Public affairs, in the most momentous times, have often been conducted with a degree of folly seldom discovered in the management of private concerns; and this folly has so effectually done the work of treason, that it has sometimes been mistaken for it. But it is scarcely possible, even upon this plea, to excuse the Junta. When every hour was of importance, they dispatched a messenger four hundred miles to ask Ferdinand’s opinion upon points, on every one of which he would have asked theirs had he been in Madrid; all which they were better able to determine than he could be, and on which, in fact, he required that information which they possessed. When it is considered how preposterous it was to propose that the passes should be closed while the French commanded them, and how perfectly they must have known that Ferdinand was in no condition to plan the opening of a campaign, a suspicion may well be entertained of the sincerity of the persons who propounded such questions. Shrinking from responsibility, and appalled at danger, they referred every thing to Ferdinand, and suffered events to take their course. Meantime, if their own statement on such a point may be received, they secretly prepared orders for the Spanish troops to leave Madrid, even by dispersing, or by encouraging their desertion, if there should be no other way; for assembling soldiers at appointed places, collecting stores and ammunition, destroying the means of transport near the fortresses and cantonments which the enemy occupied, and spoiling the arms and artillery which could not be secured. Such orders were certainly not in accord with the feelings of the men who say that they prepared them: but they would have accorded entirely with the spirit of the nation. ♦AGITATION OF THE PUBLIC MIND.♦ From the time of Ferdinand’s departure, the anxiety and agitation of the people in Madrid had hourly increased. They knew that he expected to meet Buonaparte at Burgos, and the tidings that he had passed the frontier, and proceeded to Bayonne, excited in them as much alarm as wonder. Every evening an extraordinary courier arrived from that city; the intelligence which he brought was never published in the Gazette, but circulated as extracts from private correspondence: the first account detailed nothing but the honours with which Ferdinand had been received by the Emperor; subsequent ones were each more unsatisfactory than the last; and the intentions of the tyrant became more and more apparent, till it could no longer be doubted that Ferdinand was to be deprived of his crown. ♦ORDERS FOR SENDING THE QUEEN OF ETRURIA AND THE INFANTE DON FRANCISCO TO BAYONNE.♦