BOOK VI.

1805.

The conclusion of this battle is very remarkable, since the troops of the right wing of the CHAP. IX. French army turned their backs upon Austerlitz, 'to attack the left of the allies, to do which they quitted the same heights whence the allies had marched to attack them. It was about two o'clock in the afternoon: the action was decided along the rest of the line, when the division of Vandamme advanced to complete it. The Russian infantry, in proportion as it passed the dyke, retired to an eminence in the rear of Tellnitz. That village, as affording some means of defence, was likewise occupied by a regiment of infantry, in order to give time to the rest of the column to file off. General Doctorow continued the retreat. Tellnitz was attacked and taken, wherein were found many Russian stragglers.

During this scene of confusion, the Austrian cavalry behaved with the greatest courage, and they suffered prodigiously from the enemy's artillery; yet nothing could prevent them from continuing to cover the retreat of the Russians, which was long protracted, owing to the fatigue and exhaustion of the infantry. The Russian column, when it reached Newhoff, formed still a corps of at least 8,000 men. It was then four o'clock, and already began to grow dark; the Russian battalions, after being restored to some order, continued to retreat by Boscowitz, and marched the whole night under a heavy fall of rain, which completed the destruction of the roads, so that the remaining artillery was abandoned. The Austrian cavalry formed the rear-guard, without being pursued by the French.

The victorious army took up the position occupied by the allied army on the preceding night. The latter retired completely behind Austerlitz, into the position of Holiegitz. But the very considerable loss sustained in killed, wounded, prisoners, and missing, more especially of the first, second, third, and fourth columns, placed this army in a very feeble state, with respect to its disposable force. The Austrian cavalry, which had been commanded by Prince John of Lichtenstein, had alone some detachments in front of Austerlitz, and formed the rear-guard of the army. Thus closed this ever Thus closed this ever memorable day.

The loss sustained on both sides was immense. By killed, wounded, and prisoners, the allied army was diminished more than a fourth part. Forty standards and the greatest part of their artillery and baggage were taken, and such was the number of wounded left upon the field, that they could not all be dressed until two days after the battle.

On the day following (the 3d of December) the French army advanced. The cavalry, under Murat, which on the preceding evening had pushed forward detachments upon Rausnitz and

Wischau, advanced beyond Prosnitz, and sent out strong parties to Kremsin. Marshal Lasues marched to gain the right of the allies by Butshovitz and Stanitz. Marshal Soult and Bernadotte, with the imperial guards, aud the gre nadiers of the reserve, were posted on the route towards Hungary. Marshal Davoust marched upon the left flank of the Austro-Russian army, by the routes of Nicholsburg and of Auspitz.

A trifling affair took place in the course of the day: Prince Bagration was attacked in the neighbourhood of Urschutz: he maintamed his post. He retired, however, in the evening, towards Czeitsch.

On the 4th the allied army crossed the river March, and arrived at Hollitsch. The Emperor Alexander took up his quarters in the castle of Hollitsch, whilst the Emperor of Germany remained at Czeitsch.

Prince John of Lichtenstein had been sent, on the night of the 2d of December, to the French emperor, to propose an armistice on the part of the Emperor Francis; and it was agreed, that a suspension of hostilities should take place, to commence on the 4th, at day-break. The prince arrived at head-quarters the evening be fore, but it appeared that the French was not apprised of this transaction in sufficient time to prevent the hostile movements made on the 4th.

In consequence of this agreement, an interview took place between the Emperors of Germany and France, in the open air, at a small distance from the village of Nasedlowitz, near a mill, by the road side. This conference lasted a considerable time, when the Emperor Francis returned to Czeitsch, which place he reached in the evening, and immediately dispatched an Austrian general to communicate the result to the Emperor Alexander. General Savary was appointed by Bonaparte to attend the Austrian general to the Russian head-quarters. The Emperor of Russia received them with politeness, and, at the same time, made no positive objection to the armistice, though he did not formally concur in it.

