Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

LETTER ON THE GENIUS AND DISPOSITIONS OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.

[CONTINUED.]

Spain, when crushed, will be treated as a conquered country. The denunciation already hurled against the opulent grandees, and the division of their estates among his officers, are but the first steps in that course of regeneration, which Spain, so colossally reluctant, is to run, under the mild and wholesome sway of her philanthropic invaders.

During my stay in England, my attention was earnestly drawn to whatever was said or written on the subject of Spain, particularly after the commencement of the present contest. I enjoyed frequent opportunities of conversing with some of the most intelligent officers, and several who visited that country for the purpose of ascertaining the true grounds upon which the public expectation was to rest. The result of all my enquiries fortified me in the conclusion to which the character of the invader naturally led—that he had formed but too just an estimate of the weakness and languor of the Spaniards.

When the British forces marched into Spain; they found, what such considerations as these might have taught them to expect, here and there tumultuary assemblies, but no appearance whatever of regular military movements; and so far were they from discovering a disposition in the people to co-operate in the task of their own deliverance, that they experienced in their retreat greater inconvenience from the hostility of the Spanish peasantry, than from the pursuit of the foe. The letters of Sir John Moore, and the representations of the English travellers, who examined the state of the country, are precisely of the same tenor. An effervescence was almost every where excited,—but was allowed to evaporate in empty boasts and menaces. Treachery and fear marked the conduct of the higher classes; who, by their example disarmed the passions, while they counteracted the efforts of the multitude. The juntas were almost universally bodies of inactive, illiterate, formalizing men; without the magnanimity to conceive, or the courage to execute, any prompt, comprehensive and hardy plan of operations. Great credit is unquestionably due to the defence of Saragossa, and to the spirit manifested by some few of the privileged orders, and by almost of the professional men. But I think it must be apparent, upon an attentive survey of the history of this struggle, —that the exertions of the Spaniards were by no means commensurate with the extent of their physical resources, nor such as would for any time have frustrated the designs of Bonaparte, had not the Austrian war interposed to break the force of his attack. The English ministry committed gross errors in their mode of co-operation, of which they must now bitterly repent. In attempting to rouse the secular energies of the country, they made their appeal to the prejudices of slavery and fanaticism,—when, in such a time, to the soul freedom" and a deep

To slaves that once conceive the glowing thought
Of freedom, in that hope itself possess
All that the contest calls for; spirit, strength,
The scorn of danger, and united hearts,
The sure presage of the good they seek."

Steady feeling of self-interest in the minds of the people, were the only auxiliaries that helped to supply the absence of skill and discipline. Instead of sending their armies to meet the enemy at the foot of the Pyrenees, they despatched them to a distant theatre of action ; —not to the centre of danger, but to the circumference, where nothing decisive could be effected, even with the most complete success. They had before their eyes a long succession of similar events to teach the necessity of vigorous and unhesitating exertion. It required neither the mind of Sertorius nor the audacity of Scipio to instruct them in what manner the war was to be conducted by their antagonist.

(To be continued.)