The 16th, Mr. Stuart arrived at Toro, accompanied by don F^e. X^r. Caro, a member of the Spanish government, who brought two letters, the one from the junta, the other from Mr. Frere. That from the junta complained, that when Romana proposed to unite fourteen thousand picked men to the British army, with a view to make a forward movement, his offer had been disregarded, and a retreat determined upon, in despite of his earnest remonstrances; this retreat they declared to be uncalled for, and highly impolitic, “as the enemy was never so near his ruin as in that moment.” If the Spanish and British armies should unite, they said, it would give “liberty to the Peninsula,” that “Romana, with his fourteen thousand select men,” was still ready to join sir John Moore, and that “thirty thousand fresh levies would in a month be added to the ranks of the allied force.” [Sidenote: Ibid.] This tissue of falsehoods, for Romana had approved of the intention to retreat, and never had above six thousand men armed, was addressed to Mr. Frere, and by him transmitted to the general, together with one from himself, which, in allusion to the retreat upon Portugal, contained the following extraordinary passages: “I mean the immense responsibility with which you charge yourself by adopting, upon a supposed military necessity, a measure which must be followed by immediate, if not final, ruin to our ally, and by indelible disgrace to the country with whose resources you are entrusted.” “I am unwilling to enlarge upon a subject in which my feelings must be stifled, or expressed at the risk of offence, which, with such an interest at stake, I should feel unwilling to excite, but this much I must say, that if the British army had been sent abroad for the express purpose of doing the utmost possible mischief to the Spanish cause, with the single exception of not firing a shot against their troops, they would, according to the measures now announced as about to be pursued, have completely fulfilled their purpose.” [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 13, section 7.]