"Situated as this army is at present, it is impossible for me to detail to your lordship the events which have taken place since I had the honour to address you from Astorga, on the 31st of December: I have therefore determined to send to England Brigadier-general Charles Stewart, as the officer best qualified to give you every information you can want, both with respect to our actual situation and the events which have led to it. Your lordship knows, that had I followed my own opinion, as a military man, I should have retired with the army from Salamanca. The Spanish armies were then beaten; there was no Spanish force to which we could unite, and I was satisfied that no efforts would be made to aid us, or to favour the cause in which they were engaged. I was sensible, however, that the apathy and indifference of the Spaniards would never have been believed; that had the British been withdrawn, the loss of the cause would have been imputed to their retreat, and it was necessary to risk this army to convince the people of England, as well as the rest of Europe, that the Spaniards had neither the power nor the inclination to make any efforts for themselves. It was for this reason that I made the march to Sahagan. As a diversion it succeeded; I brought the whole disposable force of the French against this army, and it has been allowed to follow me, without a single move ment being made to favour my retreat. The people of the Gallicias,

stop the passage of the French through the mountains. They abandoned their dwellings at our approach, drove away their carts, oxen, and every thing that could be of the smallest aid to the army. The consequence has been, that our sick have been left behind; and when our horses or mules failed, which on such marches, and through such a country, was the case to a great extent, baggage, ammunition, stores, &c. and even money, were necessarily destroyed or abandoned. I am sorry to say, that the army, whose conduct I had such reason to extol on its march through Portugal, and on its arrival in Spain, has totally changed its character since it began to retreat. I can say nothing in its favour, but that when there was a prospect of fighting the enemy, the men were then orderly and seemed pleased and determined to do their duty. In front of Villa Franca the French came up with the reserve, with which I was covering the re treat of the army; they attacked it at Calcabellos. I retired, covered by the 95th regiment, and marched that night to Herresias, and from thence to Nogales and Lugo, where I had ordered the different divisionswhich proceeded to halt and collect. At Lugo, the French again came up with us. They attacked our advanced posts on the 6th and 7th, and were repulsed in both attempts, with little loss on our side. I heard from the prisoners taken, that three divisions of the French army were come up, commanded by Marshal Soult; I therefore expected to be attacked on the morning of the 8th. It was my wish to come to that issue; I had perfect confidence in the valour of the troops, and it was only by crippling the enemy that we could hope either to retreat or to

embark

embark unmolested. I made every preparation to receive the attack, and drew out the army in the morning to offer battle. This was not Marshal Soult's object. He either did not think himself sufficiently strong, or he wished to play a surer game by attacking us on our march, or during our embarkation. The country was intersected, and his position too strong for me to attack with an inferior force. The want of provisions would not enable me to wait longer; I marched that night; and in two forced marches by advancing for six or eight hours in the rain, I reached Betanzos on the 10th instant. At Lugo, I was sensible of the impossibility of reaching Vigo, which was at too great a distance, and offered no advantages to embark in the face of an enemy. My intention was then to have retreated to the peninsula of Betanzos, where I hoped to find a position to cover the embarkation of the army in Ares or Redes Bays; but having sent an officer to reconnoitre it, by his report I was determined to prefer this place. I gave notice to the admiral of my intention, and begged that the transports might be brought to Corunna; had I found them here on my arrival, on the 11th, the embarkation would easily have been effected, for I had gained several marches on the French. They have now come up with us, the transports are not arrived; my position in the front of this place is a very bad one; and this place, if I am forced to retire into it, is commanded within musketshot, and the harbour will be so commanded by cannon on the coast, that no ship will be able to lay in it. In short, my lord, General Stewart will inform you how critical our situation is. It has been recommended to me to make a proposal

to the enemy, to induce him to allow us to embark quietly; in which case he gets us out of the country soon, and this place, with its stores, &c. complete; that otherwise we have the power to make a long defence, which must cause the destruction of the town. I am averse to make any such proposal, and am exceedingly doubtful if it would be attended with any good effect; but whatever I resolve on this head, I hope your lordship will rest assured, that I shall accept no terms that are in the least dishonourable to the army or to the country. I find I have been led into greater length, and more detail, than I thought I should have had time for; I have written under interruptions, and my mind much occupied with other matter. My letter, written so carelessly, can only be considered as private. When I have more leisure, I shall write more correctly; in the mean time, I rely on General Stewart for giving your lordship the information and detail which I have omitted. I should regret his absence, for his services have been very distinguished; but the state of his eyes makes it impossible for him to serve, and this country is not one in which cavalry can be of much use. If I succeed in embarking the army, I shall send it to England; it is quite unfit for further service until it has been refitted, which can best be done there.

JOHN MOORE."

