Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/455

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APPENDIX. 411 1808. Spain and Portugal. Sir Arthur Wellesley, Dalryniple, Burrard, and Sir John Moore. 1 809. Portugal and Spain. Sir Arthur Wellesley. ,, Walcheren. ,, Ionian Islands. ,, West Indies — viz., Martinique, San Doniingo city, Cayenne, and French Guiana. ,, Indiaji Ocean. Islands of France and Bourbon, Except as regards those of the above expeditions which belonged to the three last years — 1807, 1808, and 1809 — there were few that did not take place under the direction of Pitt ; for he was in office from the opening of the war in 1793 until the March of 1801 ; and again from the May of 1804 until his death in January 1806. It is true that some of the expeditions belonging to the years 1801, 1803, 1804, and 1806, took place duiing either the interval of Pitt's absence from the helm, or in that part of the yeax 1806 which was later than the day of his death ; but even these, in most instances, had been ordered or planned by him before he quitted office in 1801, or before the time of his death in 1806. Note 14. — Napoleon, at all events, was proof against dis- traction caused by such efforts. His penetrating intellect assured him that an expedition to the coast of France, preceded by only a few weeks of bustle at Portsmouth or Plymouth, was not an attempt deserving to be met by any serious movement of troops. His letter on this subject to Joseph, then King of Naples, is admirably instructive, and ought to be remembered by every English official who is engaged in fitting out an ' expedition, ' Note 15. — The outrage was repeated a few years afterwards by again giving the Duke of York the command of an army in the field ; but Pitt's endurance of Royal pranks had by that time become less complete than in 1793, and he insisted, it seems, that H.R.H. should be under the control of a council of elders — an arrangement likely enough to avert disasters, but also to result at the best m a decent, respectable failure. The defects of H. R. H. , however, were of such a kind as to unfit him for the even osten- sible command of an army engaged in the field. Note 16. — A conflict between the Duke of York and Dumouriez was at first expected, but did not actually take place. Note 17. — The Walcheren expedition was the greatest that ever had sailed from these shores, and its disastrous issue is dis- tinctly traced to the want of an efficient War Department. It