Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/58

48 /. //. Rose chief. He had used phrases in one of his despatches which Canning interpreted as committing Great Britain to the sending of a miHtary force into the north of Spain. Canning on August 30 penned a strong remonstrance to the envoy for holding out any hopes in that direction, assigning as his chief reason that the Spanish deputies then in London showed a manifest disinclination to the sending into Spain of any British military force whatever, and received every intimation of a dis- position to make that effort in a manner which rather justified the con- clusion that it would be disagreeable to the feelings of the Spanish nation — feelings which His Majy. was determined in every instance to respect. The Spanish deputies concurred in pointing out Portugal as the most eligible destination for an useful and eft'ective application of whatever force His Majy. could employ for the support of Spain, as being the point best calculated for preventing the otherwise probable attempt of Junot to reinforce the French armies in Spain ; and as placing His Maj.'s troops, after a successful occupation of Lisbon, in a situation to keep open the communication between the northern and southern provinces of Spain and to afford support to the one or the other, as either might appear to stand in need of it. This reasoning, which was that of the Spanish deputies themselves, was also that of all the military authorities by which the determination of His Majy. was guided. Canning then stated that no division of the British expedition would be allowed until Portugal was " thoroughly cleared of the French armies " ; that the Spanish deputies later on had begged for cavalry for their army of the north, but had not gained their request; and no such request would be listened to unless it came from the junta through Stuart. The War Office had sent Major-general Broderick and Major-general Leith to collect news on military mat- ters in Galicia and Asturias, but they had no further powers. Somewhat later Stuart was able to show that he had in no way favored the despatch of a British army into the north of Spain. For the present his eiTorts were directed to the task of uniting the juntas of Galicia, Asturias, and Leon, with a view to the forma- tion of a national union, though he found that the autocratic views of the Seville junta were disapproved by the more democratic peo- ple of the northwest. The three juntas of the northwestern prov- inces finally agreed to meet at Lugo. It was hoped that, when Es- tremadura joined them, they would transfer their sessions to Soria, and would there await the deputies from Aragon, Valencia, and Cata- lonia. The final union, that with the southern provinces, was ex- pected to take place at Guadalajara, where the now truly national Cortes would elect a regency of eight persons to exercise the func- tions of government in the name of Ferdinand A^IL That town