Star.
London, England, 1809-01-16 00:00:00

r4pthe stem
proved, but
this country.

tiro and AK.
( the French

•. ,

.-- ,
will be admi, ..,, ......._ __ possessed a, _ Iges
which- the former did not ; at the same time,_ that
those who had to decide epon this measure ha Portik,'
al, knew that there must have been other objects for
Illie British troops ia that country, which the situation
tit_ Europe, at the time of the Convention in Egypt:,
did net hold out to the British troops employed there..
' . But although I concurred in the general principle
of the measure of evacuation, and advised it, I• ate
.not agree in all the details either of the armistice or
the Convention.
' In the first place, I must inform the Board, that ih
the first interview I had nth Sir Hew Dalrymple
after his arrival in Portugal, on the morning of the
20.11-of August ; I, who am supposed to have been
i his, a4v ispr,, and am here OW for no crime, eicepting
my suepliesA advice, had_ *skin to . believe,. that I
'did not possess his eonfidetteet. nay, more, .t/iitt lie
`*as.
_prejudiced. against the opioionii which I should
give Min. I. had ark ep.portunity of talking to him,
uPon.iltOness. that morqing„,its / can prove; in' con-
•seckitencit of which L fOrinod this, belief ; orwhich; if
iz
,is desired, I .Wlll, skate the grounds, i may have
%Iv mistaken in it, but I certainly
,entertaitied it, as
,I,e34,provi.s. if the Doardwisb A., bt an gemination'
4 . those tp whom 1 confided it. But I•think the
,
Board .wiiihn int:ruled to admit, that I. mtght haveh
0 inttis, for btriraing that. Sir Hew DalryMple
wlts, PreinclACo‘ against the o 'pions which I shoold
cii
ighr itipotlien. they. will rite° etc his own account of
.qe nticlts-Ite entertained ,thi_operatitms I had
'thldtt , even before helandert, •
t. Ca =Oral Kellermann arrived at the advanced sen-
ttia Of;the.tritish army between one.and two en the
114, and sent in a flag of truce to announce that he.
Wished to speak to, nie, who, of course,to supposed,
cimunanded the army.
It is true, as stated by Sir Hew Dalrymple, that
Acre' was an alarm in the camp, when he arrived,
)'Which was occasioned by a tottugtiese officer, who
,r. cetns from General Mire, at Lourinlita ; and
Ilia represented General Kellerinann's escort, Which
• had seen,, as the whole French army.
The Commander or the Forces was to do me the
tour of dining with me on that day ; and as he
into then riding the village, of 'Vimiera, I asked
' whether I_ should go up to 'the out posts, and
Speak to General Kellermann ? his anwer was, no ;
that the General had desired to !peak
.to hint, the
eomsnauder of the. artily, and he would receive him'
at my quarters. . .
General Kellermann was broughtthire, and he ar-
rived at about half past tkvo,
Shortly after his arrival, Sir He'd sent for me into'
the room} in which they were,, and i'oirirounicated to
trte theobjeet of General Kellermann'; mission, :which'
lies repeated by Kiliermaskin, my ,presente,rand he,
ifterwards read from apaper a Mernoranclum Of the
wishes of the French Commander in Chief:
Sir Hew Dalrymple, Sir, Harry Alirrard, and. I;
withdrew into an inner room to deliberate upon ke..l
lermann's propositions ; but we sad not the paper, is
I .had refused to take it, conceiving that the negotia-
tion then going on ought to be confined to a mere
suspension of hostilities. When we had gOne late
the inner room, I told Sir Hew_ DalryMple that I'
considered that it was advisable to allow the French
to evacuate Portugal, fcr reasons upon which I am
afraid I have already.delayed,the Court too long;
and I said that I did not. conceive that there existed
any objection at that moment to granting the French
a suspension of hostilities, fur_ 44'hours, for the pur-
pose of negotiating a convention for tl.e evacuation
of Portugal. Whether Sir Hew acquiesced in mr
opinion upon this object, I do not recollect, nor is it
material; biat'l know that we all agreed that
.there
was no objection to 'allOw the French to evacuate
Portugal by sea. . .
I then told Sir new, that I thought there was an
objection in point of form, to allow the negotiation,
then going on, to extend to other objects than the
mere suspension of hostilities ; and that for that rea-
son, I had declined to take front Kellerinann the pa.-'
per which he had read to us- • but of,. which I told.;
him that I accurately remembered; all the particu,i
lays. He was of opinion, however, .that as long as
We agreed upon the material pciipt, vie. that the.
French
_should be allowed to evacuate Portugal by
pa, it was useless “.to drive thel to the walLupon a
point of form ;" and in this manner this objection.
was over-ruled. ' - , . . .
After dinnerihe negotiation with Kellermann was
lsontiaised. The first point which was discussed, was
the property which the French .peas to carry off with
'.l them, which was explained -bx ,him to mean only the
“ military baggage and eqUiptaents."
The.nest • i t of difficulty-was that respecting the
Russians, w . i atfirst stood in a form different from
-that.in which it stands :in the armistice ; and upon
this point I stated to girl ew mplc my opinion,
re that the French ought not to alarllowed to stipulate
for the Russians at all. He would not allow the
Russians to stand as at first proposed by Kellerman,
under which they would have returned to the Baltic
unmolested; and in point of fact, the French General
at -first consented, as I understood, to leave out the
'stipulation in respect to the Russians, on the ground
that it was a point referable to the Admiral. He
brought it forward again, however, in the slrtpe in
which it now stands, and the Commander of the for-
ces consented to allow it to remain in the treaty, with
the condition, that if the Admiral did not arse to
it, it must be struck out.
When General Kellernuum first proposed the ar-
rangement in respect to the Russians, as it now stands
in the armistice, the Commander._ of the forces,- Sir
Harry Burrard, and I, withdrew into the inner room,
and I told his Excellency what bad passed between
Admiral Sir Charles Cotton and me, upon this sub-
jeet, in a conference which I had with the Admiral,
when I,was at the mouth of the Tagus on the 26th
and 27th of July.
The AdmWil hid then told me, that he had heard,
that the Russian Admiral intended to remain neutral
in the contest between the British and French troops,
and would claim the neutrality,of the port of Lisbon,
and Sir Charles Cotton asked me what I thought up-
on that claim? I told him that I thought the only
way of getting rid of it, was to be so quick in, our
operations, that there would be no time for the ilor-
ttAgutbc to malt it, l'letpre lie would attack the Rns-

