B R I T A I N. 



Britain, that neither the honour of his majesty, n >i th. 

 rosity of the British nation, would allow tl: 

 abandon a brave and loyal people, v.lio,' cxcttion; in 

 a cause so unquestionably ji. jesty had pled- 



ged himself to maintain. 



laciivity " While the army of France lay inactive on the 

 'thi 3,1,1. Ebro and the passes into Biscay, and while Napoleon 

 ih junta, was employed in averting danger on the side of Rus- 

 sia and Germany, tlu 1 provincial juntas had leisure to 

 resolve themselves into one supreme and central body. 

 The meeting of this assembly was an imposing spec- 

 tacle, but it was nothing more. Morla was but one 

 of many traitors, who had a principal influence on all 

 its proceedings. Jealous of their generals, they gave 

 them no power, but kept them at the head of sepa- 

 rate armies, each independent of the other. They 

 misled themselves, and deceived the people into a fa- 

 tal security, by pompous proclamations, and absolute 

 falsehoods as to the state of the national resources. 

 They took no pains to recruit the armies with arms 

 and clothing. In short, during the interval that the 

 French were weak, they did nothing either to over- 

 power them before they were reinforced, or to meet 

 them with equal numbers. The whole army of the 

 patriots now, including the army of Romana, and 

 the regiments delivered from the hulks of Junot, 

 were divided into three wings. The eastern, com- 

 manded by Dun Joseph Palafox ; the north-western 

 by General Blake ; the central by Castanos. The 

 army of Castanos and Palafox, mustering 11,000 

 men, while the junta proclaimed that it was 70,000 

 strong, is described by a British officer,* who saw it, 

 as a mob of miserable peasants, without organization, 

 and with few officers that deserved the name. The 

 general and principal officers had no confidence in 

 the men, nor the men in themselves. The army of 

 Blake, even after the accession of Romana's corps 

 of 8000, could not amount to 17,000 when it fought 

 the French : it also was lamentably deficient in offi- 

 cers, food, and clothing, and in every species of war- 

 like equipment. \ 



Bonaparte having ordered a levy of 160,000 con- 

 arches scripts, set troops in motion for Spain, and followed 

 ' ew them from Paris, without waiting to hear the last 

 reply of the British to his proposals for a negotia- 

 tion. On the 12th of November he joined his bro- 

 ther Joseph with a reinforcement of 12,000 men. 

 Agreeably to the plan of the campaign chalked out 

 by the junta, Castanos crossed the Ebro at three 

 points, and suffering himself to be decoyed by the 

 French, pushed on as far as Pampeluna. When it 

 was seen that he had completely fallen into the snare, 

 Marshal Ney crossed the Ebro, routed the Spanish 

 divisions at Logrono and Colabofa, and completely 

 separated him from communication with Blake. In 

 a series of actions from the end of October, General 

 Blake's army was driven from post to post as far as 

 Espinosa. There they made a stand ; but were obli- 

 ged to recommence their retreat. During the con- 

 flict at Espinosa, a French detachment was sent against 

 the last retreat of the Gallicians at Reynosa. The 



jnaparte 



nny intu 



patriots were route il and dispersed. Blake, with 

 his sliatt'-r-'d remain:;, took refuge in Asturias. 

 remained of the corps of Romana, which had ' 

 part of the Gallician army, nYd liist to S A 

 .ind afterwards to Anturiaa. Marshal Sjnlt j,i 

 tin in closely, and entered St Andero. In the mean 

 time, the Estremaduran army, under the command of 

 the young Count Belvedere, was decoyed like Casta- 

 nos's to pass the Ebro. Advancing rashly to Burgos, 

 they were there almost annihilated. The enemy ha- 

 ving thus destroyed the two armies of the north and 

 of Estremadura, fell upon Castanos at Tudela, and 

 defeated him in an engagement, which fixed the fate 

 of the campaign. The battle of Burgos had broken 

 the centre of the enemy ; the battle of Espinosa the 

 right ; that of Tudela crushed their force upon the 

 left ; and the road to Madrid was laid open. Before 

 these fatal dispersions, Sir John Moore had commen- 

 ced his march from Portugal to support the Spanish 

 armies. Gallicia, or the borders of Leon, were fixed 

 upon by our war minister as the place for assembling 

 our troops ; and it was communicated to General 

 Moore, that 15,000 men had been ordered to sail for 

 Corunna. For the junction of these with his own 

 forces, he was directed to send such orders as he 

 should think proper to Sir David Baird, who com- 

 manded them. A distressing dilemma presented it- 

 self at the outset of Sir John Moore's army on their 

 march. Of the two great roads through Portugal 

 into Spain, viz. the northerly road t(j Almeida, or 

 the great eastern road to Elvas, it was found that 

 the latter was through a country which would not fur- 

 nish sustenance to the army ; and the former was 

 too mountainous to admit the carriage of artillery. \ 

 It was therefore necessary to divide the army. Six 

 thousand men were entrusted to General Hope, who 

 marched by the Elvas or Madrid road : The rest 

 moved by Coimbra, Abrantes, and Almeida. The 

 Spanish government had recommended Burgos a* 

 the point of union for the British troops; and Ma- 

 drid and Valladolid were the places appointed for 

 magazines. It was communicated by government to 

 General Moore, through Lovd William Bentinck, 

 that he would find between 60,000 and 70,000 men 

 assembled under Blake and Romana in the Asturiag 

 and Gallicia ; independent of Castanos's force on the 

 front and left flank of the enemy. A more complete 

 reverse of every thing which the imagination of Eng- 

 lishmen had painted of Spanish affairs could not be 

 found, than in the real state of Spain. 



In his progress, Sir John Moore found the consti- 

 tuted authorities reluctant to afford him support : ft 

 reluctance which continued, either from treachery or 

 sluggishness, throughout the whole of his campaign. 

 To increase his embarrassments, Lord Castlereagh, 

 after dispatching an inadequate supply of money, 

 wrote to the general, that silver was not to be found 

 in England, and that he must expect no more for 

 some months. Before he arrived at Salamanca, he 

 learned, that the Spaniards had been defeated at Bur- 

 gos. At Salamanca, he learned that the French had 



in. 



Gtonotflf. 



The I) 



are (! 



cd in every 



quarter. 



Sir John 

 Moore 



m.uclici 

 iito Spain. 



Captain Whittingham, in his letter to Lord William Bentinck. 



f- From Captain Carrol's dispatches, quoted in the Narrative of Sir John Moore's Campaign. 



* This was found to be an error, occasioned by the ignorance of the Portuguese respecting the state of their own country. 

 VOL. IV. PART II. i T 



