Perhaps--if Sir J.M.could himself have given us his commentary upon these letters, and have restricted the extension of such passages as (from want of vigilance in making distinctions or laxity of language) are at variance with concessions made elsewhere--they would have been found not more to differ from the reports of other intelligent and less prejudiced observers, than we might have expected from the circumstances under which they were written.

Sir J.M.has himself told us (in a letter published since the above note was written) that he thinks the Spaniards 'a fine people;' and that acknowledgement, from a soldier, cannot be supposed to exclude courage; nor, from a Briton, some zeal for national independence.

We are therefore to conclude that, when Sir J.M.pronounces opinions on 'the Spaniards' not to be reconciled with this and other passages, he speaks--not of the Spanish people--but of the Spanish government.

And, even for what may still remain charged uncandidly upon the people, the writer does not forget that there are infinite apologies to be found in Sir J.Moore's situation: the earliest of these letters were written under great anxiety and disturbance of mind from the anticipation of calamity;--and the latter (which are the most severe) under the actual pressure of calamity; and calamity of that sort which would be the most painful to the feelings of a gallant soldier, and most likely to vitiate his judgment with respect to those who had in part (however innocently) occasioned it.

There may be pleaded also for him--that want of leisure which would make it difficult to compare the different accounts he received, and to draw the right inferences from them.