The Sun.
London, England, 1809-04-22 00:00:00

vaan saloy,aaesiie
that that comlba—shoeld belairly investigated, and
that Ito misreptesefitation of thefafia aheuld,be sub-
stituted 'toril,e Nas themselves. e. The Jirst of tln-s
tnisrepresentatiOns which he ahtruld,notice was, the
insinuation that hisaMajesty:s- Ministe're had used
every means in their power to-,stir. up, the popialal•
feeling o this subjeEt It must he eyiklent to eyzry
unprejtaliaed mind; that`this was not tlie case, but
.that: the popular teeling:had been' -expressed spontaa
neously and consentatieously.,, The NobleEar.l had
censured his Majesty's Government for,precipita-
lion ; .he had declared it to be his opinieti, that they
ought 104 ave waited tot ascertain the "probability of
tlir
.sic by of .the cause of patriotism'. in, Spain, be.
fore they ntiered:the Spaniards assistance.. This was
a most- extraordinary oSitlion. ' What ! when, the
feeling of resistaneeaigainst oppression was so strong
and so general in Spain; would- it' have been, .hoa
nourable to the British
,charaattr, had his Majesty's
Ministers told the gallant Spaniards—Jf We will not
give you aid whileyou are Most in want of it; while
your etliarts at emancipation are in infancy;- but
we will defer our assistance until you are in full
strength,-and need it not ?"—Had such been the
language Meld by his Majesty's Ministers, they
Would itidt'ed have 'deserved the reprobation of
every man in the 'country. It was a Singular sir=
cumatance in the hostility shewn to his Majesty's'
Ministers; with respect to their c9tritat.l4 in the afa
lairs of Spain, that "each individual who censured
their-Matt had a plan of his own, but that utfertu-
,nately none of- these plans had a single pritkiplc!
of agreement with each other, l'his at least slitawni
,ed the 'dif6etilli under which his Mitjesty's Mini
titers had laboured in. the ferritaticin of 'their own
measures, althotlith it -afforded, a facility: lo
l'lncli"g 'hel); He teas convinced that be sh(Vta be
able satisfactorily to. prove 'to -their Lordshißiwo
things; the first, that, the plan odeptetiby hisriMai
jeSty'a Ministers with roortl (o.4oV..49k4NtfVcst
wise and .eatiedlent that' etitillir11;-
haW, ken; adopted,
and that it was pursued will liztlftritfriataiit
and tirnmess ; the secon&rthat tead any other elan
heen,adopted; it. would -prObably t lent t%en t ore
aneceasitik than the play adopted; byt:theLoat. Wire
Noble `bad coinentled that his,„MjjeaVaklia
riisteril'hat been i'erialtiain.uvt hating made a great
effort in
,Spain itself in instatece,,klow
beitire-"any' opinion lielointal
,On the pre-
—piety of such a step, it must-be' '-considereat
that. Kiva!, te any extefaabothoperatiomof the mea-
sure alluded to, it must hp_tjeceasary to, look Or'
some sale port,wherethe troops Knight be disem-
barked without' danger,
,into which. the yiatuallers
could be '• received. with rase, and 'near which the
men of war Might 'have remained for the purpose
•
°f operation; As 'a .general principle be might
• safely 'contend that it .was impracticable, and that
tt, Pra4tipable, it was .not:, wise to send a large.
ttti la army` into the inierioa4of' any continental
country, without the previous .attaiernentaor the
int:Ali:4 by_ which •that army.wotild be4rendered se.
cure. • These means- werewholly wanting, on the
tertit-west coast of Spain, r&cortitraaided -by, the
Noble Earl. No security could there be found for
i.e-OMbarkation troops—,no facility there existed
for oxtensiveoperationt.. The provinCeathere were
worse itipplied With provision' than :any other in
Span,. If any confirmation of .these assertions were
wanting, it would be .found in the ..opirlialOof
the Martinis de 11 Olatia, who! having to, he sent
!_k4) hia litnited.force to Si. Andero, where he had
vverriliducernent-to. wish for the neighbauthood of
a British army, distinttly d-eeitred,- that wa might
have an ertlrepot at COMII4IO,'FIt Vigo, at Feri 01, al
; • hut at _no port on'- the .north ,west coast
of Spain. Thus Mr', it Was proved . that midi a
measure would—be militarily inipraeticable. It
reittained to shew that had it net been militarily
itnln Icticable, it Would, halite breve i
polaicaily max-
Pedielq at that time to,have sent a 'large British
army into Spain. 'Spain rose-by separate provinpes;
these aaparate'provioces had 'separate Junta's, :pepaa
rate' arrhies, and separate Getierals. There was
DO Coo itnon centre of Union, and although he did
1101 state this as an obj'etaion to sending a ciefi-
Cle fora: foi a definite- objeff, yet be contended,
that considering the unavoidable jealousies which
Must have existed among so many' authorities of
equal rank and 'power; it would have been highly
imprudent 'to have trested a' British army in the
'wart of Spain, until some one of those authori-
ties obtained a predominating influence. He 'knew
that it- lia•I been urged as 'matter of complaint, that
demands had been. made for assistance by some of
the provinces in Spain, which demands had been un-,
complied with. Ten thousand men had been asked'
for by
the province of Asturias: "This was for local
defence., It became a matter of consideratiOn to 11'1'5'1
Majesty's Ministers, whether or. not it would be wise
to grant this request ; and ter certainly fornied• otie Of
• the principal reasons for their refusal. The point
for. which the assistance was sought; was one of the
least vnlnerable to 'the enemy..— Another complaint
made -was, that the Province of °Alicia had called
for the assistance of cavalry,. which had never been
sent theul. He laelieveti„:. howev.er, that ''no Minis-
ter who knew his ditty ,would havezdvised his Ma-
jesty to send cavalry to Gallic:la without accompany..
ing it with a due proportion of infantry. 13esides, in
Its.opinion, it would have been most fatal to the

-I

caipie of Spain, and the Spanish army, to have sent
tht-iii this aid of cavalry, tar it would have drawn
the Spanish infantry from the mountains down to
I.lie plains Where alone the British cavalry! could
aZiect,• but, where the French intantry- were in
irresistible superiority of nut bers lra June,i when
V))0 AM turian Deputies; and afterwards 'the Gallician
ePt*s• arrived.in this country; a British military
(rce wal preparing for embarkation tinder the com-
inatid of Sir A. Wellesley, The' noble Earl was,
However, Mistaken in supposing,'
whatever might
J'ilt:e been the originfil destination of that force; that
in the breasts of-his Majeatys Mi-
l'Ners the least , intention to persevere in carrying
t!" qriginal object, in execution,
_after they were
i -1'1111(41 of the appearance,,however partial, of re-
silit''le.t? in Spain to French tyranny. This, force,
out with diredihns to proceed, either to the
t)111-11 "I S'i.itift' or to the Tagus ; and it was judged
eApecuestt totentrust Sir A—Wellesley with a uiscre.!
,tinitiVY hilv ~ tsvro.tit his.- subitel . The. Noble k;arf bad
1t41t4 isiS nijeiitj's hltnisters had -Ben.; tins
v.'ittiout -tuy, -definite object. But
►;ll4l;,:liiila° Vir roan hate thoN.ht of
'4l"."4:9tr's Ooretattient-11 they bad 'di:lived their