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"to the War Department, and name the "two able physicians who are to be se"lected for the service stated in the said "letter.*

Mr. T. Keate's Letter.

Sir Lucas Pepys's Letter.

"Sir; In consequence of the honour of "your letter of the 23d inst. the Principal "Officers of the Army Medical Depart "ment met yesterday, and it was determin "ed that the answer would be more satis"factory if written by each separately. I "conceived that the person pointed out in "the letter was the Inspector general of hospi▪ "tals, whose duty it would be personally "to examine and give directions for their "conduct and management, and receive "the reports of the physicians on the sub"ject of the disease, and I thought he "would naturally take the service on the

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"Sir; Your letter of yesterday's date, together with that of the 23d instant, di"recting" that a Principal Officer of the "Medical Department, and two able "physicians, should hold themselves in "readiness to proceed to Walcheren," "having been received at the Army Me"dical Board; and the members of this "Board not having been able to deter"mine among themselves which of them present emergency, as he had hitherto ought to proceed to Walcheren, I beg "taken no share of the trouble in either "leave to represent individually, for the "the Southern or the Eastern districts; "consideration of the Commander in "whereas the Surgeon General and I had "Chief and Secretary at War, that as the "both been employed, the one geneduty in question, viz." to examine fur-rally, and I especially, for the hospitals "ther into the causes of the malady pre- "of Harwich, Ipswich and Colchester; "valent in that island, and report there- "to which places I intended again in the "on," is entirely medical, and unfit for a "course of a few days to propose that I surgeon by profession; I cannot but "should make a second visit, as the Surgeon "consider the Physician General as the only "General would probably again visit the 'proper member of the Board to undertake "Southern district. The Inspector Gene"such a duty, and as being, therefore, the "ral being therefore unemployed, it was principal officer who is more especially "to be supposed that the duty, which "pointed out for it in your letter. It is "is properly his, would on this occasion "not my desire to force any duty from "be performed by him. He does not, myself upon either of my colleagues; "however, offer himself for this service; " and I have already stated to the Under "but if he had, I should have suggested "Secretary at War, in my letter of yester-the propriety of adopting the recom

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day, that I was ready to repair to Wal"cheren, if my services should be thought "more useful there than here; but I can"not help observing that my going thither "would create a great and serious inter"ruption to the progress of those arduous "and complicated duties which have been assigned to me in consequence of the alledged inexperience of one of my "colleagues, and the total secession of "the other, of providing at home for the "due care and accommodation of the sick "of the armies of lord Chatham and lord Wellington; and also, that I should be "thereby placed in immediate co-opera"tion with inspectorial officers, in whose nominations I have not been concerned, "nor even consulted."

MR. KNIGHT wrote, on the 28th, a letter to say, that he was willing to go to Walcheren. But he was informed, that another person had been sent upon the service.

"mendation of his majesty's ministers to send Dr. Blane to undertake the present "duty at Walcheren, which he is ready to do a duty which he has often exe"cuted with great ability, and his per"formance of which is, in my opinion,

likely to be of the greatest use to the "service. The Surgeon General strongly "unites with me in this opinion. I re"commend therefore that this plan be "adopted, that Dr. Blane should be-ap"pointed for this special service, and be "empowered to take to his assistance any army physician now in Walcheren, or Dr. M Dougle or Dr. Faber, who both 'go by the packet to-morrow. By this "means the business will be effectually

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"done, the Surgeon General and I be able "to attend to the concerns AT HOME of "that army as they arrive and require as"sistance. I could not indeed be spared "at present, as I see such a number of sick "officers, whose applications for leave of

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absence on account of ill health neces'sarily come before me, and also, if I was

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pro formâ, and no possible good could arise "from it. To Dr. Blane's assistance I "should recommend Dr. Lemperiere, from "the depôt of the Isle of Wight. These "two are the best qualified for such a peculiar service."

