CHAPTER VI.
OBSERVATIONS.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN.
Mr. Canning, in an official communication to the Spanish deputies in London, observed, that “the conduct of the campaign in Portugal was unsatisfactory, and inadequate to the brilliant successes with which it opened.” In the relation of that campaign it has been shown how little the activity and foresight of the cabinet contributed to those successes, and the following short analysis will prove that, with respect to the campaign in Spain, the proceedings of the ministers were marked by tardiness and incapacity.
Joseph abandoned Madrid the 3rd of August, and on the 11th of the same month the French troops from the most distant parts of Europe were in motion to remedy the disasters in the Peninsula.
The 1st of September a double conscription, furnishing one hundred and sixty thousand men, was called out to replace the troops withdrawn from Poland and Germany.
The 4th of September the emperor announced to the senate, that “he was resolved to push the affairs of the Peninsula with the greatest activity, and to destroy the armies which the English had disembarked in that country.”
The 11th, the advanced guard of the army coming from Germany reached Paris, and was there publicly harangued by the emperor.
The 8th of November he burst into Spain at the head of three hundred thousand men, and the 5th of December not a vestige of the Spanish armies remaining, he took possession of Madrid.