Mr. Duff, the consul for Cadiz, carried out a million of dollars for Andalusia, the junta asked for three or four millions more, and the demands of Portugal, although less extravagant, were very great. Thus above sixteen millions of dollars were craved, and more than four millions, including the gift to Portugal, had been sent; the remainder was not denied; and the amount of arms, and other stores given, may be estimated by the fact, that eighty-two pieces of artillery, ninety-six thousand muskets, eight hundred thousand flints, six millions and a half of ball-cartridges, seven thousand five hundred barrels of powder, and thirty thousand swords and belts had been sent to Coruña and Cadiz; and the supply to the Asturias was in proportion. But Mr. Canning’s instructions to Mr. Duff and to the other agents were still the same as to Mr. Stuart, “_His Majesty had no desire to annex any conditions to the pecuniary assistance which he furnished to Spain_.” Mr. Canning observed that he considered the amount of money as nothing! but acknowledged that _specie_ was at this time so scarce that it was only by a direct and secret understanding with the former government of Spain, under the connivance of France, that any considerable amount of dollars had been collected in England. And “each province of Spain,” he said, “had made its own particular application, and the whole occasioned a call for specie such as had never before been made upon England at any period of its existence. There was a rivalry between the provinces with reference to the amount of sums demanded which rendered the greatest caution necessary.” And the more so, that “the deputies were incompetent to furnish either information or advice upon the state of affairs in Spain;” yet Mr. Duff was commanded, while representing these astounding things to the junta of Seville, “_to avoid any appearance of a desire to overrate the merit and value of the exertions then making by Great Britain in favour of the Spanish nation, or to lay the grounds for restraining or limiting those exertions within any other bounds than those which were prescribed by the limits of the actual means of the country_.” In proof of Mr. Canning’s sincerity upon this head, he afterwards sent two millions of dollars by Mr. Frere, while the British army was left without any funds at all! Moreover the supplies, so recklessly granted, being transmitted through subordinates and irresponsible persons were absurdly and unequally distributed. This obsequious extravagance, produced the utmost arrogance on the part of the Spanish leaders, who treated the English minister’s humble policy with the insolence it courted. When Mr. Stuart reached Madrid, after the establishment of the supreme junta, that body, raising its demands upon England, in proportion to its superior importance, required, and in the most peremptory language, additional succours so enormous as to startle even the prodigality of the English government.