IBRALTAR, _January 16, 1803_.

MY DEAR BROTHER,-- ... I shall pass over the greater part of the rest of
your long letter & proceed without further delay to talk of myself. The
last time you heard from me I think was soon after I arrived in
Barcelona; what occurred during my stay there you have most probably
heard from my sisters, as I wrote to Highlake just before I left that
place. I consider myself as extremely fortunate in being at Barcelona
during a time when I had a better opportunity of seeing the Court of
Spain and the different amusements of the Country than I could have
witnessed by a much longer residence even in Madrid itself. I was,
however, unfortunately only a Spectator; as no regular English Consul
had arrived in Barcelona, I had no opportunity of being introduced
either at Court or in the first Circles. Another difficulty also was in
my way; unfortunately I was not in the Army & consequently had no
uniform, without which or a Court dress no person is considered as a
Gentleman in this Country. I have repeatedly regretted that before I
left England I did not put my name down on some Military list, & under
cover of a red Coat procure an undisputed right to the title of
Gentleman in Spain.

As for the people, both noble and vulgar, it requires but a very short
residence amongst them to be highly disgusted; few receive any thing
which deserves the name of a regular Education, & I have been told from,
I believe, undoubted Authority, that a nobleman unable to write his
name, or even read his own pedigree, is by no means a difficult thing to
meet with. The Government is in such a State that ere long it must fall,
I should think. The King is entirely under the power of the Prince of
Peace,[16] a man who from being a common Corps de Garde has risen by
degrees, & being naturally ambitious & extremely avaricious has gained a
rank inferior only to that of the King, & a fortune which makes him not
only the richest man in Spain but probably in Europe. He is disliked by
every Class of people, & it is not, I believe, without good ground that
he is considered as little better than a tool of Buonaparte's.

The conduct of France to Spain in many particulars, which are too
numerous now to mention, shews in what a degraded state the latter
is--how totally unable to act or even think for herself. One instance I
need only mention, tho' I do not vouch for the truth of it, further than
as being a report current in the Garrison.