little astonished to receive these
frivolous and manifestly unfounded complaints from you, and that you
should be the person to set the example of objecting to give quarters to
an officer, because he is married and has children.

It is not very agreeable to anybody to have strangers quartered in his
house; nor is it very agreeable to us strangers, who have good houses in
our own country, to be obliged to seek for quarters here. We are not
here for our pleasure; the situation of your country renders it
necessary: and you, a man of family and fortune, who have much to lose,
should not be the first to complain of the inconvenience of our presence
in the country.

I do everything in my power to alleviate the inconvenience which all
must suffer. We pay extravagant prices with unparalleled punctuality for
everything we receive; and I make it a rule to inquire into and redress
every injury that is really done by the troops under my command, as I
shall that to which I have above referred, of which you complain, in the
conduct of----towards your servant.

_Dispatch, August 23, 1810._

* * * * *

_Croaking Spirit in the British Army in Portugal_.

It appears that you have had a good smart contest with the government
respecting our plan of operations. They will end in forcing me to quit
them, and then they will see how they will get on. They will then find
that I alone keep things in their present state. Indeed the temper of
some of the officers of the British army gives me more concern than the
folly of the Portuguese government. I have always been accustomed to
have the confidence and support of the officers of the armies which I
have commanded; but for the first time, whether owing to the opposition
in England, or whether the magnitude of the concern is too much for
their minds and their nerves, or whether I am mistaken and they are
right, I cannot tell; but there is a system of croaking in the army
which is highly injurious to the public service, and which I must devise
some means to put an end to, or it will put an end to us. Officers have
a right to form their own opinions upon events and transactions, but
officers of high rank or situation ought to keep their opinions to
themselves; if they do not approve of the system of operations of their
commander, they ought to withdraw from the army. And this is a point to
which I must bring some, if I should not find that their own good sense
pr