78 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



that it was morally impossible that 

 it should succeed. Ministers had 

 calculated on every circumstance, 

 as Hit had been fixed beforehand 

 that it should be in favour of their 

 project. The whole of the disas- 

 ters and disgrace of the expedi- 

 tion arose from its having been 

 sent out without knowing that it 

 could not succeed but after several 

 sieges ; when the only chance of 

 success rested upon the possibility 

 of accomplishing its object without 

 such previous siege, or rather 

 without any siege at all. 



Lord Porchester having consi- 

 dered the expedition in a military 

 point of view, came to the reten- 

 tion of our troops in the perni- 

 cious climate of Walclicren, after 

 the ulterior and main objects of 

 the expedition vvere abandoned. 

 When lord Chatham relinquished 

 those objects, why had not Flush- 

 ing been completely destroyed, 

 and the army withdrawn from that 

 frightful scene of contagion and 

 death, whilst it could yet be 

 called an army ? Why were our 

 soldiery left to the ravages of the 

 peculiar malady of the marshes of 

 Walcheren without immediate re- 

 lief? Ministry were informed by 

 sir Eyre Coote, that there were 

 8,000 sick in the island in the 

 month of September. How could 

 the delay in sending out relief 

 have happened, when sir Eyre 

 Coote had written so pressingly 

 for blankets, and warm clothing 

 and medicines ? With regard to 

 the idea of the expedition operat- 

 ing as a great diversion in favour 

 of Austria^ it was most extrava- 

 gant to suppose that any feeble 

 efforts of ours, at that dreadful 

 period, could have controlled the 

 destinies of the continent. The 



onlyinstanceof itshavingoperated 

 at all in that way, that he could 

 learn, was the return of a batta*- 

 lion or two from Louvain. At the 

 very moment that our ministers 

 were speculating in diversions, 

 France had every where as great 

 a force as was necessary for the 

 complete defence of her vast em- 

 pire. Even the gazette proved 

 that the expedition was not in- 

 tended as a diversion in favour of 

 Austria. That country was sen- 

 sible that it was never intended as 

 such. The world knew it was not ; 

 and there was not a cabinet in Eu- 

 rope that did not laugh at those 

 who could be so weak and silly as 

 to have projected it. Under all 

 these considerations, he submitted 

 to the House two sets of resolu- 

 tions ; the first relating to the im- 

 policy or folly of the expedition ; 

 the second to the retention of the 

 island of Walcheren, after the 

 great object of the expedition had 

 been abandoned as impracticable. 



No. I.— 1st. " That on the 28lh 

 of July last, and subsequent days, 

 an armament, consisting of 39,000 

 land-forces, thirty-seven sail of 

 the line, two ships of fifty, three 

 of forty-four guns, twenty-four 

 frigates, thirty-one sloops, five 

 bomb-vessels, twenty-three gun- 

 brigs, sailed on the late expedi- 

 tion to the Scheldt, having for its 

 object the capture or destruction 

 of the enemy's ships, either build- 

 ing at Antwerp or Flushing, or 

 afloat on the Scheldt, the destruc- 

 tion of the arsenals and dock-yards 

 at Antwerp, Torneaux, and Flush- 

 ing, the reduction of the island of 

 Walcheren, and the rendering, if 

 possible, the Scheldt no longer 

 navigable for ships of war. 



2nd. " That Flushing surrender. 



