Mr. Frere to Mr. Canning, Seville, May 8.
“Besides the advantages which may be looked for from placing so extensive a command under a person of such tried abilities as general Blake, it is to be hoped that it will put an end to the distractions arising from the contracted views of those who directed the provincial junta, particularly that of Valencia, which have been so embarrassing to his predecessors.”
Mr. Frere to Mr. Canning, Seville, July 10, 1809.
“As the devastations which have been committed have, in many instances, deprived the peasants of the means of paying what is due to the proprietors and to the church, a general spirit of resistance to all claims of this kind has begun to show itself.”
Sir John Cradock to lord Castlereagh, December 24, 1808.
“I much fear that alarm and despondency has gained ground about Badajos and that part of Spain, and that there is so little co-operation in the acts of their several juntas, and such a want of subordination and common consent among the armed bodies, to which the defence of the country is entrusted, against such an united force as that of the French, that extreme confusion prevails everywhere.”
Colonel Kemmis to sir John Cradock, Elvas, December 30.
“He (lieutenant Ellis) has been living with general Cuesta for the last two days,”—“who has assured him that the Spanish troops, in Madrid, forced their way through the French army; and he expressed great sorrow in adding that, though a Spanish force is often collected, the smallest check disperses them; that in few instances depôts were provided, and those ill supplied,” &c.—“that, such was the dispersion and flight of the Spanish armies, between Badajos and Madrid, there did not remain a single man.”
Colonel Kemmis to lieut.-colonel Reynel, military secretary to sir John Cradock, Seville, February 7, 1809.