HC Deb 11 April 1809 vol 14 cc10-1

Sir; After the representations which have been made to you from other quarters, I can hardly hope that a further remonstrance on my part can produce any effect, where high military rank and authority, and the influence of persons whom, I am told, you honour with your private esteem, have been found unavailing. The advantages which Mr. Stuart possesses in this respect will, I hope, enable him to urge to you with the warmth of personal regard, what I may be allowed to state at least with impartiality and candour towards a person with whom I am no otherwise acquainted than by the honour which he has done me by his correspondence. I mean the immense responsibility which you take upon yourself, by adopting, upon a supposed military necessity, a measure which must be followed by the immediate if not the final ruin of our ally, and by the indelible disgrace to the country with whose resources you are entrusted. I am unwilling to enlarge upon a subject, in which my feeling must either be stifled or expressed, at the risk of offence, which, with such an interest at stake I should feel unwilling to excite; but thus much I must say, that if the British army had been sent abroad for the express object of doing the utmost possible mischief to the cause of Spain (with the single exception of not firing a shot against the Spanish troops) they would, according to the measures now announced as about to be taken, have most completely fulfilled their purpose. That the defence of Galicia should be abandoned, must appear incredible. I am, &c. (Signed) J. H. FRERE.