how impossible that will be, when the much greatest part of the troops are to march by land, and that you are to deceive the Portuguese as well as the French and Spaniards. But if it be practicable, it must be this year, and not the next; for when you shall the next winter put your troops into such quarters as may be proper for that expedition, you may be assured that they will take such precaution as will put that place out of danger. You know that by the treaty England and Holland are obliged to give every year to the King of Portugal upwards of four thousand barrels of powder, which is more than is expended by France and all the allies in the armies; so that I beg you will be cautious of giving any encouragement of having an English train established in Portugal, for if the attempt at Cadiz goes on, the cannon and everything for that expedition must be furnished by the fleet. As for the refugee officers, I think he sets a much greater value on them than they deserve. If he can make any use of them, I should think they would be better there than in Ireland.” “Peronne, Sept. 3. — I see Lord Galway presses very much for troops. It is certain if the Court of Portugal will not come into the queen’s measures, whatever troops are sent will be useless to the common cause; for they will do nothing but defend their own frontier.”
In winter we find a proof that he had not forgotten his Irish friends. He wrote to the Earl of Wharton[1] from Lisbon, Dec 11, 1708:—
“I assure your Excellency ’tis with great pleasure I have learned the news of your having kissed the Queen’s hands for the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, which kingdom may reasonably promise itself many advantages from your lordship’s active and zealous genius. I shall only beg leave to recommend all the poor refugees in general, but more particularly those at Portarlington, to your lordship’s protection, and to assure you that I shall always be, &c. &c.”[2]
In Spain, his friend and admirer, Major-General Stanhope, commanded the British troops, and Count Staremberg, the German Marshal, was at the head of military affairs. It was a compliment to Lord Galway, that Marlborough, in congratulating Stanhope on the improved state of the confederate army, said, “Between ourselves, I fear, if Count Noyelles were living, matters would not go so easy.”[3]
The Parliamentary opposition continued to gain ground in England. They were determined to impute all the cowardice and inefficiency of the Portuguese to Lord Galway. In 1709, the battle on the banks of the Caya, which the Portuguese brought on in opposition to Lord Galway’s remonstrances, and in which his part was to bring them out of the mess after their retreat — this battle was spoken of as another battle lost by Galway, and as a tremendous defeat. Marlborough’s letter to Lord Galway gives the right view:—
“I have received the honour of your Excellency’s letter of the 8th May, giving an account of the misfortune the Portuguese have drawn upon themselves by their over forwardness in engaging the Marquis de Bay near Badajoz. The French had made a great noise of it before your letters came to give us a true relation of the action, which I am glad to find was of no greater consequence, and that the enemy had not been able to reap any great advantage from it.”
“The Annals of Queen Anne” contain this observation:— “The action on the Caya gave the Portuguese a great idea of the capacity and courage of the Earl of Galway, against whose advice they entered on that unfortunate affair, and whose conduct prevented fatal consequences from the flight of their horse.” If the Portuguese were now willing to laud the Earl, he was not prepared to return the compliment. He wrote to Godolphin, Sept. 4, —
“By the accounts you have heard since my return to Lisbon, you are prepared to expect no good from this court. It is every day worse and worse. The king is pretty well, but enters no more into affairs than if he were in his infancy. Nobody will appear to govern, for certainly no government was ever so abandoned. There is not a penny in the treasury, and less credit, and no care taken to remedy it.”
- ↑ It is remarkable that a small business during Wharton’s vice-royalty afforded Dean Swift the opportunity for bringing his only tangible charge against Galway. The Earl of Kildare, finding that a deceased brother s bargain in giving up a £300 salary, payable only during the life of the Earl of Meath, and in accepting a £200 life pension, had in the course of events proved to be a bad one, declared as his brother’s heir, that Meath was still alive, and he petitioned the Lord-Lieutenant for a return to the original bargain — which petition was granted. How could the Dean fabricate an accusation against Galway out of this? (the reader may ask). By interpolating a rhetorical clause, “My Lord Galway did, by threats, compel” George Fitzgerald to surrender the contingent salary ! ! !
- ↑ Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lxxiii.
- ↑ The Count de Noyelles did not live to be superseded by Marshal Staremberg. He had continued in the service (or disservice) of Charles III. Narcissus Luttrell wrote on 29th May 1708, — “This day’s Holland post advises that the Dutch general, Noyelles, died of a quinsy, the 21st of April, at Barcelona.” It was in May that Staremberg took the command.
