The readiness with which Mr. Canning broke off the negotiation of Erfurth, and defied this stupendous power, would lead to the supposition that on the side of Spain at least he was prepared to encounter it with some chance of success; but no trace of a matured plan is to be found in the instructions to the generals commanding in Portugal previous to the 25th of September, nor was the project then adopted one which discovered any adequate knowledge of the force of the enemy, or of the state of affairs. Indeed the conduct of the cabinet relative to the Peninsula was scarcely superior to that of the central junta itself. Several vague projects, or rather speculations, were communicated to the generals in Portugal, but in none of them was the strength of the enemy alluded to, in none was there a settled plan of operations visible. It was evident that the prodigious activity of the emperor was not taken into consideration, and that a strange delusion relative to his power, or to his intentions existed among the English ministers. [Sidenote: L^d. Castle^s. Despatch. Par^y. Pap^s.] It was the 6th of October before a despatch, containing the first determinate plan of campaign, arrived at Lisbon. Thirty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry were to be employed in the north of Spain; of these numbers ten thousand were to be embarked at the English ports, and the remainder were to be composed of regiments, drafted from the army then in Portugal. Lieutenant-general sir John Moore was appointed to command the whole, and he was authorised (at his own discretion) to effect a junction by a voyage round the coast, or by a march through the interior. He chose the latter, 1º. because a voyage at that season of the year would have been tedious and precarious; 2º. because the intention of sir Hew Dalrymple had been to enter Spain by Almeida, and the few arrangements which that general had power to make were made with a view to such a march; and 3º. because he was informed that the province of Gallicia was scarcely able to equip the force coming from England, under the command of lieutenant-general sir David Baird. Sir John Moore was directed to take the field with the troops under his own immediate command without delay; and he was to fix upon some place either in Gallicia or on the borders of Leon for concentrating the whole army. The specific plan of operations was to be concerted afterwards with the Spanish generals.