262 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



finance minister himself. From 

 his reports to congress, it appears 

 that, in one year following the 

 enactment of their embargo, the 

 revenue of the United States fell 

 from twenty-six millions to ten 

 millions of dollars ; thus exhibit- 

 ing a defalcation, which has since 

 greatly increased, of no less a sum 

 than sixteen millions of dollars, or 

 nearly four millions sterling. This 

 must ever be the case, when the 

 public revenue proceeds entirely 

 fromduties on importation. Internal 

 taxation, in the United States, has 

 hitherto been found impracticable; 

 and such is the temper and dispo- 

 sition of their people, that it is not 

 proijable that their sufferance of 

 either direct or indirect taxes 

 should, for many years to come, 

 enable their government to pursue 

 any measures requiring a consi- 

 derable addition to whatever re- 

 venue would survive their ex- 

 tinction of all foreign trade, which 

 a state of hostility with Great Bri- 

 tain must infallibly occasion. 



This year, the star of Great 

 Britain shone on the naval and 

 colonial affairs of this great mari- 

 time power, with even more than 

 its usual benignity, though not 

 more than usual splendor. In the 

 Mediterranean, the fortress and 

 Isle of St. Maure, the ancient Leu- 

 cadia, not far from Cephalonia, in 

 the direction of Corfu, and nearly 

 in the mouth of the Gulph of Le- 

 panto, was taken after a slight re- 

 sistance, on the 16th of April, by 

 an armament from Zante, under 

 the command of brigadier-general 

 Oswald. 



In the West Indies, the island 

 of Guadaloupe, the last that re- 

 mained to the French in that part 

 of the world, surrendered on 

 terms, February the 6th, to the 

 combined military and naval Bri- 

 tish force, commanded by lieute- 

 nant-general sir George Beck- 

 with. The naval part of the ex- 

 pedition was conducted by vice- 

 admiral sir Alexander Cochrane. 



This year also the French were 

 deprived, by the English, of the 

 last establishments that remained 

 to them beyond the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; viz. the Isle of Bourbon, 

 and the Isle of France, or the 

 Mauritius. The governor-gene- 

 ral of India, lord Minto, con- 

 ceived the great design of clearing 

 the Indian Ocean of all that was 

 hostile to Britain. The reduction 

 of the Mauritius, either by block- 

 ade or force, had been considered 

 as impracticable. It is charac- 

 teristical of true genius and cou- 

 rage to act on an accurate distinc- 

 tion between difficulties and abso- 

 lute impossibilities. 



The destruction of the French 

 batteries and guns at St. Paul's, 

 in the Isle of Bourbon, and the 

 capture of the public stores, the 

 21st of September, 1809, are re- 

 corded in this volume, in the Ap- 

 pendix to the Chronicle.* A 

 force of 1,800 Europeans, and 

 1,850 Indian troops or sepoys, 

 having sailed from Madras for 

 the conquest of the Isle of Bour- 

 bon, was joined, on the 20th of 

 June, by one thousand men, of 

 the garrison of the Isle of Rodri- 

 guez : the whole under the com- 



" Page 293. This achievement at the town of St. Paul's was, through inadver- 

 tence, considered, in our last volume, as involving the reduction of the whole Isle of 

 Bourbon, an error which we take the present opportunity of correcting. Vol. LI, 

 Hist. OF Eur. p. 223. 