Here are several excellent reasons, but all upon public grounds; Sir Lucas declines" going abroad, but only because his going There needs, surely, to be very little would be injurious to the service at home; said upon this letter. It is the frankest and, as neither of his colleagues seemed declaration that I ever heard of; but, one to like the trip any better than he did, be wonders that it could be made, unaccomwas, we see, so kind as to recommend an- panied with a declaration, that the writer other person (to be paid by the public) to wished no longer to receive the salary, atgo in the stead of himself or either of his tached to the office. That is all. The colleagues.This, -This, however, does not excuses of age and infirmitics seem incomappear to have been quite satisfactory to patible with the holding of the office; but, the Secretary at War and the Commander what shall we say of the avowal, that the in Chief, the former of whom, by his De- writer "knows nothing of the investigation puty, wrote again to the Army Medical" of camp and contagious diseases?" What Department, the next day, that is, on the can we say, but congratulate ourselves 27th of September, telling them, that the upon the happiness of our army in having Physician General was the proper person a Physician General to superintend its to go to Walcheren, and that he was ac- health, who knows nothing of the investiga cordingly to set off immediately. Sir tion of diseases incident to camps. Sir Lucas, Lucas, however, thanking him as much as in his first letter, stated, as one of the reaif he had went, still declined the honoura- sons why he should not be sent to Walble preference, which all parties seemed cheren, that, "if he was not present to disposed to give him, and, in this second "cxamine medically the mates, who must letter, dated on the 27th of September," be sent over, in numbers, to Walcheren, gave some new, and, as the reader will see, very cogent reasons indeed, why he ought not to go. Here they are, and they will, I think, be remembered for some time to come.

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Sir Lucas Pepys' 2nd Letter. "Sir; I have just received the honour "of your letter of this day's date, and am "much concerned to find that the Secrctary at War and Commander in Chief "have conceived it possible that a man of near seventy years of age, with infirmi "ties, should be capable of undertaking "such a duty as must require proper age "and proper health, as well as knowledge "to perform it.-I hereby solemnly declare "myself incapable of performing it, and la"ment that my letter of yesterday was "not satisfactory, without being urged to "this declaration.-If it is the object of "his Majesty's ministers that the business "in question should be well performed, I request that Dr. Blane may go as my "substitute, and be considered on this spe"cial service as having power to controul "the whole Medical Department at Wal"cheren.-They will see the business then "well performed, and the service bene"fited; whereas if I was able to go, who "know nothing of the investigation of camp "* and contagious diseases, it would be merely

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"that part of the service must stand still;" but, if he "knew nothing of the investi

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gation of camp and contagious diseases," may it not be doubted, whether he was likely to be a very good judge of the fitness, or unfitness, of persons to be sent over to Walcheren to treat those diseases?

-Well, but what reply did this letter of Sir Lucas bring from the Ministers? How did they, who were entrusted with the management of the nation's concerns, with the care of its money and the lives of its soldiers; how did they relish being told by the Physician General, that they should not only not send him, but that they should, for this esp cial service, appoint another person, nominated by him, to be, in this particular case, his substitute? Why, they told him that they would dispense with his services at Walcheren. That is all! And, accordingly, Moore, the Deputy Secretary at War, wrote to him, on the 28th of September, thus: "Sir; I am directed "to acquaint you, that under the circum"stances stated by you in your letter of "yesterday's date, the Commander in "Chief and Secretary at War are of opi"nion, that your services at Walcheren may "be dispensed with; a communication to "this effect will be made to the principal "officers of the Army Medical Depart"ment."-That's all! Nor need there

be one word said upon the matter. The thing speaks for itself. Not a word of it, however, should we ever have heard, had it not been for that Inquiry, which was moved for by LORD PORCHESTRA, which was opposed by the Ministry, but in which the House of Commons is now engaged. We have here obtained a specimen of how affairs are conducted. It is for the public to reflect well upon it; to consider what must, in the end, be the inevitable consequence of conducting affairs in such a

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While this medical squabble was going on at home, the mortal enemy, disease, was not idle in Walcheren. There our unfortunate countrymen were dying by hundreds and lying sick by thousands.

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-DR. BLANE and his associates arrived in the island on the last day of September, when there was between nine and ten thousand sick; and, such, to the very last, was the scarcity of medical aid, that, even after Sir E. Coote came home, and so late as the 7th of November, GENERAL DON, who had succeeded Sir E. Coote, writes thus to Colonel Torrens, Secretary, I suppose, to Sir David Dundas. "Sir, I beg leave to represent, for the Commander "in Chief's consideration, that from the "number of vacancies and absentees in "the Regimental Medical Officers of this "Army, the Hospital Mates have been unavoidably appointed to do duty with corps, and, in consequence, a con"siderable deficiency in that rank of the Medical Department has been occasioned. "In the two last embarkations of sick, several Transports proceeded without a "Medical Officer; and for the embarkation "that is now about to take place, there is "not a single Medical Officer of that Rank "disposable, and that can be appointed to accompany the sick.-i beg, therefore, "to submit, that 15 Hospital Mates may "be sent for the duties in this Island." Thus, then, this cry for medical aid, which was first made by Mr. Webbe, on the 27th of August, was still kept up on the 7th of November. -Why the army was not sooner withdrawn is a separate question, and a question, which, I think, will not be long in deciding; but, at any rate, if the army was to remain so long in the island, surely medical assistance enough, and even in abundance, ought to have been sent.I shall conclade this article with a statement, shewing the cost, in lives, of this Expedition to the Scheldt, of this

