was

Led under the orders of sir Richard Strachan.

Long before the expedition sailed, the point of attack was known, not only here, but even to our enemies. It was afterwards declared by the French government, that so early as the month of April the governor of Flushing had orders to put that garrison in such a state of defence as to resist the attack of the English forces.

On the 28th and 29th of July the armament sailed in two divisions. On the arrival of the army in the islands of Walcheren and South Beveland, it was found that the enemy was not disposed to make any resistance except in Flushing, which was invested on the first of August. On the 13th the batteries were completed; and the frigates and smaller vessels having taken their respective stations, the bombardment immediately commenced. The town suffered dreadfully, especially from Congreve's rockets. On the 14th of August the line of battle ships cannonaded the town for some hours. The enemy's fire ceased. On the 15th general Monnet, who commanded the garrison of Flushing, demanded a suspension of arms, which was succeeded by the surrender of the town. The garrison, amounting to about 6000 men, were made prisoners of war.* Though the attack on Flushing was thus ultimately successful, it had been impeded in its progress by the want of skill and vigour on the part of those who conducted it. The batteries and trenches were constructed one after another without method or arrangement:

all was anarchy and confusion; neither officers nor soldiers in the engineer department knew their situations.

In consequence of this want of arrangement in the distribution of the working parties the works proceeded with extreme slowness. Our troops were posted within range of the enemy's guns before any of the stores necessary for the attack were even landed, and without the advantage of confining him to his fortifications. The soldiers at work on the trenches were generally without any sort of covering party in their front, while the enemy's advanced parties were frequently on their flank. The French piquets indeed were suffered to remain in many places within two musket shots of our men during the whole of our operations; so that a wooded and enclosed country, which is generally thought advantageous to the besiegers, proved a benefit to the French, and a loss to the British. The island of Cadsand, the only place from whence the enemy could receive supplies or reinforcements, was left unoccupied; and as the smaller armed vessels had not yet intercepted the munication, advantage was soon taken of the neglect, and on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of August three thousand men passed over from Cadsand to Flushing. The dykes had been cut, and the inundation had begun seriously to impede the operations in the low ground; but the attack was carried forward on to the flanks of Flushing along the dykes. In the mean time a very numerous French

army,

army, composed of the national guards of the Belgic provinces and the nearest provinces of France, was assembled in the neighbourhood of Antwerp; the forts on the Scheldt were well manned, and every other preparation made for opposing the passage of both our army and navy. An immense quantity of naval stores deposited in the arsenal of Antwerp was either removed or made ready for speedy removal; and preparations were made for conveying the ships so high up the river as to be out of our power, either naval or military, in case of a successful attempt to force a passage.

All ideas of pushing up the Scheldt for the reduction of the fleet, and destroying the arsenal and dockyards of France at Antwerp and Terneuse, being necessarily abandoned, lord Chatham, with the greater number of the troops under his command returned on the 14th of September, to England. It was deemed necessary with the remainder to keep possession of the Isle of Walcheren, for the purpose of blockading the Scheldt, and enabling our merchants to introduce British manufactures and the produce of our colonies into Holland. But it appeared, that in this marsh British troops would have been exposed, not only to the fire and sword of the enemy (against which, in such an insular position, they might have been enabled to defend themselves) but to the rage of pestilence. Towards the middle of September, when the distemper was at its height, the average number of deaths in our army in Walcheren VOL, LI.

was from two to three hundred a week. The opinion of the British government about the expediency of retaining or abandoning this dreadful island, was in a state of fluctuation. No serious exertions were made for renewing the defences or improving the fortifications of Flushing till the middle of September, when a requisition was made for 500 of the peasantry of the island to be employed, in thickening the parapets, and otherwise strengthening the ramparts of Flushing. For the same end, and also the repair of the barracks, 100 artificers arrived from England with large supplies of brick and lime at the end of October. Towards the middle of November they began to demolish the works and naval bason of Flushing, as far as might be done without destroying the lives and property of the inhabitants. This was done. And on the 23d of December the island of Walcheren was completely evacuated by the British army, nearly one half of which, according to a return made to the House of Commons, was either lost or sick. This expedition cost twenty millions sterling, imposing a burthen of one million of annual taxes.

