It is nearly incredible, and certainly not very creditable, that General Jones in his detailed account of the siege and storming of San Sebastian, says not one word of the horrible excesses which our soldiers there committed. Some men’s notions of history do not differ very widely from the concoction of a political pamphlet. Napier’s history abounds with frank admission and reprobation of these horrors. I find a distinct allusion to them almost at its very commencement: “No wild horde of Tartars ever fell with more license upon their rich effeminate neighbours, than did the English troops upon the Spanish towns taken by storm.”--_Hist. War Penins._ i. 5. The part which the Portuguese took in this assault was sufficiently creditable to make quite unnecessary the boasting spirit which disfigures their national literature. It abounds in the great work of their greatest poet. Thus, for instance:-- Que os muitos por ser poucos não temamos; O que despois mil vezes amostramos. Camóens, _Lus._ viii. 36. “We don’t fear many because we are few, which we have shown a thousand times!” And in the previous stanza he relates that “seventeen Lusitanians, being attacked by 400 Castilians (desasete Lusitanos subidos de quatro centos Castelhanos), not only defended themselves, but offended their adversaries!!” Que não só se defendem, mas offendem! This ridiculous boasting and inane swagger, which was a vice in the Portuguese blood in the days of Camóens, exists unchanged to the present hour, and has been disgustingly manifested in a piece called “Magriço” lately selected for the opening of the National Theatre at Lisbon, in which Spaniards and Englishmen are alike insulted. “We are not accustomed to count numbers!” was a sentiment vehemently applauded in this piece. Let the Portuguese not deceive themselves by an imagined resemblance to their forefathers; and if their historical recollections are glorious, let them endeavour practically to revive them. They should remember that it is little more than a century since their entire army ran away from the Spaniards and French at Almanza, and left their English, Dutch, and German auxiliaries in the lurch. I. “Upon the Chofre stood the dauntless Graham, And marked the slaughter with determined eye.” Mas luego que los fija en el cercano Altisimo torreon, bramando en ira Jura rendir el enemigo muro En general asalto y choque duro. Campo-redondo, _Las Armas de Aragon en Oriente_. “Full fifty cannon streaming death on high.” ----Le macchine ... A cui non abbia la città riparo. Tasso, Ger. _Lib._ iii. 74. IV. “What were thy triumphs, Greece, on Elis’ plain?” Sunt quibus Elææ concurrit palma quadrigæ. Propert. l. iii. Eleg. 9.