non. If they have any gunpowder, they are without flints-or, if well fed, without shoes or stockings; if not in rags, they are then without a loaf to eat. If the generals should wish to fight, the soldiers are unwilling; or if the men would make a stand, then the officers are sure to run away.

How to assist, or act in concert with such barbarians, was most difficult and dangerous; for although ignorant as Musselmen, they are less easily governed, and must ever be managed by force or fear, until some grand revolution in the whole nature of their State, shall again have replaced them among the civilized Powers of Europe.

LONDON, JUNE 1828.

THE

SPANISH CAMPAIGN

OF

1808.

THE campaign in Portugal having been brought> rather suddenly, to a conclusion, by the Convention of Cintra, and Arthur Wellesley and Sir Hugh Dalrymple, having sailed for England, Sir John Moore was nominated to command the troops destined to enter Spain. The instructions sent to Sir John from Lord Castlereagh, then Minister for the War Department, were dated the 25th September 1808, and informed him, that his Majesty had determined on employing 30,000 infantry, and 5000 cavalry in the north of Spain, to co-operate with the Spanish forces in the expulsion of the French. That 10,000 men were to join him at Corunna from Falmouth, and that he had the option of sending forward his own troops from Lisbon, either by sea or land, as he might judge most expedient. But unfortunately for Sir John Moore, some difficulties occurred at the very outset. Being himself, in a great measure, unacquainted with

the state of the country, he was induced to be lieve that the roads in Portugal were such, that it would be impossible to send forward his artillery by any route, excepting that through Elvas, Badajoz, and Madrid; in which opinion he was supported by some British officers, sent forward to report thereon. Hence, Sir John was induced to separate his guns and cavalry from the main body of his army, a measure which subsequently was sincerely regretted by himself, and productive of much delay in commencing operations from the side of Salamanca. The Central Junta at Madrid, then constituting the provisional government, had also represented to him, that it would be extremely difficult to forward by the Corunna road, even the 10,000 men who were to land there under Sir David Baird, and join him wherever he should appoint. Sir John, therefore, determined on moving forward all his own troops by land; but the Spanish Commissary General having been consulted as to the means of victualling them on the great road by Elvas, stated, that the quantity of meat required was so enormous, that in three months all the oxen in that part of the country would be consumed. The north of Portugal contained abundance of cattle; but it was represented, and unfortunately believed, that the roads there were equally impassable for our artillery, it therefore became necessary to divide the troops proceeding from Lisbon into four divisions. General

.

Hope with the artillery, cavalry, and four regiments of infantry, was to proceed by the Madrid road; General Paget with two brigades, by Elvas and Alcantara; whilst the remainder were to go through Almeida; two brigades under General

Beresford, by way of Coimbra, three under General Frazer, by Abrantes, crossing the Tagus there, and recrossing it at the pass of Villa Velha, a passage which, in former wars with Spain, had been considered the key to Lisbon. Salamanca was to be the place of re-union, and Generals Hope and Sir David Baird were to join either there, or at Valladolid.

Sir John Moore was so highly respected, both as an officer and a man, by the people of Great Britain, that his appointment was in the highest degree popular at home. He was a native of Glasgow, where he was born in 1760. From the 18th to the 23d year of his age, he had travelled on the Continent in the suite of the young Duke of Hamilton, then attended as tutor by Sir John's father, the celebrated Dr Moore, author of Zeluco : and having entered the army, he soon afterwards attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He had served in the West Indies, in Holland, and in Egypt; also in Corsica and Ireland. When in Corsica he had stormed the Convention Fort, and the outworks of Calvi, which was followed by the conquest of that island: and in Ireland he had gained the battle of Wexford, which proved the prelude to the suppression of the rebellion.

His talents had acquired him the notice and friendship of General Sir Charles Stuart, Sir Ralph Abercromby, the Marquis Cornwallis, and Mr Pitt; and that minister had even deigned to consult him on military affairs, and, on several important occasions, had yielded to his judgment. Sir John Moore was enthusiastically fond of his profession, and studied it thoroughly; but a somewhat gloomy cast of mind, conjoined with too

much sensibility for his iron-hearted profession, accustomed him to look rather on the dark than the bright side of affairs. He had imbibed a high opinion of the French as a military people, and of the ability of their generals, and the great wisdom and skill of their Emperor: which impressions, joined to too much diffidence in his own great talents, and the unrivalled valour of British sol diers, at times depressed his energies and spirit of enterprise.

Before commencing his march from Lisbon, Sir John warned his troops, in general orders, that the Spaniards were a grave orderly people, extremely sober, generous, but easily offended by any insult or disrespect. He exhorted them, therefore, to accommodate themselves to these manners, to meet with equal kindness the cordiality wherewith they would be received, and not shock, by their intemperance, a people worthy of their attachment, whose efforts they were come to support in the cause of liberty. His resolution to maintain or der and discipline, indeed, was afterwards evinced by punishing a marauder upon the march with death, at Almeida on the frontiers. And the Ge neral took that opportunity of declaring his inten tion, to show no mercy to plunderers and marau ders, or, in other words, to thieves and villains. Further to gratify the Spaniards, our army, on entering Spain, were ordered to wear the red cockade in addition to the British.

1

The several divisions having moved off, Sir John Moore quitted Lisbon on the 27th October, and, passing through Abrantes and Villa Velha, with considerable expedition, he reached the village of Abalaya on the 5th of November. Here he re