[Sidenote: D^o. to ad^l. Purvis, 28th June.] Two small divisions were soon after ordered to assemble for embarkation at Ramsgate and Harwich, under the command of generals Anstruther and Acland, but a considerable time elapsed before they were ready to sail; and a singular uncertainty in the views of the ministers at this period subjected all the military operations to perpetual and mischievous changes. General Spencer, supposed to be at Gibraltar, was directed to repair to Cadiz, and wait for sir Arthur’s orders; and the latter was permitted to sail under the impression that Spencer was actually subject to his command; but other instructions empowered Spencer at his own discretion to commence operations in the south, without reference to sir Arthur Wellesley’s proceedings; and admiral Purvis, who, after lord Collingwood’s arrival, had no separate command, was also authorised to undertake any enterprise in that quarter, and even to control the operations of sir Arthur Wellesley by calling for the aid of his troops, that general being enjoined to “pay all due obedience to any such requisition!” Yet sir Arthur himself was informed, that “the accounts from Cadiz were bad;” that “no disposition to move either there or in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar was visible,” and that “the cabinet were unwilling he should go far to the southward, whilst the spirit of exertion appeared to reside more to the northward.” Again the admiral, sir Charles Cotton, was informed that sir Arthur Wellesley was to co-operate with him in a descent at the mouth of the Tagus; but sir Arthur himself had no definite object given for his own operations, although his instructions pointed to Portugal, and thus in fact no one officer, naval or military, knew exactly what his powers were, with the exception of admiral Purvis, who, being only second in command for his own service, was really authorised to control all the operations of the land forces, provided he directed them to that quarter which had been declared unfavourable for any operations at all. [Sidenote: Par^y. Pap^s. L^d. Castle^h. to S. A. Well^y. 30th June, 1808.] In recommending Portugal as the fittest field of action, the ministers were chiefly guided by the advice of the Asturian deputies; although having received sir Hew Dalrymple’s despatches to a late date, their own information must have been more recent and more extensive than any that they could obtain from the deputies, who had left Spain at the commencement of the insurrection, and were ill informed of what was passing in their own province, utterly ignorant of the state of any other part of the Peninsula, and under any circumstances were incapable of judging rightly in such momentous affairs. [Sidenote: Par^y. Pap^s. L^d. Castle^h. to S. A. Well^y. 30th June, 1808.]