activity shewn by captains of line of battle ships in preparing the firevessels. [Lord Gambier then speaks in terms of high commendation of the gallantry of lord 'Cochrane--of capt. Godfrey of the Etna, who bombarded the enemy's ships on the 12th and 13th.-and of the services of Mr. Congreve in the management of his rockets, which were placed in the fire-ships with effect. He also notices the handsome and earnest manner in which rear-admiral Stopford and sir H. Neale volunteered their services to lead the fire-ships previously to the arriyal of lord Cochrane.] I send herewith a return of the killed, wounded and missing, of the fleet, which I am happy to observe, is comparatively small. I have not yet received the returns of the number of prisoners taken, but I conceive they amount to between four and five hundred. I have charged sir Harry Neale with this dispatch (by the Imperieuse) and I beg leave to refer their lordships to him, as also to lord Cochrane, for any further particulars of which they may wish to be informed. I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) 15th April. GAMBIER. P. S. This morning three of the enemy's line of battle ships are observed to be still on shore under Fouras, and one of them is in a dangerous situation. One of their frigates (L'Indienne) also on shore, has fallen over, and they are now dimantling het. As the tides will take off in a day or two, there is every probability that she will be destroyed. Since writing the foregoing, I have learned that the honourable lieutenant-colonel Cochrane, (lord Cochrane's brother) and lieutenant Bissett, of the navy, were volunteers in the Iniperieuse, and rendered themselves extremely useful; the former by commanding some of her guns on the main deck, and the lat ter in conducting one of the explosion vessels. Names of the ships in Aix Roads, previous to the attack on the 11th April, 1809. L'Ocean, 120 guns, vice-admiral Allemande, captain Roland.-Repaired in 1806; on shore under Fouras. Foudroyant, SO guns, rear-admiral Gourdon, captain Heuri.--Five years old; on shore under Fouras. Cassard, 74 guns, captain Faure, commodore. Three years old; on shore under Fouras. Tourville, 74 guns, captain La Caille.-Old; on shore in the river. Regulus, 74 guns, captain Lucas. Five years old; on shore under Madame. Patriote, 74 guns, captain Mahee. Jemappe, 74 guns, capt. Fouvan. On shore under Madame. Tourerre, 74 guns, captain Clement de la Roucierre.--Nine months old, never at sea. Aquilon, 74 guns, captain Maingon.-Old.-Ville de Varsovie, 80 guns, Captain - Calcutta, 56 guns, captain La Tonie.-Loaded with flour and military stores. Frigates.-Indienne, capt. Proteau. On shore near Isle d'Enet, on her beam ends.-Elbe, captain Perengier.-Pallas, captain Le Bigot.-Hortense caplain Allgand. N. B. One of the three last frigates on shore under Isle Madame. Return Return of officers, seamen and marines, killed, wounded and missing. Two officers, 8 men killed; 9 officers, 26 men wounded, a man missing. Total 46. GAMBIER. A Letter from a Lieutenant of Ma rines in Basque Roads. "Our fire-ships arrived the 10th instant, and were sent in the next night, each ship conducted by a lieutenant and five men; the ships were 16 in number, and some very heavy ships; when they got in, the French ships cut and slipped, and nine sail of the line got on shore on the isle of Aix, and the next morning we discovered them; the fire ships having done little good, the small craft and frigates were ordered in to attempt to destroy them.The place where they lay was like their being in Portsmouth harbour, under the fire of two batteries, each of which had three tier of guns of 29 each, all heavy metal: the navigation to get at them was very difficult, in some places there being only four fathoms water. Just as we were sitting down to dinner on board the Revenge, our signal was made to go in and assist the gun and mortar vessels; our ship was clear for action in fifteen minutes, and in half an hour we were along side of three sail of the line, when we opened a dreadful cannonade on them, which continued for an hour and a quarter, when the Warsaw, a fine 80 gun ship, and the Aquilon, struck to us; we were now in a very critical state ourselves, being in only five fathoms water, which was ebbing very fast; the batteries on shore having got our length, struck us almost every shot for the last quarter of an hour; luckily a breeze springing up we got off into deeper water and out of reach of their guns, when we anchored again, and sent our boats and took out the prisoners, and set them on fire about seven P. M. At nine they were all in flames, and at two in the morning they blew up with a tremendous explosion; the French set fire to the Tonniere, and the Imperieuse to the Calcutta; three other ships of the line are on shore very much mauled by the frigates and bombships, some of them are on their beam-ends, and but little chance of their getting off again. The capt. of the Warsaw is on board our ship: he says, they were