I am well aware of the burthen which is to be supported, of the discountenance from recent calamity under which every thing, which speaks of hope for the Spanish people, and through _them_ for mankind, will be received.

But this, far from deterring, ought to be an encouragement; it makes the duty more imperious.

Nevertheless, whatever confidence any individual of meditative mind may have in these representations of the principles and feelings of the people of Spain, both as to their sanctity and truth, and as to their competence in ordinary circumstances to make these acknowledged, it would be unjust to recall them to the public mind, stricken as it is by present disaster, without attempting to mitigate the bewildering terror which accompanies these events, and which is caused as much by their nearness to the eye, as by any thing in their own nature.

I shall, however, at present confine myself to suggest a few considerations, some of which will be developed hereafter, when I resume the subject.
It appears then, that the Spanish armies have sustained great defeats, and have been compelled to abandon their positions, and that these reverses have been effected by an army greatly superior to the Spanish forces in number, and far excelling them in the art and practice of war.
This is the sum of those tidings, which it was natural we should receive with sorrow, but which too many have received with dismay and despair, though surely no events could be more in the course of rational expectation.

And what is the amount of the evil ?--It is manifest that, though a great army may easily defeat or disperse another _army_, less or greater, yet it is not in a like degree formidable to a determined _people_, nor efficient in a like degree to subdue them, or to keep them in subjugation--much less if this people, like those of Spain in the present instance, be numerous, and, like them, inhabit a territory extensive and strong by nature.