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This is a return, signed by "Harry Calvert," and laid before the House of Commons, since the commencement of the Inquiry.-There, are besides, 84 deserted; deserted in such a place as Walcheren and Beveland! Nearly a hundred men, too, deserted in such a place! These, together with 25 discharged, from being, of course, unfit for further service, the total cost in officers and men, is 67 of the former, and 4,108 of the latter. Disease had, even according to this return, killed 3,951, of all descriptions, on the first day of this month, when there were 11,513 still sick: Eleven thousand five hundred and thirteen, still sick on the first day of this month of February. How many of these unfortunate men will die with this disease, we cannot yet tell; nor how many, though they may not now die, will never recover; but, I should observe, that from the 29th Regiment no return had been received by "Harry Calvert," so that, in the above statement, we have not all the deaths nor all the sick.-Such, in life and health, has been the cost of the Grand Expedition, to doubt of the wisdom of which, at the time when it was going forth, was sure to expose one to the foulest of imputations; nor was it a much smaller crime to call for Inquiry into the conducting of it after it had failed.

LORD CHATHAM'S NARRATIVE.

This precious document, for which we are certainly indebted to the Inquiry now going on in the House of Commons, is a whole of itself. It is a sort of sequel to his Lordship's Dispatches, written before he came home. I will, therefore, insert it here, just as it stands in all the newspapers, and just as it was delivered to the House; and, when I have so done, I will offer such observations upon it as appear

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"In submitting to your Majesty a statement of my proceedings in the execution of the service your Majesty was graciously pleased to confide to me, and of the events which occurred in the course of it, it is not my intention to trouble your Majesty with any further details of the earlier parts of our operations, which having terminated in the speedy reduction of Walcheren by your Majesty's troops, and the occupation of the adjacent Islands, and of the important post of Batz, received at the time your Majesty's most gracious approbation; but to confine myself principally in the narrative, which I am anxious to be permitted to bring under your Majesty's view, to the consideration of the two following points, as most immediately applying to the conduct and final result of the Expedition to the Scheldt. 1st. The ground upon which, after the army was at length assembled near Batz, a landing in prosecution of the ulterior objects of the Expedition was not deemed advisable: 2dly. Why that army was not sooner there assembled, in readiness to commence further operations.

"With respect to the former proposition, I am inclined to think that it is so clear and evident, that no further operations could at that time, and in the then sickly state of the army, have been undertaken with any prospect of success, that it would be unnecessarily trespassing on your Majesty to enter into much more detail on this point than has been already brought before your Majesty, in my dispatch of the 29th of August; and the chief object of this paper will be directed to shew to your Majesty, that the second point, namely, why the army was not brought up sooner to the destination from whence its ulterior operations were to commence, ispurely a naval consideration, and that the

delay did in no shape rest with me, or depend upon any arrangements in which the army was concerned; every facility, on the contrary, having been afforded by their movements to the speedy progress of the armament.

"In doing this, it will, I conceive, be necessary, for the sake of perspicuity, that I should take up the consideration of this business from its commencement.

"Your Majesty will permit me here to recal to your recollection the change which took place in the original project formed for the attack of Antwerp, and of the French fleet in the West Scheldt, in consequence of the opinions of the General and Staff Officers to whom this question was referred; and a combined operation of the army and navy, the whole, with the exception of the force to be left for the reduction of Walcheren, to proceed up the West Scheldt, was accordingly determined

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Upon the practicability of such an operation being at once carried into execution, which was, however, the groundwork of the Expedition, and which alone, in the opinion of all persons consulted, seemed to afford any prospect of success, even in the most sanguine view of the subject in all other respects, I must confess I entertained great doubts, till the communication of a distinct official opinion, given on this point by the Lords of the Admiralty, decided in the affirmative this important ques tion.