elOtrbigitit
a reference. te-rallund.
, hOWever, that this was'
usacie by the Russians on
the Porto in favour of
Frenc.
The Commander of the forces appeared to be of
opinion, that as the question was in fact understood
by Kellermann to be referable to the Admiral, it was
not important whether this agreement was in the ar-
rangement or not.
It is true, as stated by Sir Hew Dalrymple, that
ere was a long, and the longest discussion upon the
' int relating to the Russians, but it related to a
claim made by General Kellermann, that die Russian II
fleet should be allowed to depart from Lisbon, and;
that the British fleet should net be allowed to purstee
them for a limited' time. The Commander of flier
forces, however, insisted that they have no more in--
the port of Lisbon than the right' of a neutral nation,
and this point was yielded by General Kellermanue-r.
The next point of importance was that relating to
the length of time during which the suspension of
Hostilities should last ; and Sir Hew Dalrymple ads*
Mks, that I proposed to limit thd durition of the sus-1
pension of. hostilities to 48 hours ay, whereas that
se preferred the proposal of General Kellermann,'
that the suspension should be unlimited in the first:
instance, and followed by a limited suspension of 48.
hours, when either party should wish to• put an end
to it.
I will consider, presently, the advantage which I.
conceived the limited term of suspension had over the
unlimited term, in the then situation of the two ar•
ipries ; but I will nor consider this circumstance in
'another point of view : first, I am called the negoti.
'ator of this instrument, and in this important point
the plan of the French General is adopted instead of
mine, by the Commander of the forces ; but secondly,
I am called the adviser of these measures, and for 1
this crime of advice lam here new, although I must'
submit to incur disgrace and punishment where I
' shall be found to deserve those misfortunes, I must
say, that I think it k a new measure of justice which
appears invented for me ; that I, a subordinate offi.'
cer, am to be punished for advising measures which
were not conducted according to my advice. -1 say
that this point was most important in a view to the
state of our resources, to the state of the season, and
to the tone in which the Convention should be negoci-
ated ; and, above all; it was' important in a view-to
the threats,,of the French in respcct to the Russians.
If there was any foundation for those threats, which
I acknowledged I imagined there was, and that they
would have received assistance from the Russians, it
the Admiral refused his consent to the article respect-
ing the Russian fleet, which I was sure he would do,
it was most important, that if the negociations should
then be broken off, and notice given of the conclusion
of the suspension of hostilities, a period of forty-eight
hours should not be allowed to the French to equip
and prepare the Russians before we should begin our
operations.
If we derived any advantagei which I contend we
did not; frOm prolonging the suspension of hostilities,
I was sure that we could always prolong it.
But whatever may -have beer. the .opinion of the
ComMander of the forces on the 22d, and whatever
may be Sir Hew Dalrymple's opinion Dow, he was
of a different opinion oa the 25th of August; and in
point of fact, when he began to negotiate, he did, at
my suggestion, give notice of the conclusion of the
suspension of hostilities in forty-tight hours from soon
of the 26th of August, as appears by his instructions
of the '2sth of August to Colonel Murray.
After the articles were settled, Sir Hew Dalrymple
says, that General Kellermann asked him who should
sign the Armistice ? and he said, himself ; and he
was about to sign it, when General Kellermann in-
formed him that my name was in the title, and that
it was. not usual for an officer of the rank of Com-
mander in thief to sign an instrument with one of in-
ferior rank: _ _ _

