of vigilance in making
distinctions or laxity of language) are at variance with concessions
made elsewhere--they would have been found not more to differ from the
reports of other intelligent and less prejudiced observers, than we
might have expected from the circumstances under which they were
written. Sir J.M. has himself told us (in a letter published since the
above note was written) that he thinks the Spaniards 'a fine people;'
and that acknowledgement, from a soldier, cannot be supposed to exclude
courage; nor, from a Briton, some zeal for national independence. We are
therefore to conclude that, when Sir J.M. pronounces opinions on 'the
Spaniards' not to be reconciled with this and other passages, he
speaks--not of the Spanish people--but of the Spanish government. And,
even for what may still remain charged uncandidly upon the people, the
writer does not forget that there are infinite apologies to be found in
Sir J. Moore's situation: the earliest of these letters were written
under great anxiety and disturbance of mind from the anticipation of
calamity;--and the latter (which are the most severe) under the actual
pressure of calamity; and calamity of that sort which would be the most
painful to the feelings of a gallant soldier, and most likely to vitiate
his judgment with respect to those who had in part (however innocently)
occasioned it. There may be pleaded also for him--that want of leisure
which would make it difficult to compare the different accounts he
received, and to draw the right inferences from them. But then these
apologies for his want of fidelity--are also reasons before-hand for
suspecting it: and there are now (May 18th) to be added to these
reasons, and their confirmations in the letters themselves, fresh proofs
in the present state of Gallicia, as manifested by the late re-capture
of Vigo, and the movements of the Marquis de la Romana; all which, from
Sir J. Moore's account of the temper in that province, we might have
confidently pronounced impossible. We must therefore remember that what
in him were simply mis-statements--are now, when repeated with our
better information, calumnies; and calumnies so much the less to be
excused in us, as we have already (in our conduct towards Spain) given
her other and no light matter of complaint against ourselves.

* * * * *

END OF THE APPENDIX.

III. VINDICATION OF OPINIONS IN THE TREATISE ON THE 'CONVENTION OF