tend to give any
information upon that head, we cannot presume to offer any certain
opinion thereupon. We conceive another cause of the failure of the
expedition to have been, that, instead of attempting to land when
the report was received, on the twenty-fourth of September, from
rear-admiral Broderick, and the captains who had been out to sound and
reconnoitre, a council of war was summoned and held on the twenty-fifth,
in which it was unanimously resolved not to land, as the attempt on
Rochefort was neither advisable nor practicable; but it does not appear
to us that there were then or at any time afterwards, either a body of
troops or batteries on shore sufficient to have prevented the attempting
a descent, in pursuance of the instructions signed by your majesty;
neither does it appear to us that there were any reasons sufficient to
induce the council of war to believe that Rochefort was so changed in
respect to its strength, or posture of defence, since the expedition was
first resolved on in England, as to prevent all attempts of an attack
upon the place, in order to burn and destroy the docks, magazines,
arsenals, and shipping, in obedience to your majesty's command. And
we think ourselves obliged to remark, in the council of war on the
twenty-eighth of September, that no reason could have existed sufficient
to prevent the attempt of landing the troops, as the council then
unanimously resolved to land with all possible despatch. We beg leave
also to remark, that after its being unanimously resolved to land, in
the council of war of the twenty-eighth of September, the resolution was
taken of returning to England, without any regular or general meeting of
the said council; but as the whole operation was of so inconsiderable a
nature, we do not offer this to your majesty as a cause of the failure
of the expedition; since we cannot but look upon the expedition to
have failed from the time the great object of it was laid aside in the
council of war of the twenty-fifth."

{GEORGE II. 1727-1760}

SIR JOHN MORDAUNT TRIED BY A COURT-MARTIAL.

This report, signed by the general officers, Marlborough, Sackville, and
Waldegrave, probably laid the foundation for the court-martial which sat
soon after upon the conduct of the commander-in-chief of the expedition.
The enemies of the minister made a handle of the miscarriage to lessen
him in the esteem of the public, by laying the whole blame on his
forming a project so