REPORT RELATING TO THE DUTCH

COMMISSIONERS.

house,

house, some material information respecting the establishment and the transactions of the commissioners for the sale, management, and disposal of Dutch property, captured or detained on the occasion of the commencement of hostilities with Holland, in consequence of its invasion by the French, have pursued the investigation of that subject, and proceed to report upon it.-The commissioners, who were five in number, were appointed in 1795 under the authority of the 21st clause of the 35th Geo. 3, c. 80; and their commission, after reciting in the words of the act, that the cargoes of Dutch ships, detained or brought in, might perish or be greatly injured, if some provision was not made respecting the same, authorizes the commissioners to take such ships and cargoes under their care, and to manage, sell, and dispose of the same according to such instructions as they should from time to time receive from the king in council.The lords of the privy council, in their instructions dated 13 June 1795, direct the commissioners generally as to the conduct of their transactions, and require them to keep minutes of all their proceedings, and "to keep accounts in such form as the lords commissiopers of the treasury shall direct or approve." No instructions appear to have proceeded from the board of treasury, and the commissioners represent themselves to have undertaken their office, without having come to any understanding with any branch of the government respecting the manner of deriving their compensation or their ser. vices, or the amount of it. They state, that they were charged with the investigation of numerous claims to British and neutral property found

in the detained and captured vessels, and in many cases acted in a judicial character in this respect; that they received a separate and special commission to take the management of sundry Dutch vessels brought into Ireland; that they had to make arrangements with the East-India Company respecting cargoes directed to be sold by the com pany at their own sales; that they had to adjust many complicated accounts with their agents at the outports, and to settle the wages of the officers and crews both of the vessels of which the cargoes were sold by the East-India Company, and of those which were intrusted altogether to their own management, and that they found the duties of their office to be for some time extremely difficult and laborious. They observe, however, that their sales ceased, and their transactions were nearly brought to a close in July 1799, but that the final adjustment of them had been protracted partly by "small sales of remnants not completed till November 1801," partly by some "property claimed in the court of admiralty not adjudged till July 1803," partly by "unsettled accounts with the executor of the late king's proctor, of which the balance was not paid till January last," but chiefly by an important law-suit, commenced in 1797, which brought into question property to the amount of about 180,000. The suit has within these few months terminated in their favour, and the commissioners now expect that in the course of the ensuing summer they shall close their transactions, and deliver in their accounts to government.-It appears by a paper dated 29th April, 1808, that the gross amount of the produce of the ships and of the ships and car

goes

goes sold (of which cargoes your committee perceive that much the larger part was sold by the East-India Company) was

L.1,937,064

52,657

977,269

-The chief part of the balance now in hand is invested in government or other securities, which run at interest. The sum of 900,000l. has been paid at sundry periods to government, and having been carried to the account of the consolidated fund, has been applied to the purposes prescribed by parliament.

Your committee now proceed to offer observations on a variety of points to which their attention has been called, referring to the appendix for a more detailed account of some of the circumstances which they shall notice. It has been already mentioned, that no agreement in respect to the mode or amount of remuneration was made at the time when the commissioners were appointed. The difficulty of ascertaining beforehand the degree of trouble to be incurred, and

escaped attention, the commissioners ought to have given notice of the omission. But they have to this day held no communication with any branch of the government on this question. Under these circumstances they had, in the judgment of your committee, no right to appropriate any sums to themselves as compensation; indeed the terms of their commission, already quoted, direct them to dispose of the Dutch property intrusted to them only

according to such instructions as they should receive from the king in council," and the instructions accordingly given, since they merely authorize allowances to crews in payment of wages, do not appear to your committee in any degree to sanction such application of their fuuds. The 26th clause of 35 Geo. III. authorizes the payment of "the expences of the sales out of the proceeds;" but the term " expences" cannot, in the judgment of your committee, be construed to include the payment of remuneration to the commissioners, since neither the mode nor the amount of it had been sanctioned by the government. It appears, however, that the commissioners, at a very early period, pro

ceeded

ceeded both to determine in the first instance for themselves the rate of compensation due, and also actually to apply it to their own use, intending to make mention of this point only on the final settlement of their affairs, though they have from time to time had to communicate with the secretary of the treasury on other matters, and have transmitted to the lords of the privy council some general statements. The compensation which they have taken has been a commission of 5 per cent. on the gross produce of the sales, a subject on which your committee will offer some further remarks towards the conclusion of this report. It has been charged on the principle of a mercantile transaction; but it is here observable, that they have deviated from the custom of merchants, by taking large sums for commission, before they had either received or paid over the whole net proceeds of the cargoes, on the gross produce of which the commission was charged, and also before they had rendered up their accounts.Your committee deem it necessary to animadvert on the length of time which has been suffered to elapse without rendering any regular accounts and without their being called for by the government. The chief object of examination in such cases, is the detection and rectification of errors, and the recovery of sums improperly withheld from the public; but when any considerable period has passed, the elucidation of accounts is rendered difficult, as your committee have experienced in the course of the present investigation, and the recovery of money becomes a measure of harshness. The commissioner, on whom the financial department is said to have devolved, is lately dead: and the want of re

collection observable in many parts of the annexed evidence, is a further exemplification of the inconvenience resulting from the long delay which has taken place. Your committee called for a copy of such statements of the transactions of the commissioners as had from time to time been delivered by them to tlre board of treasury. The chief paper furnished in return is dated 20th July 1795, being the copy of a report presented to the privy council, which was evidently furnished rather with a view of shewing the sum then deemed likely to accrue from the sale of Dutch property, than of submitting the transactions of the commissioners to examination. It is observable that although in this report, which is in a great measure an estimate, the total amount of the charges incurred is given, and several particulars composing them are specified, no mention of commission is made, though it was undoubtedly an item at that time sufficiently large to have been included in the enumeration; for under this head, the sum of 25,000l. had been then divided. This omission might lead to a supposition that no commission had been taken. In the case of successive sales of a similar kind made by merchants acting as factors, it is the custom to make up separate account-sales of the several cargoes, until the delivery of which the charge of commission is delayed, and also to render an annual account current, detailing all the receipts and payments of the year. If the transactions of the commissioners are to be considered as of a mercantile nature, the public ought not to be without the benefit of those checks upon the conduct of their agents which have been generally established among merchants. The

act