( 107 ) 

 THE BRITISH LEGION IN SPAIN 



ON the 10th of June, 1835, the Foreign Enlistment Act was re- 

 pealed, by an Order in Council, for the purpose (as the order stated) 

 '* of enabling 1 all persons to engage in the military and naval service 

 of her Majesty Isabella the Second, Queen of Spain.'* In conse- 

 quence of this permission, Lieutenant Colonel de Lacy Evans was 

 appointed a Lieutenant General in the Spanish service, and entrusted 

 with the formation of an auxiliary legion, to consist of 10,000 men. 

 On the 22d of June General Evans with General Alava, the Spanish 

 ambasador at the court of London, signed the " conditions under 

 which British subjects will be admitted to the service of her Catholic 

 Majesty Donna Isabella the Second, Queen of Spain.'* These con- 

 ditions provided that "the pay and allowances are to be the same as 

 in the English service," and " that the force is to be governed in con- 

 formity with the British military articles of war, and, in matters not 

 connected with military discipline, by the laws and constitution of 

 Spain in all other circumstances." 



That these articles are fair, and hold out honourable terms to those 

 desirous of engaging in the service, no one can deny ; but, notwith- 

 standing these considerations, the most lavish abuse and the most 

 groundless charges have been heaped upon the legion and officers of 

 the British army. Men who have served in almost every clime and 

 field, and who in these days of peace have accepted appointments in 

 the Spanish service, have been held up by a party in this country to 

 the contempt and scorn of the world as mercenaries and base hire- 

 lings. The system of attack has been not so much to prove the in- 

 efficiency of the legion, to show the errors of its operations, to criti- 

 cise its movements, as to vilify it, by invariably styling it by some 

 cant names, such as " the Mercenaries," " the Isle o'Doggians," " the 

 Footpads,'' and many other names, which the wit, ingenuity, or 

 malice of party feeling has been able to coin. In the days of the 

 French war this system was found to take admirably with the lower 

 classes. "The Corsican," " the son of a shoe-black," " Boney," and 

 such expressions, were then found excellent weapons in the hands of 

 writers ; and perhaps they had as much effect in stirring up the bile 

 of the people, and keeping them in good humour with the war, and 

 in ill humour with France and every thing French, as the news of 

 half a dozen victories. But, alas! the time is changed. Now com* 

 mon men may reasonably be supposed to possess some common 

 sense, and consequently the supposition may not be so very extraor- 

 dinary that some of them particularly clear-headed, and of course in 

 advance of their fellows, may distinguish between the mere applica- 

 tion of an opprobrious epithet and a well-founded objection. The 

 result therefore appears to us to have been that the system has en- 

 tirely failed ; for we apprehend that not one single officer or recruit 

 has been deterred from engaging; in the service from considerations 

 so absurd, and so evidently brought forward as a party trick. 



