unquestionable zeal and firmness. As this declaration was unsatisfactory and indefinite, the board was called upon by the duke of York to resume its consideration of the armistice and convention, and pronounce decidedly whether they thought them advisable. The armistice was condemned by lord Moira; the convention was disapproved of by the same nobleman, by the earl of Pembroke, and general Nicolls. Six, therefore, of the seven members, approved of the armistice, and four approved of the convention. The dissentient members delivered in their reasons for the opinion which they gave. General Nicolls and earl Pembroke confined themselves to a military point of view. Lord Moira took a wider scope, and argued against the moral and political effects of this unhappy treaty. The proceedings were concluded by a declaration from the king, adopting the unanimous opinion of the board that no proceeding was necessary, but expressing his disapprobation of those articles, in which stipulations were made directly effecting the interests and feelings of the Spanish and Portuguese nations. He reprehended the delay of sir Hew Dalrymple in transmitting the convention, as the cause of much national inconvenience, but abstained from any observations on its remaining conditions.

The British commander-in-chief was not aware of the political faults which he had committed till they were thus pointed out. The disregard to an independent ally, manifested both in the armistice and the convention, proceeded from pure want of thought and feeling in the English generals, not from intentional disrespect; and sir Hew Dalrymple no sooner discovered in what manner it was resented by the Portuguese, than he assured general Friere, (adding also that he would use the neces sary means of giving publicity to the pledge,) that he served in Portugal as the commander of a force acting in alliance with that country, and that therefore he considered himself bound, by duty and honor, to pay as strict a regard to the interest of the prince regent, the dignity and security of the government, and the welfare of the nation

of which he was the lawful ruler, as the Portuguese general himself. Another protest came from the Monteiro Mor, governor of Algarve, president of the junta of that kingdom, and general of the army of the south; he requested that, on account of the robberies and atrocities of the French, the vessels employed to carry them home might be embargoed till the king of England and the prince regent should resolve on what was best for the honor and interest of the two nations he required also that a rigorous inventory should be made of their baggage, by Portuguese and English commissioners, that they might not carry with them the booty which they had so infamously obtained.

From all these difficulties in which the British commanders had involved themselves and their country, an opportunity was afforded them of escaping, if not with honor, at least with diminished ignominy, by the French themselves, who, in violation of the provisions of the treaty, demanded, and actually received, money arising from the revenues of the country, after it had been signed. No farther ground could have been wanting at once to have annulled the convention, and declared Junot and his whole army prisoners of war; this palpable infraction having been thus committed. But throughout the whole of these deplorable transactions, the utmost delicacy was observed towards the French, as if they were the only persons whose feelings were to be consulted. Sir Arthur Wellesley, during the negotiation, proposed that some mode should be devised to make the French generals "disgorge the churchplate which they had stolen." An article was framed in consequence, specifying in direct terms, that the property of churches, monasteries, galleries of paintings, &c. should not be carried away; but this article was withdrawn on the repeated representations of Kellerman, and at Junot's particular request, because he said it ap peared so reproachful to the French army to have it introduced into a public document; and the British generals consented to have it withdrawn, for the very reason which should have made them insist upon

:

Its publication,-contenting themselves with Junet's word of honor, that nothing of the kind should be renewed. General Kellerman, too, disclaimed all idea of military men conducting themselves with such a spirit of individual rapacity, as had been attributed, in some instances, to the French officers; and even expressed his hope, that, if there were any guilty persons in the army, they might reap no benefit from their misconduct.

Sir Hew Dalrymple lent a willing car to these excuses. Encouraged by this, Junot demanded five Danish ships to remove his own personal effects. This indeed was too much, yet the frigate in which he sailed had not sufficient space for his baggage, and he carried off no fewer than twelve carriages. It seemed as if the French general supposed that whatever he asked must necessarily be conceded, and imagined that military men could not have been so outwitted in negotiation, unless they had been in some degree afraid,-not indeed of any army which they had beaten, but of the vengeance which the great Napoleon might afterwards exact. But the impudence of this demand, and the robberies which he still continued to commit, at length provoked the English, and in some degree alarmed them for the consequences. The Juiz de Povo of Lisbon, presented a formal protest against the convention. The terms had not been made public; nor would it have been safe to have published them. In fact, though the substance was but too plainly manifested, the treason itself was not seen by the Portuguese nor the British army till it reached Lisbon in the English newspapers. The victory which the French obtained by negotiation more than counterbalanced the humiliation of defeat. They even denied that they had been defeated; they affirmed that they had dictated the terms, and Junot continued to occupy the royal box at the opera till his departure.

