THE BRITISH LEGION IN SPAIN.

On the 10th of June, 1835, the Foreign Enlistment Act was repealed, by an Order in Council, for the purpose (as the order stated) "of enabling all persons to engage in the military and naval service of her Majesty Isabella the Second, Queen of Spain." In consequence of this permission, Lieutenant Colonel de Lacy Evans was appointed a Lieutenant General in the Spanish service, and entrusted with the formation of an auxiliary legion, to consist of 10,000 men. On the 22d of June General Evans with General Alava, the Spanish ambasador at the court of London, signed the "conditions under which British subjects will be admitted to the service of her Catholic Majesty Donna Isabella the Second, Queen of Spain." These conditions provided that "the pay and allowances are to be the same as in the English service," and "that the force is to be governed in conformity with the British military articles of war, and, in matters not connected with military discipline, by the laws and constitution of Spain in all other circumstances."

That these articles are fair, and hold out honourable terms to those desirous of engaging in the service, no one can deny; but, notwithstanding these considerations, the most lavish abuse and the most groundless charges have been heaped upon the legion and officers of the British army. Men who have served in almost every clime and field, and who in these days of peace have accepted appointments in the Spanish service, have been held up by a party in this country to the contempt and scorn of the world as mercenaries and base hirelings. The system of attack has been not so much to prove the inefficiency of the legion, to show the errors of its operations, to criticise its movements, as to vilify it, by invariably styling it by some cant names, such as "the Mercenaries," "the Isle o'Doggians," "the Footpads," and many other names, which the wit, ingenuity, or malice of party feeling has been able to coin. In the days of the French war this system was found to take admirably with the lower classes. "The Corsican," "the son of a shoe-black," " Boney," and such expressions, were then found excellent weapons in the hands of writers; and perhaps they had as much effect in stirring up the bile of the people, and keeping them in good humour with the war, and in ill humour with France and every thing French, as the news of half a dozen victories. But, alas! the time is changed. Now common men may reasonably be supposed to possess some common sense, and consequently the supposition may not be so very extraordinary that some of them particularly clear-headed, and of course in advance of their fellows, may distinguish between the mere application of an opprobrious epithet and a well-founded objection. The result therefore appears to us to have been that the system has entirely failed; for we apprehend that not one single officer or recruit has been deterred from engaging in the service from considerations so absurd, and so evidently brought forward as a party trick.

Having made these few observations, we now recur to the subjec more immediately before us. We have been so fortunate as to receive several letters from an officer of the legion in Spain-a young gentleman who sailed in September last, who is still out, and from whom we hope to receive more valuable communications. We regret, however, that in one part of the correspondence there is an hiatus of several months, our correspondent having during that period been suffering with the fever at Vittoria, and three letters which he subsequently wrote never having reached his friends. To this we only add that the most implicit faith may be placed in every statement of the writer. He was an eye-witness of what he described; he is influenced by no partiality for the cause in which he is serving; and, though his style may savour more of the camp than of the study, there is a bluntness about it that speaks of the honesty and truth of the writer's views. We therefore commence with a letter dated Santander, September, 1835.

LETTER I.

"I have at last arrived here, after considerable delay and a great deal of sea-sickness. When I wrote to you last I was then about to leave Portsmouth; and, as soon as I came on board the London Merchant, General Reid directed me to take the command of a party in the forepart of the vessel, and to keep off the boats that surrounded

us.

Sentries are placed round the ship, and the officers of the Lancers take it in turns to be on duty all night, and to go the rounds every hour. We have Colonel Kinlock, a lieutenant, two cornets, and three cadets on board; but only the cornets and cadets go on duty at night.

"I was quite mistaken with respect to the London Merchant steamer. We have excellent accommodations, and fare most sumptuously, and the best of it is that we have nothing to pay, wine and every thing being provided for us. We have about thirty officers on board, chiefly of the medical staff. We all dine together in a handsome cabiu; and I had the pleasure to be invited to dine several times with General Robert Evans and General Reid.

