Parliamentary Character.

was attributed to the noble Duke at the head of the government of Ireland, who had very kindly expressed his wish still to avail himself of his (Sir Arthur Wellesley's) services.

After some observations, Lord Castlereagh moved the previous question, to which Mr. Whitbread did not object, as he said his only object was to prevent the present case from being established as a precedent, which he thought the discussion had done.

After this, Sir Arthur Wellesley's Parliamentary duties have been suspended; but before we proceed to further military details, it is proper to notice that bis abilities in the Senate were fully commensurate to those in the field; and it has been well said of him, particularly throughout his defence of his brother, that if he could not silence his adversaries, he always convinced his auditors; whilst his mode of speaking at once simple, perspicuous, and energetic, was united with so much real modesty and diffidence of manner, as to secure him no small share of the favour of the House, and a constant degree of flattering attention.

It was during the short lived administration of Lords Grey and Grenville that he had come into Parliament for an Irish Borough, but afterwards sat for Newport in Hants; and it was in the succeeding administration that he was appointed to the Chief Secretaryship of the sister kingdom; an office certainly incompatible with the active duties of that profession which he had chosen, and of which he had now proved himself to be one of the greatest ornaments; but then it must be remembered that he accepted it merely on condition of its not prejudicing his military views and pursuits and that he performed its duties sedulously, whilst at home, and with a degree of highly honourable perseverance, at the same time declining all salary during those short periods when absent from its duties.

A treaty of peace, friendship, and alliance, between his Britannic Majesty and his Catholic Majesty Ferdinand

Proceeds for Portugal.

Ferdinand the Seventh was now arranged, by which Great Britain guaranteed the succession and possession of the Spanish crown and empire to Ferdinand himself, or such lawful successor as the Spanish nation should acknowledge: whilst the Spanish government engaged never to cede to France any part of the territories or possessions of the Spanish monarchy in any part of the world; making common cause against France, and not to make peace with that power, except by common consent.

Our troops in the Peninsula had now for some time been commanded by Sir John Craddock; but the British government having determined on more active operation, it was thought proper to entrust the command to Sir Arthur Wellesley, who immediately prepared to supersede Sir John, that gallant officer's services being required in another part of the globe, where they might be equally honourable to himself, and equally useful to his country.

On the 22d of April, Sir Arthur Wellesley landed at Lisbon from England, to resume the command of the united British and Portuguese armies. He was received with extreme joy by the inhabitants, and a splendid illumination took place. On the 24th he set out to join the army, which had already proceeded on its march to Oporto.

On the 9th of May, Sir Arthur Wellesley intended that the army should march from Coimbra, to dispossess the enemy of Oporto.* In fact the advanced guard

and

* Next to Lisbon, Oporto is assuredly the most considerable and wealthy place in Portugal. It is the chief place of a district, the seat of a Corregidor, or Provedor; (being regarded as a garrison town} has also a military governor; it is also a bishopric.

Its population was then about 40,000; and it had four suburbs, seven parishes, and twelve monasteries. The remains of the ancient Moorish walls and gates may still be seen in many places; yet the town is at present, properly speaking, an open place, and without any other than a temporary defence. The mouth of the river is covered by a small

fort,

Army crosses the Vouga.

and the cavalry had marched on the 7th, and the whole had halted on the 8th, to afford time for Marshal Beresford, with his corps, to arrive upon the Douro. The infantry of the army was formed into three divisions for this expedition; of which two, consisting of the advanced guard of the Hanoverian brigade, and the brigade of Guards, under Brigadier-General Stuart, Lieutenant-Generals Paget and Payne, &c. with a brigade of artillery, under LieutenantGeneral Sherbrooke, moved by the high road from Coimbra to Oporto; whilst one composed of MajorGeneral Hill's brigade, and Brigadier-General Cameron's, with a brigade of six pounders, proceeded by the road from Coimbra to Aveiro.*

On the 10th in the morning, before day-light, the cavalry and advanced guard crossed the Vouga, with the intention to surprise and cut off four regiments of French cavalry, and a battalion of infantry and artillery, cantoned in Albergeria Nova, and the neighbouring villages, about eight miles from that river. In this affair, though not completely successful, as far

as

fort called San Joas de Foz, near which, on the coast, there is a small market town. Besides this work, to the northward there was a bastion on the very beach; and on the south side, opposite, was a redoubt called Santa Catharina, flanked in its turn, for defence, by a few smaller batteries.

