Ibid.
Ld. Castleh. to S. H. Dalrymple, 28th June, 1808.
When the tenor of these instructions, and the great Indian reputation enjoyed by sir Arthur Wellesley are considered, it is not possible to doubt that he was first chosen as the fittest man to conduct the armies of England at this important conjuncture; yet scarcely had he sailed when he was superseded, not to make room for a man whose fame and experience might have justified such a change, but by an extraordinary arrangement, which can hardly be attributed to mere vacillation of purpose, he was reduced to the fourth rank in that army, for the future governance of which, he had fifteen days before received the most extended instructions.
Sir Hew Dalrymple was appointed to the chief command, and sir John Moore, who had suddenly and unexpectedly returned from the Baltic, (having by his firmness and address saved himself and his troops from the madness of the Swedish monarch), was, with marked disrespect, directed, to place himself under the orders of sir Harry Burrard and proceed to Portugal. Thus two men, comparatively unknown and unused to the command of armies, superseded the only generals in the British service whose talents and experience were indisputable. The secret springs of this proceeding are not so deep as to baffle investigation; but that task scarcely belongs to the general historian, who does enough when he exposes the effects of envy, treachery, and base cunning, without tracing those vices home to their possessors.
Notwithstanding these changes in the command, the uncertainty of the minister’s plans continued. The same day that sir Hew Dalrymple was appointed to be commander-in-chief, a despatch, containing the Ibid.
Ld. Castleh. to S. A. Welly. 15th July, 1808. following project of campaign, was sent to sir Arthur Wellesley: “The motives which have induced the sending so large a force to that quarter[10] are, 1st. to provide effectually for an attack upon the Tagus; and, 2dly, to have such an additional force disposable beyond what may be indispensably requisite for that operation, as may admit of a detachment being made to the southward, either with a view to secure Cadiz, if it should be threatened by the French force under general Dupont, or to co-operate with the Spanish troops in reducing that corps, if circumstances should favour such an operation, or any other that may be concerted. His Majesty is pleased to direct that the attack upon the Tagus should be considered as the first object to be attended to. As the whole force, of which a statement is enclosed, when assembled, will amount to not less than thirty thousand, it is considered that both services may be provided for amply. The precise distribution, as between Portugal and Andalusia, both as to time and proportion of force, must depend upon circumstances, to be judged of on the spot; and should it be deemed advisable to fulfil the assurance which lieutenant-general sir Hew Dalrymple appears to have given to the supreme junta of Seville[11], under the authority of my despatch of (no date), that it was the intention of his majesty to employ a corps of 10,000 men to co-operate with the Spaniards in that quarter. A corps of this magnitude may, I should hope, be detached without prejudice to the main operation against the Tagus, and may be reinforced, according to circumstances, after the Tagus has been secured. But if, previous to the arrival of the force under orders from England, Cadiz should be seriously threatened, it must rest with the senior officer of the Tagus, at his discretion to detach, upon receiving a requisition to that effect, such an amount of force as may place that important place out of the reach of immediate danger, even though it should for the time suspend operations against the Tagus[12].”
In England at this period, personal enmity to Napoleon, and violent party prejudices, had so disturbed the judgments of men relative to that monarch, that any information speaking of strength or success for him, was regarded with suspicion even by the ministers, who, as commonly happens in such cases, becoming the dupes of their own practices, listened with complacency to all those tales of mutiny among his troops, disaffection of his generals, and insurrections in France, which the cunning or folly of their agents transmitted to them. Hence sprung such projects as the one above, the false calculations of which may be exposed by a short comparative statement.
The whole English force was not much above thirty thousand men, distributed off Cadiz, off the coast of Portugal, on the eastern parts of England, and in the channel. The French force in Spain and Portugal was about a hundred and twenty thousand men: they possessed all the Portuguese, and most of the Spanish fortresses.
The English army had no reserve, no fixed plan, and it was to be divided, and to act upon a double line of operations. The French had a strong reserve at Bayonne, and the grand French army of four hundred thousand veterans was untouched, and ready to succour the troops in the Peninsula if they required it.
Happily, this visionary plan was in no particular followed by the generals entrusted with the conduct of it. A variety of causes combined to prevent the execution. The catastrophe of Baylen marred all the great combinations of the French emperor; fortune drew the scattered divisions of the English army together, and the decisive vigour of sir Arthur Wellesley sweeping away these cobweb projects, obtained all the success that the bad arrangements of the ministers would permit.
In the next chapter, resuming the thread of the history, I shall relate the proceedings of the first British campaign in the Peninsula; but I judged it necessary first to make an exposition of the previous preparations and plans of the cabinet, lest the reader’s attention not being fully awakened to the difficulties cast in the way of the English generals by the incapacity of the government, should, with hasty censure, or niggard praise, do the former injustice; for, as a noble forest hides many noisome swamps and evil things, so the duke of Wellington’s laurels have covered the innumerable errors of the ministers.