The failure of this expedition, in its main object, is beyond all doubt, to be attributed not in any degree to the army or navy, whose alacrity in the cause could not have been exceeded, but by the shameful ignorance and rashness of those who planned it. It was understood to have been digested and put in the head of lord Castlereagh by sir Home Popham, to whom the arrangements for the debarkation of the army were entrusted. ૨

The

The French crowed over the expedition to the Scheldt, as well as that into the heart of Spain under lord Wellington, with the force of reason, the bitterness of sarcasm, and the playfulness of ridicule. The British government had supposed Antwerp to be precisely in the same situation that it was fourteen years ago. They observed, that half the force that was dispersed in Spain, Italy, and the marshes of Holland, brought to bear against one point judiciously chosen, might probably have been of greater avail to the common cause of Britain and her allies, The British nation acknowledged that the exultation and ridicule of the French was not for once misplaced; and lamented that the main strength of the British was not sent for co-operation with the Austrians to the gulph of Trieste, or for co-operation with the Spaniards to the gulph of Rosas. The British government seemed to entertain some vague idea that the common cause of the deliverance of Europe was to be served by Great Britain by a system of diversions; by hanging on the skirts of the enemy, and seizing some sequestred points and corners, instead of meeting the face to face where he was

enemy

strongest. Their avowed object was to assist the nations on the continent in their endeavours to emancipate themselves by their own exertions; not considering that before the incumbent and overwhelming weight and oppression of the enemy should be removed, it was impossible for the unarmed and isolated inhabitants to unite and organize themselves into any system of defence or of aggression. The few with arms in their hands, and the authority of government in all countries, govern the many. In the war of the Spanish succession, lord Godolphin and the duke of Marlborough, and the other ministers or counsellors of queen Anne, never dreamt of gaining their object, which was to break the neck of French usurpation, by splitting the force at their command into a variety of detachments; but sent their undivided strength to cooperate with the Austrians, in bearing with the whole power of the allies against the main strength of the enemy. In a word, the councils of Great Britain were under the influence and direction of men so weak and improvident, that their continuance in power at such a crisis was a matter of general

astonishment.

CHAP.

THE

HE operations of Great Brine tain were this year, as usual, more prosperous at sea and in islands than on the continent of Europe. A French fleet, consisting of nine or ten sail of the line frigates lay in the Roads of Aix under the protection of the forts of that island. In the evening of the 11th of April lord Cochrane, who was under the orders of admiral lord Gambier, proceeded to attack this fleet thus stationed, with a number of fireships, frigates, and other vessels, under a favourable strong wind from the northward, and the advantage of flood tide. On the approach of our squadron to the ships of the enemy, it was discovered that a boom was placed in front of their line for a defence. This, however, the weight of the Mediator fire-ship soon broke; and the usual intrepidity of British seamen, led by such a commander as lord Cochrane, advancing under the fire of both the forts and the ships, overcame all diffi-, culties. The greater part of the French ships cut or slipt their cables, and the anchorage being confined, avoided explosion by running on shore. These, however, were afterwards either to

tally destroyed or rendered altogether unfit for service, while four ships of the line were taken and blown up at their anchorage.* At daylight the following day lord Cochrane communicated to admiral lord Gambier by telegraph, that seven of the enemy's ships were on shore, and might be destroyed. The admiral immediately made the signal for the fleet to unmoor and weigh, intending to proceed with it to effect their destruction. The wind, however, fresh from the northward, and the flood tide rendered it, in the judgment of the admiral, too hazardous to run into the shallow waters of Aix Roads: he therefore cast anchor again at the distance of about three miles from the forts of the island.

In the Mediterranean, towards the end of October, a French squadron, consisting of three sail of the line and four frigates, with twenty large transports, from Toulon for the relief of Barcelona, was destroyed by a division of the fleet under lord Collingwood. The transports separating from the ships of war, ran for shelter to the Bay of Rosas; where they, too, though under the protection of some armed ships and gun

Q 2

boats,

boats, were attacked and destroyed.*

Nearly about the same time, a small squadron detached from lord Collingwood's fleet, with 1,600 troops sent from Sicily, under the command of brigadier-general Oswald, took the islands of Zante, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Cerigo. The French garrisons in those islands surrendered to the British arms after a very faint resistance. The government of the Seven Islands was declared to be restored. In the Indian ocean the Isle of Bourbon surrendered to a British force on the 21st of September.

In the West Indies, the island of Martinico and the city of St. Domingo were added to our numerous possessions in that part of the world. The city of St. Domingo surrendered without resistance. §

In the North, or English America, the embargo act was repealed by one prohibiting all intercourse either with France or Great Britain. But in case either France or England should so revoke or modify her edicts, as that they should cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, the trade suspended might be re

newed with the nation so doing A treaty for restoring amity and commerce between Great Britain and America, after a good deal of negociation, was signed by Mr. David Erskine, envoy and minister plenipotentiary from London; and American vessels in great numbers poured into the ports of England. But the proceedings of Mr. Erskine were disavowed, as altogether exceeding his powers, by the British government. No loss, however, was suffered to accrue to the American merchants or captains of ships who had proceeded to England under the idea that Mr. Erskine had clearly understood the object of his mission and the terms on which he was authorized to conclude a treaty of amity and commerce.||

This year disturbances broke out in India, which in their origin and progress threatened with immediate dissolution the authority of Great Britain; which, in that widely, extended, populous, and remote country, as was well observed by Mr. Hastings, hangs on "the slender thread of opinion." They were quelled, but how? By an appeal which betrayed the slenderness of that thread; an appeal to the native troops, the sepoys,