No. VII.
EXTRACTS FROM MR FRERE’S CORRESPONDENCE.
(N. B. The Italics are not in the original.)
Mr. Frere to sir John Cradock, Seville, March 14.
“Our hope of offensive operations in Aragon is so much diminished by the defeat of general Reding, that I should much doubt whether any reinforcements, such as we could now send there, would enable us to attempt them with the prospect of a degree of success, such as might compensate for the inconvenience liable to arise from the derangement of calculations which may have been formed at home.”—“On the other hand, there seems reason to apprehend, that general Soult may at last, in consequence of the resistance he has experienced, desist from his unaccountable project, of entering Portugal and occupying Gallicia. His return would, of course, add largely to the disposable and moveable force of the enemy, while it would not increase ours by any force of that description.”—“In this view of the subject there are two points for the employment of a British force; one, by making a push to drive the enemy from Salamanca, and the neighbouring towns, while the Asturians should make an effort on their side to occupy Leon and Astorga, thus re-establishing the communications between the northern and southern provinces. The other, by moving from the bridge of Alcantara along the northern bank of the Tagus, in concert with general Cuesta, to attack and drive the enemy from Toledo, and consequently from Madrid. In the latter alternative, the British could have the advantage of acting in concert with a disciplined army. They would, likewise, have immediately the start of any reinforcement from the army of general Soult, supposing him to abandon Gallicia for the sake of moving southward; and these movements would not tend in the same degree to draw him from his present position, in which, for so many reasons, it is desirable he should continue. It would, I should imagine, at the same time, cover Andalusia, and the points of the greatest interest and importance in this province, more effectually than the same force employed in any other manner.”
Mr. Frere to sir John Cradock, March 22.
“The fortieth remains here: under the present circumstances I could not think of their removal, unless to meet a British force from Elvas.”
Mr. Frere to sir A. Wellesley, Seville, May 4.
Extracted from Parliamentary Papers, 1810.
“As it was my object to obtain a diversion in La Mancha as the price of co-operation on your part, and the impression which they (the junta) received from colonel Alava’s report was, that your intention was, after defeating or driving Soult into Gallicia, to come down upon Estremadura to attack general Victor, I was under some disadvantage, inasmuch as they imagined, that the point which I wanted to make a condition was already conceded.”