ely offered him one, that
they might engage on fair terms.

The idea is generous, but not wise. But I rather imagine that this want
of secrecy arises from all matters of importance being arranged by
cabinet councils. In the multitude of counsellors there may be wisdom,
but there certainly is not secrecy. Twenty men have probably twenty
wives, and it is therefore twenty to one but the secret transpires
through that channel. Further, twenty men have twenty tongues; and much
as we complain of women not keeping secrets, I suspect that men deserve
the odium of the charge quite as much, if not more, than women do. On
the whole, it is forty to one against secrecy, which, it must be
acknowledged, are long odds.

On the arrival of the squadron at the point of attack, a few more days
were thrown away,--probably upon the same generous principle of allowing
the enemy sufficient time for preparation. Troops had been embarked,
with the intention of landing them, to make a simultaneous attack with
the shipping. Combined expeditions are invariably attended with delay,
if not with disagreement. An officer commanding troops, who if once
landed, would be as decided in his movements as Lord Wellington himself,
does not display the same decision when out of his own element. From
his peculiar situation on board,--his officers and men distributed in
different ships,--the apparent difficulties of debarkation, easily
remedied, and despised by sailors, but magnified by landsmen,--from the
great responsibility naturally felt in a situation where he must trust
to the resources of others, and where his own, however great, cannot be
called into action,--he will not decide without much demur upon the
steps to be taken; although it generally happens, that the advice
originally offered by the naval commandant has been acceded to. Unless
the military force required is very large, marines should invariably be
employed, and placed under the direction of the naval commander.

After three or four days of _pros_ and _cons_, the enemy had completed
his last battery, and as there was then no rational excuse left for
longer delay, the debarkation took place, without any serious loss on
our side, except that of one launch, full of the --- regiment, which was
cut in halves by the enemy's shot. The soldiers, as they sank in the
water, obeyed the orders of the sergeant, and held up their
cartouch-boxes, that they might not be wetted two seconds sooner