Canning and the Spanish Patriots in 1808 4 1 such a number of persons as it would be necessary to send to the different provinces of Spain. You will however assure them that whenever these provinces shall be united so as to constitute a general provisional govt. H. M. will lose no time in sending an accredited Minister to reside at the seat of government wherever it may be fixed. ... If unfortunately the affairs of Spain should assume an unfavourable aspect, and the French armies should be advancing into Galicia, you will provide for your personal safety by taking refuge on board any of H. M.'s Ships of These sentences, I may remark in passing, tend to disprove the assertions of Sir WilHam Napier that the British jNIinistry eagerly complied with every suggestion made by the delegates of the pro- vincial juntas of Asturias, GaUcia, and Andalusia, and that (to quote his words) : Discarding all prudent considerations, and entering into formal rela- tions with every knot of Spanish politicians assuming the title of a supreme junta, the government dealt with unsparing hands, enormous supplies at the demand of those self-elected authorities." On the contrary, it appears that from the very first Canning, who was the executant of the Cabinet, tried to take all possible pre- cautions against the multiplication of envoys to Spain ; the sequel will show that he was by no means prone to grant all the demands of the delegates named above. Canning's next despatch to Stuart, dated July 13, 1808, informed him of the sending of 160,294 dollars by H. jI. S. Dryad for the use of the authorities in Galicia — a sum which would complete the sum of 1,000,000 dollars originally designed for that purpose. The despatch of this sum would, said Canning, remove the objec- tions raised by Don Joachim Freire as to delay. On July 27 Can- ning wrote to Hunter and to Stuart, stating that Mr. Duff was sent to Cadiz to resume his position as British consul at that place and with a view to entering into communication with the junta of Seville. He again impressed on Hunter the supreme need of union between the Spanish provinces. It will be well to quote his own words, inasmuch as they refute another charge levelled by Napier against him to the following effect : The English cabinet was indeed sanguine, and yet the ministers, while anticipating success in a preposterous manner, displayed little industry and less judgment in their preparations for the struggle." We have already seen that Canning faced the probability that the French forces might penetrate even to Corunna. Let us now 'Sir William F. P. Napier, The War in the Peninsula, vol. I., book ii., ch. i. ■^Ibid., book in., ch. i.
