grade; to show it as it really is, to make known its horrors, and not to shrink from its most horrible details; that by holding up the mirror, we may add our mite towards disgusting mankind with the game, which has gone far towards turning a beautiful world into a wilderness dabbled with blood. It is sickening to feel assured, that in all ages and countries, men, when collected together in bodies for the purposes of war, while they have shown heroism and devotion, have far more shown their aptitude for every vice and crime. His Grace thus describes his own army to Colonel Torrens : " I recollect that the Commissary-General mentioned to me, about the period of his letter to the Commander-in-Chief, the inconveniences experienced from the deficiencies of the stores when they reached the army from the depôts, occasioned, partly by the desertion of the bullock-drivers, and partly by robberies committed by the same description of persons, and by the mule-drivers. Upon that occasion I pointed out to Mr. Kennedy the inconvenience which would result to the service from giving escorts to every convoy of grain or bread, from the irregularity of the British soldiers when detached from their corps; and the probability that the employment of these escorts would occasion greater inconveniences and deficiencies than were at that moment experienced. "The Spanish muleteers, who perform the greatest part of the transport service of the army, would not submit to the brutal violence of a drunken soldier, and these people would desert with their mules if escorted by troops; and I believe, that the delays which the drunkenness and irregularity of the troops would have occasioned by the arrival of the stores, and the loss by their own thieving, would have been found still greater than those suffered by the dishonesty of the muleteers. "Another practice, very common among the troops, would have been found equally prejudicial to the service, in the case of the use of carts. A detachment has scarcely ever gone as an escort with carts, even carrying treasure or sick, that the soldiers have not taken bribes from the drivers to be allowed to quit the convoy with their carts and bullocks. "This practice leads to fresh irregularities of the same description. They must then be employed to press carts in the country, to supply the deficiency of transport occasioned by their own villany and forgetfulness of their duty. This is always an act of violence; and the inhabitants frequently bribe the soldiers not to press their carriages. "All these circumstances induced me to believe that it was better to submit to the inconvenience of the loss of some of the stores, than to suffer that inconvenience, with the additional evils which I have above described. I did, however, make arrangements to have the convoys attended by detachments of the ordenanza, and I believe there was afterwards no positive loss of stores, although the petty robberies of mule and cart-drivers still continued. No soldier can withstand the temptation of wine. This is to which the officers of the army and the élite of the Portuguese at Lisbon were invited, to assist in investing Marshal Beresford with the order of the Bath, with which his meritorious services had been rewarded by the King. The invaders under Massena proved themselves to be, what armies too frequently are, merciless banditti. They retreated from the country, " as they entered it, in one solid mass, covering their rear on every march by the operations of one or two corps d'armée in the strong positions which the country affords, which corps d'armée are closely supported by the main body, Before they quitted their position they destroyed a part of their cannon and ammunition, and they have since blown up whatever the horses were unable to draw away. They have no provisions, excepting what they plunder on the spot, or having plundered, what the soldiers carry on their backs, and live cattle. " I am concerned to be obliged to add to this account, that their conduct throughout this retreat has been marked by a barbarity seldom equalled, and never surpassed. Even the towns of Torres Novas, Thomar, and Pernes, in which the head-quarters of some of the corps had been for four months, and in which the inhabitants had been invited, by promises of good treatment, to remain, were plundered, and many of their houses destroyed on the night the enemy withdrew from their position, and they have since burnt every town and village through which they have passed. The convent of Alcobaça was burnt, by orders from the French headquarters. The bishop's palace, and the whole town of Leyria, in which General Drouet had had his head-quarters, shared the same fate; and there is not an inhabitant of the country, of any class or description, who has had any dealing or communication with the French army, who has not had reason to repent of it, and to complain of them. This is the mode in which the promises have been performed, and the assurances have been fulfilled, which were held out in the proclamations of the French commander-in-chief, in which he told the inhabitants of Portugal, that he was not come to make war upon them, but with a powerful army of 110,000 men to drive the English into the sea. It is to be hoped that the example of what has occurred in this country will teach the people of this, and of other nations, what value they ought to place on such promises and assurances; and that there is no security for life, or for anything which makes life valuable, excepting in decided resistance to the enemy."