1810.] THB BATTLE OF BUSACO. 531 know that effectual barriers could be raised even against the progress of the invincible legions of the Republic and the Empire. The summer was approaching when Massena took the command of the French forces in Old Castile and Leon. He had seventy-two thousand men under arms in the field. The name by which they were called, "the Army of Portugal," indicated the special service to which they were devoted. Wellington had about fifty-four thousand British and Portuguese. By the great exertions of marshal Beresford, the Portuguese had become valuable troops, and some were brigaded with the British army. In June the French invested Ciudad Rodrigo. It was bravely defended by the Spaniards till the 10th of July. Wellington was not strong enough to attempt its relief. He could only have advanced with thirty-two thousand men, having been obliged to leave nearly a third of his army to prevent the enemy in Estremadura from cutting him off from Lisbon. He saw Ciudad Rodrigo fall. The Spanish general, Romana, in whom the British general had great confidence, was as anxious as Wellington that Ciudad Rodrigo should be relieved; but neither of them could risk the attempt in the presence of a far stronger enemy. On the 15th of August, Massena commenced the siege of Almeida. It was defended by a Portuguese garrison, under the command of an English officer. Wellington moved forward to be ready to seize any opportunity for its relief. On the second night of the bombardment, a magazine, containing all the ammunition of the fortress, blew up; and the garrison were compelled to capitulate, the greater part of the town and the defences having been destroyed by the explosion. This accident disconcerted all the projected operations of the British army. Wellington had no fault to find with the unfortunate event of the surrender of Almeida ;—except that he was not informed by telegraph of the misfortune which had happened, when he would have made an effort to have saved the garrison. As it was, he had made all his preparations for falling back.* The On the 26th of September, his army was collected upon the Serra de Busaco, in front of Coimbra. On the 27th the French attacked the right and left of the English position. They were repulsed; one column being driven down the hill by general Picton's division; another column compelled rapidly to retreat under a bayonet charge by general Crauford's division. Portuguese fought well; and Wellington said, "They are worthy of contending in the same ranks with British troops in this interesting cause."+ "This battle," says Napier, "was fought unnecessarily by Massena, and by Wellington reluctantly." It is scarcely possible that Massena should have received the instructions of a letter written at St. Cloud on the 19th of September, in which Napoleon says to Berthier, "Send off an officer tomorrow with a letter for the prince of Essling, in which you will let him know that it is my wish that he attack and destroy the English . . . . I am too far off, and the position of the enemy changes too often, for me to give advice as to the way in which the attack should be conducted; but it is certain that he is not in a state to resist it." But Massena knew that his despotic master had become impatient of Wellington's pertinacity, and that he must risk 532 WELLINGTON RETIRES WITHIN HIS LINES. [1810. something. Thiers holds that the British general, however prudent, was unwilling to enter his lines as a fugitive, and that, when he should find one of those strong positions against which the impetuous bravery of the French would be likely to fail, he would fight a defensive battle, and then tranquilly retire. The French lost four thousand five hundred men; the British and Portuguese, thirteen hundred. On the 29th of September the allies, crossing the Mondego, began to retreat towards Lisbon. The sufferings of the inhabitants of a country in which two hostile armies are contending, and where the necessity for securing their own safety almost precludes compassion for the non-combatants, were never more forcibly displayed than in the course of the movements which followed the fall of Almeida. When the rear-guard of the British evacuated Coimbra, on the 1st of October, many of the inhabitants, who had remained— whilst Wellington was keeping the French at bay in the Serra de Busaco, instead of obeying his orders to remove out of the way of the enemy with their goods and provisions-now followed the army, encumbering the road with their sick and their aged and their children. But the great mass of the population in the line of the English march willingly obeyed the orders upon which the eventual safety of their homes depended, and fled towards Lisbon, leaving the towns and villages bare for the advancing French. Their losses and miseries were great; but England made a great effort to afford some compensation. Wellington continued steadily to retreat before his powerful opponent. There was no sacrifice of men by precipitate flight, no risks encountered by rash resistance. The loss in skirmishes was small. On the 10th of October, the whole army was within the lines of Torres Védras. Massena came up, wholly unprepared to find such an obstacle to his further progress. He spent some days in reconnoitring. He scoured the country for provisions; but the country was a desert, behind him and around him. The distresses of his army were most severe, for they had only carried bread for fifteen days. On the 15th of November he gave up all hope of forcing the lines; and began a retrograde movement. On the 8th of December, Wellington wrote one of his unofficial letters, which best exhibits his character and habits of thought: "I have determined to persevere in my cautious system; to operate upon the flanks and rear of the enemy with my small and light troops, and thus force them out of Portugal by the distresses they will suffer, and do them all the mischief I can upon my retreat. Massena is an old fox, and is as cautious as I am. He risks nothing ... Although I may not win a battle immediately, I shall not lose one; and you may depend upon it that we are safe, for the winter at all events." + "Le Consulat et l'Empire," tome xii. p. 365. + " 'Supplementary Despatches," vol. vii. p. 2. Illness of the king-Interruption to the proceedings in Parliament-The Regency Bill passedThe king's ministers continued in office-State of Europe at the commencement of the Regency-Wellington and the Ministry-Massena evacuates Portugal-The British army pursues Battle of Fuentes de Onoro-Battle of Albuera-Restrictions on the Prince Regent about to expire-His letter as to his choice of a Ministry-The Administration not altered-Resignation of the Marquis Wellesley-Character