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with Cuesta, and when that was effected he remained unaccountably inactive, till Soult was so far recovered as to be able to paralyse all his efforts, by descending into his rear after the battle of Talavera; and when forced to retreat, he retired to an unhealthy province at an unhealthy season, where he remained some months till his army had lost a third of its amount from malaria fever.

If these

are the consequences of your triumphs, what may be anticipated from your defeats?""

This now sounds like the language of idiots, but it was not fatuity. The men who used it were as well acquainted with the true state of things as the men who refuted their arguments, exposed their absurdities, and, by excluding them from all power, rescued the honour of the empire. Whiggism knew perfectly well, that the British troops had beaten every enemy whom they encountered in Spain; that the Spanish population abhorred the invader, and that the last hope of Europe hung on the war. At the moment when they were deriding the allied strength in the Peninsula, they knew that Wellington had under his command a British force of nearly 30,000 of the finest troops in the world; with 35,000 Portuguese, commanded by British officers, and growing hourly into excellent soldiers. Their common knowledge of the resources at home, told them, that within the compass of the British islands, there were upwards of 640,000 soldiers in the national pay, with a population which but a few years before had furnished 600,000 volunteers on-the first threat of invasion; that England engrossed the commerce of the world, that her domestic wealth was enormous, and her credit so powerful that she had only to speak the word, and see pouring into her treasury every ounce of gold in the world. The motives which actuated faction we do not condescend to develop; it is enough for us to remember and to rejoice, that Whiggism gained nothing by its labour of prophecy but scorn; that it was thrown into deeper disgrace by every increase of national honour; and that the common feelings of the nation not merely flung it hopelessly from its height, but trampled on it, at every step of its advance to victory. The historian with equal truth and eloquence observes, that if opposition

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"When the tide had obviously turned crowned the British arms, and the waves -when success had in a durable way of Gallic ambition had permanently receded from the rocks of Torres Vedras

their conduct was of a more reprehensible cast; it became the fit subject of moral censure. With slow and unwilling steps they receded from their favourite position, as to the impossibility of defending Portugal: they still heaped abuse upon Ministers for their conduct in the contest, although it was chiefly blameable, in time past, from having been too much framed on their advice; it was a cold and reluctant assent which they yielded even to the merits of Wellington himself. This insensibility to national glory, when it interfered with party ambition-this jealousy of individual greatness, when it obscured party renown proved fatal to their hopes of accession to power during the lifetime of the generation which had grown up to manhood. in the revolutionary war Doubtless it is the highest effort of patriotic virtue to exult at successes which are to confirm an adverse party in power,-doubtless no small share of magnanimity is required to concede merit to an opponent who is withering the hopes of individual elevation: but nations, from men acting on the great theatre of the world, have a right to expect such disinterestedness; it is the wisest course in the end even for themselves; and experience has proved that in every age really generous hearts are capable of

such conduct."

It is even now interesting, as a record of the resources which England has in her bosom for the day of danger, to give a slight recapitulation of the means exerted by a country which faction at that moment declared to have no hope but in submission, to be utterly exhausted, and as much sunk in spirit as undone in finance. The parliament of this bankrupt nation voted the following astonishing amount in men and money for the year 1811

The History of Europe.

were

"No less than L.19,540,000 was voted
for the navy, and L.23,869,000 for the
army, besides L.4,555,000 for the ord-
nance, and L.2,700,000 for the support
of the Portuguese forces. The per-
manent taxes amounted to L.38,232,000,
and the war yielded above L.25,000,000,
and the loan was L.16,636,000, including
L.4,500,000 for the service of Ireland.
The total Ways and Means raised on
account of Great Britain
L.80,600,000, and L.10,309,000 on ac-
count of Ireland-in all L.90,909,000.
This income, immense as it was, fell
short of the expenditure of the United
Kingdom, which that year reached
L.92,194,000.
220,000 soldiers in the regular forces,
The army numbered
81,000 militia, besides 340,000 local
militia; and the navy exhibited 107
ships of the line in commission, besides
119 frigates. The total vessels of war
belonging to the United Kingdom were
1019, of which no less than 240 were of
the line.

