_Ibid, July 7, 1808._ * * * * * THE PENINSULA. _The Battle of Vimeiro._ The action of Vimeiro is the only one I have ever been in (1808), in which everything passed as was directed, and no mistake was made by any of the officers charged with its conduct. _Dispatch, Aug. 22, 1806._ * * * * * _Distinction between Civil and Military Responsibility._ There is a great distinction of duty between military and civil inferior situations. If, in a civil officer, the inferior differs materially from the superior, he ought to resign, but in military appointments, it is the duty of the inferior officer to assist his commander in the mode in which that commander may deem his services most advantageous. _Defence of his conduct with regard to the Convention of Cintra. House of Commons, Feb. 21, 1809._ * * * * * _Rapidity of the French Retreats accounted for._ It is obvious, that if an army throws away all its cannon, equipments, and baggage, and everything which can strengthen it, and can enable it to act together as a body; and abandons all those who are entitled to its protection, but add to its weight and impede its progress;[4] it must be able to march by roads through which it cannot be followed, with any prospect of being overtaken by an army which has not made the same sacrifice. [Footnote 4: Alluding to the rapidity of the French retreat.] _Dispatch, May 18, 1809._ * * * * * I have long been of opinion that a British army could bear neither success nor failure.[5] [Footnote 5: Referring to their habits of plunder.] _Dispatch, May 31, 1809._ * * * * * _Inefficiency of Spanish Officers._ Nothing can be worse than the officers of the Spanish army, and it is extraordinary that when a nation has devoted itself to war, as this nation has by the measures which it has adopted in the last two years, so little progress has been made in any one branch of the military profession by any individual, and that the business of an army should be so little understood. They are really children in the art of war, and I cannot say they do anything as it ought to be done, with the exception of running away, and assembling again in a state of nature. _Dispatch, Aug. 1809._ * * * * * _Terrorism and Force, not Enthusiasm, enabled the French Revolutionary Armies to conquer._