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[860.]

60

INTENTIONS OF THE JACOBINS AND THE ARMY

pointment long before my state of health justified it in a prudential point of view. It is not necessary for me to express the anxiety I felt to have an opportunity of upholding my former military character, nor the mortification I experienced at being deprived of such opportunity by accidents which in no way depended on me, and ultimately by the abrupt termination of a campaign at a period when your Grace gave me reason to hope that one would speedily occur.

Having now had the honour of being known to your Grace upwards of twenty-five years, and trusting that you may retain some recollection of my long service in the Line, more particularly in Flanders, I avail myself of the circumstance of the Military Secretary to the Commander in Chief being on the spot, to request that your Grace will be pleased to name me (either through him or in any other manner that your Grace may think proper) to His Royal Highness to be employed on the staff of the army under your Grace's command. This distinction, which I solicit at your hands, would be so gratifying to my feelings as a soldier, that I should not readily forget the obligation, nor, I trust, eventually discredit your Grace's recommendation.

I have the honour to remain, my Lord Duke,

Your Grace's most faithful and obliged humble servant,

T. O'LOGHLIN.

[I am very sorry that the army is very small and the staff very numerous, and there are no means of employing him.

WELLINGTON.]

To Lord Viscount Castlereagh.

MY DEAR LORD,

Brussels, 11th April, 1815.

Lord Harrowby will have informed you that a person had spoken to me on the night before we quitted Ghent, on the part of Fouché, as well as of the impression which that person's conversation made upon me.

I have since seen Monsieur, who had sent that person to me, having previously informed me that he wished to speak to me ; and he told me that the truth was that the Jacobin party in France, and a great proportion of the army, looked to place the Duc d'Orléans on the throne. Monsieur protested repeatedly that he entertained no suspicions of the Duc d'Orléans, but that he was certain the subject had been more than once mentioned to the Duc, and that he could not help thinking that his conduct in absenting himself from the King at the present moment was very extraordinary. I told him that I thought he ought to attribute his conduct to two motives: first, his desire to see his

TO PLACE THE DUKE OF ORLEANS ON THE THRONE. 61

family; and, secondly, his feeling that he was unjustly suspected by the persons about the King, and his desire to keep out of the way on that account.

I think it proper to mention this circumstance immediately to you, in order that you may be prepared with a decision, or that at all events you may make me acquainted with the principles on which you think our language and conduct ought to be guided in regard to it.

I entertain no doubt that the Duc d'Orléans is thought of. I heard of such a notion when I was at Paris; and you will observe that the calling the Duc d'Orléans to the throne is the only acceptable middle term between Buonaparte, the army, and the Jacobins on the one hand, and the King and violent émigrés on the other. I understand that the army showed a good disposition towards the Duc d'Orléans on his journey to and from Lyons and in the northern departments; and that the commanding officer of one regiment in particular, on its march to join Buonaparte while the Duc was returning from Lyons, said to him that, as he could not accept them, they were under the necessity of taking the step they had taken. Marshals Macdonald and Mortier, I understand, likewise expressed themselves very strongly to him, and their expectations that they should see him again in less than six months under happier circumstances. Notwithstanding the respect and regard I feel for the King, and the sense which I entertain of the benefits which the world would derive from the continuance of his reign, I cannot help feeling that the conduct of his family and of his government during the late occurrences, whatever may have been his own conduct, must and will affect his own character, and has lowered them much in the public estimation.

There is another circumstance bearing upon this subject which deserves your serious consideration. The Emperor of Russia detests and is decidedly against the Bourbons. If Buonaparte should be assassinated or killed in battle, or in any other manner put out of the way, he will in my opinion adopt any third person instead of the King; and I know he has gone so far as to think of marrying the Prince Royal of Wurtemberg to his sister, and of making him King of France. That such third person will be proposed by the army, and those who have conspired with the army to overturn the King's government, there

62

DUKE SECURE IN FRONT OF BRUXELLES. APRIL, 1815.

cannot be the smallest doubt; and it is necessary that you should be prepared with a decision in what manner you will receive the proposition.

Believe me, &c.,

WELLINGTON.

[861.]

MY LORD,

To Earl Bathurst.

Brussels, 11th April, 1815.

I enclose copies of a further correspondence which I have had with General Gneisenau.

Having learnt that General Gneisenau had found upon M. Reinhard, the Under Secretary in the Foreign Department at Paris, who had been arrested at Aix-la-Chapelle, a copy of the Treaty of Vienna of the 3rd of January last, which had created a good deal of jealousy and ill-temper in the minds of the Prussian officers, I thought it proper to send Colonel Hardinge,* who is here, to remain at General Gneisenau's headquarters; and I have desired him to explain confidentially the circumstances under which the treaty had been concluded, and to show that the alliance terminated with the circumstances which had occasioned it, if the subject should ever be mentioned to him.