* The state of the country may be drawn from the following extract from an Officer's Journal:

"Hitherto nothing had struck me beyond the ordinary attendants of war; but at Albergeria Valha, the violent animosity which prevails between the French and Portuguese appeared but too plainly in the treatment which the former had given this unfortunate village. Indeed the conduct of the enemy, and the state of the place which they had just quitted, was really painful to think upon. Every house had been broke open, and every piece of furniture destroyed, every cask of wine which they could discover had been staved, and the liquor wasted. All the fowls, pigs, and cattle had been killed, and several limbs were yet lying in various quarters of the streets. Such was the barbarous and revengeful acts the French had been guilty of before they retreated. The Portuguese in return had wreaked their vindictive hatred on the dead Frenchmen, and so completely had they disfigured the inanimate bodies, that it was not easy to distinguish any one human

feature.

Attack of the advanced posts.

as regarded the complete surprise, yet the superiority of the British cavalry was evident throughout the day; some prisoners and cannon of the detachment were taken, and the British advanced guard took up the position of Oliviera.

On the same day Major-General Hill, who had embarked at Aveiro in the evening of the 9th, arrived at Ovar, in the rear of the enemy's right, and the head of Lieutenant-General Sherbrooke's division. passed the Vouga, on the same evening.

On the 11th the advanced guard and cavalry continued to move on the high road towards Oporto, with Major-General Hill's division in a parallel road, which leads from Oporto to Ovar. On the arrival of the advanced guard at Vendas Novas, between Santo Redondo and Grijon, they fell in with the out-posts of the enemy's advanced guards, consisting of about 4000 infantry, and some squadrons of cavalry, strongly posted on the heights above Grijon, their front being covered by woods and broken ground; but the enemy's left flank was in a moment most judiciously turned by a movement well executed by Major-General Murray, with Brigadier General Langberth's brigade of the Hanoverian Legion; whilst the 16th Portuguese regiment of Brigadier-General Stuart's brigade, attacked their right, and the riflemen of the 93d, and the flank companies of the 29th, 43d, and 52d, of the same brigade under Major Way, attacked the infantry in the woods and village in their centre.

These attacks soon obliged the enemy to give way; and the Hon. Brigadier-General Stuart immediately led two squadrons of the 16th and 20th dragoons, under the command of Major Blake, in pursuit of the enemy, destroyed many, and took many prisoners. This success, though on a small scale, had such an effect upon the French, that they crossed the Douro, and destroyed the bridge on the night of the 11th; but Sir Arthur soon after collected as many boats as could be brought to the ferry immediately above the

5

1

Arrival on the Douro.

the towns of Oporto and Villa Nova, as it was important, with a view to the operations of Marshal Beresford that he should cross the Douro immediately. In furtherance of this operation, he also in the morning of the 12th sent Major-General Murray, with a battalion of the Hanoverian Legion, a squadron of cavalry, and two six-pounders, to endeavour to collect boats, and, if possible, to cross the river at Ovintra, about four miles above Oporto.

The ground on the right bank of the river, at the ferry immediately above Oporto, and where Sir Arthur intended to cross, was capable of being protected and commanded by the fire of cannon, placed ou the height of the Sierra Convent, at Villa Nova, and there appeared to be a good position for the British troops on the opposite side of the river, until they should be collected in sufficient numbers. The enemy took no notice of the collecting of the boats, nor indeed of the embarkation of the troops, until after the first battalions (the Buffs*) were landed, and had taken up their position under the command of Lieutenant-General Paget on the opposite side of

the river.

They then commanded an attack upon them, with a large body of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, under the command of Marshal Soult, which that corps most gallantly sustained, till supported successively by the 48th and 66th regiments belonging to Major-General Hill's brigade, and a Portuguese battalion, and afterwards by the first battalion of detachments belonging

*The gallant behaviour of the Buffs proved how well formed was the confidence Sir Arthur placed in them; as they crossed the Douro, in the face of a most dreadful fire of cannon and musquetry, in which situation, necessarily unsupported by the rest of the army from the want of boats, yet they maintained their ground against the united efforts of the French army; and though artillery, cavalry, and infantry were successively brought against them, still they remained victoriou and unbroken, until the Guards and. the British cavalry coming ove put an end to this unequal contest.