Brazil. Portugal and England were old allies, and partly in order to deliver Portugal, partly in order to support the resistance of Spain, the British ministry, urged on by Canning, sent an army to resist Junot. The British Government gave the charge of it to Sir Arthur Wellesley, the best soldier in their service, the victor of Assaye and Argaum (see p. 859). Indian service, however, was in those days little regarded, and two old officers of no distinction, Sir Henry Dalrymple and Sir Harry Burrard, were sent after Wellesley to take the command over him as soon as they could arrive in Portugal. Meanwhile, on August 1, Wellesley landed in Mondego Bay. On August 21 he completely defeated Junot at Vimeiro. Burrard, who arrived just as the battle was beginning, was enough of a gentleman to let Wellesley remain in command till it was fought out, but he superseded him as soon as it was over, and in spite of Wellesley's pleadings, refused to follow up the enemy. Junot got safely into Lisbon, and on August 30 was allowed by a convention signed at Cintra to return with all his army to France. 5. Sir John Moore's Expedition and the Battle of Corunna. 1808-1809. In November 1808 Napoleon entered Spain in person to stem the tide of disaster. The Spanish troops were patriotic, but they were ill-commanded and undisciplined. Napoleon drove them like sheep before him, and, on December 4, entered Madrid. The British army in Portugal was now commanded by Sir John Moore. The Convention of Cintra had been received with indignation in England as improperly lenient to the French, and Wellesley and his two official superiors had been recalled to give an account of their conduct in relation to it. Moore, who was an excellent general, had been ordered to advance to the assistance of the Spaniards, when Napoleon burst into the country. Deceived by false intelligence, and believing that the Spaniards would fight better than they did, Moore pushed on, reaching Sahagun on December 23. He there learnt that Napoleon was already hurrying back from Madrid to crush him. Moore was therefore forced to retreat, but he so skilfully availed himself of the obstacles on the route as to give Napoleon no opportunity of drawing him to a battle. On January 1, 1809, Napoleon, thinking Moore's destruction to be a mere matter of time, turned back, leaving the French army under the command of Soult. On January 16 Moore had to fight a battle at Corunna to secure the embarkation of his men. He was himself killed, but his army was completely victorious, and was brought away in safety to England. 1809 OVERTHROW OF AUSTRIA 865 6. Aspern and Wagram. 1809.-Napoleon had been recalled from Spain by news that Austria was arming against him. A war between France and Austria was the result, and after the indecisive battle of Aspern, fought on May 21 and 22, 1809, the French gained a victory at Wagram on July 6. On October 14 the Treaty of Vienna was signed, by which vast territories were cut off from the Austrian Empire. The treaty was followed by a marriage between Napoleon and the daughter of the Emperor Francis, Napoleon having divorced his wife Josephine on a flimsy pretext, his real motive being that she had borne him no children. The English Government were not idle spectators of this war. Canning had taken in hand the war in Spain. 7. Walcheren and Talavera. 1809. Whilst the result of the campaign in Austria was still uncertain, Castlereagh sent out an expedition to seize Antwerp, in the hope that, if it succeeded, it would compel Napoleon, who was still struggling on the Danube, to send part of his army back. Unfortunately, the command of the land forces sent out was given to Lord Chatham, the eldest son of the great Chatham, who had nothing but his birth to recommend him, and the command of the fleet to Sir Richard Strachan, an officer of no great distinction. Though the expedition did not sail till July 28, three weeks after the defeat of the Austrians at Wagram, there was still a chance that a successful blow at Antwerp might encourage the Emperor of Austria to prolong the struggle. The commanders, however, took Flushing and did no more. Time was frittered away in senseless disputes between the general and the admiral, and Antwerp was put in a good state of defence before they could resolve how to attack it. According to a popular epigram, The Earl of Chatham, with his sword drawn Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham. Whilst admiral and general were hesitating, the troops were left in the low isle of Walcheren, where a fever broke out which swept away thousands, and so weakened the constitutions of those who recovered that few were fit for active service again. When the news of failure reached England, Canning threw all the blame on Castlereagh. The two ministers both resigned office and then fought a duel. The Duke of Portland, the Prime Minister, broken in health, also resigned, and died shortly afterwards. He was succeeded by Perceval, a conscientious but narrow-minded man. Wellesley was sent back to Portugal. Marching rapidly northwards from Lisbon, he drove Soult from Oporto. Having thus cleared his left flank, he returned to Lisbon and then pushed up the valley of the Tagus, intending to co-operate with a Spanish The Court of King's Bench in 1810: from Pennant's 'Some Account of London." 