C] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



commotions in Bengal to require 

 his presence at that particular pe- 

 riod? It was most important, not 

 only to the success of the expedi- 

 tion, but to the settlement of the 

 island, that he should be at Java. 

 A great number of points were to 

 be Settled there which no person 

 but the governor-general was com- 

 petent to decide. With respect to 

 his having procured the sailing of 

 the expedition at a season which 

 admiral Drury and sir S. Auch- 

 muty also had at first thought un- 

 suitable, it was a circumstance 

 greatly to lord Minto's credit ; for 

 it was in consequence of having 

 employed captain Gregg to try the 

 soundings of the new course by the 

 Caramalla, to the west of Borneo, 

 by which he had convinced those 

 oHicers that the armament could 

 reach its destination before the 

 S. W. winds set in. 



Sir Henry Montgomery could not 

 think that any thing the noble lord 

 had done merited the honour pro- 

 posed. He perhaps deserved cen- 

 sure for some of his acts at Java, 

 especially that of giving freedom to 

 all the slaves as soon as he arrived, 

 ■which was letting loose a number 

 of notoriously blood-thirsty men. 



General Tarleton ridiculed the 

 idea of such a man as sir S. Auch- 

 muty being sent on an expedition 

 with a nurse to superintend him, 

 and to whose decision or temerity 

 in attacking fort Cornelis he at- 

 tributed the salvation of the whole 

 force. 



After several other members had 

 spoken on both sides of the ques- 

 tion, it was put and carried. 

 Thanks were afterv^ ards agreed to 

 nem. con. to all the other officers, 

 and to the soldiers and seamen, 

 concerned in the expeditions above 

 mentioned 



No debate took place in tlje 

 House of Lords on the same mo- 

 tions. 



The near approach of the period 

 in which the Regency act was to ex- 

 pire, rendered necessary a particu- 

 lar and formal inquiry into the 

 state of his majesty's bodily and 

 mental health, and committees 

 were appointed by both Houses for 

 the examination of the king's phy- 

 sicians on these points. "The rC' 

 ports of each were laid before their 

 respective Houses on Jan. 13 and 

 15, and have been printed : it will 

 be sufficient here to state the gene- 

 ral result. The medical gentle- 

 men examined were. Doctors He- 

 berden, Baillie, sir VV. Halford, 

 Monro, Simmons, John and Dar- 

 ling Willis. They all agreed respect- 

 ing his majesty's present incapacity 

 of attending public business, and 

 also that his bodily health was 

 either goodorlittle impaired. They 

 agreed likewise in representing his 

 state of mind as greatly disordered. 

 With respect to the chance of reco- 

 very ; they concurred in thinking 

 such an event improbable: but as to 

 the degree of improbability, there 

 was some difference, at least in their 

 language, some representing it as 

 bordering upon hopelessness, others 

 as only a preponderance of impro- 

 bability. On the whole, however, 

 it was evident that the sum of 

 opinion was such as to exclude any 

 reasonable expectation of a reco- 

 ver}', and that little more was 

 meant by the cautious terms em- 

 ployed, than to avoid a positive de- 

 claration that it was absolutely de- 

 spaired of. The public at large 

 had anticipated the physicians in a 

 similar judgment. 



A debate on a matter of little 

 intrinsic importance, but one 

 which gave an insight into the po- 

 licy 