bound out to relieve Martinique with troops and provi sions. I went on board his ship after she struck, and the decks were strewed with dead and wounded; a most dreadful slaughter. We also lost several killed and wounded, and our ship is much cut up in sails and rigging, which makes it probable that we shall be sent in to refit." The singular coincidence of fa vourable occurrences which led to the destruction of the ships in the Basque Roads is unknown to the British public, and deserves notice. The trite adage, that "fortune favours the brave," was never more fully verified than in the present instance; and the reason for the maxim, though obvious, is in fact founded in nature: for the brave, the energetic, the active, (such as are British seamen) are always in a state of readiness and preparation to take advantage of any desirable turn of fortune that may offer, and may so far be said to be "favoured by fortune." We have been given to understand, then, and from as good information as can be had in such a case, that it was at first the intention of the enemy's fleet to attack the little squadron which was stationed off Rochefort harbour, when a signal was made from the French shore, without specifying the number, of another enemy's fleet. This induced admiral Willaumez rather to seek for safety than attempt conquest, and to desist from the pursuit of that little squadron, which when, after his entrance into the barbour, he had discovered to be joined by only three ships, he would have undoubtedly attacked with his eleven, had he not been prevented by the dread of being intercepted by ford Gambier's fleet. After this we became the assailants, and were agam, favoured by great good luck; for if the Mediator, contrary to the plan prescribed at home, had not been fitted up as a fire-ship, the boom could not have been broken by fire-ships of the usual weight, and two other booms would have been shortly placed. Nor is this all; it appears, that owing to some derangement of the other vessels, the brave lord Cochrane hailed captain Woolridge, of the Mediator, to slacken sail, but was luckily unheard; for if the impetus of that vessel had been checked, the boom could not have broken. All these fortunate occurrences were necessary to produce the happy result. Admiral Willaumez is, we understand, ordered to Paris to be tried for his conduct. the House, some material informa tion 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. ch. 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 13th 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 commissioners 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 for their services, or the amount of it. They They state, that they were charg ed with the investigation of numer ous 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 sepa rate 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 Company 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 drews, 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 sone 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 tilt July, 1803," partly by "unisettled 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 lawsuit commenced ir 1797, which brought into question property to the amount of about 180,000l. The suit has within these few months terminated in their favour, and the commis sioners now expect that in the course of the ensuing summer they shall close their transactions, and VOL. LI. The 'chief part of the balance now in hand is invested in government or other securities, which run at interest. The sum of 900,000Z has been paid at sundry periods to government, and having been earried to the account of the Consolidated Fund, has been applied to the purposes prescribed by parlia ment. Your committee now proceed to offer some observations on a variety of points to which their attention has been called, referring to the Appendis 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 before hand the degree of trouble to be incurred, and the nature of the duties to be perform Ꮶ k ed, ed, may form, in some cases, a sufficient motive for suspending the determination of both the amount and manner of an allowance. But no circumstances have appeared which furnish a justification of the delay of no less than 14 years, which in this instance has taken place. It belonged to the government, after the lapse of a moderate period, to take up the consideration of the remuneration due to the commissioners, with a view to its being submitted to parliament; and when the subject had manifestly 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 them selves 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 funds. The 26th clause of 35 Geo. 3, 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 govern ment. It appears, however, that the commissioners, at a very early period, proceeded 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 com municate 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 toward 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 |