regency appointed by the Prince Regent, says, in a protest addressed to Sir Hew Dalrymple, that he had been able to drive the French out of the provinces of Algarve and Alentejo; and therefore he could not be convinced, that such a Convention was necessary.  What was this but implying that it was dishonourable, and that it would frustrate the efforts which his country was making, and destroy the hopes which it had built upon its own power?  Another letter from a magistrate inveighs against the Convention, as leaving the crimes of the French in Portugal unpunished; as giving no indemnification for all the murders, robberies, and atrocities which had been committed by them.  But I feel that I shall be wanting in respect to my countrymen if I pursue this argument further.  I blush that it should be necessary to speak upon the subject at all.  And these are men and things, which we have been reproved for condemning, because evidence was wanting both as to fact and person!  If there ever was a case, which could not, in any rational sense of the word, be prejudged, this is one.  As to the fact—­it appears, and sheds from its own body, like the sun in heaven, the light by which it is seen; as to the person—­each has written down with his own hand, I am the man.  Condemnation of actions and men like these is not, in the minds of a people, (thanks to the divine Being and to human nature!) a matter of choice; it is like a physical necessity, as the hand must be burned which is thrust into the furnace—­the body chilled which stands naked in the freezing north-wind.  I am entitled to make this assertion here, when the moral depravity of the Convention, of which I shall have to speak hereafter, has not even been touched upon.  Nor let it be blamed in any man, though his station be in private life, that upon this occasion he speaks publicly, and gives a decisive opinion concerning that part of this public event, and those measures, which are more especially military.  All have a right to speak, and to make their voices heard, as far as they have power.  For these are times, in which the conduct of military men concerns us, perhaps, more intimately than that of any other class; when the business of arms comes unhappily too near to the fire-side; when the character and duties of a soldier ought to be understood by every one who values his liberty, and bears in mind how soon he may have to fight for it.  Men will and ought to speak upon things in which they are so deeply interested; how else are right notions to spread, or is error to be destroyed?  These are times also in which, if we may judge from the proceedings and result of the Court of Inquiry, the heads of the army, more than at any other period, stand in need of being taught wisdom by the voice of the people.  It is their own interest, both as men and as soldiers, that the people should speak fervently and fearlessly of their actions:—­from no other quarter can they be so powerfully reminded of the duties which they