Arthur deem it more advisable to refuse than accept his co-operation:
and it is alleged that, in his general expectations of assistance, he
was greatly disappointed. We are not disposed to deny, that such cause
for complaint _might_ exist; but that it _did_, and upon no provocation
on our part, requires confirmation by other testimony. And surely, the
Portugueze have a right to be heard in answer to this accusation, before
they are condemned. For they have supplied no fact from their own hands,
which tends to prove that they were languid in the cause, or that they
had unreasonable jealousies of the British Army or Nation, or
dispositions towards them which were other than friendly. Now there is a
fact, furnished by Sir Arthur Wellesley himself, which may seem to
render it in the highest degree probable that, previously to any
recorded or palpable act of disregard or disrespect to the situation and
feelings of the Portugueze, the general tenour of his bearing towards
them might have been such that they could not look favourably upon him;
that he was not a man framed to conciliate them, to compose their
differences, or to awaken or strengthen their zeal. I allude to the
passage in his letter above quoted, where, having occasion to speak of
the French General, he has found no name by which to designate him but
that of DUC D'ABRANTES--words necessarily implying, that Bonaparte, who
had taken upon himself to confer upon General Junot this Portugueze
title with Portugueze domains to support it, was lawful Sovereign of
that Country, and that consequently the Portugueze Nation were rebels,
and the British Army, and he himself at the head of it, aiders and
abettors of that rebellion. It would be absurd to suppose, that Sir
Arthur Wellesley, at the time when he used these words, was aware of the
meaning really involved in them: let them be deemed an oversight. But
the capability of such an oversight affords too strong suspicion of a
deadness to the moral interests of the cause in which he was engaged,
and of such a want of sympathy with the just feelings of his injured
Ally as could exist only in a mind narrowed by exclusive and overweening
attention to the _military_ character, led astray by vanity, or hardened
by general habits of contemptuousness. These words, 'DUKE OF ABRANTES
_in person_,' were indeed words of bad omen: and thinking men trembled
for the consequences. They saw plainly, that, in the opinion of the
exalted Spani