present, to lend to the cause of the nations of the peninsula, or to that of any other country similarly situated, that support and those exertions which, when made under all the circumstances of our present situation, must be found

not only wholly unavailing to our allies, but highly injurious to our selves.

Two days after these opinions were delivered, the telegraph announced the news of Massena's retreat.

THE language of the anarchists upon this occasion was as characteristic of their feelings as of their want of foresight, and of that knowledge which alone can be the foundation of political wisdom. When the first news of Massena's retreat arrived, "The reader," said they," need not be warned against extravagant expectations, for such accounts have come too often to raise enthusiasm in any but simpletons and stock jobbers, and there seems no reason for altering the opinion which we have so often expressed, that, happen what may partially, the ultimate loss of the peninsula is as certain as ever it was, and that we are only delaying the catastrophe by needless proofs of a valour, which our enemies most probably admire much more than our allies. In the mean time, Spain does nothing, except calumniate and kill her exiled patriots; and reasonable people have long ceased to look to any place but South America for the resuscitation of Spanish independence."

When it was known beyond all doubt to those whose belief was not influenced by their wishes, that Massena was in full retreat and Lord Wellington pursuing him, "These retreats and pursuits," said they, very fine things for tickling the ears.

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are

Most probably the retreat is, as usual, an alteration of position; and the pur suit a little look-out on the occasion, enlivened by the seizure of a few unfortunate stragglers." At the discovery that this change of position was from the Zezere to the Agueda,—nothing less than the evacuation of Portugal, and the abandonment of an attempt at conquest, to the accomplishment of which the French had pledged themselves by their boasts and their proclamations, the anarchists and the despondents were neither abashed nor silenced. "Buonaparte's honour," they said, "was pledged to effect his projects in the peninsula, and unfortunately his power was as monstrous as his ambition. Massena would now throw himself upon his resources both in men and provisions; he was remo ving from a ravaged and desolate country, to one comparatively uninjured and fertile; and it was to be remarked, that while the French were falling back upon their supplies the allies were removing from their own. In such a state of things, could Lord Wellington's army long exist on the frontiers? The war had become one of supplies and expences; if the enemy could establish large magazines at Almeida, they could again advance, the

same scenes would again be repeated, and Lisbon would again become the point of defence. The result must certainly be determined by the success or ill success of the French in Spain. If Spain falls," said they, "nothing short of a miracle can preserve Portugal; and that Spain will fall, is almost as certain as that her people are self-willed and superstitious, her nobility divided and degraded, and her commanders incapable, arrogant, or treacherous." We were, moreover, warned by these sapient politicians, to remember, that there were seven marshals in Spain besides generals, with distinct commands, and that the French having retired upon their resources, had only abandoned Portugal for the season, that they might return and reap the harvest which they had left the natives to sow. It was not enough for the despondents to terrify us by thus prognosticating what the French would do, they threw out alarming hints of what they might have done. "If," said they, "Massena had received adequate reinforcements from France, the positions which he took at Guarda and Almeida would have drawn the allies into a most dangerous predicament; and let us imagine what might at this very instant be the perilous situation of Lord Wellington, if a considerable army had really been collect ed under Bessieres !"

Happy was it for England, happy was it for the peninsula, for Europe, and the whole civilized world, that the councils of this country were not directed by men who would have verified their own pusillanimous predictions, leaving the enemy unresisted, as far as Great Britain was concerned, because they believed him to be irresistible! But while the factious part of the British press was thus displaying how far it was possible for men to deaden their hearts against all generous, all noble feelings, the Portugueze government

were expressing their gratitude to England for the powerful and effectual support which she had given to her old ally. They addressed the people in language worthy of the occasion, telling them that their day of glory was at length arrived, that they had passed through the fiery ordeal, by which the merits of men were tried and purified; that they were become a great nation, worthy of their heroic protectors. "Humbling themselves," they said, “before the first and sovereign Author of all good, they rendered thanks to their prince, for establishing, in his wisdom, the basis of their defence; to his British majesty, to his enlightened ministry, and to the whole British nation, in whom they had found faithful and liberal allies, the most constant cooperation, and that honour, probity, and steadiness of principle, which peculiarly distinguished the British character; to the illustrious Wellington, whose sagacity and consummate military skill had been so eminently displayed; to the zealous and indefatigable Beresford, who had restored discipline and organization to the Portugueze troops; to the generals and officers, and their comrades in arms, who had never fought that they did not triumph; finally, to the whole Portugueze people, whose loyalty, patriotism, constancy, and humanity, had been so gloriously displayed, during the season of danger and of suffering. A nation, possessed of such qualities, could never be subdued, and the calamities of war, instead of disheartening, served only to augment its enthusiasm, and to make it feel all the horrors of the slavery with which it was threatened." Portugueze," said they, "the lamentable effects of the invasion of these barbarians; the yet smoking remains of the cottage of the poor, of the mansion of the wealthy, of the cell of the religious, of the hospital which afforded shelter and relief to the indi