Sir Hew Dalrymple at length perceived that, owing to the shameful and open manner in which the French were preparing to carry off the public and private property, the popular fermentation was violently

excited, and that the rage of the people was little less directed against the English than the French. Through the intervention, therefore, of general Beresford and lord Proby, the commissaries for executing the convention, the spoils of the museum and royal library were reclaimed. But the most valuable fruits of their rapine, the money which they had collected, they were suffered to carry off: They escaped from Portugal with three months' pay for the whole army in the general military chest, and distributed large sums to the different regiments, to be carried off in their regimental chests. Intimation was given that 53 boxes of Indigo were embarked with the private baggage of Junot, and the plunder was seized; but this was a trifling drawback upon the treasures which remained, and presented a poor atonement for all the subservience, imbecility, and indifference of the English generals throughout the whole of these transactions. Every precaution was taken to repress the indignant resistance of the people, and the baggage could not have been embarked but under the continual protection of an English guard. General Kellerman was only preserved from assassination on his return to the water side from, a visit to a British officer, by the courage and humanity of the English sailors.

The French troops from Almeida were marched to Porto, (commonly called Oporto,) under a British escort, there to be embarked. On the day of their arrival, they opened a traffic in the plunder and the property which they had been permitted to retain. The natural indignation of the people at this infamous traffic, was exasperated by a circumstance of all others the most calculated to awaken the resentment of the Portuguese. There were discovered in the baggage boxes of the French, opened in the presence of the governor and of sir Robert Wilson, several rich vestments of the priests. Had not the French been provided with 60 rounds each man, or had not sir Robert Wilson employed the most strenuous exertions to repress the tumult, the commotion excited by this disclosure, must have terminated in the destruction of

the fugitives. They were disembarked, however, at the instance of the people, their baggage was examined on shore, and they were required to abandon their arms. No sooner had they left their transports than the rabble boarded them, and began to plunder in their turn. Having satiated themselves with their booty, the more noisy of the populace retired; the better classes were ashamed of the violence committed, and adopted every necessary measure of inmediate reparation.

On the 22nd of September, a scene of a

very different character was exhibited at Lisbon, when their arms, horses, and artillery, were restored to the Spaniards who had been imprisoned by Junot. Their number when they were seized, was 5800, but above 2000 had effected their escape, and many of them had fought and fallen in Alentejo. The ceremony was made as public and impressive as possible, and the alms which the Spanish commander distributed among the poor of Lisbon, occasioned a general festival

W

THILE the intruder remained at Madrid, the friends of Ferdinand, who had been compelled to enter into his service, effected their escape, and declared in favor of the patriots. The duke del Infantado and the duke del Parque, proceeded to animate the exertions of the Spanish armies; and Cevallos prepared and circulated an interesting narrative of the transactions at Bayonne. The avowed partisans of the intruder accompanied him in his flight, and the council of Castile, who had sanctioned all the measures of the French, vainly endeavored to justify their conduct. The juntas were formed into a central body, remarkable only for treachery and imbecility. Morla, who had long been subservient to the designs of France, was the chief directer of its proceed ings; and, jealous of the patriotic generals, entrusted them with little authority, and disposed them at the head of separate and unconnected armies. They misled their allies, and deluded the people into a fatal security by the circulation of the most atrocious falsehoods respecting the strength and situation of the forces. They left the army unprovided with arms and clothing, and rendered the generous subscriptions of the English nation for their supply of