I have likewise desired him to tell General Gneisenau that if he is not satisfied with the position in which I have placed his troops, I beg he will place them as he thinks proper, as from the arrival of reinforcements from England and Holland I shall find myself secure in my position in front of Brussels.

[862.] G. O.

I have, &c.,

WELLINGTON.

Brussels, 11th April, 1815.

1. His Royal Highness the Prince Regent having appointed Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington to be Commander of His Majesty's forces on the continent of Europe, all reports are in future to be made to his Grace.

*

*

*

*

49. It being desirable to amalgamate the two armics, Anglo* Afterwards Lord Hardinge.

APRIL, 1815. COMPOSITION OF THE DUKE'S ARMY.

63

Hanoverian and that of the Netherlands, in order that the troops which are to act together may be accustomed to each other, and that the whole consolidated force may with facility move in one uniform manner, having one great object in view:

50. The infantry and artillery, therefore, of the allied armies will for the present be divided into two great corps; the first of which will be under the orders of His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange, and the second under the command of Lieutenant-General Lord Hill.

51. The 1st corps will be composed of the troops AngloHanoverian, as follows, viz.: -The 1st and 3rd divisions of infantry, with the artillery attached to them, and the following troops of the Netherlands, viz., the 2nd and 3rd divisions of the army of the Netherlands, with a battery of foot artillery, and a battery of horse artillery, and the division of cavalry of the Netherlands.

52. The 2nd corps will be composed of the troops AngloHanoverian, as follows, viz.: -The 2nd and 4th divisions of infantry, with the artillery attached to them, and the 2nd brigade of cavalry of the King's German Legion, and the troops of the Netherlands as follows, viz., the Indian brigade and the 1st division, with a battery of foot artillery, and a battery of horse artillery.

53. His Royal Highness Prince Frederick of Orange will command the troops of the Netherlands in the 2nd corps, under the orders of Lieutenant-General Lord Hill.

54. The Staff of the army of the Netherlands will remain attached to His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange, and His Royal Highness will have the goodness to make arrangements for attaching to the 2nd corps such staff officers as may be necessary.

55. Notwithstanding this amalgamation, everything which regards the discipline of the officers and soldiers of each nation, the provisioning, the clothing, the equipping, the means of transport, &c., &c., will be under the direction of the officers, civil and military, of each nation. The General commanding each corps d'armée will give orders for all other matters.

56. The mails for England are to be made up and despatched from Brussels at eleven o'clock A.M. on Tuesdays and Fridays, until further orders.

WELLINGTON.

64

COOPERATION OF ADMIRAL MARTIN.

APRIL, 1815.

Notes from Ghent.

11 Avril, 1815.

Le nombre de troupes qui composaient les garnisons de Bouchain, Cambrai, et Valenciennes est estimé à environ 5600 hommes. On dit que ces troupes doivent former un camp près de Valenciennes, à Famars.

Quesnoy était sans troupes le 4 Avril. Il n'y avait qu'une dixaine de Lanciers à Comines.

Rear-Admiral T. B. Martin to Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington. Brussels, 11th April, 1815.

Admiral Martin is arrived in the Scheldt with a small squadron of ships to cooperate with His Majesty's land forces, and he is instructed to open a communication with the Commander in Chief of the Forces, to ascertain the nature and extent of the cooperation that he may be likely to require for maintaining the naval defences of the line which the Commander in Chief may take for his operations.

Whenever the Commander in Chief of the Forces will point out the nature, extent, and particular places of cooperation, the force and disposition of the ships will be regulated accordingly.

In the mean time it is desirable that a particular place should be fixed upon for the transports which daily arrive with military stores and provisions; and twelve vessels so laden are now waiting off Flushing for orders.

Admiral Martin begs to submit to the consideration of the Commander in Chief, whether the anchorage at the mouth of the Ghent Canal, or Turneuse, will not be the most convenient place of rendezvous for the transports, from whence the Admiral believes (according to the accompanying replies to his inquiries) that there may be found means of conveying stores to Ghent, if required; and any transports which may be wanted at Antwerp can go there generally in one day from the anchorage in question.

Admiral Martin having placed the men-of-war at such distances as to keep up a telegraphic communication between Antwerp and Turneuse, any message respecting the movement of the transports may be communicated by this means, or by handing despatches on from ship to ship, so that the wishes of the Commander in Chief, if forwarded to Admiral Martin at Antwerp, may be speedily executed.

The Dutch have a very considerable naval force in a state of forward equipment for the naval defences of the river.

The following is a list of His Majesty's ships now in the Scheldt:

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