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anarchy, and suffer its consequent degradation; while England could reap no mercantile advantage, as such a state diminished security of life and property, which must injure all commercial relations; and that any interference on our part to promote the premature separation from Spain would fix on us a heavy responsibility. The only observation necessary to be made on this subject is, that about this time a mania commenced in England, for cramming constitutions down the throats of other nations, with the same good intentions, and with equal wisdom, as induced the Brobdignag Monkey to cram poor Gulliver. Most of them rejected the premature dose, particularly (some time after) Sicily, where the parliament met, and the first night discussed the subjects brought before them with calmness; at the second meeting the discussions became animated, and the interruptions of the speakers numerous; at the third meeting the discussions became disputes and ended in a general fight, in which the numerous combatants were all opposed to one another, and fought with a general fury never exceeded in the county of Tipperary. Being weary, the combat ceased, and the senatorial gladiators, with bloody noses, black eyes, bruises and diminished locks, returned to their seats, and unanimously voted that such a constitution as the English had sent them was only fit for blackguards, that they rejected it, and would have a gentlemanly despotism.

We must now return and add a few words on the supersession of his Grace, as Commander-in-Chief, by Sir Hew Dalrymple; Sir H. Burrard, second in command; Sir John Moore, Mackenzie Fraser, Lord Paget, &c. Not one word of murmur is stated to have escaped him, and he wrote as follows to Lord Castlereagh :

"H.M.S. Donegal, 1st of August, 1808.

"Pole and Burghersh have apprised me of the arrangements for the future command of this army; and the former has informed me of your kindness towards me, of which I have experienced so many instances, that I can never doubt it in any case. All that I can say upon that subject is, that whether I am to command the army or not, or am to quit it, I shall do my best to secure its success; and you may depend upon it, I shall not hurry the operations, or commence them one moment sooner than they ought to be commenced, in order that I may acquire the credit of the suc

Very fortunately for his Grace, the actual supersession did not take place for five weeks after, so that he superintended the disembarkation of the army, which occupied from the 1st to the 5th of August in Mondego Bay. On the 14th the affair of the advanced post at Roliça opened the campaign, which his Grace designates as "unpleasant because it

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was quite useless; and was occasioned contrary to orders "solely by the imprudence of the officer, and the dash and "eagerness of the men." This disobedience and imprudence cost the army a loss of 479 men, killed, wounded and missing, -a very serious act, and deserving much more severe reprobation than the word 'unpleasant' conveys. It was perhaps useful as a preparation for the battle of Vimeiro, fought six days after. That victory was complete, and his Grace tells Lord Castlereagh that "It was impossible for troops to be"have better than ours did; we only wanted a few hundred

66

more cavalry to annihilate the French army," as Sir Harry Burrard did not land till late in the day. Whatever results might have been gained by this victory over Junot, they were lost by the want of knowledge, vigour and decision of the officer who superseded his Grace, and which was fully proved at the Court of Inquiry on the Convention, though it might have been politically necessary not to condemn Sir H. Dalrymple publicly.

That fact is also made evident by the following paragraph extracted from a letter to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, dated the day after the battle:

"I cannot say too much in favour of the troops; their gallantry and their discipline were equally conspicuous; and I must add that this is the only action that I have ever been in, in which every thing passed as it was directed, and no mistake was made by any of the officers charged with its conduct. I think if General Hill's brigade and the advanced guard had moved upon Torres Vedras as soon as it was certain that the enemy's right had been defeated by our left, and our left had pursued their advantage, the enemy would have been cut off from Torres Vedras, and we should have been at Lisbon before him; if, indeed, any French army had remained in Portugal. But Sir Harry Burrard, who was at this time upon the ground, still thought it advisable not to move from Vimeiro; and the enemy made good their retreat to Torres Vedras."-Vol. iv. p. 113.

To Charles Stuart, Esq., his Grace writes,

"and if I had not been prevented, I should have pursued the enemy to Torres Vedras on that evening, and, in all probability, the whole would have been destroyed."

anarchy, and suffer its consequent degradation; while England could reap no mercantile advantage, as such a state diminished security of life and property, which must injure all commercial relations; and that any interference on our part to promote the premature separation from Spain would fix on us a heavy responsibility. The only observation necessary to be made on this subject is, that about this time a mania commenced in England, for cramming constitutions down the throats of other nations, with the same good intentions, and with equal wisdom, as induced the Brobdignag Monkey to cram poor Gulliver. Most of them rejected the premature dose, particularly (some time after) Sicily, where the parliament met, and the first night discussed the subjects brought before them with calmness; at the second meeting the discussions became animated, and the interruptions of the speakers numerous; at the third meeting the discussions became disputes and ended in a general fight, in which the numerous combatants were all opposed to one another, and fought with a general fury never exceeded in the county of Tipperary. Being weary, the combat ceased, and the senatorial gladiators, with bloody noses, black eyes, bruises and diminished locks, returned to their seats, and unanimously voted that such a constitution as the English had sent them was only fit for blackguards, that they rejected it, and would have a gentlemanly despotism.