I ani afraid that Sir }few, Dalrymple's memory
has hot served him very well upon this occasion. It
my name had been at that time inserted in the title of
the instrument as the negociator of it, General-Kel-
lermann could have no reason to ask, who was to sign
it?. and if this question was asked by General Keller-
,.
manth after the instrument was drawn up, and Sir
Hew Dalrymple was about to sign it, he was about
to situ it without reading the instrument ; for if he
bad read it, he wonld have seen that my name was

used
The fact-is, that when the terms had been generally
settled, General Kellermatin was dictating the fair
copy of the instrument to the officers who were Wri-
ting it, ind before he wrote or dictated the title, he
asked Sir Hew Dalrymple who WAS to sign it ? and
Sir He* said himself. General K-elleimann then re-
presented that he" (Sir libw) being Commander in
Chief, ought not to sir an agreement with an infe-
rior officer, and proposed, that-I should sign it.
. Sir Hew Dalrymple then came into another room
where I was, and told me, that General Kellerinann
had proposed that I shOuld sign the instrument i and
he asked me, whether I had any objection{ to doing
so ? My answer was, that I would sign any paper he
wished me to sign.
It may not be very important, at what period Sir 1
Hew Dalrymple had intended tosign the instrument ;
but this is very obvious, that he had intended to sign j
it, which he would not have done, if I had negociated
it; and indeed the very question asked by General:
Kellermann, sheaved who was the negociatqr ; for if
it had been I, of if it had been Sir Harry Burrard,
there would have been no doubt, and the question
would have been useless; but Sir Hew Dalrymple.
was,the negociator himself, and it was not regutar
for atsofficer commanding in chief to sign an agree
ment with an officer of inferior rank, General Kel-
lermann was obliged to inquire who should sign ? and.
in point of fact, proposed me.
I repeat that I was not in the room at the time this
conversation between General Kellermann and Sir
Hew Dalrymple took place ; but as I. went into the
room more than once while the officers were writing
the instrument, which was after I had been asked and
consented to sign it, I know it must have been when
the title was making out, and not when the whole
was drawn up.

When it was drawn up, I read it over, ind at the
table gave it to Sir Hew Dalrymple to read, with an
observation, that it was an extraordinary paper. He
answered; thae•it did not contain anything that had
cot b. settled ; and I then signed it,

descrlpt»ti, which Iriv-e- w4'647z -t kir! slim ikvi 1 sattnifif lOW 1
ut desiervedly, in my !ipirliott, estolled in i pePtil4be twCesiarttio'iwilte
Let the situations of the garrisons of I pointed out to Sii-fte*,
4exaudria be compared with the situation a chilli which might be, AU
I cli army in Portugal ; and I be 4e k tkeir own account, or by the
itted, that the latter possessed advantages the Russians, but not try the
. -