hings (and of persons as far as it
was necessary to illustrate things, but no further); and as this has
been uniformly done according to the light of my conscience; I have
deemed it right to prefix my name to these pages, in order that this
last testimony of a sincere mind might not be wanting.

_May 20th_, 1809.

CONCERNING THE CONVENTION OF CINTRA.

* * * * *

The Convention, recently concluded by the Generals at the head of the
British army in Portugal, is one of the most important events of our
time. It would be deemed so in France, if the Ruler of that country
could dare to make it public with those merely of its known bearings and
dependences with which the English people are acquainted; it has been
deemed so in Spain and Portugal as far as the people of those countries
have been permitted to gain, or have gained, a knowledge of it; and what
this nation has felt and still feels upon the subject is sufficiently
manifest. Wherever the tidings were communicated, they carried agitation
along with them--a conflict of sensations in which, though sorrow was
predominant, yet, through force of scorn, impatience, hope, and
indignation, and through the universal participation in passions so
complex, and the sense of power which this necessarily included--the
whole partook of the energy and activity of congratulation and joy. Not
a street, not a public room, not a fire-side in the island which was not
disturbed as by a local or private trouble; men of all estates,
conditions, and tempers were affected apparently in equal degrees. Yet
was the event by none received as an open and measurable affliction: it
had indeed features bold and intelligible to every one; but there was an
under-expression which was strange, dark, and mysterious--and,
accordingly as different notions prevailed, or the object was looked at
in different points of view, we were astonished like men who are
overwhelmed without forewarning--fearful like men who feel themselves to
be helpless, and indignant and angry like men who are betrayed. In a
word, it would not be too much to say that the tidings of this event did
not spread with the commotion of a storm which sweeps visibly over our
heads, but like an earthquake which rocks the ground under our feet.

How was it possible that it could be otherwise? For that army had been
sent upon a service which appealed so strongly to all that was human in
the heart of this nat