4/3 PENINSULAR WAR. [1809. 



called off by Austria. This, in truth, was the real 

 diversion. These are, however, minor objections, not 

 worth the paper I have wasted on them, particularly 

 when the whole is so good. By your compliment to 

 me I feel much gratified, being confident that it is 

 sincere, though I must attribute it more to your par- 

 tiality than to any merit of my own. 



" What you say of the situation of Canning is too 

 true. The evil, however, is, I trust, at some distance ; 

 and, contrary to the usual maxims of prudence, I am 

 in this case unwilling to look at it before it forces 

 itself upon me. 



" By the way, I must revert to the Spanish busi- 

 ness to state a fact which I wish I had known before 

 your review was finished. It is now ascertained that 

 Lord Wellington's army was starving in the midst of 

 plenty. The expression used to me from the most 

 indisputable authority is, that there were provisions 

 in the country, not only for an army of 30,000 men, 

 but for the host that Sir Eobert Wilson advanced near 

 Madrid, where he found abundance of everything, and 

 the same when he retreated through a country which 

 had been twice passed by British and French armies. 

 The fact is, that small patrols of ten and twelve men 

 too small to attract notice, but sufficient to keep 

 back the peasants scoured the country, and the con- 

 sequence was what you have seen with respect to our 

 army. This, it is true, is not saying much for Lord 

 Wellington; but I am quite convinced of the fact, 

 and you probably will not find much difficulty in be- 



