actumque de
rebus nostris, crederem. Nempe, qui aliis iter rectum ostendere
solebamus, nunc (quod exitio proximum est) coeci coecis ducibus per
abrupta rapimur; alienoque circumvolvimur exemplo; quid velimus, nescii.
Nam (ut coeptum exequar) totum hoc malum, seu nostrum proprium seu
potius omnium gentium commune, IGNORATIO FINIS facit. Nesciunt
inconsulti homines quid agant: ideo quicquid agunt, mox ut coeperint,
vergit in nauseam. Hinc ille discursus sine termino; hinc, medio calle,
discordiae; et, ante exitum, DAMNATA PRINCIPIA; et explete nihil.'

As an act of respect to the English reader--I shall add, to the same
purpose, the words of our own Milton; who, contemplating our ancestors
in his day, thus speaks of them and their errors:--'Valiant, indeed, and
prosperous to win a field; but, to know the end and reason of winning,
injudicious and unwise. Hence did their victories prove as fruitless, as
their losses dangerous; and left them still languishing under the same
grievances that men suffer conquered. Which was indeed unlikely to go
otherwise; unless men more than vulgar bred up in the knowledge of
ancient and illustrious deeds, invincible against many and vain titles,
impartial to friendships and relations, had conducted their affairs.'

THE END.

APPENDIX.

* * * * *

_A (page 67)_.

When this passage was written, there had appeared only unauthorized
accounts of the Board of Inquiry's proceedings. Neither from these
however, nor from the official report of the Board (which has been since
published), is any satisfactory explanation to be gained on this
question--or indeed on any other question of importance. All, which is
to be collected from them, is this: the Portugueze General, it appears,
offered to unite his whole force with the British on the single
condition that they should be provisioned from the British stores; and,
accordingly, rests his excuse for not co-operating on the refusal of Sir
Arthur Wellesley to comply with this condition. Sir A.W. denies the
validity of his excuse; and, more than once, calls it a _pretence_;
declaring that, in his belief, Gen. Freire's real motive for not joining
was--a mistrust in the competence of the British to appear in the field
against the French. This however is mere surmise; and therefore cannot
have much weight with those who sincerely sought for satisfaction on
this point: moreover, it is a surmise of the individual wh