The Central Junta had sent D. Tomas de Veri, one of its members, as its representative to Catalonia. A like measure had been adopted in the tumultuous times of the French Revolution; the circumstances in Spain were altogether different, and these missions appear neither to have produced good nor evil. On the present occasion Veri was in favour of active operations; and that opinion, which had necessarily much weight with Reding, was strengthened by assurances that an insurrection would be attempted in Barcelona as soon as any movements on his part should be made to favour it. The Camp-marshal Marti was called upon to form the plan of a general attack; his own judgement was decidedly opposed to it, but Reding had determined upon action in deference to the popular cry. He did not like to hear it remarked that the troops were more willing to eat their rations than to march against the enemy; and he wished also to ascertain in the field whether any reliance might be placed upon the Somatens, and upon that general enthusiasm which he did not participate, and in which he had no faith. If he entertained any hope, it was founded upon the promised effort in Barcelona, ... which of all hopes had the least foundation; ... for the fortresses having now been well victualled, the time was gone by when it might have been of advantage to have got possession of the city. But even after his resolution to act on the offensive was taken, the movements of the army were delayed by that ominous mood of mind which draws on ill fortune more surely than it foresees it. And in strange opposition to what happened in all other parts of the Peninsula, all Reding’s plans were perfectly well known to the French, while he obtained no information of their movements or of their numbers on which he could rely. On ♦STAFF. BEFREIUNGS KRIEG DER KATALONIER, P. 148.♦ the other hand, by a singular perversion of principle, the Catalans whom the French had in their pay made it a point of honour and conscience to communicate full and true intelligence. The task was not difficult; for Reding, in the certainty that his intentions were betrayed as soon as they were formed, gave up all hope of secrecy; and every thing was talked of in public, with a desperate carelessness, as if it were useless to observe even the rules of common prudence. ♦THE SPANIARDS DRIVEN FROM IGUALADA.♦