n of the assembly. Great care should also be taken in
their formation to protect them from the effects of popular fury in the
place of their sitting; but still with all these precautions I should
prefer a wise Bourbon, if we could find one, for a regent, to the
Cortes.

_Dispatch, Sept. 22, 1809._

* * * * *

Whatever may be eventually the fate of Spain, Portugal must be a
military country.

_Dispatch, Sept. 24, 1809._

* * * * *

_Military Value of an Armed and Friendly People._

In respect to the army and armament of the people in Spain and Portugal,
there is no man more aware than I am of the advantage to be derived from
these measures; and if I had not reflected well upon the subject, my
experience of the war in Portugal and in Spain--(in Portugal, where the
people are in some degree armed and arrayed; and in Spain, where they
are not)--would have shewn me the advantage which an army has against
the enemy when the people are armed and arrayed, and are on its side in
the contest. But reflection, and, above all, experience have shewn me
the exact extent of this advantage in a military point of view; and I
only beg that those who have to contend with the French, will not be
diverted from the business of raising, arming, equipping, and training
regular bodies, by any notion that the people, when armed and arrayed,
will be of, I will not say any, but of much use to them.

_Dispatch, Oct. 11, 1809._

* * * * *

_Difficulties in the Peninsular War. The Battle of Talavera._

You will have heard of all that has passed in this country, and I will
not therefore trouble you with a repetition of the story. The battle of
Talevera was certainly the hardest fought of modern days, and the most
glorious in its results to our troops. Each side engaged lost a quarter
of their numbers.

It is lamentable that, owing to the miserable inefficiency of the
Spaniards, to their want of exertion, and the deficiency of numbers,
even, of the allies, much more of discipline and every other military
quality, when compared with the enemy in the Peninsula, the glory of the
action is the only benefit we have derived from it. But that is a solid
and substantial benefit, of which we have derived some good consequences
already; for, strange to say, I have contrived with the little British
army to keep everything in check since the month of August l