gent and infirm, of the temples dedicated to the worship of the Most High; the innocent blood of so many peaceful citizens of both sexes, and of all ages, with which those heaps of ruins are still tinged; the insults of every kind heaped upon those whom the Vandals did not deprive of life— insults many times more cruel than death itself; the universal devastation of the fields, of plantations, of cattle, and of the instruments of agriculture; the robbery and destruction of every thing that the unhappy inhabitants of the invaded districts possessed :-this atrocious scene, which makes humanity shudder, affords a terrible lesson, which you ought deeply to engrave in your memory, in order fully to know that degenerate nation, who retain only the figure of men, and who in every respect are worse than wild beasts, and more blood-thirsty than tygers or lions. Wretched are they who trust in their deceitful promises! Victims of a foolish credulity, a thousand times will they repent, but without avail, of the levity with which they have trusted to the promises of a nation, without faith and without law; of men who acknowledge neither the rights of humanity, nor respect the sacred tie of an oath."

They proceeded to speak with be coming feeling and becoming pride of the manner in which the emigrants from the ravaged provinces had been received wherever they had fled. "The great expence of subsisting the numberless fugitives at Lisbon, had been supported," they said, "not only by the resources which were at the disposal of government, but still more by the voluntary donations of individuals, among whom they mentioned with particular distinction, the British subjects in Portugal. It remained to complete the work, to promote the restoration of the fugitives to their homes, to render habitable the towns which the barbarians had left covered with filth and unbu

ried carcasses, to relieve with medicine and food the sick, who were perishing for want of such assistance, to give life to agriculture, by supplying the husbandman with seed corn, and bread for his consumption for some time, and facilitating his means of purchasing cattle, and acquiring the instruments of agriculture. These," they said, were the constant cares of the goverment, these were their duties; but their funds were not even sufficient to provide for their defence, and therefore they called upon individuals for further aid."

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Lord Wellington in the preceding autumn, as soon as he fell back to the lines of Torres Vedras, had represented to his own government the distress to which those districts must be redu. ced through which the enemy past,distress which Portugal had no means of relieving. "Upon former occasions," he said, "the wealthy inhabitants of Great Britain, and of London in particular, had stept forward to relieve foreign nations, whether suffering under the calamities inflicted by Providence, or by a cruel and powerful enemy. Portugal had, on a former occasion, experienced this proof of friendship from her oldest and most faithful ally: but never was there a case in which this assistance was required in a greater degree than at present, whether the sufferings of the people, or their loyalty and patriotism, and their attachment to England, were considered. I declare," said Lord Wellington, "that I have scarcely known an instance in which any person in Portugal, of any order, has had communication with the enemy, inconsistent with his duty to his own sovereign, or with the orders he had received. There is no instance of the inhabitants of any town or village having remained, or of their having failed to remove what might be useful to the enemy, when they had sufficiently

per

That hope had now been accomplished his letter was laid before parliament, and a message from the Prince Regent was presented, stating, "That, having taken into April 8. consideration the severe distress to which the inhabitants of a part of the kingdom of Portugal had been exposed, in their sons and property, in consequence of the invasion of that country, and especially from the wanton and savage barbarity exercised by the French in their recent retreat, which could not fail," he said, "to affect the hearts of all persons who had any sense of religion or humanity, he desired to be enabled to afford to the suffering subjects of his majesty's good and faithful ally, such speedy and effectual relief as might be suitable to this interesting and afflicting occasion." According ly a grant of 100,000l. was proposed; Marquis Wellesley saying, when he moved an address to this effect, "he hoped he had not lived to see the day, though he had sometimes been surprised by hearing something like it, when it should be said that ancient faith, long tried attachment, and close connection with our allies, were circumstances to be discarded from our consideration, and that they should be sacrificed and abandoned to the mere suggestions and calculations of a cold policy." Earl Grosvenor was the only person who demurred at this motion. "He felt considerable difficulty in acceding to it," he said, " particularly when he considered how much

had been done already for Portugal, and he would ask whether their lordships were really prepared to take the whole burden upon themselves, and exempt the Portugueze altogether from the charge of relieving their own countrymen? It was a principle as applicable to public as to private affairs, that you should be just to your own people before you were generous to other nations." Upon this occasion the Marquis of Lansdowne did himself great credit. "Whatever," he said, "might have been his opinion regarding the policy of our military exertions in Portugal, no doubt existed in his mind, that the efforts made by the people of Portugal eminently deserved at our hands the aid now asked, to relieve that distress into which they had been plunged by the barbarity of the enemy. Whatever, therefore, might have been his opinion of any part of our policy in Portugal, or even if he believed that Lord Wellington would be again compelled to retreat, still he would vote for the present motion, convinced that it could not fail to make an impression in Europe highly favourable to the British character. In thus raising the estimation of the British character, by displaying its beneficence, its generosity, and its humanity, as contrasted with the savage barbarity of the enemy, the most beneficial consequences must result with a view to the great contest we were maintaining against that enemy. In extending to the people of Portugal, that generosity for which they might look through Europe and the world in vain, we placed our national character upon a pinnacle of greatness which nothing could destroy. It was through these acts that Europe would see the excellencies of our character, and its eminent superiority to that of the enemy. Even if our army was compelled to evacuate Portugal, and we should be unable to