"On Friday morning, about five o'clock, we first saw Spain. I happened to be on duty at the time, and it certainly appears to be a most beautiful country. At eight o'clock we arrived in Portugallette Bay: but we did not land, as we saw thousands of bayonets in motion on the hills, which we suspected might belong to the Carlists, as the principal part of their army is in the neighbourhood. Here we remained until ten o'clock the next morning, when we were ordered to enter the river towards Bilboa, to stay near the town of Portugallette, and land the generals and the medical staff. We left Portugallette at twelve o'clock to-day (20th of September), and arrived about four o'clock. The day we landed it was as hot as the hottest day in England, but it is now cooler: and I feel very unwell from eating such a variety of things at breakfast on shore. Six of us breakfasted together. We had three different kinds of fish, fowls, wine, fruit, chocolate, oysters, and several other things. This I think does not speak of the scarcity of which we hear in England. An unfortunate accident occurred the day before yesterday. A private of the rifles passing

before a Spanish sentry was challenged by the latter, but, not understanding a word of Spanish, the sentry fired and wounded the poor rifleman so severely that he died the next morning. This is all I have to tell you at present, and little it is, as I have not yet had an opportunity of looking about me; and I have only time to write this to send it by a lieutenant of Lord John Hay's vessel, who has kindly undertaken to convey it to London, where he is going.

LETTER II.

Santander, October, 1835. "I landed here for good the day mentioned in my last-for bad I had better say at once, for I already detest being here. I am now billeted in one of the best houses in the place, and I have a very good room, and I certainly cannot complain of my accommodation, for the people are exceedingly kind, and pay more attention to me than I, as a stranger, have a right to expect. The officers of our regiment have a mess, breakfast and dinner, at the principal hotel in the town; and we each pay fourteen pistoreens (a pistoreen is ten-pence) per week. For some time after we landed the weather was very fine; but it has rained incessantly for the last three days, and so we are altogether as uncomfortable as we well can be. Had I known before I left England what sort of life I should lead here, I never would have come out; and I now really wonder how I could have left you all, for I would gladly return home if I had not been so headstrong in rejecting good advice, and in persevering to come out against the wishes of all my friends.

"I will now give you a sketch of the life I lead, and of the duty I have to perform. In the first place, I am billeted about a mile from the barracks, and every morning at five o'clock I am obliged to be there and remain until six, to see the men clean the horses, and water and feed them. At eight o'clock we are drilled in the sword exercise, in marching, the facing, and the various other formations; and this lasts for two hours and a half. At twelve we have to be at the stables again, and remain there an hour; and at half past two we are drilled in the platoon and lance exercise until four. At five we are again at the stables; and at nine I have to go to the barracks to hear the roll called. M and S are in the D. troop, and we each command a squad of about twenty men, and the serjeant-major, for the present, commands the other.

Last night, coming home from the barracks, it was pouring with rain, and so dark that I could hardly see a yard before me. I fell over a large stone and cut my arm, and hurt my right side so severely that I could scarcely walk home. The people at my billet were very kind. They would see what had happened; and they were good enough to bring me spirits to rub my side. This gave me some relief; but I was in great pain all night, and I now feel it whenever I cough. This morning they brought me some tea, wine, ́and bread; and, as there happened to be a person in the house who could speak English, he came up to me to enquire whether I was much hurt, and if a doctor or any of the officers should be sent for? About one o'clock they invited me to dinner. I had shown them a Spanish

grammar, and they pointed to a dialogue commencing with Gentlemen, if you please let us go into the dining-room.' I accepted the invitation thus strangely given; and a very good dinner we had. It consisted of eight different dishes, and only one with garlic.

"The respectable people here are Queenhites, but the lower orders are all Carlists; and I regret to perceive that the Spanish soldiers hate the English, and look upon them with feelings of jealousy. I will give you an instance:-A short time ago a quarrel arose between some Spanish soldiers and some men of our regiment, and one of the latter was stabbed with a bayonet. Another time a Spanish and an English soldier were on guard at the same place. The Spaniard pushed the Englishman, and the Englishman knocked him down. Upon this some Spanish soldiers fixed bayonets; our guard turned out, and one of our cadets interposed for the purpose of putting an end to the disturbance. A Spaniard levelled his musket at the cadet, and would certainly have fired if it had not been knocked out of his hands.

