PENINSULAR WAR. [1809. 



influence. I suspect, therefore, that the project was 

 entertained at Windsor, and went off on some objec- 

 tion about the Duke of York. I should add that 

 Lord Robert Spencer's man, Kent (whom he gave an 

 office to, and who is much about the public offices), 

 says he heard it still talked of at the Treasury as 

 a tiling to be brought forward. I miess this to be 



o O O 



untrue, however. A very odd thing happened the 

 other day. A report of the king's death prevailed so 

 much that black rose in price, and the tailors were 

 all in confusion, buying and running about. It was 

 spread all over this part of the country as certain; 

 yet the Archbishop of Canterbury told Mansfield he 

 never had seen the king better than on Christmas 

 day. It strikes me as possible that there may, 

 nevertheless, have been some alarm, perhaps an un- 

 founded one, among them ; and this would account 

 both for the talk of a regency among themselves, and 

 for the strange report of a dissolution of Parliament 

 which prevailed about the same time. 



" I have a letter from Allen at Yigo, dated 

 December 13. They are going to Lisbon by land, 

 and expect to winter in Andalusia, riot having 

 heard of Madrid being taken. But I conclude you 

 have received letters from themselves by the same 

 conveyance. 



" A few days ago the intention of the ministry 

 was to defend Lisbon, and sixty pieces of cannon, 

 with engineers, &c., were embarking, as Ferguson 

 ,'Kssured me. Whether the advance of Baird and 



