A good management of the revenue, a single chief for the army, and, above all, the total suppression of the provincial juntas, were the three objects of public anxiety. With respect to the army, no doubt was at first entertained that Castaños would be appointed commander-in-chief; his services entitled him to the office, and his general moderation and conciliating manners fitted him for it at a time when so much jealousy was to be soothed and so many interests to be reconciled. The past expenditure of the money received from England was also a subject of great importance, and it was loudly required that an account of its disbursement should be demanded of the local juntas, and a surrender of the residue instantly enforced. These just expectations lasted but a short time; scarcely were the deputies assembled, when every prospect of a vigorous administration was blasted. Dividing themselves into sections, answering in number to the departments of state under the old king, they appointed a secretary not chosen from their own body, to each, and declared all and every one of these sections, supreme and independent, having equal authority. [Sidenote: Parliamentary Papers.] Florida Blanca informed Mr. Stuart and lord William Bentinck that Castaños would be named generalissimo, and the latter was even appointed to confer with him upon the plan of campaign for the British troops, then marching from Portugal to the assistance of the Spaniards. The necessity of having a single chief at the head of the armies was imperious, and acknowledged by every individual, military or civil; yet such was the force of jealousy, and so stubborn were the tools of the different juntas, that all the exertions of Mr. Stuart and lord William Bentinck, and all the influence of the British cabinet, failed to get one appointed. The generals were all confirmed in their separate and independent commands, the old and miserable system of the Dutch deputies in Marlborough’s time, and of the commissaries of the convention, during the French revolution, was partially revived, and the expressed wishes of the English government were totally disregarded at a time when it had supplied Spain with two hundred thousand musquets, clothing, ammunition of all kinds in proportion, and ten millions of dollars. Such ample succours, if rightly managed, ought to have secured to the English cabinet unlimited influence; but as the benefits came through one set of persons, and the demands through another, the first were taken as of right, the last unheeded, and the resources of Great Britain were wasted without materially improving the condition of Spain; the armies were destitute, the central government was without credit, and notwithstanding the ample subsidies, contracted a large debt. [Sidenote: Stuart’s Corresp^{ce}. Lord W. Bentinck’s Ditto.] [Sidenote: Lord W. Bentinck’s Corresp^{ce}. Appendix, No. 13, section 6.]