&0 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



sure which the retention must ne- 

 cessaiiiy occasion, 



2nd. " That on the 23rd of Sep- 

 tember sir Eyre Coote stated to 

 his majesty's ministers, tliat tlie 

 alarming progress of disease was 

 such, that if' it should continue in 

 the same proportion for three 

 weeks longer (as lie added there 

 was every probability that it 

 would) our possession of tlie island 

 must become very precarious. 



3rd, •' That on the6ih of Octo- 

 ber sir Eyre Coote, after stating 

 tiiat the number of sick was in- 

 creasing, and that the effective 

 force was thereby rendered so tri- 

 vial as to make the defence of the 

 island, if it should be attacked, 

 extremely precarious, did express 

 his anxiety to be informed of the 

 intentions of his majesty's govern- 

 ment as to the future state of 

 Walclieren. 



4th. " That notwithstanding 

 these, and many other pressing 

 representations on the alarming 

 condition of the troops, and the 

 danger to which t!)ey were expos- 

 ed, his majesty's ministers did 

 neglect to come to any decision 

 until the 4th of November, qnd 

 tliat the final evacuation of Wal- 

 cheren did not take place until 

 the 23rd of December. 



5lh. "That on the lOih of Sep- 

 tember ths number of sick in the 

 island of Walcheren was, exclu- 

 sive of officers, 6,938; and that 

 the total number of sick embarked 

 for Enf;land, between the 15th of 

 September and the 16th of 

 November, was 11,199, making 

 in that period an increase of sick 

 of 4,268. 



6th. '« That although the great 

 object of the exjiedition had been 

 abandoned as impracticable, a 



large proportion of the British 

 army was (without any urgent^or 

 determined purpise in view, or 

 any prospect of national advan- 

 tage to justify such a hazard, or 

 to compensate such a sacrifice) 

 left by his majesty's ministers to 

 the imminent danger of attack 

 from the enemy, and exposed 

 during a period of more tiian three 

 months, under circumstances of 

 aggravated hardsliips, to the fatal 

 ravages of a disease, which, on the 

 3Istof Aus^ust, had been officially 

 announced to he daily increasing 

 to a mo>t alarming degree. 



7th. " That such the conduct 

 of his majesty's advisers, calls 

 for the severest censure of this 

 House." 



Lord Castlereaghnowrose,and, 

 as it requires more time to repel, 

 or to answer to charges, than to 

 make them, his speech was more 

 than twice as long as lord Por- 

 chester's, though that took up se- 

 veral hours. On the considera- 

 tions that influenced his own con- 

 duct, respecting the expedition he 

 was very diffuse. He had courted 

 an investigation of the present 

 question, not less from a sense of 

 duty, than from a deliberate and 

 thorough conviction, that the me> 

 rit of the expedition stood on a 

 rock not to be shaken. Having 

 examined, at great length, the 

 professional opinions that were 

 called for from the commander-in- 

 chief, and the principal officers of 

 his staff", he contended that they 

 were by no means such, under 

 the circumstances in which they 

 were required and given, as ought 

 to have induced ministers to aban- 

 don the object which they had in 

 view. Lord Chatham's opinion, 

 too, was clearly in favour of the 



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