190 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



demonstration of kindness and re- 

 spect. He explained the nature 

 of the orders with which he was 

 charged by his British majesty, 

 wliicli as far as they related to ob- 

 jects of internal regulation, were 

 to be confined within the limits of 

 what might be agreeable to the 

 Spanish government ; and was 

 very careful neither to alarm the 

 jealousy nor to offend the pride of 

 Spain. Our army was in the 

 greatest distress from want of pro- 

 vision, which was owing in part to 

 the poorness and the exhausted 

 state of the country, and in part 

 to the indolence and timidity of 

 the magistrates, and the contempt 

 of tiie people for the authority of 

 government itself, as well as that 

 of its officers. Tlie British army 

 for want of necessaries, was 

 obliged to retreat down the Ta- 

 gus. The junta contemplated the 

 bare possibility of the British army 

 returning to Portugal with terror 

 and despair: and if such an inten- 

 tion should be carried into execu- 

 tion, the Spaniards were disposed 

 even to consider it as a symptom on 

 the part of the British government 

 to abandon the cause of the Spa- 

 niards and give up their alliance. 

 So great was the blind confidence 

 of the junta in the British troops, 

 notwithstanding their conscious- 

 ness how imperfectly they were 

 supplied, and how feebly support- 

 ed by the Spaniards, that even 

 after the retreat of the British to 

 Badajoz, the marquis of Welles- 

 ley received several notes from the 

 junta, urging the British army to 

 advance again against the enemy ; 

 and Garay, in different conversa- 

 tions with the marquis, suggested 

 the possibility of driving the French 

 beyond the Fyrennees. 



The marquis of Wellesley wasr 

 well assured, that in the frequent 

 encounters between the Spaniards 

 and French, it was a common 

 thing. for whole divisions and even 

 corps of Spaniards, to take to their 

 heels on the first appearance of 

 danger, without waiting either to 

 receive or give a shot. Accord- 

 ing to the ordinary course of hu- 

 man passions, they ascribed to the 

 English the consequences of an 

 evil which they themselves had 

 occasioned, and were willing to 

 ascribe the retreat of the British 

 army to any other cause than 

 their own bad conduct. The ap- 

 prehensions that had been excited 

 by the retreat of the British army, 

 had been in some degree tranquil- 

 lized by the firm and prudent 

 manner in which that retreat had 

 been conducted, and by intelli- 

 gence that had been received of 

 a renewal of hostilities between 

 France and Austria. On this sup- 

 posed event the junta had founded 

 the most sanguine expectations; 

 which it would have been wiser 

 to ground on the prompt correc- 

 tion of tiieir own faults, on a ju- 

 dicious application of the great 

 resources of the Spanish empire, 

 and on an enlightened direction 

 of the genius and dispositions of 

 the Spanish nation. That nation, 

 the marquis hoped, would see in 

 the calamity that had occasioned 

 so much alarm (the retreat of the 

 British army) the natural conse- 

 quence of its own weakness, and 

 the urgent necessity of greater 

 decision and vigour of both coun- 

 sel and action. A relaxation of 

 domestic government and indolent 

 confidence in the activity and aid 

 of strangers, had endangered all 

 the noble and virtuous objects for 



which 



