Note 35 — BOOK THE FIRST 1807-1810

[It is perhaps worthy of note that Lord Castlereagh’s biographer, Sir Archibald Alison, treats the expedition to Walcheren as one of a number of important moves against Napoleon. He considers that the War Secretary’s policy, unaltered throughout his tenure of office, was to break Napoleon’s power of meeting Great Britain on the sea, and illustrates his view by the mention of the successive expeditions aimed at the destruction or capture of fleets belonging to European Powers in subjection to France—viz., the bombardment of Copenhagen, the blockade of the Russian fleet in the Baltic, the expeditions to Lisbon and Cadiz, etc. Had Lord Castlereagh been able to persuade the Cabinet to undertake this expedition in 1808 instead of 1809, the destruction of the French fleet then building at Antwerp would have been assured. As it was, a daring and forward policy and a strict obedience to the original orders from home would have attained its object; but the incapacity and jealousy of the commanders gave Napoleon time to reinforce his garrisons, and doomed the British force to inactivity and disease in the swamps of the Scheldt.]