Perverse as the proceedings of the English ministers were, those of the Portuguese and Spanish governments were not less vexatious; and at this time the temper of the Spanish rulers was of infinite importance because of the misfortunes which had befallen the French emperor. The opportunity given to strike a decisive blow at his power in the Peninsula demanded an early and vigorous campaign in Spain, and the experience of 1812 had taught Wellington, that no aid could be derived from the Spaniards unless a change was made in their military system. Hence the moment he was assured that the French armies had taken winter-quarters, he resolved before all other matters, in person to urge upon the Cortez the necessity of giving him the real as well as the nominal command of their troops, seeing that without an immediate reformation the Spanish armies could not take the field in due season. During the past campaign, and especially after the Conde de Abispal, indignant at the censure passed in the Cortez on his brother’s conduct at Castalla, had resigned, the weakness of the Spanish government had become daily more deplorable; nothing was done to ameliorate the military system; an extreme jealousy raged between the Cortez and the regency; and when the former offered lord Wellington the command of their armies, Mr. Wellesley advised him to accept it, not so much in the hope of effecting any beneficial change, as to offer a point upon which the Spaniards who were still true to the English alliance and to the aristocratic cause might rally in case of reverse. The disobedience of Ballesteros had been indeed promptly punished; but the vigour of the Cortez on that occasion, was more the result of offended pride than any consideration of sound policy, and the retreat of the allies into Portugal was the signal for a renewal of those dangerous intrigues, which the battle of Salamanca had arrested without crushing. Lord Wellington reached Cadiz on the 18th of December, he was received without enthusiasm, yet with due honour, and his presence seemed agreeable both to the Cortes and to the people; the passions which actuated the different parties in the state subsided for the moment, and the ascendency of his genius was so strongly felt, that he was heard with patience, even when in private he strongly urged the leading men to turn their attention entirely to the war, to place in abeyance their factious disputes and above all things not to put down the inquisition lest they should drive the powerful church party into the arms of the enemy. His exhortation upon this last point, had indeed no effect save to encourage the Serviles to look more to England, yet it did not prevent the Cortez yielding to him the entire controul of fifty thousand men which were to be paid from the English subsidy; they promised also that the commanders should not be removed, nor any change made in the organization or destination of such troops without his consent.