[Sidenote: Sir John Moore’s Correspondence. MS.] The leading Spaniards wished to obtain a medium through which to create a false impression of the state of affairs, and thus to secure supplies and succours from England without being fettered in the application of them. The subordinate agents answered this purpose, and satisfied with their docility, the generals were far from encouraging the residence of more than one British agent at their head-quarters. Captain Birch, an intelligent engineer officer, writing from Blake’s camp, says, “General Broderick is expected here; but I have understood that the appearance of a British general at these head-quarters to accompany the army might give jealousy. General Blake is not communicative, but captain Carrol appears to be on the best footing with him and his officers, and captain Carrol tells me that he informs him of more than he does any of his generals.” The object was perfectly accomplished; nothing could be more widely different than Spanish affairs, judged of by the tenor of the military agent’s reports, and Spanish affairs when brought to the test of battle. The fault did not attach so much to the agents as to the ministers who selected them. It was difficult for inexperienced men to avoid the snare. Living with the chiefs of armies actually in the field, being in habits of daily intercourse with them, holding rank in the same service, and dependent upon their politeness for every convenience, the agent was in a manner forced to see as the general saw, and to report as he wished. A simple spy would have been far more efficacious! [Sidenote: Sir John Moore’s Papers. MSS.] Sir John Moore, perceiving the evil tendency of such a system, recalled all those officers who were under his immediate control, and strongly recommended to ministers that only one channel of communication should exist between the Spanish authorities and the British army. He was convinced of the necessity of this measure, by observing, that each of the military agents considered the events passing under his own peculiar cognizance as the only occurrences of importance. Some of those officers even treated sir Hew Dalrymple and himself as persons commanding auxiliary bodies of men which might be moved, divided, and applied at the requisition of every inferior agent, and the forces of the British empire, a mere accessory aid, placed at their own disposal. Thus general Leith says: “Whatever may be the plan of operations, and whatever the result, I beg leave, in the strongest manner, to recommend to your consideration the great advantage of ordering all the disposable force of horse or car artillery, and light infantry, mounted on horses or mules of the country, without a moment’s delay to move on Palencia, where the column or columns will receive such intelligence as may enable them to give the most effectual co-operation.”