in which their
proper attention .to.their duty excluded them from
the chance of• observing this place 'and the force.
of it, in such a manner as- qualified them to
form a very good opinion upon thesubjeCt, not. to
insist upon it that their experience and judg-
ment was necessarily inferior to Many others
with whom the General had conversed, and all
of whom had approved of that Retreat.—
In a word, these Gentlemen who, had expressed
their disapprobation of this Retreat, were good
Officers, but' they had not the same- means of
judging as.. others, their Seniors, 114—Hay.
ing 'already mentioned to the House ,how the
matter stood in point of fael, the question then
would bes " Whether experienced Officers in
the. Army, having approached and examined the.
place, and having taken all the circumstances.
the case into consideration, were, or were
better judges of that case, than those who ne
saw. the place. at all,, which was the.case with
samee or those who having seen theeplacee had
neither leisure nor ability to form. the best opi-
nion of it, which was the case of others ?." Much
had been said on the subjdt'af the Retreet having
this ideato 'inany.
been' s`o quick, and. I I led
error's upon the matter, and Might, said,
deed, to be the great foundation of all the errors
which had laid hold of the minds' of some persons
on this subjea. To this he would not oppose any
argument, he would barely assert that Ferrol' al-
;though an objet, was not the only objeA.of this
Expedition, nor the only place in view ; and this
his consideration also, had its share in deter-
mining him to adopt The line he did : He should
)lave adopted the same line of eanduCt, even
if the Garrison had been, in some • consider-
eble degree,. different from what it was :7-He
was determined to avoid every unnecessary
loss he did not think he should have been aft-'
ing the part .of a good General, if, for the sake
of a little temporary personal- reputation, he was
to risk the loss of any part of the Forces under'
his command: objea was to save his Tioops
much as possible from loss : He knew that
every hour was attended with danger and hazard,
especially as the place was extremely.unfa enure-
ble, for the Troops, as they could not get into
the Boats at all, • except in a certain state of
t: • tide. As to the difference of opinion which
was stated to have existed-between the Army and
the Ness}, upon this subjeft, he begged leave to
say he knew of no' such difference, other than
than, that of which he had already -taken notice.
But us to what. the Hon. Gentleman had said upon
the supposed opinion of the Engineer, upon the
practicability of taking this place by our. Troops,
it was entirely groundless, except that of his

having iaid•he believed it was poisible ; 'but that
was attended with a qualification of his being of
opinion it would have been attended with danger,
and this opinion was, that the thing was to be ex.,
muted by Escalade, in which the opinion of an En-
gineer was no.bet ter than that of any other Officer.
Theatryth was, thattliete was no foundation in fa 6

for this9pinion of the. Engineer.—tikt the Coun-
cilof War,. if a COW)CiI of War it was to be cal-

led,. that Engineer-was present, - and all the. other
Officers told- the General they were convinced .it
was impossible to etreet it. It had been stated,
that he was to blame iOr not having. summone4.
the Town to surrender : the truth was, _that he

had a Summons in.his pocket, properly writtea,
out, but after learning the, real. strength of the
place„ and the number of the Enemy that were
within, and still great number that were near it,
being convinced there was no prababili tyof success,
he did not send the Summons to the Town to surren.

der, because he did not wish to expose the Country
which he came from to disgrace and ridicule.—
As to the variety of gallant offers which parts
of, the Army were supposed to have made, to
take this place by a coup,de-main, he could as-

sure the House, that such. offers had been kept a
profound secret from him. On the. subject of run-
ning down the Transport-with 400 of our Men in
it, he could only say, that he never heard of that

circumstance before this night, nor would, he
have been .answerable, if the faa had been so.--
He might follow step by step, every report that
had been made in this case, but that he thought
that would be taking up improperly the rime-
of the House. He thought however.it was but
right to say, that, by accidents which* human
prudence could not prevent, he was disap.

pointed, on his arrival off the Coast, of intel-
ligence upon, which he had.depended. His Ma
jesty!s 'Ministers, nor any body else on our part,
were to blaitle, that the objea was frustrated.-

