It may, perhaps, be asked what their method was? or why I, a mere subaltern, should take upon myself the censorship of the art of war? My answer to the former shall be plain and I hope conclusive. To the latter, that having served during part of the year 1809, the entire of 1810–11–12, and part of 1813, in the 3rd Division (commonly designated the “fighting division”) of the Peninsular army, and the division never having, during the period alluded to, squibbed off as much as one cartridge without my being in every place, I had opportunities of gaining, and I think I did gain, a little insight into military tactics. If, however, the view I have taken of the subject upon which I am speaking be an erroneous one, I fear my readers will come to the conclusion that I have lost some time which might have been better employed—or, to speak more plainly, that I have mistaken my profession. Marshal Saxe used to say that a mule which had made twenty campaigns under Cæsar would still be but a mule. I have digressed thus far before touching on a subject that, no doubt (although I have not seen any work of the kind), has been written upon, and upon which much diversity of opinion did exist at one time in England; whether it still exists or not I shall not pretend to say, not having been in the United Kingdom for some years; but certain it is that a very general opinion was prevalent that the war in the Peninsula was carried on, on the part of the peasantry, in a spirit bordering more on a crusade than the ordinary exertions of a brave people struggling for liberty, and that those heroes fought more like a parcel of devils incarnate than mortal men. Indeed, the engravings struck off at Lisbon in commemoration of those days certainly represented them as a gigantic, ferocious people, while the few British that were thrown into the background looked like so many dwarfs who were afraid to come to close quarters with the French. I have ever combated this mistaken opinion, nor does the recollection of the hundreds of those heroes that I have seen marched to the different depôts, handcuffed like a gang of criminals, weaken the view I have taken of the _voluntary_ part the Peninsular people took in the contest. In a word, their plan was this:—