We must now return and add a few words on the supersession of his Grace, as Commander-in-Chief, by Sir Hew Dalrymple; Sir H. Burrard, second in command; Sir John Moore, Mackenzie Fraser, Lord Paget, &c. Not one word of murmur is stated to have escaped him, and he wrote as follows to Lord Castlereagh :

"H.M.S. Donegal, 1st of August, 1808.

"Pole and Burghersh have apprised me of the arrangements for the future command of this army; and the former has informed me of your kindness towards me, of which I have experienced so many instances, that I can never doubt it in any case. All that I can say upon that subject is, that whether I am to command the army or not, or am to quit it, I shall do my best to secure its success; and you may depend upon it, I shall not hurry the operations, or commence them one moment sooner than they ought to be commenced, in order that I may acquire the credit of the suc

Very fortunately for his Grace, the actual supersession did not take place for five weeks after, so that he superintended the disembarkation of the army, which occupied from the 1st to the 5th of August in Mondego Bay. On the 14th the affair of the advanced post at Roliça opened the campaign, which his Grace designates as "unpleasant because it

66

was quite useless; and was occasioned contrary to orders "solely by the imprudence of the officer, and the dash and "eagerness of the men." This disobedience and imprudence cost the army a loss of 479 men, killed, wounded and missing, -a very serious act, and deserving much more severe reprobation than the word 'unpleasant' conveys. It was perhaps useful as a preparation for the battle of Vimeiro, fought six days after. That victory was complete, and his Grace tells Lord Castlereagh that "It was impossible for troops to be"have better than ours did; we only wanted a few hundred more cavalry to annihilate the French army," as Sir Harry Burrard did not land till late in the day. Whatever results might have been gained by this victory over Junot, they were lost by the want of knowledge, vigour and decision of the officer who superseded his Grace, and which was fully proved at the Court of Inquiry on the Convention, though it might have been politically necessary not to condemn Sir H. Dalrymple publicly.

66

That fact is also made evident by the following paragraph extracted from a letter to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, dated the day after the battle:

"I cannot say too much in favour of the troops; their gallantry and their discipline were equally conspicuous; and I must add that this is the only action that I have ever been in, in which every thing passed as it was directed, and no mistake was made by any of the officers charged with its conduct. I think if General Hill's brigade and the advanced guard had moved upon Torres Vedras as soon as it was certain that the enemy's right had been defeated by our left, and our left had pursued their advantage, the enemy would have been cut off from Torres Vedras, and we should have been at Lisbon before him; if, indeed, any French army had remained in Portugal. But Sir Harry Burrard, who was at this time upon the ground, still thought it advisable not to move from Vimeiro; and the enemy made good their retreat to Torres Vedras."-Vol. iv. p. 113.

To Charles Stuart, Esq., his Grace writes,

"and if I had not been prevented, I should have pursued the enemy to Torres Vedras on that evening, and, in all probability, the whole would have been destroyed."

Sir Harry Burrard having come to an anchor after his voyage, seemed inclined to moor where he was, and let the beaten enemy go where they pleased to recover their losses; the following account of this attack of paralysis, given by his Grace to Lord Castlereagh, is perfect :

"Sir Harry did not land till late in the day in the midst of the attack, and he desired me to continue my own operations; and as far as I am personally concerned in the action, I was amply rewarded for any disappointment I might have felt in not having had an opportunity of bringing the service to a close, by the satisfaction expressed by the army, that the second and more important victory had been gained by their old General. I have also the pleasure to add that it has had more effect than all the arguments I could use to induce the General to move on, and I believe he will march to-morrow. Indeed if he does not, we shall be poisoned here by the stench of the dead and wounded; or we shall starve, every thing in the neighbourhood being already eaten up."-Vol. iv. p. 115.

The Indian General, who had been superseded, had now measured his strength with one of Napoleon's favourite generals, and thus given unquestionable proof, that it was by no means necessary he should be sent to a Prussian school; without that tuition he afterwards proved himself to be superior in strategy and in action to Soult, Victor, Mortier, Ney, Massena, Marmont, Jourdan, Regnier, Sebastiani, Clausel, and many others, and lastly their Imperial Master,-without ever having been instructed in the stock and pigtail tactics of that school, whose generals from first to last were licked by the same generals who were beaten by the Duke of Wellington.

The Convention of Cintra followed, of which we shall presently speak. On the 19th of September, a short month after the victory of Vimeiro, his Grace sailed on leave for England, and reached London early in October. It is difficult to conceive, that contemptible party-politicians, in the lowest stage of morbid imbecility, should have declared that "a victim was necessary to appease the irritated feelings of the nation," and actually selected the victor of Assye and Vimeiro as that victim! The government he had served so truly and so nobly feared to defend him, and he was left to be offered up:-they little knew the high and dauntless nature of their intended quarry, and were soon after made to feel as the foolish and the malignant should feel. The persecution was supported by

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