n, to have at his command not only a
regenerated Spain and Portugal, but their mighty dominions in Southern
and Central America, to renew with these fresh forces the struggle with
Britain for her empire of the seas, these were the designs by which
Napoleon was driven to the most ruthless of his enterprises. He acted
with his usual subtlety. In October 1807 France and Spain agreed to
divide Portugal between them; and on the advance of their forces the
reigning House of Braganza fled helplessly from Lisbon to a refuge in
Brazil. But the seizure of Portugal was only a prelude to the seizure of
Spain. Charles the Fourth, whom a riot in his capital drove at this
moment to abdication, and his son and successor, Ferdinand the Seventh,
were alike drawn to Bayonne in May 1808, and forced to resign their
claims to the Spanish crown; while a French army entered Madrid, and
proclaimed Joseph Buonaparte as King of Spain.

[Sidenote: The Rising of Spain.]

High-handed as such an act was, it was in harmony with the general
system which Napoleon was pursuing elsewhere, and which had as yet
stirred no national resistance. Holland had been changed into a monarchy
by a simple decree of the French Emperor, and its crown bestowed on his
brother Louis. For another brother, Jerome, a kingdom of Westphalia had
been built up out of the Electorates of Hesse Cassel and Hanover.
Joseph himself had been set as king over Naples before his transfer to
Spain. But the spell of submission was now suddenly broken, and the new
king had hardly entered Madrid when Spain rose as one man against the
stranger. Desperate as the effort of its people seemed, the news of the
rising was welcomed throughout England with a burst of enthusiastic joy.
"Hitherto," cried Sheridan, a leader of the Whig opposition, "Buonaparte
has contended with princes without dignity, numbers without ardour, or
peoples without patriotism. He has yet to learn what it is to combat a
people who are animated by one spirit against him." Tory and Whig alike
held that "never had so happy an opportunity existed for Britain to
strike a bold stroke for the rescue of the world"; and Canning at once
resolved to change the system of desultory descents on colonies and
sugar islands for a vigorous warfare in the Peninsula. Supplies were
sent to the Spanish insurgents with reckless profusion, and two small
armies placed under the command of Sir John Moore and Sir Arthur
Wellesley for service in the Pen