There had been a great error of judgement in not following up the victory at Vimeiro; and in the subsequent negotiations the British Generals had taken a lower tone than the enemy expected, or circumstances required. But they were more censurable for having failed to manifest that moral sense of the enemy’s conduct which individually they felt, and yet collectively seemed for a time to have suppressed for the sake of professional considerations and courtesy, never more unworthily bestowed. The soldiers of Buonaparte in Portugal had forfeited all claim to those courtesies which honourable men will always delight in rendering to honourable enemies. They had disgraced their profession and their country, and it behoved the British, for the sake of theirs, to have testified their sense of this in the most decided manner. But instead of shunning any farther intercourse than was necessary for the execution of the treaty, they entered into social intercourse with the French, entertainments were mutually given, and British Generals sate at Junot’s table in company with the men who were responsible for the horrors committed at Evora and Leiria. They were not fully informed of those crimes, and certainly did not believe Junot and his people to be so thoroughly destitute of honour as they soon found them. But proof enough of their wickedness had been given in public and official acts; and in thus appearing for a time to forget the real character of the cause in which Great Britain was engaged, a moral fault, as well as a political error, was committed. ♦THE FRENCH CONTINUE TO PLUNDER.♦