194 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



To this I can only answer, that 

 I am not pressed by the most 

 urgent necessity, nor in extreme 

 haste to retire immediately out of 

 Spain. I want provisions and some 

 repose for my troops ; and at all 

 events before I retire into Portu- 

 gal I shall wait for your excel- 

 lency's opinion on the points which 

 I have submitted to your judg- 

 ment. If I should retire to Por- 

 tugal, it is my intention to pro- 

 ceed no farther than the frontier 

 (tliough 1 will not come under any 

 formal engagement to this purpose) 

 where 1 shall be so near to the 

 enemy that he will not venture 

 to cross the Guadiana, unless he 

 be in very considerable force, 

 and leave me on his flank and 

 rear. I shall, therefore, in reality 

 be as serviceable to the Spanish 

 government on the frontier of Por- 

 tugal, as I should be in the posi- 

 tion pointed out to me by your 

 excellency ; nay, and even more 

 serviceable, as the nearer I am to 

 Portugal, the greater certainty I 

 shall have of recovering the means 

 of acting with effect ; and inas- 

 much as I shall then be unincum- 

 bered entirely by the Spanish army, 

 and able to decide whether I ought 

 to co-operate with it all. in what 

 manner, to what extent, and on 

 what conditions, according to cir- 

 cumstances." 



It is to be observed in justifica- 

 tion of Sir Arthur Wellesley's re- 

 treat, not only on military or po- 

 litical, but moral principles, that 

 the instructions given to that offi- 

 cer by his government, though they 

 allowed him to pass the frontier 

 of Portugal, and to co-operate with 

 the Spaniards occasionally to a cer- 

 tain extent, did not recognize any 

 right on the part of Spain to claim 



such a co-operation. The primary 

 and main object of Sir Arthur was 

 to protect Portugal. The aid to 

 be given to the Spaniards was 

 discretionary and gratuitous, of 

 which the Spanish government 

 and military officers were fully 

 apprized ; nor did they in their 

 earnest entreaties that Sir Arthur 

 should march into Spain, ever pre- 

 tend that they had any. 



It is perfectly easy to justify the 

 retreat of Sir A. Wellesley from the 

 interior of Spain ; not so easy to 

 vindicate the propriety of his ad- 

 vancing thither ; nor yet perhaps 

 altogether that of the immediate 

 motives of his retreat. His re- 

 treat was a measure of precaution 

 adopted to save his army from be- 

 ing overwhelmed by the immense 

 force gathering around him; and 

 therefore it did not seem glorious 

 to leave the Spanish army alone in 

 a situation in which the conjoint 

 force of the Spaniards and British 

 could not remain with safety. Cues- 

 ta indeed gave him the option of go- 

 ing to meet Soult or remaining at 

 Talavera. He preferred the form- 

 er ; but at a time when, being ig- 

 norant of the force under Soult, 

 Mortier, and Ney, he thought 

 that the " business might be done 

 most effectually and without con- 

 test ;'* general Cuesta was to be 

 exposed to the attack of the great- 

 er, while Sir Arthur Wellesley was 

 marching to encounter the smaller 

 force. Tliis gave occasion to many 

 taunts in the French demi-official 

 paper, the Moniteur. " The post 

 of honour," the French critic ob- 

 served, " is that which is nearest 

 the enemy. But lord Wellington, 

 having it in his option to give the 

 post of honour either to the Eng- 

 lish, or those Spaniards of whom 



he 



