und upon which they stood. The evil is incalculable; and
the stain will cleave to the British name as long as the story of this
island shall endure.

Did we not (if, from this comprehensive feeling of sorrow, I may for a
moment descend to particulars)--did we not send forth a general, one
whom, since his return, Court, and Parliament, and Army, have been at
strife with each other which shall most caress and applaud--a general,
who, in defending the armistice which he himself had signed, said in
open Court that he deemed that the French army was _entitled_ to such
terms. The people of Spain had, through the Supreme Junta of Seville,
thus spoken of this same army: 'Ye have, among yourselves, the objects
of your vengeance;--attack them;--they are but a handful of miserable
panic-struck men, humiliated and conquered already by their perfidy and
cruelties;--resist and destroy them: our united efforts will extirpate
this perfidious nation.' The same Spaniards had said (speaking
officially of the state of the whole Peninsula, and no doubt with their
eye especially upon this army in Portugal)--'Our enemies have taken up
exactly those positions in which they may most easily be
destroyed'--Where then did the British General find this right and title
of the French army in Portugal? 'Because,' says he in military language,
'it was not broken.'--Of the MAN, and of the understanding and heart of
the man--of the CITIZEN, who could think and feel after this manner in
such circumstances, it is needless to speak; but to the GENERAL I will
say, This is most pitiable pedantry. If the instinctive wisdom of your
Ally could not be understood, you might at least have remembered the
resolute policy of your enemy. The French army was not broken? Break it
then--wither it--pursue it with unrelenting warfare--hunt it out of its
holds;--if impetuosity be not justifiable, have recourse to patience--to
watchfulness--to obstinacy: at all events, never for a moment forget who
the foe is--and that he is in your power. This is the example which the
French Ruler and his Generals have given you at Ulm--at Lubeck--in
Switzerland--over the whole plain of Prussia--every where;--and this for
the worst deeds of darkness; while your's was the noblest service of
light.

This remonstrance has been forced from me by indignation:--let me
explain in what sense I propose, with calmer thought, that the example
of our enemy should be imitated.--The laws and customs of w