Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/60

50 J- H. Rose eclipsed on the receipt of tlie news of the so-called " Convention of Cintra" (August 30, 1808). It may be well to publish here the despatch which Stuart sent to Canning on September 26, protesting against the terms of that compact, by the fifth article of which Junot's corps was to be transported to France on British vessels without any stipulation forbidding its use in the present war: Sir, Lord William Bentinck arrived here yesterday, bringing with him a copy of the capitulation concluded with the French at Lisbon. Although it is necessary to maintain a strict silence towards the Gov- ernment here upon that subject, I think it my duty not only to call your attention to the consequences that will indubitably result from that meas- ure in the present situation of the armies of this country, but to require you for the sake of the public service to do whatever may be in your power to retard the execution. The Spanish force amounting to 80000 men and consisting chiefly of armed peasants, occupies the following points: Palafox with the Arragonese at Sanguessa, Llamas with the Valencians at Tarragona, Castanos with the Andalusians etc at Soria: Cuesta with the army of Castile at Burgos de Osma : Blake with the Galicians at Reynosa. These troops, however well disposed, are ill armed and worse cloathed, wholly without shoes, and being for the greater part unaccus- tomed to the cold climate of the Pyrenees, it is not surprising that illness manifests itself amongst them in the present rainy season. The French have 45,000 men concentred in Navarre near Pam- peluna, and along the Ebro. Their advanced posts are near Burgos. We know upon good authority that everything from the interior of France has marched to the Rhine, and consequently they can expect no succours from the Western Departments.^ The arrival of 25,000 men, armed, cloathed, and accustomed to the climate, in any part of the Bay of Biscay is the most deadly blow that can fall on this nation; and every means by which you can delay the departure of Junot's divisions, who are in fact succours sailing under our flag to the dispirited French army in the Pyrenees, will prove valuable to the cause of Spain. The importance of retaining transports to send assistance to the weak points of our allies in Biscay and Catalonia, will not have escaped your observation ; but the positive necessity of delaying the smallest portion of Junot's army is the more an object of consideration to our- selves, because, united with Jourdan, they will constitute a mass of effective force which our whole army in Portugal together with all the forces brought into the field by Spain will find it no easy matter to oppose again with hopes of success. In his covering despatch of September 26 to Canning, Stuart ' This was exaggerated. Napoleon, while keeping a close watch upon Austria — it was the time of the Erfurt conference — was beginning to collect troops for the reconquest of Spain.