He afted, on .a view of all the circumstances, for
the best in behalf of this Country, and he had

some considerable information on the spot ; he

would however say, that in his opinion His
Majesty's Ministers were perfealy justified in the

manner in which they caused these 'Troops to
be employed—And although = the intelligence
on which the plan •was.,formed was not perfect,
yet it did convey a sufficient ground of-hope to
justify the enterprise. Ile concluded with saying,
that notwithstanding all the attempts that had
been made to affix-blame. upon him, he did not
once feel tfie slightest regret at hisown,cOndurt:
Ifhis opinion had not been confirmed by the opinion
of others, he should have aeled as did, becadse
he must, 'to be honest, have .a4ted,- not upon the .
judgment of others, but his owo, for that was
the sole guide in time of the greatest difficulty. for
a Commander .; and had he followed any other •
course, he should have thought himself unworthy •
of, his situation ; for, Coovinced ai.hc Wati, the,
operation would not have succeeded, it would
have been vain, for. the. sake of his
,own personal.
_reputation to have attempted it, and thereby to•
hazard the fate of the Troops under his com.
mand : but he had the satisfation of feeling
that he. aacd conformably to the opinion of
the most, distinguished Officers whose opinions
he took, and he hoped, he should this night
also receive the sanction of that House upon that
..übjed.

Air. JEKYLL said, that in his opinion the
lion. Gentleman who had just sat down was
bound to thank his Honourable Friend for the.
Motion which he had now brought forward, as
it afforded him an opportunity Of explaining the'
circumstances respeaing, this Expedition. He
was free to .confess, that for one he was pettedly
satisfied with the account which the Hon. Ge.
1-ncral had given ; he had not only cleared him_
'self from every impiitatiOn, but had, at least in
Ihis,opinion, completely fixed the guilt upon Mi.
nisters. It would then remain fur them to clear
themselves to their Country, and to account
for this failure. If, Upon inquiry, ,it should
appear that Ministers had undertaken this plan
without due information, they would not be able
in their defence to say that • they had- not the
means of acquiring information, for Parliament
had not refused to grant. them what they- thought
it right to ask for Secret Service Money. It
was no excuse to that House for the enormous
expence of that Expedition, to say, that the
Troops upon landing found it impossible to take
the place, because, it was surrounded on three
sides by the. sea, and , because it was surrounded
'on the fourth by bastions and curtains, be-
'cause these were circumstances which Ministers
.ought to have known before
.the:: undertook the
;Expedition. Instead of this, however, it ap..
,peared that they had given the Hon. General in-
'struCtions tolook at Ferrol, without ever appriz-
ing him of the dangers he had to encounter. He
did not know. wha t wean these Gentlemen—....they
were a sort of Ephemeral Beings, a sort nfNon-
de.scripts in Politics—they said they would be
ready at all times. to meet inquiry, but in three
or four days more, perhaps, they would-nolonger
be Ministers, they would no longer be in respon..
iible situations. In whatever tharader,however,
they.' might appear, he thought the Country had
a right to .ask them why they sent out such a
uumber of brave men, without knowing 'the force
to which 'they exposed them ? 'There was one •
point in which he did 'nOt agree with the Hon.
General, who had saxes that he conceived that
the Ministers were justified in sending'out *this
Expedition. He saw no ground upon which they
Could. prove the propriety of hazarding such
force, if they had a further Expedition in view.
The Country had a right. to is full explanation
upon this subjed ; it way highly itripottant to the
Country that the livel of so. many brave men
should not be endangered, withouts.some 4round.,
of success. We were at present 'trembling for the
fateof the Expedition under Sir R. AB ItC ROSO Y,
and under these circumstances,, lie did nOt think
it right that the present Ministers should slink
from Administration without fully explaining 'I
their conduct. A great part of the twenty-eight:
Millions
,which had been voted might perhaps be •
spent in similar Expeditions, and therefore the
House was bound to make a stril inquiry into
the subject. Upon the whole, it appeared to him