HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



21 



pirc, that he never deigned to look 

 at it, or turn his head that way. 

 The mighty lion which we went 

 to attack, brushed us ofFwith one 

 sweep of his tail. Mr. Canning 

 had argued, that if the expedition 

 to the Scheldt could not have been 

 useful, no other expedition could 

 have been useful. His gallant 

 friend, general Tarleton, however, 

 had pointed out another expedi- 

 tion, which would have promised 

 much better diversion in favour 

 of Austria. The attack on Flush- 

 ing, even if any beneficial result 

 could have been expected from it, 

 was not made in time ; and the 

 delay proceeded not from any 

 other impediment than the charac- 

 teristic vacillation of government : 

 for it apppeared on the trial of 

 general Monnet, that he had in- 

 formation of the intended descent 

 so far back as the 22nd of April. 

 Ministers, it seems, were aware of 

 the fatality of the climate. But 

 this was one of the casualties of 

 war, and therefore, in their opin- 

 ion, to be cheerfully encountered. 

 Certainly, if the object in view 

 was worthy of the hazard. But 

 here the object was contemptible, 

 the means mighty, and the conse- 

 quences ruinous. It was said that 

 the object of the expedition was 

 to be effected by a coup de main. 

 What did the two late secretaries 

 mean by a coup de main ? Did 

 they suppose that Antwerp and 

 Lillo, the fortified forts, and the 

 well-secured fleets in the Scheldt, 

 were all to be taken by this mi- 

 raculous coup de main ? Even 

 with all his respect for lord Wel- 

 lington, he could not approve of 

 the battle of Talavera. It had 

 no good end, and tended only to 

 establish the great valour of our 



soldiers, which was never ques- 

 tioned. It was, at best, but an 

 exhibition of rash confidence and 

 victorious temerity. Our vic- 

 tories at Maida, Corunna, Vime- 

 ira, and Talavera, had been held 

 up that night as monuments of 

 our eternal glory : but Mr. Whit- 

 bread beheld them only as so 

 many gladiatorial exhibitions. 

 None of them were happy in their 

 consequences, or beneficial in 

 their results. That of Maida left 

 the inhabitants precisely in the 

 same state in which ministers said, 

 had we made a diversion in the 

 north of Germany, we should have 

 left the inhabitants of that coun- 

 try — at the mercy of a cruel ene- 

 my. It had been said by ministers 

 last session, that a battle ought 

 never to be risked in Spain until 

 there was an efficient government 

 in that country. Yet they now 

 recanted the principle, by confer- 

 ring honours on sir Arthur Wel- 

 lesley; for whom, and for the 

 country, it would have been more 

 honourable had he never changed 

 his name. His conduct in Spain 

 seemed the result of infatuation. 

 After defeating, or rather follow- 

 ing and harassing the retreat of 

 Soult from Oporto, he re-crossed 

 the Douro, for the purpose of 

 forming a junction with Cuesta. 

 Soult, in the mean time, recover- 

 ed, recruited, and re-established 

 his corps, which advanced, and 

 menaced the allies on the Tagus. 

 Sir Arthur fought, and gained the 

 battle of Talavera, and, in three 

 or four days thereafter, retreated 

 to an unhealthy province, at an 

 unhealthy season, for the purpose, 

 as he singularly termed it, of re- 

 fresliing his troops. In the marshes 

 of Estremadura he remained some 