"The supplies voted for the succeed
ing year, 1812, were still greater. The
net produce of the permanent taxes in
that year was no less than L. 40,000,000, of
the war L.26,000,000, in all L.66,000,000,
and L.29,268,000 was raised by loan,
including L.4,500,000 for the service
of Ireland, and L.2,500,000 for that
of the East India Company, guaran-
teed by Government.
L.20,500,000, for the army L.25,000,000,
Eor the navy
besides L.4,252,000 for the ordnance:
the loans to Portugal, Spain, Sweden,
Sicily, and Russia, L.5,315,000, the in-
terest of the national debt L.23,124,000;
and still no less than L.13,482,000 was
applied to the sinking fund. The navy,
during this year, consisted of 978 ships
of all sizes, of which 236 were of the
line, and 102 line-of-battle ships, and 131
frigates in commission. The army num-
bered 227,000 regular soldiers, besides
76,000 regular, and 335,000 local mili-
tia. It seemed as if, as the contest con-
tinued and the scale on which it was
conducted was enlarged, the resources
of the empire, so far from declining,
widely expanded."

In addition to this palpable evidence of wilful disregard of the actual condition of the public resources, it was proved that the population had been increasing since the beginning of the century, at an annual rate of thirteen per cent; the censuses of 1811 giving an increase of a million and a half since 1801 a rate which has since gone on even increasing, and which, notwithstanding immense drains by

[July,

emigration and settlement on the continent, now gives a number for millions. Great Britain alone, of nearly eighteen unequal to the sustenance of a war of Such was the country, whose resources faction declared to be people whom their miserable avarice two years; and such the spirit of a and worthless avidity for place would have sunk into the vassalage of Na. poleon.

We turn gladly to other things.
The commencement of 1810 found the
vanced; a French king in Madrid,
French possession of Spain far ad-
rillas worn out, the nation despairing,
the native armies dissolved, the gue-
and 300,000 of the finest troops of
and fortresses, with perhaps the single
France in command of all the cities
exception of Cadiz.
army, Wellington's, consisting only
battle of the land there was but one
To fight the
of 50,000 in the field, and those ha-
rassed by the effort to defend Portugal
while they watched over Spain. But
commander, it is cheering to find that
the true source of the British successes
great as were the services of their
was in the British heart, and that
indomitable character of his country.
wherever the soldier of England was
to be seen, he equally exhibited the
A single trait of the defence of Cadiz
offers an admirable illustration. The
Cortes had taken refuge in Cadiz,
the last relic of the government; the
army under Albuquerque, by a rapid
and fortunate exertion, had anticipated
the city, the last relic of the native
the march of the French, and entered
army. The French had been close
on their steps, and had thrown up
stantly dispatched with 2000 troops
batteries. General Stewart was in-
from Gibraltar to assist in the defence,
and his first effort was judiciously
fire should be ineffectual. Nothing
directed to repelling her enemy's ar-
tillerists to a distance from which their
could be more opportune than the
British general's arrival; for, though
the brave inhabitants were found, as
at all times, ardent in the national
all was alarm, convulsion, and con-
cause, and furious against the French,
fusion.

while they had abandoned the strong
Such was the ignorance of the
Spanish engineers at this period, that,
holds of Matagorda and the Troca-
dero, from which the enemy's shells

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"The first care of General Stewart after his arrival was to regain Fort Matagorda, where batteries were already constructing to bombard Cadiz. This important service was successfully performed by Captain M'Lean, at the head of 150 seamen and marines. Its dismantled works were hastily restored, and guns planted on the ramparts, which not only silenced the field-pieces of the enemy directed against them, but severely galled their advancing works on the Trocadero Point. The whole efforts of the French were therefore directed to regain possession of this fort on the mainland; and with such vigour were operations conducted, and such resources for a siege did they find in the arsenal of Seville, that, in a few weeks, they had fifty pieces of heavy cannon placed in battery against its walls: while a Spanish seventy-four and armed flotilla, which had hitherto co-operated in the defence, were obliged, by a tempest of red-hot shot, to slip their cables and move across to Cadiz. The feeble rampart soon gave way before this tremendous weight of metal; but though the walls were ruined, and the enemy's balls flew so thick that a flag-staff bearing the Spanish colours was broken six times in an hour, and at last they could be kept flying only by being nailed to the corner of the rampart, yet the heroic little garrison, with their dauntless commander, Captain M'Lean, still maintained their ground, and from the midst of the ruins kept up an unquenchable fire on the besiegers. For six-and-thirty hours this marvellous resistance was prolonged, till at length General Graham, who had succeeded to the command of

the British troops in the Isle, seeing

that half of the band were killed or wounded, withdrew them in boats to the opposite side, and the bastions, after being blown up, were abandoned to the enemy.*

