four horses before he could be cut down. Every day made the French generals more sensible of the difficulties of their situation. In any other country, they said, with a fourth part of the means of every kind which were employed here to obtain intelligence, and without success, they should have been informed of every design of their enemies, even the most secret thoughts. All that they could learn now with all their means amounted only to the certainty that Sir Arthur ♦OPERATIONS, &C. 229.♦ Wellesley had arrived at Lisbon, and that General Beresford had begun to discipline the Portugueze army. ♦SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY LANDS AT LISBON.♦ Sir Arthur had landed on the 22nd of April. A general rejoicing was made for his arrival, and every town throughout the kingdom, where the French were not in possession, was illuminated three successive nights. The Prince of Brazil had appointed him Marshal-General of the Portugueze army, thus enabling him to direct its movements, while Beresford was continued in the command. He would at once have proceeded into Spain, there in co-operation with Cuesta to have struck a blow against the French in Extremadura, had it not been that the part of Portugal which the enemy occupied was fertile in resources, and also for the importance of the city of Porto. Therefore he ♦HE COMMUNICATES HIS PLANS TO CUESTA.♦ determined to drive Soult out of the kingdom, leaving such a force about Abrantes as might secure Lisbon against any attempt on the part of Victor; and he resolved not to pursue him into Galicia, because he was not certain that he should, singly, be equal to the French there, and because the appearance of a British army in that province would make the French collect their force, and thus suspend the war of the peasantry, which was at this time carrying on in a way that harassed and wasted the enemy, and materially impeded their plans: Galicia, he thought, might be more certainly and permanently relieved by striking a blow against Victor, than by following Soult. This plan he communicated to Cuesta, requesting him not to undertake any thing against Victor till the expedition to Porto should be concluded, when he would come down upon Elvas, and co-operate with him. Cuesta was not well pleased with these intended operations. Little or nothing, he thought, would be gained by driving Soult toward the Minho, for in that case he would be able to re-enter Galicia and complete its subjugation, neither the peasantry nor Romana being able to prevent him. “The object of Sir Arthur,” he said, “ought to be to surround the French in Porto, or get between them and the Minho, so as to cut off the resources of Soult and prevent his retreat. But,” he added, “the system of the British is never to expose their troops; and it was owing to that system, that instead of ever gaining a decisive action by land, they sacrificed their men in continual retreats and precautions, as General Moore had done, for not having attacked the enemy in time.”