of the Regent-Assassination of Mr. Perceval-Attempts to form a Cabinet of which lord Grey and lord Grenville should be the heads-The earl of Liverpool Prime Minister-Luddism-Repeal of the Orders in Council-The United States declare war against Great Britain. THE Parliament, which had been prorogued to the 1st of November, was, by an order made in a council at which the king presided on the 17th of October, to have been further prorogued by Commission to the 29th of November, and a proclamation to that effect appeared in the Gazette. On the 29th of October Mr. Perceval wrote to the Speaker that the calamitous situation of the princess Amelia had so worked upon the king's mind that he was incapable of signing the Commission,, and that, according to all usage, such instrument never passes the Great Seal without the king's signature. Mr. Perceval had seen the king on that day. "His conversation was prodigiously hurried, and, though perfectly coherent, yet so extremely diffuse, explicit, and indiscreet upon all the most interesting subjects upon which he could have to open his mind; and, at the same time, so entirely regardless of the presence of all who were about him, that he was evidently labouring under a malady."* From that malady the king never recovered. Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. ii. p. 262.7 534 THE KING'S ILLNESS-REGENCY BILL. [1810. The "interesting subjects upon which he had to open his mind” had, doubtless, more relation to domestic affairs than to public events. His favourite daughter was dying; and upon her deathbed she is said to have revealed to her father the circumstances of an attachment which, as was believed, had involved a violation of the Royal Marriage Act. The princess Amelia died on the 2nd of November. The king was then under restraint. When told of his daughter's death, he "did not seem to feel or take much notice of it." He had been heard to count over the several times and occasions of his former attacks; and he ascribed this last to the illness of the princess.* The meeting of Parliament on the 1st of November could not be postponed. The Chancellor met the Lords; informed them that there was no Commission to open the Session, and explained the circumstances which had prevented him affixing the Great Seal to such a Commission. Mr. Perceval addressed the Commons; the Speaker having stated that he had thought it his duty to take the chair, in order that the House might adjourn itself. The adjournment was to the 15th. When that day arrived, the House again adjourned for another fortnight, the physicians having expressed a strong opinion as to the probability of the king's recovery. Another adjournment took place to the 13th of December. On that day a Committee was appointed in both Houses to examine the physicians. On the 20th, the ministers proposed three Resolutions, following the precedent of those of 1788. They affirmed the king's incapacity; they declared the right and duty of the two Houses to provide for this exigency; and proposed to proceed by Bills determining the powers to be exercised in the king's name and behalf, to which the Royal Assent should be given in some mode upon which the Houses should determine. The mode which the ministers desired to adopt was a fictitious use of the king's name, the "Phantom," as it was called. The Opposition contended, as in 1788, for addressing the prince of Wales to assume the royal authority as Regent. The seven dukes of the blood-royal supported the measure of proceeding by Address, when the subject came to be debated in the House of Lords. But the ministerial Resolutions were adopted. They contained restrictions on the power of the Regent, which were offensive to the prince of Wales, and to the party who were considered to be his friends. The limitations upon his authority were to continue only for twelve months; but they were sufficiently stringent to produce great debate and many divisions, in which the ministers had small majorities. The Resolution which was considered most obnoxious was that which gave the queen very extensive powers over the king's person and the royal household. It was finally determined that the queen should have "such direction of the household as may be suitable for the care of his majesty's person, and the maintenance of the royal dignity." The Parliament having been opened on the 15th of January, by a Commission under the Great Seal, the Regency Bill was passed on the 5th of February. During these proceedings the prince of Wales had been negotiating with lord Grenville and lord Grey as to the arrangement of a new Administration. On the 1st of February, he sent to acquaint these peers that "it was not his royal highness's intention * Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. ii. p. 287. 1811.] THE KING'S MINISTERS CONTINUED IN OFFICE. 535 to make any change at present." It had begun to be confidently expected that the king would recover. He had become "much alive to what was passing, and was quite sure," as he told Mr. Perceval, "that it could never enter into the prince's mind to change the ministry." On the 4th the prince announced to Mr. Perceval his intention not to remove from their situations those whom he finds there as his majesty's official servants, lest any act of the Regent might, in the smallest degree, have the effect of interfering with the progress of his sovereign's recovery." The letter added, "This consideration alone dictates the decision now communicated to Mr. Perceval." On the 6th, the Prince Regent took the oaths before a Privy Council assembled at Carlton House. During several months the king appeared to be occasionally convalescent. His bodily health was good, and he talked more naturally. But it soon became sufficiently clear, whatever might be the expectations that his life might be prolonged, that he was not likely to be able ever to resume the royal functions. The reign of George III. had been virtually closed on the 5th of February, 1811. At the commencement of the Regency, it would have appeared the most extravagant expectation to have believed that within three years the gigantic power of Napoleon would have been crumbling into ruin,-that, like the ice-palace of the empress of Russia, "'Twas transient in its nature, as in show 'Twas durable; as worthless as it seemed In March, 1811, the empress Maria Louisa presented to the French nation a son, who was saluted by his father as king of Rome. Rome and the southern Papal Provinces were annexed to France; and the Pope was a prisoner at Savona. Louis Bonaparte, having refused to concur in the tyrannical projects of his brother for enforcing the Continental System upon * Lord Colchester's "Diary," vol. ii. p. 315. + Cowper, "Task," book v. |