In conformity with the terms of this agree ment, the French army was to remain in possession of its conquests, namely, part of Moravia and Hungary, all Upper and Lower Austria, the Tyrol, the state of Vienna, Carinthia, Styria, Carniola, the country of Goritz and Istria; and lastly, in Bohemia, the circle of Montabar, with the whole space to the eastward, from Tabor to Lintz. The French army was to hold this immense tract until the conclusion of a definitive peace, or the rupture of the negotiations; in the latter of which case it was stipulated, that hostilities should not re-commence within fourteen days, and that the cessation of the armistios should then be announced to the plenipotentiaries

BOOK VI. of the council. The return of the Addingtons, to a share in the administration, did not cause. CHAP. X. much surprise either to the friends or enemies of that party-but that the minister should again 1805. ally himself to the man, whose conduct in office he had arraigned, in terms of the bitterest sarcasm and severest invective, with reference to his general conduct of the public interests, both at home and abroad; whom he had repeatedly held up to view as ignorant and inefficient, and whom he had so recently exposed with all the bitterness of the most reproachful scorn, indeed excited universal astonishment.

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On April 6, Mr. Whitbread brought under the consideration of the House of Commons the subject of the tenth report of the commissioners of naval enquiry. He began by describing the origin of the commission, praised the integrity and perseverance of the commissioners themselves, and complimented the late board of admiralty, by which they were appointed; after which he passed on to the nature of the charge he had to bring against Lord Viscount Melville, and in which were implicated the conduct of Mr. Trotter, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Mark Sprot. He then referred to the act, of which Lord Melville was the sup- . porter, in 1785, for regulating the department of treasurer of the navy, and the order of council by which his salary was advanced from 2,000l. to 4,0001. a year, in lieu of all profits, fees, or emoluments he might before have derived from allow ances of the public money in his hands. Lord Melville was, himself, at that time treasurer of the navy, and though the act was passed in July, it was not till the subsequent, January that the balances were paid into the bank, pursuant to the terms of the act, and this delay in the transfer could only be accounted for on the score of private emolument. He then stated his three heads of charges against the noble lord,-first, his having applied the money of the public to other uses than those of the naval department, in express contempt of an act of parliament, and in gross violation of his duty.-Secondly, this conniving at a system of peculation in an individual, for whose conduct, in the use of the public money, he was deeply responsible, and for this connivance he denounced him as guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor.-Thirdly, his having, himself, been a participator in that system of peculation; but as this only rested on suspicion, at present, he would not then much insist upon it; but, if the inquiry should be instituted, he pledged himself to follow it up, with moderation, on his own part, but with firmness and steadiness for the country,

After having exhorted gentlemen of all descriptions in that house to join with him in bring ing such enormous delinquency to punishment, he concluded with reading thirteen resolutions,

founded on the subject-matter of his speech, but added, that for the present he should only press the first eleven of them.

The utmost efforts of administration failed in screening, Lord Melville from the effect of these resolutions; the mode of procedure against his lordship, as a delinquent, having been warmly. contested. The friends of the accused, who were, at first, adverse to the measure of impeachment, and had pledged the house to a prosecution in the courts of law, thought, afterwards, that it would be more to the advantage of Lord Melville to be tried by his peers, and suddenly veering round, moved, that he should be impeached,. which measure, though with great difficulty, they. carried. During the whole of these proceedings, the new president of the council and his adhe. rents separated from the minister, and took an eager and an active part in bringing Lord Mel-. ville to the bar of public justice: conduct which must have been considered as a defection from the government, of which they formed a part, and, as such, must have been deeply resented by the minister.

Other causes of disagreement, it was rumoured, existed between Mr. Pitt and Lord Sidmouth at this period; for, on the 10th of July the Viscount. Sidmouth and the Earl of Buckinghamshire resigned their respective offices, and were suc ceeded in them by Earl Camden. and Lord Harrowby.

The success of Mr. Whitbread's motion against Lord Melville having driven his lordship from the councils of his majesty, he was also soon removed from his high station of first lord-commis-sioner of the admiralty, in which he was succeed. ed by Sir Charles Middleton, newly created a baron of the realm, by the title of Lord Barham.

Immediately after the tidings of the surrender of General Mack at Ulm had reached England, Mr. Pitt was observed to droop. His health, already much impaired, became daily worse, and he was compelled, however reluctantly, to quit all public business, and repair to Bath for the benefit of the waters.

The declaration of war against Spain, which opened a new scene of adventure to the British seamen and officers, may well be supposed to have been a popular measure with the navy. The increase of the French fleets, by the junction of those of Spain, rendered them more enterpriz ing than they had of late been, and afforded an opportunity to the English of asserting their su periority in a nobler field than had lately been attempted in the warfare of the catamaran system.

