The English government, accepting of this offer, agreed to supply arms, ammunition, and other succours, granted a subsidy for the payment of the regular forces, and thus obtained, for the first time, a firm hold of the military resources of Portugal, and a position in the Peninsula suitable to the dignity of England and to the great contest in which she was engaged. The Portuguese government wished that sir Arthur Wellesley should be their general; and the English cabinet offered the situation to him, but he refused it; and it is said, that sir John Doyle, sir John Murray, (he who afterwards failed at Tarragona,) general Beresford, and even the marquis of Hastings, then earl of Moira, sought for the appointment. The last was, undoubtedly, a man well fitted by his courtly manners, his high rank, and his real talents, both in the cabinet and in the field, for such an office; but powerful parliamentary interest prevailing, major-general Beresford was appointed, to the great discontent of many officers of superior rank, who were displeased that a man, without any visible claim to superiority, should be placed over their heads. [Sidenote: Appendix, No. 8.] Information of this change was instantly conveyed to sir John Cradock, and general Sherbrooke was ordered to put into Lisbon. The latter was overtaken at the mouth of Cadiz harbour; and his and general Mackenzie’s divisions arriving in the Tagus together, on the 12th of March, gave a new turn to the affairs of Portugal. But if Mr. Frere’s plan had been pursued--If general Sherbrooke’s troops had not been detained by bad weather at sea--If the first had proceeded to Tarragona, and nothing but a foul wind prevented it--If the second sailing from port to port without any artillery had, as was most probable, been engaged in some other enterprise--If Victor, obeying his orders, had marched to Abrantes--If any one of these events had happened, sir John Cradock must have abandoned Portugal; and then how infinitely absurd these proceedings of the English ministers would have appeared, and how justly their puerile combinations would have been the scorn of Europe.