ur Wellesley,
containing an account of his having defeated the enemy in two several
engagements, spread joy through the Nation. The latter action appeared
to have been decisive, and the result may be thus briefly reported, in a
never to be forgotten sentence of Sir Arthur's second letter. 'In this
action,' says he, 'in which the whole of the French force in Portugal
was employed, under the command of the DUC D'ABRANTES in person, in
which the enemy was certainly superior in cavalry and artillery, and in
which not more than half of the British army was actually engaged, he
sustained a signal defeat, and has lost thirteen pieces of cannon, &c.
&c.' In the official communication, made to the public of these
dispatches, it was added, that 'a General officer had arrived at the
British head-quarters to treat for terms.' This was joyful intelligence!
First, an immediate, effectual, and honourable deliverance of Portugal
was confidently expected: secondly, the humiliation and captivity of a
large French army, and just punishment, from the hands of the Portugueze
government, of the most atrocious offenders in that army and among those
who, having held civil offices under it, (especially if Portugueze) had,
in contempt of all law, civil and military, notoriously abused the power
which they had treasonably accepted: thirdly, in this presumed surrender
of the army, a diminution of the enemy's military force was looked to,
which, after the losses he had already sustained in Spain, would most
sensibly weaken it: and lastly, and far above this, there was an
anticipation of a shock to his power, where that power is strongest, in
the imaginations of men, which are sure to fall under the bondage of
long-continued success. The judicious part of the Nation fixed their
attention chiefly on these results, and they had good cause to rejoice.
They also received with pleasure this additional proof (which indeed
with the unthinking many, as after the victory of Maida, weighed too
much,) of the superiority in courage and discipline of the British
soldiery over the French, and of the certainty of success whenever our
army was led on by men of even respectable military talents against any
equal or not too greatly disproportionate number of the enemy. But the
pleasure was damped in the minds of reflecting persons by several
causes. It occasioned regret and perplexity, that they had not heard
more of the Portugueze. They knew what that People had suffe