ch will be disagreeable to
him and to the people: thus we shall go on till the end of time.

_January 3, 1811._

* * * * *

_Takes no Notice of Newspapers._

I hope that the opinions of the people in Great Britain are not
influenced by paragraphs in newspapers, and that those paragraphs do not
convey the public opinion or sentiment upon any subject: therefore I
(who have more reason than any other public man of the present day to
complain of libels of this description) never take the smallest notice
of them; and have never authorized any contradiction to be given, or any
statement to be made in answer to the innumerable falsehoods, and the
heaps of false reasoning, which have been published respecting me and
the operations which I have directed.

_January 7, 1811._

_Indolence of the Natives of the Peninsula._

There is something very extraordinary in the nature of the people of the
Peninsula. I really believe them, those of Portugal particularly, to be
the most loyal and best disposed, and the most cordial haters of the
French, that ever existed; but there is an indolence and a want even of
the power of exertion in their disposition and habits, either for their
own security, that of their country, or of their allies, which baffle
all our calculations and efforts.

_January 16, 1811._

* * * * *

_Different Constitution of the French and English Armies._

It may also be asked why should we spend our money, and why these troops
should not go on as the French troops do, without pay, provisions,
magazines, or any thing? The French army is certainly a wonderful
machine; but if we are to form such a one, we must form such a
government as exists in France, which can with impunity lose one-half of
the troops employed in the field every year, only by the privations and
hardships imposed upon them. Next, we most compose our army of soldiers
drawn from all classes of the population of the country; from the good
and middling, as well as in rank as education, as from the bad; and not
as all other nations do, and we in particular, from the bad only.
Thirdly, we must establish such a system of discipline as the French
have; a system founded on the strength of the tyranny of the government,
which operates upon an army composed of soldiers, the majority of whom
are sober, well disposed, amenable to order, and in some degree
educated.

When we shall have done