"It is reported that there are six Carlist battalions in the neighbourhood, and the only regiment near us is the tenth, under Colonel O'Connel, stationed at a convent about four miles from us. If we should have a brush with them, there certainly will be a dreadful inequality of force on our side; but never mind, we do not fear them. Last Thursday we were inspected by General Alava, who stated that he was highly pleased with our appearance. The same day he proceeded to Madrid, with an escort of Spaniards. Santandar, with the exception of a few houses on the quay (in one of which I am billeted), is a very poor, dirty, ill-looking town. It is surrounded with mountains. In fact, the whole country about is mountainous, and of a description very unfavourable to the operations of troops. As the Carlists are very numerous and in considerable force between here and the capital, it is impossible to go almost any where without a strong escort."

The next letter is of a much more recent date, and gives an account of the late operations of the legion. It perhaps may be necessary to state that in the interval the writer was promoted from the lancers into an infantry regiment.

LETTER III.

St. Sebastian, 28th June, 1836. "I fear you have all forgotten me, as I have not heard of or from you since last October. Whenever I go to the post-office I am always doomed to be disappointed, and I must therefore charitably suppose that you have written by officers coming out; but that is the worst possible way, as, either from neglect or forgetfulness, they very rarely deliver the letters entrusted to their care. Immediately you receive this write and give me all the news, both private and public, and do not be afraid of putting me to the expense of postage, for we have plenty of money at present. The last pay I received was in bills, and it amounted to nineteen pounds. I got it cashed here for five per cent. Three months pay is still due to us, and I believe we are to receive it in bills in a few days; if so, I intend to remit it I dare say you must be anxious to hear from me, as I have

to you.

already been in three actions. I should have written before, but really our duty is so hard that we have no time; and, to give you an idea of it, I will only state that for about a week I have been on picquet every other night, and that in the open air. Every morning we turn out at two o'clock, and remain under arms until broad day-light; and about a fortnight ago we were under arms every morning at one o'clock, expecting to be attacked.

"I have dated my letter from St. Sebastian, but we are a league from that place, on the left of the lines near Passages. I am on picquet this very moment, but I have the good fortune to be in a house, and a better one, too, than I have been in for some time; it has even a bed in it. But I shall not enjoy that luxury much, as I cannot take off my clothes; in fact, we never take them off except to bathe. I must now go and turn out the picquet, as General Chichester is coming up to visit it. I have just been round the sentries with the General; and he has ordered me to place additional ones, and in the morning, when we turn out, to extend the picquet in skirmishing order until day-light, and in case of an attack I am to retire skirmishing. I suppose you received my letter from Vittoria. [This was never received.] We shortly afterwards marched from that city, which to us was almost a city of death, through a most beautiful country to Santander. We were about nine days on the march. Our brigade, composed of the first, fourth, and eighth regiments, under General Chichester, was the last to leave Vittoria; and in consequence of this we had to remain about a fortnight in a village about a league and a half from Santander. During this time the rest of the legion was embarking for St. Sebastian. The eighth marched into Santander on the 1st of May; and I paid a visit to the people at whose house I was billeted when I first arrived in Spain. I dined there that day; and they were kind enough to invite me to stay with them whilst I remained at Santander. The first regiment embarked before us. On the 4th of May we (the eighth regiment) together with the fourth fusileers, under Colonel Harley, sailed in the Salamander steamer for St. Sebastian. About five o'clock the next morning, the 5th of May, we arrived within hearing of the firing, and we could see the beautiful effect of the shell-practice upon the Carlist lines. In about one hour we entered the bay; and here the sight was truly grand. We could see the whole of the engagement: the Phoenix steamer firing upon a very strong battery in redoubt of the Carlists; the breach which had already been effected; the seventh and tenth regiments, who were then endeavouring to carry it at the charge, driven back several times; and the Spaniards skirmishing along the sands. We were immediately landed, and in a minute or two in the midst of the fire. We charged at the point of the bayonet the redoubt which the seventh and tenth had in vain tried to carry, and we entered on the first assault. The Morning Herald, which we have seen out here, and in that spirit which so peculiarly distinguishes that journal, states that the Phenix made a breach large enough to admit 300 men to enter at one time. Now the truth is-and I can speak from my own observation, for I entered it with my regiment-that not more than five or six men could enter at a time; but then there certainly was