On the 18th of September of the preceding year, Captain Lind, at that time commanding the Centurion, of fifty guns, was, while refitting in Vizagapatam roads, in the East Indies, attacked by the French admiral, Linois, in the Marengo,

of eighty guns, with two heavy frigates, forty and thirty-six guns each. After a close and severe action of two hours, the Centurion succeeded in obliging this formidable squadron to sheer off, with very considerable damage in rigging, and in loss of men. An action, deservedly named, by Admiral Rainier, commanding in chief in those seas, as "ranking with the most famous of the defensive kind ever recorded in the annals of the British navy!" From events of a more recent date, it seems this predatory French naval hero was destined to be foiled and disgraced only when encountered by an inferior British force!

In the Mediterranean also, an action of inferior note, but not less distinguished by skill and intrepidity, occurred in the course of this year, well worthy the historic page. The Arrow sloop, and Acheron bomb-vessel, having convoy, were attacked by two of the largest-sized French frigates, to which their commanders were obliged to surrender, after a desperate action, but not until they had the satisfaction of seeing the merchantmen they were in charge of in safety, and their own vessels sunk!

But if the greatest advantages were to be looked to, by the enterprizing British seamen and officers, from the declaration of war against Spain, as holding forth new and great prospects of attaining individual wealth and national glory, the effect of the union of the Spanish fleets with theirs, seemed still more to animate the French nation. Their public orators, boastful of this accumulated strength, took every opportunity of exaggerating its power, and of threatening England with its irresistible effects. Their official gazettes teemed with matter of the same sort, but couched in a strain of mysterious warning, calculated, as they supposed, to terrify and distract the British councils. "Years," they said, "it was true, had elapsed, but they had not been passed inactively. Arms, ships, and men, had been secretly in preparation, and fleets were now to be poured forth from all her harbours. The ocean was no longer to belong to England; she was bade to tremble in every quarter of the globe, for in every quarter of the globe would her pos-, sessions be assailed!"

Nor were the proceedings of the French naval force confined only to empty boasting; a squadron of six sail of the line, and two frigates, in Rochefort, which had remained strictly blockaded for more than two years, found means to clude the British force off that port, and put to sea. On the 15th of the same month, the Toulon fleet, of eleven ships of the line and two frigates, which had been long in a state of complete equip ment, also pushed out of the harbour, without being perceived by the squadron under Lord Nelson, then cruizing at some distance agreeably to the system of that great man, who, more than

a

twelvemonth in those seas, never strictly block- BOOK VI. aded the port, but gave the French fleet every fair opportunity of putting to sea.

It may easily be supposed that much alarm prevailed at home when it was known that two such formidable fleets of the enemy were actu ally at sea, and which was aggravated by reports. of strong detachments of the Brest fleet having also escaped, with a view to some grand combined exertion of the enemy. Where the blow was to fall, occupied the public mind. Malta, Brazil, the British West Indies-a general junc tion of the whole of the combined force of the enemy, in order to cover a descent upon Ireland. In short, every possible point of annoyance or attack was warmly agitated in the public mind. At length intelligence was received, upon the 6th of May, from the British commander-inchief of the forces in the windward and leeward islands, that Dominica had been attacked on the 22d of the February preceding, by a French armament of one three-decker and four other lineof-battle ships, three frigates, two brigs of war, and a schooner, with about 4000 landmen on board. Brigadier-general Prevost, the governor of the island, immediately made the best dispositions for its defence, and opposed, with the small force under his command, the landing of the French, inch by inch. the French, inch by inch. At length the whole of the enemy's force, consisting of 4000 men, under cover of the tremendous fire of the Majesteux of 120 guns, four seventy-fours, and the frigates, having landed, and having made such a disposition as threatened to cut off the retreat of the governor, and his few remaining troops, from the town and fort of Prince Rupert, and thereby reduce the whole island; General Prevost, with the utmost promptitude and presence of mind, directed the regular force, under Captain O'Connel, to make a forced march across the island, and join him at Prince Rupert's; to which place he himself, attended only by his staff, repaired, and arrived in twenty-four hours: the troops also arriving there with their wounded, after four days continued march through the most difficult country existing. The governor imme diately took the necessary precautions to place the fort in the best state of defence, and his appearance was so formidable, that the French commander-in-chief, after having in vain summoned him to surrender, thought proper, after levying a contribution upon the inhabitants of Roseau, which town had been set on fire in the moment of attack, and had suffered severely by the conflagration, on the 27th, to reimbark his whole force, and, after hovering a day or two in the bay, and about the port of Prince Rupert, made easy sail towards Guadalouper Throughout the whole of this transaction the highest praise was due to the conduct of the governor,

СПАР. Х.

