be deemed an oversight. But the capability of
such an oversight affords too strong suspicion of a
deadness to the moral interests of the cause in which
he was engaged, and of such a want of sympathy with
the just feelings of his injured Ally as could exist
only in a mind narrowed by exclusive and overweening
attention to the
military character, led astray
by vanity, or hardened by general habits of contemptuousness.
These words, ’DUKE OF ABRANTES
in person,’
were indeed words of bad omen: and thinking men
trembled for the consequences. They saw plainly,
that, in the opinion of the exalted Spaniards—of
those assuredly who framed, and of all who had felt,
that affecting Proclamation addressed by the Junta
of Seville to the Portugueze people, he must appear
utterly unworthy of the station in which he had been
placed. He had been sent as a deliverer—as
an assertor and avenger of the rights of human nature.
But these words would carry with them every where
the conviction, that Portugal and Spain, yea, all
which was good in England, or iniquitous in France
or in Frenchmen, was forgotten, and his head full
only of himself, miserably conceiting that he swelled
the importance of his conquered antagonist by sounding
titles and phrases, come from what quarter they might;
and that, in proportion as this was done, he magnified
himself and his achievements. It was plain, then,
that here was a man, who, having not any fellow-feeling
with the people whom he had been commissioned to aid,
could not know where their strength lay, and therefore
could not turn it to account, nor by his example call
it forth or cherish it; but that, if his future conduct
should be in the same spirit, he must be a blighting
wind wherever his influence was carried: for he
had neither felt the wrongs of his Allies nor been
induced by common worldly prudence to affect to feel
them, or at least to disguise his insensibility; and
therefore what could follow, but, in despite of victory
and outward demonstrations of joy, inward disgust
and depression? These reflections interrupted
the satisfaction of many; but more from fear of future
consequences than for the immediate enterprize, for
here success seemed inevitable; and a happy and glorious
termination was confidently expected, yet not without
that intermixture of apprehension, which was at once
an acknowledgment of the general condition of humanity,
and a proof of the deep interest attached to the impending
event.
Sir Arthur Wellesley’s dispatches had appeared
in the Gazette on the 2d of September, and on the
16th of the same month suspence was put an end to
by the publication of Sir Hew Dalrymple’s letter,
accompanied with the Armistice and Convention.
The night before, by order of ministers, an attempt
had been made at rejoicing, and the Park and Tower
guns had been fired in sign of good news.—Heaven
grant that the ears of that great city may be preserved
from such another outrage! As soon as the truth
was known, never was there such a burst of rage and
indignation—such an overwhelming of stupefaction
and sorrow. But I will not, I cannot dwell upon
it—it is enough to say, that Sir Hew Dalrymple
and Sir Arthur Wellesley must he bold men if they can
think of what must have been reported to them, without
awe and trembling; the heart of their country was
turned against them, and they were execrated in bitterness.