strongholds as far back as the Rhine. Nothing was foreseen or provided for in case of disaster: there were no magazines or reserved stores accumulated in the rear, no positions fortified, no fortresses armed; there was no money in the treasury, no funds in the mili incorruptible patriots among its members, particularly Count Florida Blanca, who, though in the eightieth year of his age, preserved undecayed the vigour of intellect and cautious policy which had distinguished his long administration; and Jovellanos, in whom the severities of a tedious captivity had still left un-tary chests of the generals. The solextinguished the light of an elevated diers were naked, destitute of shoes, understanding and the warmth of an and rarely supplied with provisions: unsuspecting heart; yet it was easy to the cavalry dismounted; the artillery in foresee, what subsequent events too the most wretched condition; even the mournfully verified, that it was not magnificent supplies which the gener composed of the elements calculated osity of England had thrown with such either to communicate vigour and de- profuse bounty into the Peninsula were cision to the national counsels, or im- squandered or dilapidated by private press foreign nations with a favourable cupidity, and seldom reached the proidea of its probable stability. Formed per objects of their destination. Corfor the most part of persons who were ruption in its worst form pervaded totally unknown, at least to public life, every department of the state; the inbefore the commencement of the revo- ferior officers sold or plundered the lution, and many of whom had been stores; the superior in many instances elevated to greatness solely by its con- made free with the military chest. In vulsions, it was early distinguished by the midst of the general misrule, the that overweening jealousy of its own central junta, amidst eloquent and importance, which in all men is the pompous declamation, could find no accompaniment of newly, and still more more worthy object of their practical of undeservedly acquired power, and deliberations than discussing the hontorn with intestine intrigues. These orary titles which they were to bear, too broke out at a moment when the the ample salaries which they assigned utmost possible unanimity and vigour to themselves, the dress they were to were required to enable them to make wear, and the form of the medals which head against the formidable tempest were to be suspended round their necks. which was arising against them, under During the progress of this general scene the guidance of the Emperor Napo- of cupidity, imbecility, and vanity, noleon. thing efficient was done, either for the service of the armies or the defence of the state. This deplorable result is not to be ascribed exclusively, or even chiefly, to the character of the members of the central junta, or the leaders at the head of the troops. It arose from the nature of things-the overthrow of all regular government in Spain, and the jarring and conflicting interests of the popular assemblages by which its place had been supplied. Democraticen 87. The central junta displayed a becoming vigour in asserting the inviolability of their privileges against Cuesta, who had arrested one of its members; but they were far from evincing equal energy in the more important duty of providing for the wants of the military force which was to maintain the conflict. So completely had the idea of their own invincibility taken possession of the Spaniards, that they never once contemplated the pos-ergy is a powerful auxiliary, and when sibility of defeat. All their arrangements were based on the assumption that they were speedily to drive the French over the Pyrenees, and intended to meet the contingencies which might then occur. They did not imitate the conduct of Napoleon, who, after the drawn battle at Eylau, fortified all his directed or made use of, in the first instance, by aristocratic foresight or despotic authority, it often produces the most important results. But its vigour speedily exhausts itself, if not sustained by the lasting compulsion of terror or force; and the tyranny of a Committee of Public Salvation is not less neces sary to give success to its external ope- | insula-the victory in Andalusia, the rations than to restore credit or usefulness to its internal administration. repulse from Saragossa, the capitulation of Junot, the flight from Madrid.* 89. Violently agitated at this heartstirring intelligence, the noble Spaniard did not for a moment hesitate as to the course which he should adopt. Robertson was immediately sent back with a request that a British naval force might be forwarded to convey away his troops, and that, if possible, the assistance of Sir John Moore and the English troops at Goteburg might be granted in aid of the undertaking. The latter part of the request could not be complied with, as Sir John Moore, with the British troops, had already sailed for England; but Admiral Keats, with the fleet stationed in those seas, drew near to the coast of Jutland, and suddenly appeared off Nyborg in the island of Funen. Romana, having seized all the Danish craft he could collect, pushed across the arm of the sea which separated the mainland from that island, and, with the assistance of Keats, made himself mas 88. In the north of Europe, however, decisive steps were adopted by the British government, which had the happiest results, and succeeded in restoring to the Spanish standards ten thousand of the veteran soldiers whom the prudent foresight and anticipating perfidy of Napoleon had so early removed from the Peninsula. It has been already mentioned, that so early as spring 1807, the French Emperor had made it the price of his reconciliation with Spain, after the premature proclamation of the Prince of the Peace in the October preceding, that she should furnish sixteen thousand men to aid in the contest in the north of Europe, and that the corps of the Marquis of Romana was in consequence forwarded to the shores of the Baltic. Soon after the commencement of hostilities in the Peninsula, Castanos, who had entered into very cordial and confidential communications with Sir Hew Dalrymple,ter of the port and castle of Nyborg. then chief in command at Gibraltar, strongly represented to that officer the great importance of