OF 

 JfC 



JET. 30.] PENINSULAR WAR. 409 



The conduct of our Government in regard to the 

 war in Spain, when ministers took no warning by 

 the disastrous events of the Portuguese campaign 

 their treatment of Sir John Moore, placing over him 

 generals in many respects inferior to him and other 

 matters connected with these subjects, had been the 

 occasion of much discussion and correspondence be- 

 tween Lord Grey and me. In some of the following 

 letters he refers to many written by me to him, which, 

 I regret to say, I have been unable to find. I kept 

 no copies, and the originals are not among the great 

 mass of my letters, which my dear and lamented 

 friend Lady Grey sent to me after her husband's 

 death, most kindly placing them at my disposal, 

 and of which kindness it will be found that I have 

 throughout this memoir largely availed myself. In- 

 deed the appointment of such officers as were selected 

 to take the command must have been as offensive to 

 Sir Arthur Wellesley as it was unjust to Sir John 

 Moore; for it is undoubtedly the fact that after 

 Vimiera, and Burrard's command succeeded by Dal- 

 rymple's, Sir Arthur wrote to Lord Castlereagh, dis- 

 tinctly stating his earnest desire to quit the army, 

 and urging as his reason for this step that, after 

 having been successful as a commander, he could 

 never serve in a subordinate situation with satisfac- 

 tion either to the officer placed over him or to 

 himself. 



The following letter from Lord Grey shows his 

 opinion of the vexata questio 9 the convention of Cin- 