1809-1811 THE PENINSULAR WAR 867 force in an attack on Madrid. At Talavera Wellesley met a French army under Marshal Victor, and though the Spanish general gave him no assistance, he completely defeated the French on July 27. Other French generals threatened to cut off his retreat, and he was obliged to fall back on Portugal. Wellesley had indeed learnt the lesson that Spanish armies could not be depended on, but otherwise he had gained nothing by his victory. The French forces in the Peninsula were too overwhelming to be overpowered as yet. Wellesley was rewarded for his skill with the title of Viscount Wellington. 8. Torres Vedras. 1810-1811.-In 1810 Napoleon made a great effort to drive the English out of Portugal. Though he did not go himself into the Peninsula, he sent his best general, Marshal Massena. Wellington had now under his orders, besides his English troops, a number of well-trained Portuguese commanded by an Irishman, Marshal Beresford. Even with this addition, however, his force was too small to meet Massena in the field, and, in order to have in reserve a defensible position, he threw up three lines of earthworks across the peninsula which lies between the Tagus and the sea. The first was intended to stop Massena for a time; the second to form the main defence after the first had been abandoned; the third to protect the British embarkation, if it were found necessary to leave Portugal. Wellington, who, whilst these lines were being constructed, was some distance in front of them, drew back slowly as Massena advanced, so as to prolong the French invasion as much as possible. Massena's army was accordingly half-starved before the Lines of Torres Vedras' were reached, as Wellington had ordered that the crops should be destroyed and the cattle driven off. Yet Massena pressed on, fancying that the English were making for their ships, as the hatred borne to the French by the Portuguese was so deep-seated that not a single peasant informed him of the obstacle in front of him. At Busaco, indeed, Wellington turned on the French army and checked it for a time, but his numbers were not sufficient to enable him to continue his resistance in the open field, and hence he continued his retreat to the first line. Massena did not even attempt to storm it. Week after week he looked helplessly at it whilst his own army was gradually wasted by starvation and disease. More than 30,000 French soldiers perished, though not a single pitched battle had been fought. At last Massena ordered a reteat. Wellington cautiously followed, and by the spring of 1811 not a Frenchman remained in Portugal. 9. The Regency and the Assassination of Perceval. 1811 1812. Whilst Wellington was struggling with the French, old George III. ceased to have further knowledge of joy or sorrow. The madness with which he had from time to time been afflicted, settled down on him in 1811. The selfish and unprincipled Prince of Wales took his place as Regent, at first under some restrictions, but after a year had elapsed without any prospect of the king's recovery, with the full powers of a sovereign. It was expected by some that he would place his old friends the Whigs in office; but he had no gratitude in his nature, and the current of feeling against reform of any kind was now so strong that he could hardly have maintained the Whigs in power even if he had wished to do so. Perceval was well suited for the Prime Ministership at such a time, being as strongly in favour of maintaining the existing state of things as the dullest member of Parliament could possibly be. His ministry, however, was not a long one. In 1812 he was shot dead by a lunatic as he stepped into the House of Commons. His successor was Lord Liverpool. IO. Napoleon at the Height of Power. 1811.-In the meantime Napoleon had been proceeding from one annexation to another. In May 1809 he annexed the Papal States ; in July 1810, the kingdom of Holland; in November 1810, the Valais; and in December 1810 the coast of Germany as far as Hamburg. The motive which impelled him to these extravagant resolutions was his determination to enforce the Continental System in order to ruin England. England was not ruined, but the rise of prices caused by Napoleon's ineffectual attempts to ruin her increased the ill-will of the populations of the Continent, and strengthened the popular resistance to which he ultimately fell a victim. II. Wellington's Resources. 1811.-It was upon the certainty of a general resistance to what had now become a real tyranny that Wellington mainly calculated. Wellington had, however, on his side other elements of success. His English troops had proved superior to more than equal numbers of Frenchmen, not because they were braver, but because they had more coolness. He had therefore been able to draw his men up in a long line only two deep, and could yet count on them to baffle the heavy columns with which the French were accustomed to charge, by pouring into them a steady fire as they approached. Moreover, as the French generals were in the habit of quarrelling with one another, it was possible to defeat one before another could make up his mind to bring up his forces to the help of his rival. The Spaniards, too, though their |