68] 
sisted of elderly men, and mére boys, 
with raw youths at their head. This 
ceriainly was no better than mock- 
ery and parade. Mr. Dundas having 
expressed, with much warmth on 
this occasion, his hope that the 
Cape of Good Hope would never 
be restored to the enemy, Mr. She- 
tidan took notice of the mortifying 
impression that such a declaration 
must necessarily make on the stadt- 
holder, who could not fail, thereby, 
to perceive, that what we took from 
the Dutch we were determined to 
keep. The stadtholder, in his re- 
treat at Hampton, had, indeed, the 
Satisfaétion of seeing his fleets, and 
foreign possessions, falling, not into 
the hands of his enemies, but those 
of his friends ; yet, as these friends 
dragged bim into the war, under 
the assurance of proteétion,he might 
well say, with the Roman poet, 
Pol me occidistis Amici, non servastis !* 
Hora. 
The result of this debate was, that 
ministry acquiesced in the motions 
made by Mr, Sheridan, which were 
for accounts of the number of men 
destined for the expedition to the 
West Indies, under sir C. Grey, in 
1793; for accounts of the number 
withdrawn from that service, to form 
an expedition against the coast of 
France under lord Moira, and of 
the numbers, who, after the con- 
pte of Martinico, St. Lucia, and 
suadaloupe, were detached to St. 
Domingo. But the other motions, 
Made by Mr. Sheridan, for a variety 
of official papers, relating to the 
circumstances of other armaments 
and intended expeditions, were ne- 
gatived, on Mr. Dundas engaging 
to give explanatory answers to the 
questions upon those subjects. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
The expedition to Quiberon, in 
the summer of 1795, and its unfor- 
tunate issue to numbers of the French - 
emigrants embarked in it, had been 
a subjeét of universal discussion in 
this country ever sirice it had bap- 
pened, and had given eccasion to 
the severest censures of those to 
whom the management of it had 
been entrusted. The person whose 
fall was most lamented was the count 
de Sombreuil, a French gentleman 
‘of a most amiable charaéter, and 
highly respeéted for bis many ex- 
cellent qualities. He had, with 
many others, fallen into the bands 
of the enemy, and, like them, was 
condemned to death asa rebel. On 
the eve of his execution he wrote a 
letter to Mr. Wyndham, wherein he 
alluded to two others, one written 
to sir J. B. Warren, the other to 
Mr. Wyndham ; a copy of this last, 
was demanded by general Tarleton, 
as being of a public nature, and 
conformably to the desire of the 
count himself, who had, in the let- 
ter to sir J. B. Warren, expressed a 
wish that Mr. Wyndham would pub- 
lish it: but this gentleman alleged it 
was more of a private than a public 
nature. In the mean time it was 
published in a daily paper, and Mr. 
Sheridan affirmed that he found it 
related to matters of public import- 
ance, and represented the expedi- 
tion alluded to in a very unfavour- 
ablelight to ministers. Mr. Wynd- 
ham, in reply, asserted that it con- 
cerned the count himself, who was 
dissatisfied with the part assigned to 
him in that expedition. He did 
not, however, force it upon the 
count, whoa¢ted merely trom his 
excessive “Zeal in the cause he had 
embraced. . This answer provoked 
* By G—, my friends, ye have not served, but ruined me.. Honar. 
another. 