-Vol. vii. p. 358. However painful it may be, our duty compels us to show, that heinous as was the conduct of the French troops, the same tendency to brutality and plunder was evinced in the allied army. Poets and novelists may depict the 'pomp and grade; to show it as it really is, to make known its horrors, and not to shrink from its most horrible details; that by holding up the mirror, we may add our mite towards disgusting mankind with the game, which has gone far towards turning a beautiful world into a wilderness dabbled with blood. It is sickening to feel assured, that in all ages and countries, men, when collected together in bodies for the purposes of war, while they have shown heroism and devotion, have far more shown their aptitude for every vice and crime. His Grace thus describes his own army to Colonel Torrens : " I recollect that the Commissary-General mentioned to me, about the period of his letter to the Commander-in-Chief, the inconveniences experienced from the deficiencies of the stores when they reached the army from the depôts, occasioned, partly by the desertion of the bullock-drivers, and partly by robberies committed by the same description of persons, and by the mule-drivers. Upon that occasion I pointed out to Mr. Kennedy the inconvenience which would result to the service from giving escorts to every convoy of grain or bread, from the irregularity of the British soldiers when detached from their corps; and the probability that the employment of these escorts would occasion greater inconveniences and deficiencies than were at that moment experienced. "The Spanish muleteers, who perform the greatest part of the transport service of the army, would not submit to the brutal violence of a drunken soldier, and these people would desert with their mules if escorted by troops; and I believe, that the delays which the drunkenness and irregularity of the troops would have occasioned by the arrival of the stores, and the loss by their own thieving, would have been found still greater than those suffered by the dishonesty of the muleteers. "Another practice, very common among the troops, would have been found equally prejudicial to the service, in the case of the use of carts. A detachment has scarcely ever gone as an escort with carts, even carrying treasure or sick, that the soldiers have not taken bribes from the drivers to be allowed to quit the convoy with their carts and bullocks. "This practice leads to fresh irregularities of the same description. They must then be employed to press carts in the country, to supply the deficiency of transport occasioned by their own villany and forgetfulness of their duty. This is always an act of violence; and the inhabitants frequently bribe the soldiers not to press their carriages. "All these circumstances induced me to believe that it was better to submit to the inconvenience of the loss of some of the stores, than to suffer that inconvenience, with the additional evils which I have above described. I did, however, make arrangements to have the convoys attended by detachments of the ordenanza, and I believe there was afterwards no positive loss of stores, although the petty robberies of mule and cart-drivers still continued. No soldier can withstand the temptation of wine. This is constantly before their eyes in this country, and they are constantly intoxicated when absent from their regiments, and there is no crime which they do not commit to obtain money to purchase it; or if they cannot get money, to obtain it by force."-Vol. vi. p. 575. We are unable to quote a tenth part of the passages marked for insertion, and must therefore content ourselves with calling attention to the letters and passages specified in the subjoined note*. The fortresses of Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo to the north, and Badajoz (which had been shamefully surrendered to the French) to the south of the Tagus, remained in the hands of the enemy after the retreat of Marshal Massena's army from Portugal. The battles of Fuentes de Oñoro and Albuera, however honourable to our arms, were but barren victories, the garrison of Almeida having escaped, and the siege of Badajoz having been raised. Although no positive results appear to have ensued, the effect on the army was useful, as the confidence of the men was increased, and their chief taught the exact odds with which he would have to contend in the future operations that he had in contemplation. These he carried into effect the following year. He laid siege successively to Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, and carried them both by assault. He then advanced into Castile. By a series of manœuvres he held in check the French army under Marshal Marmont, the successor of Marshal Massena; and when the favourable opportunity presented itself, he fell upon and crushed it at Salamanca. The results were, the relief of Cadiz and Andalusia, the occupation of Madrid and the siege of Burgos. This last operation was thought to have been undertaken with inadequate means; but his Grace, in his letter to the Earl of Liverpool on November 13th, 1813, states Mr. Stuart, Dec. 10th, 446. " his reasons. How far the co-operation of the British forces under Lord W. Bentinck, on the eastern coast of Spain, might have assisted in the result of the campaign, must remain a matter of conjecture. The French armies were all assembled under Marshal Soult, which rendered it necessary for the British army to retreat to the frontiers of Portugal. The letters in the annexed note relate to that period, and we regret that their length alone prevents us from quoting them*. The tenth volume begins with his Grace's visit to Seville and Cadiz, Andalusia having been freed from the enemy by the preceding campaign. On his return to the army he writes the letters referred tot. His army had been reinforced, and for the first time it was properly equipped in all its branches. In May 1813 he commenced offensive operations. By a masterly manœuvre he turned the Douro, and obliged the enemy to retreat from it. The armies of Portugal, of the centre and of the south, commanded by King Joseph, with Marshal Jourdan as his major-general, retired across the Ebro, having abandoned and blown up Burgos. At this moment the news of the battle of Bautzen, and the consequent armistice (dated 4th of June, to last until 8th of July, and six days more for denunciation on its expiration) between Napoleon and the Northern Allies, were received by his Grace. It was supposed that the armistice would be followed by peace. The masterly strategy of his Grace had now placed him in a position, which his genius pointed out to him as one from which the destinies of Europe might be decided. Many were the suggestions relative to the next movements; some, high in rank, concluded that the line of the Ebro would be the termination of the campaign. The mighty master of the war on which the fate of nations depended, listened to the attenuated idea of taking up a line three hundred miles in |
