284 - 
tainment of the ultimate object, and there 
was still less chance that the enemy would 
have given us the opportunity. Secure in 
. his fortresses, he had a surer game to play ; 
for if ever the army, divided as it must ne- 
cessarily have been in order to occupy both 
banks of the river, exposed to the effects of 
inundation. on every side, and with all its 
communications liable. to be cut off, while 
the force of the enemy was daily and hourly 
increasing, had once sat down before An- 
twerp, it is unnecessary for me to point out 
to your‘majesty how critical ‘must in a short 
time have been their situation. But when, 
added to this, sickness to an alarming ex~ 
tent had begun to spread itself among the 
troops, and the certain and fatal progress of 
which, at that season, was hut too well as- 
certained, it appeared to me that all further 
advance could only tend to commit irretrieva- 
bly the. safety of the army which your ma- 
jesty had confided to me, and which every 
principle of military duty as well as the 
direct tenor of my instructions alike for- 
bade. 
- In this state of things, I considered that 
there was left me no alternative, but to pur- 
sue the course I have already stated, for your 
majesty’s information, in my dispatch of the 
29th of August; and that conduct I now 
must humbly, but at the same time with per- 
fect confidence, submit to your majesty’s 
judgment. 
I shall here close this report ; which has, 
I fear, already detained your majesty but too 
Jong; by observing, that wherever it has 
been necessary for me to advert to the disap- 
pointments experienced, through the arrange- 
ments of the admiral, in the naval co-opera- 
tion I had been taught to expect, I have con- 
fined myself to stating the facts; abstaining, 
as it became me, trom ali comment, and 
leaving it to the admiral, in such report as 
he may make of his proceedings, to bring 
winder yuur majesty’s view the circumstances 
which may have occasioned them, and, above 
all, to account for the difficulties which pre- 
wenied the investment of Flushing (a point 
never even doubted of before) as well as to 
show the obstacles which. presented them- 
selvés to the early progress of the armament 
up the West Scheidt, which operation I had 
always looked upon.-as the primary object of 
his instructions, and on the accomplishment 
of which our best hopes of success, in any of 
the ulterior objects of the expedition princi- 
pally, if not wholly, depended. 
(Signed) CHatuamM, Lieut. Gen, 
[Presezted to hz King, Oct. 15, 1809. 
141b Feb. 1810. ] 
“This narrative, as appears by the king’s 
answer to an address from tte House of Com- 
mons, was originally presented to his majesty 
on the 15th of January, with a request that 
his majesty would not communicate it forthe 
present. On the 10th of February, in con- 
sequence of a Wish having been expressed by 
State of Public Affairs in March. 
[April 1, 
‘the earl of Chatham to correct the same, his 
majesty returned it to him. ‘The report, as 
altered, was again tendered to his majesty by 
the earl of Chatham on the 14th of February, 
when his majesty directed it to be delivered 
to the secretary of state. In consequence of 
these circumstances becoming known, the 
House of Cemmons have passed a resolution 
declaring, that they “‘saw with regret that any 
such communication as the narrative of lord 
Chatham should have been made to his majesty 
without any knowledge of the other ministers 5 
that such conduct is highly reprehensible, and 
deserves the censure of the House.” The 
effect of this has been, that lord Chatham 
has resigned all the offices and appointments | 
that he held, and is of course no longer a 
minister. 
Sir Richard Strachan, has, in reply, presented 
a report to the Admiralty; and in the letter. 
which served for the transmission of it, he 
observes: * Feeling perfectly conscious that 
every exertion had been made by me in for- 
warding the objects of the expedition, and that 
no blame could he justly imputed to myself 
or the navy, I could not possibly suspect that 
lord Chatham, to the irregularity of present- 
ing immediately to his majesty such a paper 
as that which I have received, had added the 
impropriety (to use no stronger term) of en- 
deavouring to exculpate himself by private 
insinuations against the eonduct of others; 
but to assume the privilege of conveying pri- 
vate insinuations to the prejudice of others» 
from whose knowledge they are studiously con= | 
cealed, must prove utterly destructive of all 
mutual confidence in joint operations of the 
army and navy. Their Jordships will now 
to be able judge whether there is any founda- - 
tion for the imputations, that the delays ori- 
ginated with myself, or with any others in the 
naval service; or whether, during my come - 
mand on the late expedition, any proceeding 
on my part has in any respect justified the line 
of conduct which lord Chatham has thought 
fit to adopt towards me.” 
The narrative itself contains many pointed 
observations, general charges of inaccuracy, 
and a refutation of the insinuations both 
against the gallant admiral and the navy, cone 
tained in his lordship’s statement. In one 
part sir Richard says: When lord Chatham 
contends in his statementthat the second point, 
namely, ‘why the army was not brought up 
sooner to the destination from whence all its 
operations were to commence, is purely a naval 
consideration,” his position 1s certainly true in 
words, but as certainly incorrect in its implied 
meaning.” The gallant admical totally de- 
nies the assertion that an agreement was en- 
tered into for a simultaneous attack by sea and 
land upon Flushing, for the purpose of avoid- 
ing the delay of a regular siege: it was im- 
possible, he says, for such an agreement to 
have been made ; as under the well-ascertain- 
ed circumstances of the garrison, it was too 
desperate an enterprize to be entertained. Sir 
Richard 