"At the same time it is to be remarked, that the occupation of Walcheren, which by some persons it had been thought possible to leave behind us, and the reduction of Flushing, which it had once been proposed only to mask, were deemed indispensable to the security of the fleet, in case of disaster; and accordingly a considerable separate force was allotted to this service; and, in this view, it was besides distinctly agreed upon, that a vigorous attack by the navy upon the sea front should be made at the same time that the troops, after effecting their landing, advanced to invest Flushing; it being hoped that by a powerful co-operation from the sea, at the moment the troops presented themselves before the place, the labour and delay of a regular siege might have been avoided, and a considerable portion of the force allotted to this service set at liberty to follow the army up the Scheldt. How far this expectation was fulfilled, or whether the assurance given that the whole of

leading purpose of the Expedition, namely, the running with the right wing, and the advance of the army at once up the West Scheldt, at the same moment that the attack upon Walcheren was proceeding. But that even this need have delayed it for more than three or four days, unless on account of naval difficulties, which it will be for the Ad

the armament (the part to be landed at Walcheren excepted) should be at once transported up the Scheldt, in prosecution of the ultimate objects of the Expedition, was carried into effect, or was wholly disappointed, the information already before your Majesty will have in a great measure shewn, and which it will be my duty to bring more particularly under your Ma-miral, not for me, to explain, I deny; for as jesty's view, when I detail the subsequent course of our proceedings.

"From what cause this failure ensuedwhether it arose from insufficient arrangements on the part of the Admiral, or was the unavoidable result of difficulties inherent in the nature of the Expedition itself, it is not for me, considering it entirely as a naval question, to presume to offer any opinion upon to your Majesty.

soon as Ter Veere and the Fort of Rammekins fell, which happened on the 3rd of August, the passage of the Sloe was open to the transports and gun vessels; or they might have entered by the Durloo or by the Zoutland passages, the batteries of Dyshook, of Vygeeter, and the Nolle, having been all carried by the army early on the 1st of August; and on the same day the battery of Borslen at the south-west "It may, however, be here proper to re- end of South Beveland was abandoned on mark, that, in all the projects which have the movement of a detachment from the at various times been brought forward on corps under Sir John Hope; and I know the subject of an attack upon the Island of of nothing (but this, of course, is a point Walcheren and the Scheldt, the necessity for the Admiral to speak to) to have prevented of having a wind a good deal to the West- the line of battle ships and frigates from coming ward, with moderate weather, has always in and passing up above Flushing, in the first been insisted on. Without these advan-instance, according to the plan originally detages, in the one case, the passage would cided upon. be difficult; in the other, the surf would "Before, however, I pursue further the prevent a landing on the points deemed details of the proceedings of the army, most favourable in other respects. In the governed as they necessarily were (until a present instance, owing to the wind blow-footing should be gained on the Continent) ing strong from the westward, the surf was by the movements of the navy, I must for actually such as to prevent a landing on a moment refer to two separate operations; either of the points first fixed on for that the one under Lieutenant General Lord purpose by the Admiral; and the situation Huntley and Commodore Owen, and the of the gun-boats and transports at anchor other under Lieutenant General Sir John in the Stone Deep becoming very critical, Hope and Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Keats; and the gale increasing, he found it necesbut both directed to assist and ensure a sary to carry such part of the fleet as was rapid progress up the Scheldt, had the arrived for safety into the Roompot, and Admiral found it practicable in other res by which means the division of the army pects. With respect to the former, which destined for the attack of Walcheren was was destined to destroy the Cadsand batenabled to effect its landing from a more teries, and particularly that of Breskens, sheltered anchorage on the Bree Sand to had it been carried at once into effect, the westward of Fort den Haak. At this and that the Admiral could have availed time, the division under Lieutenant-Gene- himself of it, to take the ships up the West ral Lord Rosslyn, as well as that under Scheldt by the Weeling Passage, it would Lieutenant General Grosvenor, also the have been of the utmost advantage; but cavalry, artillery, &c. were not arrived; it was certainly rather fortunate it did not but they were afterwards, on their making take place at a later period, as after all the the island, ordered by the Admiral into transports, storeships, &c. were ordered the Veer Gat. It is, however, particularly into the Veere Gat, and the plan of running deserving of attention, that this measure, at once up the West Scheldt by the Weelthough in itself one of great advantage, asing Channel seemed abandoned, the object far as it applied to the division destined for the attack of Walcheren, by placing the transports, storeships, and small craft, in security, was, if carried further, certainly not a little at variance with the

of destroying the Cadsand batteries ceased, and a landing there would only have been an unnecessary risk, and a very inconvenient separation of our force, and, of course, occasion great delay in collecting

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