The National Register.
London, England, 1812-08-23 00:00:00

REGISTER.

No. 243.

I,

Cur Ming, Constitution, anti tabu.

PUBLISHED AT NO. 357, STRAND, CORNER Of EXETER 'CINIANOZe

PRICE 9d.

We had long acted as principals in Portugal, and as aux-
iliaries in Spain. The consequences of this conduct were
manifest. Portugal was freed from her invaders, and Spain
entirely over-run ; her armies were destroyed, and her for-
tresses taken. The responsibility of this woeful difference,
however, rested on other hands. In Portugal our career
was unobstructed by national prejudices, and we had not to
conquer the esteem and the affections of the people, before
we were allowed to defeat their enemies. In Spain, we had
to contend with far more powerful opponents than the
French—the jealousy of the Government, and the pride and
bigotry of the nation. They received our supplies of cloth-
ing, arms, and ammunition ; bus, although daily experience
taught them their inability to preserve even those articles,
which they lost as soon as they encountered the French,
and still less therefore to redeem single-handed the indepen-
dence of their country, they long disdained to follow the
encouraging example of the Portuguese, and either rejected
our co-operation on land, or suffered it with reluctance.'
It was clear that such a system of counteraction most prove
fatal to the cause of Spain, and that its defence must either
be abandoned,or carried on with encreased forces by her allies,
since her own armies were unable to maintain their ground.
But how could we insist, without incurring the danger of
totally alienating the popular mind from us, on the adop-
tion of measures, which, although calculated to promote
the welfare of the nation, were viewed with mistrust and
fear by those whom they were intended to relieve ? Their
urgency, it is true, was daily growing more apparent. All
the strong places in Catalonia had fallen ; Badajoz haci
been shamefully surrendered, Asturias re-occupied, and Va-
lencia had capitulated with an army of 20,000 men within
her walls. Cadiz, and a few towns on the eastern coast,
though still possessed by the patriots, were besieged, or open
to the enemy, and no Spanish force remained sufficiently
numerous to form, or to bear the appellation of, an army.
Yet, at such an extremity, when self-exertion had ceased,
the same national dislike to the employment of allied troops,
continued to preva# What could dispel such self-destruc-
tive blindness ? Were prejudices to be any longer respected?
Lord WELLINGTON had reached the Spanish frontiers after
the total liberation of Portugal. He saw the sunken state of
the country, and the cause of emancipation abandoned. to
a few guerilla leaders, brave and active, but at the head of
inconsiderable numbers, thinly scattered over the northern
provinces of Spain. A nation, which had three years before,
in the effervescence of her patriotism, sent upwards of three
hundred thousand volunteers to the field, now lay slumber-
ing under the yoke. He felt himself armed with the means,
not merely of breaking her sleep and exciting her to a new
feverish effort, to ha followed by deeper dejection, but at

L

-~ - ~ .

511,

reconquerirg her freedom, and drivini
he plains. H • knew that the human
aga nst grati•trde, and that whatsoever of
pe Tie might have to his advent e with
their c,•untry, tle•v would approve his
sh oild begin to feel the beeeficial cent
to ies ()the. considerations induced him iry _
in at propitious for opeiatiag a great and sudden change in
the situation of the Peninsula. Fearless of any renewed ex-
e Lion on the 'part of the Spanish people, and relying on their
na'ienal jealousy to cheek our advance, NAPOI LON had re-
calico s mug divisions of his troops from the southern side of
the I.lrenees to the banks of the Niemen, to assist him in
the overthrow of Russia. He had left in Spain little more
forces than we, e necessary to occupy the country ; for which
purpose they were scattered in small corps over the vast ex-
tent of conouered territory, and could not be formed into ar-
mies, without a teinpory evacuation , at le7 st, of whole pro-
vinces. The irruption of a powerful British force must have
that effec., even if unattended wilt other advantages. and
it w.ls arol)atiie, that in the provinces thus relieved from the
presence of .he enemy, pat'iotism would revive, and insur-
rection flame anew. This would be the consequence of
our mere advance, even without a battle ; but, supposing
that an encounter should take place, and that the French
should be defeated, how did the prospect brighten ! How
could the enemy collect new armies without abandoning
fresh provinces, and how many hosts would spring up be-
hind him as lie 'tithed, to harass his rear whilst we engaged
hisfront? The greater his difficulties would grow, the more
frequently must he have recourse of necessity to the same
remedy, which would only k et ve to spread and encrease the
evil, until having assembled the whole of his force together,
he would find that he had in fact evacuated all Spain, except
the spot on which they stood, opposed to British warriors,
and surrounded by an armed and reanimated population,
calling aloud for vengeance on their oppressors.
Such are the views which no doubt influenced the mind
of our trillion tal Commander, when he planned the Spanish
cempaign, which he has now so nearly and gloriously termi-
nated. Satisfied of the excellence of his design, and the ca-
pacity of his means, he resolved on its execution. And how
did he fulfil his own expectations? With the rapidity of the
eagle, lie stormed and captured Ciudad Rodrigo, the blll-
Wal.; of the enemy in the north, and before the terror of this
blow Itsd subsided, the key of the south, Badajoz, with an
experienced General, and a garrison of 5,000 men, fell by
assault into his power. The French commanders assembled
troops : the Asturias were evacuated to lei tifol ce M A It MONT ;
Co, dova, Seville, and the eastern coasts were left almost de-
fenceless, to enable SOULT to advance. The bridge of Al-
rnaraz, strongly defended by several forts containing im-
portant depots, formed the only point of communication
between the divided enemy. It-was destroyed, the forts
were stormed, the depots taken by our troops, and the French
Generals, dispirited and dismayed, fell back without effect-
ing their projected junction.
So many exploits and decisive advantages opened the eyes
of the Spanish Regency, and supplied tlicin with an efficient
mode of entirely conciliating the favourable opinion and
hearty concurrence of the people. Our Commander, now
grown entitled to their everlasting gratitude, received a
pledge of it for himself and his latest posterity. He was
raised to the rank of a, Grandee of Spain, with a title, the
Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, taken from one of his most glo-
rious conauests. This tribute was not only an act of jus-
lice, but of policy; for Spaniards of. all classes now consi-
dering his Lordship as naturalized among them, no

