History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6

by William Francis Patrick Napier

An exact and copious account of these factions and disputes, and of the permanent influence which these discussions of the principles of government, this constant collision of opposite doctrines, had upon the character of the people, would, if sagaciously traced, form a lesson of the highest interest for nations. But to treat the subject largely would be to write a political history of the Spanish revolution, and it is only the effect upon the military operations which properly appertains to a history of the war. That effect was one of unmitigated evil, but it must be observed that this did not necessarily spring from the democratic system, since precisely the same mischiefs were to be traced in Portugal, where arbitrary power, called legitimate government, was prevalent. In both cases alike, the people and the soldiers suffered for the crimes of factious politicians.

It has been shewn in a former volume, that one Spanish regency contracted an engagement with lord Wellington on the faith of which he took the command of their armies in 1813. It was scrupulously adhered to by him, but systematically violated by the new regency and minister of war, almost as soon as it was concluded. His recommendations for promotion after Vittoria were disregarded, orders were sent direct to the subordinate generals, and changes were made in the commands and in the destinations of the troops without his concurrence, and without passing through him as generalissimo. Scarcely had he crossed the Ebro when Castaños, captain-general of Gallicia, Estremadura, and Castile, was disgracefully removed from his government under pretence of calling him to assist in the council of state. His nephew general Giron was at the same time deprived of his command over the Gallician army, although both he and Castaños had been largely commended for their conduct by lord Wellington. General Frere, appointed captain-general of Castile and Estremadura, succeeded Giron in command of the troops, and the infamous Lacy replaced Castaños in Gallicia, chosen, it was believed, as a fitter tool to work out the measures of the Jacobins against the clergy in that kingdom. Nor was the sagacity of that faction at fault, for Castaños would, according to lord Wellington, have turned his arms against the Cortez if an opportunity had offered. He and others were now menaced with death, and the Cortez contemplated an attack upon the tithes, upon the feudal and royal tenths, and upon the estates of the grandees. All except the last very fitting to do if the times and circumstances had been favourable for a peaceful arrangement; but most insane when the nation generally was averse, and there was an invader in the country to whom the discontented could turn. The clergy were at open warfare with the government, many generals were dissatisfied, and menacing in their communications with the superior civil authorities, the soldiers were starving and the people tired of their miseries only desired to get rid of the invaders, and to avoid the burthen of supplying the troops of either side. The English cabinet, after having gorged Spain with gold and flattery was totally without influence. A terrible convulsion was at hand if the French could have maintained the war with any vigour in Spain itself; and the following passages, from Wellington’s letters to the ministers, prove, that even he contemplated a forcible change in the government and constitution.

“If the mob of Cadiz begin to remove heads from shoulders as the newspapers have threatened Castaños, and the assembly seize upon landed property to supply their necessities, I am afraid we must do something more than discountenance them.”—“It is quite impossible such a system can last. What I regret is that I am the person that maintains it. If I was out of the way there are plenty of generals who would overturn it. Ballesteros positively intended it, and I am much mistaken if O’Donnel and even Castaños, and probably others are not equally ready. If the king should return he also will overturn the whole fabric if he has any spirit.”—“I wish you would let me know whether if I should find a fair opportunity of striking at the democracy the government would approve of my doing it.” And in another letter he seriously treated the question of withdrawing from the contest altogether. “The government were the best judges,” he said, “of whether they could or ought to withdraw,” but he did not believe that Spain could be a useful ally, or at all in alliance with England, if the republican system was not put down. Meanwhile he recommended to the English government and to his brother, to take no part either for or against the princess of Brazil, to discountenance the democratical principles and measures of the Cortez, and if their opinion was asked regarding the formation of a new regency, to recommend an alteration of that part of the constitution which lodged all power with the Cortez, and to give instead, some authority to the executive government whether in the hands of king or regent. To fill the latter office one of royal blood uniting the strongest claims of birth with the best capacity should he thought be selected, but if capacity was wanting in the royal race then to choose the Spaniard who was most deserving in the public estimation! Thus necessity teaches privilege to bend before merit.

The whole force of Spain in arms was at this period about one hundred and sixty thousand men. Of this number not more than fifty thousand were available for operations in the field, and those only because they were paid clothed and armed by England, and kept together by the ability and vigour of the English general. He had proposed when at Cadiz an arrangement for the civil and political government of the provinces rescued from the French, with a view to the supply of the armies, but his plan was rejected and his repeated representations of the misery the army and the people endured under the system of the Spanish government were unheeded. Certain districts were allotted for the support of each army, yet, with a jealous fear of military domination, the government refused the captain-generals of those districts the necessary powers to draw forth the resources of the country, powers which lord Wellington recommended that they should have, and wanting which the whole system was sure to become a nullity. Each branch of administration was thus conductedLetter to the Spanish minister of war, 30th Aug. 1813. by chiefs independent in their attributes, yet each too restricted in authority, generally at variance with one another, and all of them neglectful of their duty. The evil effect upon the troops was thus described by the English general as early as August.

