468 POLITICS. [1809. 



had not any tolerable report of your speech, as, in 

 fact, the subject is the very same. Had that speech 

 been published, I should not have done much more 

 than make great extracts from it. If you write soon 

 to Lord Lauderdale, pray tell him how I am occupied, 

 as an excuse for my not having written to him since 

 I came to town. I am sure with him it will be a 

 sufficient one. I have a letter from a friend of mine 

 (Dr Eyre) on the medical staff at Walcheren, dated 

 October 19. He says the cold and dry weather for a 

 short time made the sickness abate, but it returned 

 with the fogs ; and they sent home that day 2000 

 sick, including two physicians : he adds that the 

 fever was too many for the seven physicians who re- 

 mained, and that, without reinforcements, they must 

 surrender the moment they are attacked. They 

 expected six or seven thousand, chiefly Germans an 

 idea having gone abroad that their constitutions bear 

 the climate better ; but Eyre denies this, and affirms 

 that a German regiment which they had, suffered 

 more than any other. The enemy's guns from 8. 

 Beveland had that morning fired on our vessels, and 

 cleared the Sloe Passage of them. 



" Perceval (as Erskine says of a higher personage) 

 don't get on. Milnes, who was sent for, declined, 

 saying his friends thought him too young, but in 

 reality because he had a very well grounded fear of 

 taking an office and being forced to speak. Castle- 

 reagh has been offered an English peerage, presidency 

 of the Council and Board of Control, all together, and 



