lOG] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



tured ; and a strong and powerful 

 diversion was effected in favour of 

 our allies. The third was found 

 not attainahle. The consideration 

 then was, how the return of our 

 troops to their own country could 

 be best effected. And the expe- 

 dient that had been adopted for this 

 purpose, appeared to him to be the 

 best that could be adopted. It was 

 not disgraceful, because it was 

 merely an adaptation to circum- 

 stances, which were countenanced 

 by the attainment of the other ob- 

 jects of the expedition. 



Mr. M. A. Taylor assured the 

 house, that the support he was 

 ready to give to the present motion, 

 did not arise from any thing like 

 party spirit. In doing so, he acted 

 in conformity with the wishes of a 

 great majority of the country, on 

 whom the failure of the expedition 

 and the capitulation of the duke of 

 York had made the most deep and 

 serious sensation. The attempt to 

 rescue Holland he had always sup- 

 ported. He therefore wished to be 

 informed, on what ground the ex- 

 pedition was undertaken, and why 

 it was not sent out earlier ; for the 

 lateness of the attempt was, in a 

 great measure, the cause of its mis- 

 carriage. As to the mode in which 

 the militia had been treated, in be- 

 ing, in a manner, incorporated with 

 the army, he had always disap- 

 proved of it. The country gentle- 

 men were driven from the militia, 

 and its principal officers were dis- 

 gusted. If, on occasions like the 

 present, the house did not press for 

 an inquiry, their inquisitorial capa- 

 city was gone. Blame must be 

 imputed either to the army or mi- 



nisters ; the inquiry would decide 

 on which of them. 



Mr. Addington thouffht it im- 

 possible to suppose that the Dutch 

 would, if favoured with an oppor- 

 tunity, suppress their sorrow, their 

 regret, and indignation at the yoke 

 imposed on their necks, by the 

 French republic. He contended 

 that government would have been 

 guilty, in a great degree, had it not 

 made an attempt for their deliver- 

 ance. He concluded his speech 

 with an eulogy on the skill and va- 

 lour of the generals employed in 

 the expedition, and the courage 

 and intrepidity of the army. 



Sir J. Murray Pulteney rose mere- 

 ly to correct an error of Mr. Tier- 

 ney's, respecting the numbers of the 

 respective armies. The English 

 and Russian army had been stated 

 at forty-five thousand men, and that 

 of the French at thirty-five thou- 

 sand. He did not pretend to an 

 accurate knowledge : but he be- 

 lieved the number of the former 

 might be estimated at tliii'ty-six 

 thousand men,* of whom there 

 were found, at the end of the cam- 

 paign, to be about ten thousand in 

 killed, wounded, and missing. The 

 French might have had twenty- 

 five or thirty thousand in the action 

 of the second, and from tlie sixtli 

 to the time when the convention 

 was agreed to, the enemy was con- 

 tinually receiving reinforcements. 

 Large bodies of troops had been 

 drawn from the frontiers of France, 

 whicli were replaced by troops 

 from the interior: and, therefore, 

 the force of the enemy, which was 

 superior in numbers, was every day 

 becoming more so. Had the army 



• Our readers may recollect tliat this corresponds very nearly to our statement 

 ot.the matter in our last volume. 



