Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-08-26


I have to thank you for inserting in a late
issue Of your paper some structures on the
statements of one of your correspondents on the
above and kindred subjects; and by anticipa-
ton, for granting me further space for this COM
muncation, in which to comment on several re-
iterations OF his former assertions by that CORE
spondent, who. while he apparently wthdraws
some of his outposts makes determined stand
upon certain positions in which history, open to
US ALL does not bear him out.
At first that gentleman stated that England
unsupported, drove every Frenchman out Of
Portu cal and Spain during the Peninsular war;
now. he acknowledges that lat the commence
ment OF the campaign there were few regi-
ments of Portuguese, ''dried exclusively by
British officers" on the English side. We are
glad he now recOllectS 1.-The very great perfec-
tion" which history states that Beresford and
Trant attained to in drilling the Portuguese,
and would further refresh his memory by the
suggestion that these troops did somewhat at
Rolissa Coimbra and elsewhere. and that We'll
lngton said in his dispatches: ''They have
shown themselves worthy of cOntending in the
same ranks with British troops" More noble
testimony. and more trustworthy this than the
belittleing of the Portuguese, and even
that done grudgingly and tardly by your
cOrrespOndent But that gentleman continues:
afterwards Lord Wellington was tortured by
the presence of some Spanish auXiliaries, but
they behaved so badly that after the
battle of Talavera Wellington shook them off
and performed the great work
unaided by foreigners" History, to
which we can all refer. shows that before and
during that war the Spaniards, though divided
into bitter political factions and sometimes torn
By civil war, fought the French continuously,
with or without the aid of the British, with
pertinaciOus elasticity which knew no defeat;
and even the One-sided pages of ScOtts Life of
Napoleon swarm with their actions and praises.
OF the former Almonacid Tamanes, Ocana,
(Far 1a1n II do hnf Nnln
Murviedra. Buen Retro, are only some in which
they were engaged, while other places besides
SaragOssa. in its two sieges. showed that even
the women could fight well for their country,
.and-(yOur correspondent is fond OF stirring
poetry stalk with Mnerya's step where Mars
might fear to tread Admitting that most of
these battles and sieces resulted in defeat. they
created powerful diversions and kept French
armies in such active play that we may easily
suppose Wellington would have been pleased
with much more of such torture" He ''shOOk
them off, indeed, after Talavera. and imme-
diately shook himself off to Portugal i'm cOnse-
Quence of the temporary lack of the very
"support which your correspondent alto
gether denies. The whole country, from Ma
varre to CadiZ, carried on the war literally "to
the knife regardless Of the discipline and
numbers Of the French. or the shaking off" of
the English: they fought so well that Spanish
guerilla warfare has become proyerbial and
some three years after TaIavera, Wellington did
not disdain to accept the supreme command of
the Spanish forces, offered him by the COrtes
nor did these allies fail him at CaSteIla Pam.
piona and others of the very final actions of the
war in Spain. From first to last, therefore, the
patriots fought, either independently or i'm COM
bination. as perhaps no people ever fought in
the history OF the wOrld,-and yet your CORE
spondent takes his stand upon his for
mer utterances' that England was '.unsuppOrt-
ed" The man who has the honor to have been
commissioned to write biography of Yelling
ton should aspire to the far greater honor of
torical side issues which constitute moral and
material support. especially when his surs
are as uncalled for as they are unayailing: does
he fear that the uster of his hero's fame will be
dimmed if simple justice and truth be meted out
to the Portuguese and Spanards?
But your correspondent in his last letter uses
the curious expression, ~ naided by foreign
ers-" Were not the British themselves "fOr-
eigners, or. II he means unaded by other for
eigners let US see how the case stands. While
the PenInsular war was raging France fought
bloody campaign with Austria, which re
called Napoleon himself from, Spain; a war
with Russia. in which the troops intended for
Spain ,cere diue-ted from their first destination:
awar in the Tyro met with the growing re-
estance throughout Germany, which eliminated
In Leipsic; was again compelled to ,cittd,ao
forces from Spain; suffered dissensions among
her own citizens, and finally saw the OccupatiOn
or Paris by the allies gathering from the north
ward and eastward. To assert that these and
other diversions by foreigners gave absolutely
NO aid to England in the Peninsula would be
to claim that each dog of the pack in bull
batting was '.unaided," that each ship in the
bombardment the other day was ..unaided, ~
that each-but why multiply illustrations for q
man who shuts his own eyes and supposes no
one else can see?
Before passing from this part of the subject It
u well to inquire what brought the British to
the Peninsula 1t was no unselfish sentiment of
admiration toward a people struggling for liber-
~. but because the Spaniards had already done
Crreh .apS Oh ERaa xaf0
and elsewhere, that England thought they might
be used to carry out her designs. And why did
the English cool toward the Spanards? Because
having achieved great and difficult tasks ''they
expected from them on all occasions not mira
Giles only, but sometimes even impossibilitie5 ~
(Scott, vol. H., D. 2O5.)
Your correspondent intimates that if soldiers
Of another nationality are Differed and paid by
England she can still be said to- act unsupported
and Isolated In other words if your CORE
spondent was to substitute and direct John
Sullivan and Tug Wilson i'm helping
him to double up his supposititous enemies
Brown, Jones and Robinson, he would
still claim that hewas unsupported and isolated
Well whatever we are bound to think now. we
hardly supposed it before But even granting
that the British, HaGoverans and the German
Legion enumerated separately i'm Captain ST.
borne's campaign of Waterloo. were all British
they did not constitute two-thirds of the allied
force on the field of battle according to that
authority: TO wave the support of Blucher's
NIFTY thousand men when both combatants were
worn out.
1t is indeed unnecessary" to recur again
TO the Danish exploit" which even a British
apologist says would have been '.unustfable"
but for circumstances" or to the course as
dark as it is long; of the British in India, and
which no present building OF roads and digging
OF canals can atone for.
We also decline to admire either the glory or
Isolation of England in her successful dispersion
OF Chartist procession in London in 1913. and
which did not reach the dignity Of riot: the
glory, for obvious reasons; the isolation because
Jour modest correspondent states that he gave
that country aid and support with his '.rolIing-
pin" The mind reels in the contemplation Of
the possibilities involved in such an alliance
when your correspondent parades the present
isolated position of England in Egypt we can
aye him that his confidence in England's
individual strength" is not shared by all his
former eountrymen- Here Is what an English
paper or some note says: What with
indla and ireland, the sending of this
small expedItionary force to Egypt compels
as to call out portion OF the re-
serves At the very outset
-