"The brave resistance of this little band of heroes proved the salvation of

Cadiz, and eventually exercised a material influence on that of the civilized world. For fifty-five days they had held the post on the enemy's side, and in the midst of his batteries; and by simply maintaining it they had prevented any attack being made in other quarters. During this important interval the panic had subsided in Cadiz; the British troops had been augmented to 8000 men by reinforcements from Lisbon and Gibraltar; six millions of dollars, recently arrived from Mexico, had replenished the public treasury; heavy taxes on houses within, and imports into Cadiz furnished a small permanent revenue; the Spanish garrison was considerably augmented by volunteer battalions raised in the city, and numerous detachments brought by sea from different points on the coast; the whole ships of war had been brought round from Ferrol; and thirty thousand men in arms within the walls, supported by a fleet of twenty-three ships of the line, of which four were British, and twelve frigates, were in a condition not only to defy any attack, but to menace the enemy in the lines which they were constructing round the bay. Victor, who was at the head of the blockading force, had not above 20,000 men under his command, so widely had the vast French force which burst into Andalusia been dispersed to compel obedience and levy contributions over its widely extended territory. Despairing, therefore, of carrying the place by open force, he resolved to turn the siege into a blockade."

This is all gallantly told-the brilliant narrative of a brilliant incident. We give another, though of a more painful nature, from the Catalonian war. The countries on the eastern coast of Spain, in 1811, had become the scene of campaigns distinguished alike by remarkable adventure on the part of the native troops, and remarkable cruelties on that of the invaders. Climate is perhaps the great source of national character, and the Spanish border of the Mediterranean exhibits a race moulded on the model which seems to shape all the Mediterranean nations. Singular elasticity of frame

* “ A memorable instance of female heroism occurred at the siege. A sergeant's wife named Retson was in a casemate with the wounded men, when a drummerboy was ordered to fetch water from the well of the fort. On going out the boy faltered under the severity of the fire, upon which she took the vessel from him; and although a shot cut the bucket-cord when in her hand, she braved the terrible cannonade, and brought the water in safety to the wounded men.-NAPIER, iii, 181; and Sketch of a Soldier's Life in Ireland, 72,"

with singular fondness for enjoyment; elegance of taste combined with violence of passion; a feeling of luxury approaching to the sensual, and an elevation of spirit approaching to the sublime. The Italian, the Greek, and the eastern Spaniard form a separate, and, if the vices of their governments would permit, a splendid class of mankind. Even the barbarism of

Africa softens as it touches the waters of that loveliest of all seas, and the Moor has the love of romance, the faculty of song, and the delight in ornament which distinguish the dwellers on its shores. The Mediterranean is the fount of cool waters in the fiery centre of Europe, tempering the glow of the sky, and not more refreshing the soil than softening the native fervours of the people. That there is still much to be done is beyond question; and ages of tranquil government may be required before the settlement of the volcanic and angry vividness of the public mind into tranquil vigour. But the characteristics are still prominent; even the physical influence of the fresh breeze and the sky-coloured surge may soften the spirit that it cannot subdue, and have a powerful share in converting those

"Souls made of fire, and children of the sun,"

into the inventors of all that constitutes the elegance of life, and masters of all the arts which captivate and cheer society; yet to take a greater part in the coming of happier and purer times, and realize their early and broken promise to be the statesmen, the heroes, and perhaps the saints of a reviving world.

Catalonia, the finest of those eastern provinces, had been among the first invaded; but the year 1811 saw the attention of the French government for the first time strongly turned to its conquest. A vast force under Marshal Macdonald and Suchet was thrown across its frontier, and the truggles began with appalling violence.

"Macdonald was engaged during these operations in northern Catalonia in an enterprise which has left an enduring stain on his memory. After the departure of Suchet for Saragossa, consequent on the fall of Tortosa, the marshal had set out from Lerida for Barcelona, not by the direct road of Igualada, which was occupied in force

by Sarsfield, but by the circuitous route of Manresa. Sarsfield, apprised of his intention, lay in the rocky heights in the neighbourhood of Mont Serat to assail him in the march. The Italians, who formed the head of the column, encountered a severe opposition at the bridge of Manresa, which was strongly barricaded; but having forced their way through, they, with wanton barbarity, set fire to the town, though it had made no resistance and was almost entirely deserted by its inhabitants, and even tore the wounded Spaniards from the hospital. The flames spreading with frightful rapidity, soon reduced 700 houses to ashes, among which were two orphan hospitals, and several other noble establishments both of industry and beneficence. Macdonald, who witnessed the conflagration from the heights of Culla, at a short distance, made no attempt to extinguish the flames; but, resuming his march on the following morning, left the smoking ruins to attest where a French marshal's army had passed the night. But the wanton act of barbarity was quickly and condignly avenged, The inhabitants of all the neighbouring hills, struck by the prodigious light which, through the whole night, illuminated the heavens, hastened at daybreak to the scene of devastation, and, wrought up to the highest pitch by the sight of the burning dwellings, fell with irresistible fury on the French rearguard as it was defiling out of the town, while Sarsfield himself assailed the long column of march in flank, when scattered over defiles, and before Macdonald reached several leagues of woody and rocky