In
very provinces where suspicion and jealousy preceded,
and attended our march, we arc now welcomed with enthu-
siastic acclamations of gratitude and joy.
Reinforced, if it may be said, by the good disposition of
the people, our btaye Commander no longer delayed the
full execution of his plans, but having secured the basis
of his operations by the possession of Badajoz, Merida. and
Ciudad Rodrigo, dropped at once all defensive caution. and
dashed forward with a degree of energy and rapidity which
astonished and confiamded the enemy, who thought the cha-
racter of his adversary was changed, and saw himself com-
pelled, however unable without great sacrifices, to prepare
for active warfare. Before he had collected sufficient•num-
hers to keep the field, our army threatened Salamanca,
which he evacuated, leaving three forts, built with the ruins
of the colleges of that once magnificent place, to check our
progress, and give him time to asemble his forces. Ilis ex-
pectations, however, were disappointed. His retreat was
followed by *our main army, and a corps was left to reduce
his forts, which his bUbSeClUent manoeuvres could not save.
Pursued to the Banks of the Douro, he recrossed that river,
and all doubt haying ceased with respect to our persevering
in this system of energetic offensive operations, the most
strenuous and combined exertions were made by the whole
of the French commanders in Spain, to meet the danger and
defeat our plans. BONNET,- recalled from Asturias. eva-
cuated that principality, which was instantly covered with
patriotic parties, who harrassed hint in his march to join
MA /MONT at Toro and Tordcsillas. Leon was equally
abandoned, with the exception of Astorga, which was imme-
diately besieged by a Spanish army. Reinforcements were
ordered from Biscay, but detained by the seasonable
appearance and occasional landings of Sir HOME PornAat
on the coast. In the south, collecting all his dispo•able
force, and even weakening the besieging division before
Cadiz, SOULT advanced with superior numbers against
General HILL to alarm the right of our line of operations.
Even the pacific Josritit was impelled to arms by the peril
which menaced his usurped crown, and at the head of the
army of the centre quitted Madrid, to manoeuvre on the
right of Lord WELLINGTON, and assist MA IMON T in the
grand attack projected on his Lordship.
These preparations, although attended with considerable
sacrifices in other quarters on the part of the French, gave
them such an overbearing superiority in the field, that his
Lordship was obliged to fall back to avoid being cut off from
Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo. Reinforced by a part of
General Bo MNET'S army, and followed by the rest, M Alt•
MONT recrossed the Douro, and in his eagerness to conquer,
outstripped both the cavalry and artillery he expected from
the north, and tl.e 15,000 men which JOSEPH brought to
his assistance. His imprudence did not escape the eagle eye
of our vigilant Commander, who drew him on by a skilful
retreat still farther from his -supporters, and when he had
crossed the 'Formes, and thought himself on the eve of effect-
ing his purpose, inflicted on him that terrible defeat, which
has not only almost annihilated his army, but has overthrown
the whole plan of the campaign, and probably decided the
fate of the Peninsula.
Such have been the 'chief features of a campaign, in
which the greatest exertions of skill and power have been

AI'C;. ,
711.1.11...171.111.1.1111.111111111111.1111111111111111THE NATIONAL REGISTER. in. ,
ig the invaders from longtr shrink with offend:Ai pride at the idea of serving tinder
heart was not proof a foreigner: but glory, in obeying him not only as their de.
ibje€tion the Spanish liverer. but their countryman.
h a British army into Such was the important change suddenly produced on the
conduct when they pubic mind in Spain,by the first triumphant operations of our
(sequences of his vie- arms. Victory, in our hands, like a two-edged sword, smote at
him to deem the mo. once the prejudices and the foes of our allie* ; and in those