680 



BRITAIN. 



Expedition 

 against the 

 Cape of 

 Good 

 Hope, 



which sur. 

 renders. 



Plans re. 

 specting 

 the inva. 

 lion of 

 Spanish 

 America. 



so that no fresh accumulation should occur. At the 

 same time, ihe wholesome principle of the great re- 

 forming revenue bills, viz. that of Mr Burke for re- 

 gulating the office of the paymaster of the forces, 

 and Mr Dundas's bill for regulating the office of the 

 treasurer of the navy, was applied to the excise of- 

 fice, the post office, and the custom-house. 



It has been already noticed, that the whole of Mr 

 Pitt's influence, while yet a minister, could not avert 

 from his late associate in office, Lord Melville, a vote 

 uf the House of Commons, that there were grounds 

 for criminal impeachment against his Lordship in the 

 management of public money. 



The trial of that nobleman commenced in West- 

 minster-hall on the 29th of April. Ten days wore 

 employed by the managers in bringing forward and 

 examining their evidence, and in the speeches of Mr 

 Whitbread, who opened the case, and of the Solici- 

 tor General, who Bummed up the evidence. The 

 evidence and arguments of the counsel on both sides, 

 closed on the 17th of May, and sentence of not 

 guilty was pronounced by a majority of the peers on 

 the l'2th of June, f 



An expedition against the Cape of Good Hope 

 had sailed from England in the autumn of 1805, at 

 the moment when hostilities were breaking out on 

 the Continent. The force destined for the conquest 

 of the Cape, consisted of about 5000 land troops, un- 

 der Sir David Baird, and a proportional naval force, 

 commanded by Sir Home Popham. They reached 

 their destination on the 4-th of January 1806. Sir 

 David Baird commenced his march to Cape Town on 

 the 8th. On the same day, when the army had 

 reached the summit of the Blue Mountains, they per- 

 ceived the enemy to the number of 5000, drawn up 

 on the plain to receive them. By the gallantry of 

 the Highland brigade, under General Ferguson, who 

 commenced the attack, they were routed, after a 

 short resistance, and General Jansens, the commander 

 in chief, who retired with a remaining body to a pass 

 in the interior of the country, soon after accepted of 

 honourable terms : he was allowed with his troops 

 to return to Holland, on condition of the colony and 

 its dependencies nirrendering. 



Sir Home Popham, the naval officer, whose co- 

 operation had so materially aided this conquest, had 

 held several consultations with the late ministers (Mr 

 Pitt and Lord Melville,) about the project of invad- 

 ing Spanish America ; but he had been afterwards 

 distinctly informed, that no such measure should be 

 adopted at present, from deference to Russia. Flush- 

 ed, however, with his conquest at the Cape, and in- 

 fluenced by the hope of public as well as private gain, 

 he embraced the 'bold and unauthorized resolution of 

 attempting some exploit in the Rio Plata ; and per- 

 suaded Sir David Baird to acquiesce in his plans, so 

 far as to furnish him with a small portion of his 



troops. In the month of June, he entered the Rio Brita 

 Plata with a force under General Beresford, not ex- ' 

 ceeding 1600 men. On the 21th of June, having GEI > RG ' 

 disembarked about 12 miles from the city of Buenos 

 Ayres, the British forces captured the place with 

 great facility, the enemy flying before them wherever Captur 

 they appeared, and abandoning their artillery. While ' Euei 

 our little army was thus employed in the conquest of 

 Buenos Ayres, the line of battle ships made demon- 

 strations before Monte Video and Maldonado to alarm 

 the garrisons. At those two places all the regular 

 troops had been detained ; while the city, defended by 

 a raw militia under the conduct of a timid and unskil- 

 ful viceroy, had yielded by surprize to its assailants. 

 An important conquest was thus achieved, and a 

 booty to the amount of several millions of dollars was 

 acquired. But when the Spaniards beheld with 

 si. TIC the small number of their conquerors, a project 

 was s'-ion matured fj~ rising upon the British troops. 

 Liniers, a colonel in the French service, landed above 

 Buenos Ayres with above 1000 men, armed levies 

 from the country attacked the town, and though re- 

 pulsed, persevered in returning to the charge. At 

 last, after a hard battle with the insurgents in the Which 

 streets of the town, the English were overpowered, r p ta j 

 and obliged to surrender as prisoners. Sir Home n j ar( 

 Popham, with reinforcements from the Cape, made 

 an attempt to recover Monte Video, but was obliged 

 to desist. A body of troops, under Colonel Vassal, 

 were more successful in securing the post of Maldo- 

 nado, where they remained to receive fresh succours 

 from home, and to prepare for another campaign, 

 still more disastrous than the last. 



Prussia, after much hesitating and negotiation, had 

 been at last impelled, by the violation of her territory, p US9 

 to draw out her troops against France ; when the 

 news of the battle of Austeilitz and of the armistice, 

 again terrified her into feeble councils. The result 

 of these was, that her minister Hauguritz, signed a 

 treaty at Paris, by which Prussia became the ally of 

 France ; the guarantee of her conquests in Germany, 

 and her associate in the spoils of the vanquished coa- 

 lition. This infamous affair was speedily rmile known 

 to Europe. It was declared in a proclamation, that Ha 

 his Prussian majesty had formally annexed to his do- ann 

 minions the Electorate of Hanover, belonging to the to L 

 Emperor Napoleon by right of conquest, and u ansfer- 

 ed to Prussia in return for three of her provinces. 

 The ports of the German ocean were also declared to 

 be shut against British trade and shipping. The con- 

 duct of Prussia in thus humbling herself to a vas- 

 salage of hostility, left Britain no choice but retalia- 

 tion against her commerce and navigation, and her 

 flag, for a time, disappeared from the Baltic. 



The peace of Presburg, which the Emperor of 

 France and Germany signed after the battle of Aus- 

 terlitz, and the treaty concluded with Prussia, left 



f The charges against Lord Melville, though multiplied by the managers of the impeachment, were in fact only three in 

 number. The first was, that helbre the 10th of January 1786, he had, contrary to the obligation imposed on him by the 

 warrant appointing him treasurer of the navy, applied to his private use and profit, several sums of public money entrusted 

 to him in that capacity. The second was, that after the passing of the act of parlia'.ient ; n 1785, for the better regulating 

 the office of treasurer of the navy, he had, in breach and violation of that act, permitted Mr Trotter, his paymaster, ille- 

 gally to take from the Bank of England, for other than immediate applicatii n to '.;ivy purposes, large sums of money from 

 the monies issued to the Bank on account of the treasurer of the na\y, and pli" the - . e :n the hands of his private bank- 

 er, in his own name, and subject to his disposition and controul. The third charge was, that he had fraudulently ard cor- 

 ruptly permitted Mr Trotter to apply the money so abstracted illegally from the Bank of England, to purncscs of private 

 use and emolument, and had himself derived profit from them. 