“More than half of Spain has been cleared of the enemy above a year, and the whole of Spain excepting Catalonia and a small part of Aragon since the months of May and June last. The most abundant harvest has been reaped in all parts of the country; millions of money spent by the contending armies are circulating every where, and yet your armies however weak in numbers are literally starving. The allied British and Portuguese armies under my command have been subsisted, particularly latterly, almost exclusively upon the magazines imported by sea, and I am concerned to inform your excellency, that besides money for the pay of all the armies, which has been given from the military chest of the British army and has been received from no other quarter, the British magazines have supplied quantities of provisions to all the Spanish armies in order to enable them to remain in the field at all. And notwithstanding this assistance I have had the mortification of seeing the Spanish troops on the outposts, obliged to plunder the nut and apple-trees for subsistence, and to know that the Spanish troops, employed in the blockade of Pampeluna and Santona, were starving upon half an allowance of bread, while the enemy whom they were blockading were at the same time receiving their full allowance. The system then is insufficient to procure supplies for the army and at the same time I assure your excellency that it is the most oppressive and injurious to the country that could be devised. It cannot be pretended that the country does not produce the means of maintaining the men necessary for its defence; those means are undoubtedly superabundant, and the enemy has proved that armies can be maintained in Spain, at the expense of the Spanish nation, infinitely larger than are necessary for its defence.”

These evils he attributed to the incapacity of the public servants, and to their overwhelming numbers, that certain sign of an unprosperous state; to the disgraceful negligence and disregard of public duties, and to there being no power in the country for enforcing the law; the collection of the revenue cost in several branches seventy and eighty per cent. Meanwhile no Spanish officers capable of commanding a large body of troops or keeping it in an efficient state had yet appeared, no efficient staff, no system of military administration had been formed, and no shame for these deficiencies, no exertions to amend were visible.

From this picture two conclusions are to be drawn, 1º. that the provinces, thus described as superabounding in resources, having been for several years occupied by the French armies, the warfare of the latter could not have been so devastating and barbarous as it was represented. 2º. That Spain, being now towards the end as helpless as she had been at the beginning and all through the war, was quite unequal to her own deliverance either by arms or policy; that it was English valour English steel, directed by the genius of an English general, which rising superior to all obstacles, whether presented by his own or the peninsular governments or by the perversity of national character, worked out her independence. So utterly inefficient were the Spaniards themselves, that now, at the end of six years’ war, lord Wellington declared thirty thousand of their troops could not be trusted to act separately; they were only useful when mixed in the line with larger numbers of other nations. And yet all men in authority to the lowest alcalde were as presumptuous as arrogant and as perverse as ever. Seeming to be rendered callous to public misery by the desperate state of affairs, they were reckless of the consequences of their actions and never suffered prudential considerations or national honour to check the execution of any project. The generals from repeated failures had become insensible to misfortunes, and without any remarkable display of personal daring, were always ready to deliver battle on slight occasions, as if that were a common matter instead of being the great event of war.

The government agents were corrupt, and the government itself was as it had ever been tyrannical faithless mean and equivocating to the lowest degree. In 1812 a Spaniard of known and active patriotism thus commenced an elaborate plan of defence for the provinces. “Catalonia abhors France as her oppressor but she abhors still more the despotism which has been carried on in all the branches of her administration since the beginning of the war.” In fine there was no healthy action in any part of the body politic, every thing was rotten except the hearts of the poorer people. Even at Cadiz Spanish writers compared the state to a vessel in a hurricane without captain, pilot, compass, chart sails or rudder, and advised the crew to cry to heaven as their sole resource. But they only blasphemed.

When Wellington, indignant at the systematic breach of his engagement, remonstrated, he was answered that the actual regency did not hold itself bound by the contracts of the former government. Hence it was plain no considerations of truth, for they had themselves also accepted the contract, nor of honest policy, nor the usages of civilized states with respect to national faith, had any influence on their conduct. Enraged at this scandalous subterfuge, he was yet conscious how essential it was he should retain his command. And seeing all Spanish generals more or less engaged in political intrigues, none capable of co-operating with him, and that no Spanish army could possibly subsist as a military body under the neglect and bad arrangement of the Spanish authorities, conscious also that public opinion in Spain would, better than the menaces of the English government, enable him to obtain a counterpoise to the democratic party, he tendered indeed his resignation if the government engagement was not fulfilled, but earnestly endeavoured by a due mixture of mildness argument and reproof to reduce the ruling authorities to reason. Nevertheless there were, he told them, limits to his forbearance to his submission under injury, and he had been already most unworthily treated, even as a gentleman, by the Spanish government.

From the world these quarrels were covered by an appearance of the utmost respect and honour. He was made a grandee of the first class, and the estate of Soto de Roma in Grenada, of which the much-maligned and miserable Prince of Peace had been despoiled, was settled upon him. He accepted the gift, but, as he had before done with his Portuguese and Spanish pay, transferred the proceeds to the public treasury during the war. The regents however, under the pressure of the Jacobins, and apparently bearing some personal enmity, although one of them, Ciscar, had been instrumental in procuring him the command of the Spanish army, were now intent to drive him from it; and the excesses committed at San Sebastian served their factious writers as a topic for exciting the people not only to demand his resignation, but to commence a warfare of assassination against the British soldiers. Moreover, combining extreme folly with wickedness, they pretended amongst other absurdities that the nobility had offered, if he would change his religion, to make him king of Spain. This tale was eagerly adopted by the English newspapers, and three Spanish grandees thought it necessary to declare that they were not among the nobles who made the proposition. His resignation was accepted in the latter end of September, and he held the command only until the assembling of the new Cortez, but the attempt to render him odious failed even at Cadiz, owing chiefly to the personal ascendancy which all great minds so surely attain over the masses in troubled times. Both the people and the soldiers respected him more than they did their own government, and the Spanish officers had generally yielded as ready obedience to his wishes before he was appointed generalissimo, as they did to his orders when holding that high office. It was this ascendancy which enabled him to maintain the war with such troublesome allies; and yet so little were the English ministers capable of appreciating its importance, that after the battle of Vittoria they entertained the design of removing him from Spain to take part in the German operations. His answer was short and modest, but full of wisdom.