Barcelona he had sustained a loss of 1000 men. The hideous cruelty of this conflagration excited the utmost indignation, not only in Catalonia, but throughout the whole of Spain. The war assumed a character of vengeful atrocity, hitherto unequalled even in that sea of blood; and the Spanish generals, justly indignant at such a wanton violation alike of the usages of war, and the convention hitherto observed in Catalonia, issued a proclamation directing no quarter to be given to the French troops in the neighbourhood of any town which should be delivered over to the flames."

One of the peculiar sources of our interest in these annals, is their constant reference to principles above

man.

The almost universal fault of civil history is its utter forgetfulness of the mighty hand that controls all. There can be no more injurious error, even if historic effect were the only

purpose of the writer. It degrades history into a mere phantasmagoria, a giddy and irregular display of events, following each other without a purpose, amusing us by their various colourings, or eccentric novelty, but, after all, only the amusement of children, History ought to have nobler aims, and true history has a nobler nature. It is an attempt to light up the winding and intricate course of human things by an illumination from a fount of lustre alike permanent and pure; no fantastic plan of human invention, but a splendour which we know to exist, to be perpetually radiating upon earth, and, whether visible or invisible, to be the true sustaining influence of the whole vitality of the world. We are fully aware that the pursuit of this principle may be urged beyond the limits of the human understanding that fanaticism may exaggerate and superstition appalthat a wise man will be cautious of mistaking the dream for the reality, and a religious man will approach with awe the spot where the visible presence is revealed. But, like the prophet of the desert, the Christian philosopher will not the less reverence the light which the Deity inhabits before his gaze, because he is commanded to put off his shoes, and do homage to the holiness of the ground. Nothing, too, can be more important to sustain the energies of a great people, nor to encourage them in fighting the battle of principle, if evil times should come once more, than the recollection that their past triumphs were not matters of Chance. To have had Providence for our protector, is to have obtained an honour superior to all that is named among men, and, not less, obtained a security of success for all the future, while we retain the same principles. That the hand of Providence guided England through the war of the French Revolution, we think, is as capable of proof, as that it guided the Israelites into the possession of the Promised Land. The delays and disappointments, the slowness of Europe, and the tardiness of British victory, disheartening as they were at the period, are now seen to have been essential to the ripening of that bigh and consummate catastrophe which was at once to vindicate Divine justice, and to liberate insulted human nature. Even in the Penin

sula, if either the Spanish armies had repulsed the French across the frontier in the first campaign, or Wellington had been placed at the head of a force corresponding to the strength of England and the importance of the contest, Napoleon might have been master of Europe at this hour. We can now see, that it was the alternation of success and failure which at once tempted him to continue the Peninsular war, and England to persevere in the struggle. Sudden and total defeat in Spain would have made Napoleon shrink from a war which tempted him to an hourly waste of strength, encouraged the latent hostility of the continent, enfeebled the renown of his soldiery, and, when the moment of continental outbreak came, divided his gigantic host, and left him to pace the walk of the civilized world, with a thousand miles between the wings of his army. He himself felt that there his ruin lay. At St Helena, he spoke of it as "his ulcer," the decay that sapped his throne, the cloud that hung upon his star. His sagacity had long before seen it to be his especial peril; but he was unable to resist its temptation until it fell upon him as his fate. If there be a due indulgence to the sense of justice in the pangs of ambition, it probably could have no keener feast than in many a night, when Napoleon, in the midst of sycophancies, and after a levee of kings, at the Tuilleries, spent the hours till dawn over a map of the Peninsula.

On this subject we entirely coincide with Mr Alison's striking and forcible conclusions. After describing the conquest of Suchet in the east of Spain, as apparently menacing the last hopes of the Spaniards, he observes,—

"So little can even the greatest sagacity or the strongest intellect foresee the ultimate results of human actions, and so strangely does Providence work out its mysterious designs by the intervention of free agents, and the passions often of a diametrically opposite tendency of mankind, that if there are any circumstances more than others to which the immediate catastrophe which occasioned the fall of Napoleon is to be ascribed, it is the unbroken triumphs of Suchet in the east, and the strenuous efforts of the English Opposition to magnify the dangers, and underrate the powers of Wellington in the west of the

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