I regret to say, that, throughout the war, the Spanish Government have never listened to any application, however reasonable, or done any act of justice, unless accompanied by a threat. The gallantest, kindest, bravest, most active, and daring officer that ever did exist, is Colonel Fortescue, an honour and an advantage to an army to possess him, and he, of all men, has been singled out as the object of party abuse and attack. That an equally kind, gallant, and brave officer, like Sir Henry Hardinge, an ornament both to the senate and the field, should have allowed the strength of his party feelings so to blind his judgment, as to be made the dupe of designing persons to give utterance to most unfounded accusations-that a British officer should have been made the vehicle of uttering without a shadow of truth, charges of ferocity and cruelty against brother soldiersagainst General Evans, the officers and men of the Legion-against men equally humane and brave as himself, will form a sad and disgusting page in British history. But the greatest punishment that can be inflicted on

a mind like that of Sir Henry Hardinge's is, the consciousness of having wrongfully accused the innocent, and having been made the cat's-paw and dupe of others, to gratify personal dislike and party purposes. I left St. Sebastian with the impression that I never saw a set of men more gentlemanly, or less mercenary in their ideas, than the officers of the British Legion, who were members of the Garrison Club there. They were very good specimens of the age we belong to. The old habits of swearing and drinking, which were supposed to form part of a camp, were utterly exploded, and their conduct in every way equal to officers of a British army when on foreign stations. It is true there were some 66 incomprehensible vagabonds" amongst the officers of the British Legion, and I will tell you, sooner or later who they were: and several who did not do much credit to the Legion, had been got rid of in one way or another, and sent home before I saw them. They were in the language of the Legion called " Q. H. B's," that is, Queen's hard bargains, good for

66

nothing. You may ask me, by what comparisons, and on what models I have formed my judgment? I will tell you :-I passed about a month at Malta in 1835. Colonel Considine was kind enough to give me a general invitation to dine with his regiment when I pleased. I dined likewise with the 5th and the 60th regiments. I dined also several times with the Governor, Sir Frederick Ponsonby. I passed a great deal of my time at the garrison club, which threw me into constant contact with the officers. The British Legion had no regular regimental mess at St. Sebastian, but I had a general invitation from General Evans to dine at his table every day. We were in the habit of sitting down from ten to eighteen persons; the general, his aides-de-camp, and myself; the rest were persons invited, such as the different Spanish generals, and their aides-de-camp, the officers of Her British Majesty's navy, and the field officers of the Legion, &c. There was also a garrison club, where you found the French and English papers, reviews, and periodicals, the same

as at Malta, which threw you continually into the society of the officers. I saw them under much excitement at the very time of their defeat, and nothing could be more correct than their conduct, or more gentlemanly; though a party press has nick-named them with every species of low lived epithet. I mention these things, to shew what means I had of forming a comparative judgment, for without this, my testimony would be of little value.

Having, I should hope, proved to every unprejudiced mind that the officers of the British Legion were brave, humane, and honourable men, and that their general conduct was that becoming soldiers and gentlemen, the patience of the reader must be trespassed on, and his views carried backwards, to what may be considered rather a remote period. Mere assertions are worth nothing, and before opinions can be of any weight, it must be shown what means

existed of judging, what inspection of facts, what ocular demonstration, what progress

of reason, formed those opinions, always bearing in mind the Arabian proverb, as translated by a French writer, “ qu'il n'y a

pas de connaissance plus exacte que celle "des yeux." I will therefore now commence, as far as lies in my power, an impartial and fair history of various details connected with the Spanish question. I have conversed much with, and have known many of, the illustrious Spanish exiles, who were banished by Ferdinand for their liberal opinions. Often have we talked together on the prospects of their country.

Taking an interest in the question, I determined to go and visit Spain. In 1834 the civil war was merely confined to the north of Spain. To become better acquainted with the whole country, I traversed it from south to north, from Cadiz to Madrid, to Saragossa through the Pyrenees into France. It was in 1834 that Don Carlos quitted England, and threw himself into the Biscayan provinces. At that time, after