conveying to the Spanish corps, which was stationed in Jutland, secret information as to the real state of affairs, which was likely to lead to their at once declaring for the cause of their country. In consequence of this advice, the English gov-arms. Kneeling around their standards, ernment made various attempts to communicate with the Spanish forces, but they were at first frustrated by the vigilant eye which the French kept on their doubtful allies. At length, how ever, by the address of a Catholic priest named Robertson, the dangerous communication was effected, and Romana was informed, in a secret conference held in Lahn, of the extraordinary events which had occurred in the Pen-ments which lay at Ebeltoft having * Robertson was despatched in a boat from Heligoland, of which the English had recently taken possession, to the coast of Jutland: but the principal difficulty was to furnish him with a secret sign of intelligence, which, beyond the reach of any other's observation, might at once convince Romana of the reality and importance of his mission. This was at last fallen upon in a very singular way. Romana, who was an accomplished scholar, had been formerly intimate with Mr Frere when From thence he traversed another strait to Langland, where all the troops he could collect were assembled together, and publicly informed of the extraordinary events which had occurred in the Peninsula, and which went to sever them from the connection they had so long maintained with their brethren in wrought to the highest pitch of enthusiasm by the intelligence they had received, with hands uplifted to heaven and tears streaming from their eyes, they unanimously swore to remain faithful to their country, and brave all the anger of the Emperor Napoleon, in the attempt to aid its fortunes. 90. Such was the universal zeal which animated them, that one of the regi ambassador in Spain; and one day, having called when he was reading the Gests of the Cid, the English ambassador suggested a conjectural emendation of one of the lines. Romana instantly perceived the propriety of the proposed emendation; and this line so amended was made the passport which Robertson was to make use of, which at once proved successful.-SOUTHEY, ii. 337. "Aun vea el hora que vos Merezea dos tanto. " Mr Frere proposes to read "Merezcedes tanto." received the intelligence at ten in the evening, immediately started, and journeying all night and the greater part of the next day, reached their comrades at the point of embarkation in time to get off, after having marched fifty miles in twenty-one hours. Nine thousand five hundred were brought away, and after touching at Goteburg were forwarded in transports by the English government to the coasts of Galicia, where they were disembarked amidst shouts of joy before the middle of September, in time to share in the dangers which the efforts of Napoleon were preparing for their country. The remainder, being stationed in the middle of Jutland, could not be rescued, and were made prisoners by the French troops; and as the horses of two of the regiments of cavalry which embarked could not be provided for in the English ships, they were abandoned on the beach by the horsemen whom they had transported so far from their native plains. These noble animals, eleven hundred in number, of the true Andalusian breed, all of which were unmutilated, seemed to share in the passions which agitated their masters. No sooner were they li berated on the sands from control, than, forming into squadrons, they charged violently with loud cries against each other; and when the British fleet hove out of sight, they could still be discerned by telescopes, fighting with each other on the beach, surrounded by the dead and the dying, with all the fury of human passions.* * This singular anecdote as to the horses, which were all of the highest breed, and in the finest condition, is related by Southey on the authority of Sir Richard Keats himself, as well as in a contemporary journal, Plain Englishman, i. 294, on the same high testimony.-SOUTHEY, ii. 346. 17 Oct 1860. APPENDIX. CHAPTER XLVII. As example of the diminution of crime in British India, within the last twenty years, the convictions for serious crimes in the Court of Nizamut Adawlut, at Calcutta, may be quoted. Table exhibiting the increase of committals in the British Islands from 1805 to 1837. -See MOREAU's Statist. de la Grande Bretagne, ii. 289, 297; Parl. Paper Commons, 1812, and Parl. Returns of Crimes in 1834-6, PORTER'S Parl. Tables, i. 1837, 144, 145, and vii. 122, 140. Contrast the decrease of crime in different provinces of India, during the same period, with the deplorable increase of offences of the same description in the British Islands. ENGLAND AND WALES.-Cases of Shooting, Stabbing, and Poisoning. Criminal cases tried, &c., in the Supreme Court at Calcutta, in three years ending 1832. 10 2170 -ROBERTSON's Civil Government of India; and MARTIN, ix. 326, 335. Sentences for Crime in Lower and Western Provinces of Bengal, in two periods of two years. Contrast this with the increase of serious crime, tried by jury, in Glasgow, during the last fifteen years, and in Ireland in the same period. GLASGOW, 1822-37. Ratio of serious crime to IRELAND, 1823, 14,632 1832, 15,258 1833, 341 .. 633 17,819 .. 838 21,381 633 22,367 23,891 14,683 1837, 392 15,271 1838, 454 556 25,683 15,794 -PORTER'S Parl. Tables, i. 145. Combination Committee Evidence, 1838, 267. NOTE C, p. 65. In Holkar's country alone the number of villages rebuilt and repeopled was,— The following is a statement of the wages of labour under the Peishwa's government in 1814, and the British in 1828: No change in the value of money during this period.-COLONEL SYKES' Bombay Statistics, Lords' Committee, 1830; and MARTIN, ix. 352. NOTE E, p. 66. The following table shows the rapid increase in the export trade from Britain to India within the last twenty-five years, and illustrates both the advancing opulence and comfort of the inhabitants of Hindostan, and the incalculable importance of this branch of commerce, if established on principles equitable both toward the East and West, to the inhabitants of the British Islands. -PORTER'S Parl. Tables, i. 193, 195; and Progress of the Nation, ii. 102. NOTE F, p. 69. The following was the Revenue of India in the year 1831-2: |