shoes and uniforms, wholly ineffectual. Under these peculiar disadvantages the war was languidly conducted; and the only event of importance after the flight of Joseph, was the siege of Gerona. General Duhesme, with a force of 7000 men, encamped before that town, which was defended by the count de Caldagues, at the head of 6000 troops, of whom only 300 were veterans. By a plan as skilfully executed as it was prudently concerted, he drove this superior and disciplined army from its encampment to the plain of Sarvia, where their cavalry, in which the Spanish were deficient, protected them. The action continued during the whole of the day on the ensuing night the French retreated in two divisions, leaving behind them great part of their artillery, ammunition, and stores. The operations of the French during the siege, were considerably impeded by the English ships on the coast of Catalonia. Captain Otway landed his marines to assist the patriots near Rosas, and repelled the French when approaching to besiege it. Lord Cochrane co operating with the Spanish militia, stormed the castle of Mongat, which commanded a pass in the road between Barcelona and Gerona, destroyed the castle, and broke

up the road so as to render it impassable for artillery. The defence of Gerona and the recapture of Bilboa by the marquis de Portazgo, were the only events of the summer deserving commemoration.

Alarmed and astonished by the protraction of the struggle, Buonaparte obtained from his obsequious and unprincipled senate, a decree for a new conscription, by which one in seven of all unmarried men between the ages of 21 and 23 were to be sent to the armies. One year's conscription had already been anticipated, another year was to be levied in advance, and 80,000 men, whose services were not due till 1810, were now to be called forth. All the roads to Spain were thronged with troops, marching from every part of France, and its dependencies towards the Pyrenees. While they were on their march, Buonaparte set out for Germany to meet his confederates, the German princes and the emperor Alexander, at Erfurth. Some of the performers of the Theatre Francoise had orders to precede him, that these potentates might be provided with amusement. An opportunity was taken of giving his imperial ally a momentous hint of the superiority of his new friend. Buonaparte accompanied him to the field of Jena, (or Averstadt,) a temple dedicated to victory, had been erected on the spot where the emperor Napoleon had passed the night previous to the battle tents were pitched around it; and, after a sumptuous breakfast, the czar was led over every part of the ground, and left to make his own. reflections on the fate of Prussia. The immediate consequence of the meeting was a proposal of peace to Great Britain, which was accompanied by a joint letter from the emperors of France and Russia to the king of England. The overtures were decidedly rejected for reasons fully explained in the following declaration of his Britannic majesty, which, while any honor remains in the English people, will always be read with pride and satisfaction.

Westminster, December 15th, 1808. The overtures made to his majesty by

the governments of Russia and of France have not led to negotiation: and the intercourse to which those overtures gave rise being terminated, his majesty thinks it right thus promptly and publicly to make known its termination. The continued appearance of a negotiation, when peace has been found to be utterly unattainable, could be advantageous only to the enemy.

It might enable France to sow distrust and jealousy in the councils of those who are combined to resist her oppressions: and if, among the nations which groan under the tyranny of French alliance, or among among those which those which maintain against France a doubtful and precarious independence, there should be any which even now now are balancing between the certain ruin of a prolonged inactivity, and the contingent dangers of an effort to save themselves from that ruin; to nations so situated the delusive prospect of a peace between Great Britain and France could not fail to be peculiarly injurious. Their preparations might be relaxed by the vain hope of returning tranquillity; or their purpose shaken by the apprehension of being left to contend alone.-That such was, in fact, the main object of France in the proposals transmitted to his majesty from Erfurth, his majesty entertained a strong persuasion.-But at a moment when results so awful from their importance, and so tremendous from their uncertainty, might be depending upon the decision of peace or war, the king felt it due to himself to ascertain, beyond the possibility of doubt, the views and intentions of his enemies. It was difficult for his majesty to believe, that the emperor of Russia had devoted himself so blindly and fatally to the violence and ambition of the power with which his imperial majesty had unfortunately become allied, as to be prepared openly to abet the usurpation of the Spanish monarchy; and to acknowledge and maintain the right assumed by France, to depose and imprison friendly sovereigns, and forcibly to transfer to herself the allegiance of independent nations. When therefore it was proposed to his majesty to enter into negotiation for a general