1805.

CHAP. X

1805..

BOOK VI. and the British troops under his command. At one period, 200 of the latter were opposed to more than 2000. of the enemy, and under the command of the gallant Major Nunn, who unfortunately received a mortal wound in the action, and subsequently under Captain O'Connell, succeeded in withstanding them for more than two bours, and then effected their retreat, after having made much slaughter of the invaders. Nor were the militia of the island without their due share of praise, for their exemplary bravery and steadiness. Upon the whole, it may be stated, with perfect propriety, in the words of General Myers, that in this affair," had not the town of Roseau been accidentally destroyed by fire, we should have little to regret, and much in which to exult."

In pursuit of the predatory system of warfare the French seemed to have adopted in this expedition, their squadron, on the 5th of March, appeared in Basseterre roads, in the island of St. Kitt's, where he landed and levied a contribution of 18,0007. sterling, and burnt some merchantment, richly laden, lying there, and then quickly reimbarked, without attempting Brimstone-hill, where the small British force under Major Foster were ready to receive him. The island of Nevis was also laid under some slight contribution by this marauding armament, and here ended its exploits in the West Indies. The arrival of Admiral Cochrane in those seas, who had been dispatched from England as soon as the sailing of the Rochefort squadron was known, with a force of six sail of the line, quickly detertermined its conduct, the French squadron precipitately sailing for France, where it arrived in safety, having been fortunate enough to escape the different English fleets then at sea, and some detachments cruizing expressly for its interception.

Having thus accounted for the smaller division of the enemy's force, which had occasioned no small share of alarm, we must return to the much more formidable one under Admiral Villeneuve, which had evaded Lord Nelson, and had put to sea from Toulon with impunity. That great man, who, although at the time out of sight of the port whence the enemy had sailed, was not so remote as not to be speedily informed of the event, doubtless rejoiced in a circumstance which would terminate the tedious inactivity he had endured for more than a twelvemonth, and lost not a moment in shaping his course towards the most likely point to overtake or encounter with the adversary. At this period the opinion universally prevailed, that it was the object of the French ruler again to establish a footing in Egypt, and that the armament which had been so long equipping at Toulon, was destined for an attempt upon Alexandria. Thither, therefore, Lord Nelson deter

mined to proceed-but his pursuit was in vain. He traversed the Mediterranean with the utmost celerity, having a force of ten sail of the line with him, but no enemy was to be heard of. In fact, Admiral Villeneuve, whose views were far otherwise than those attributed to him, having, a few days after his sailing from Toulon, encountered a violent storm, in which his fleet suffered considerably, he deemed it prudent to return to that port to refit, nor was it till the 30th of March that he again ventured to sea.

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During this anxious period, Lord Nelson, with unwearied activity, cruized in every likely direction in the Mediterranean, agreeably to his own surmises of the course of the enemy, or as he was led by the various intelligence he collected from every quarter, and finally took his station in the Sicilian seas, where he eagerly waited the approach of the enemy.

The new board, if it may be so termed, pursued, without any deviation, those wholesome measures begun by the one preceding, and in consequence of the restored, and indeed increased, energy of the dock-yards, now replenislied, and full of naval stores, were enabled to fit out forty-six sail of the line in a comparatively short period, although at a very considerable rate of enlarged expenditure, the necessary consequence of the unfortunate measures of a former economic administration, and which brought home conviction to the most incredulous, of the truth of the different charges which had been adduced against it, both within and without the walls of parliament. These ships, so supplied in this critical moment, enabled the government to reinforce the British squadrons in every part of the world, and thus rendered them equal to the achievement of the glorious victories which followed.

Other regulations of this new board were also attended with the best effects. Supplies of timber and stores began to pour into the exhausted arsenals of the royal dock-yards, and the usual order and methodical arrangement, in the dif ferent civil departments of the navy, which had been superseded by a tyrannical, arbitrary, and capricious contempt of all former usage and sys tem, again took the lead. In no respect did the abilities of Lord Barbam appear more conspicuous, than in the steady official regularity he introduced. A new board was also appointed to survey and report upon the state of the coasts, and to examine the sea-fencible establishment, a sort of defence which had been most ostentatiously boasted of by Lord Castlereagh, and others of the former administration, as a most efficient strength, but which, when explored by the accurate eye, and brought to the test of the great professional experience of the gallant admiral who was appointed to this duty, was found