JET. 31.] AND THE PENINSULAR WAR. 457 



is all that will remain as a principle of insurrection. 

 Now, after all that has been said, this cannot be a 

 very violent feeling in a nation which allowed itself 

 to be bequeathed, with almost as little ceremony as 

 an old woman would bequeath her china jar, to the 

 great grandson of the King of France, only a century 

 ago, and has continued ever since in most loyal obe- 

 dience to him and his descendants. 



" Besides, the French are great masters in the art 

 of conciliation, which we hardly ever try, and in 

 which we never succeed. By wise laws and a vig- 

 orous administration of them, they will ameliorate 

 perceptibly the condition of every class of society. 

 People soon acquiesce in an order of things from 

 which they derive actual benefit ; and I should not 

 be at all surprised if in a couple of years the sub- 

 missions were complete, Fernando VII. forgot, and 

 the Junta and the English (who will have been long 

 since sent to the devil) looked back to with nothing 

 but contempt and dislike. 



" Dry* is in London. He came over in the same 

 ship with Lady Westmoreland ; so you may easily 

 imagine what discussions they must have had upon 

 metaphysics and theology. He is, as usual, in a 

 state of rampant atheism, teeming with publications, 

 and completely satisfied with the wisdom and energy 

 of his own diplomatic conduct. Adieu; I have 

 twenty more things to say, but it grows late. Yours 

 always very truly, J. W. WARD. 



* Sir William Drummond. 



