'to either of my Brothers, but my communi'cations to government have been ample.

Farewell. Always, my dear Mother, affec'tionately,

'JOHN MOORE.'

When his arrival at the Downs was announced, an order came for the troops to proceed to Portsmouth, and Moore was directed to come to London. By appointment he met Lord Castlereagh, who made many enquiries respecting the transactions in Sweden, and then said*, that the Cabinet were 'sensible of the difficulty of the situation in 'which he had been placed; having to do ' with a King mad and impracticable. That 'his instructions had necessarily been vague, leaving much to his discretion; but that he ' had conducted himself perfectly to the satis'faction of government. The only point upon which any difference had arisen, was

*Manuscript Journal.

'the propriety of having withdrawn himself

from the arrest, after having thrown himself into the hands of Mr. Thornton. Some 'individuals thought it would have been ' better if he had remained, and left the dis'cussion to government: or, if he had de'termined to come away, to have told the 'Swedish officer who brought the message 'from the King, that he was not under the ' command of the King of Sweden, and could ' receive no order from him; and had then 'left Stockholm as he had before deter'mined.' Lord Castlereagh added, • that

he did not mention this to him officially, 'or as implying the smallest blame; but 'merely as an opinion which some indi'viduals of the Cabinet had formed, upon a ' reconsideration of what had passed.'

This difference of opinion in the Cabinet shows the difficulty of judging well in the strange position in which Sir John Moore was placed. Had he acted according to the opinion of those individuals, he must have forfeited the approbation of the majority,

VOL. II.

H

who preferred the course he had followed. To take both lines was impossible.

Wisdom becomes most conspicuous when affairs are obscure. That the majority of the ministers were in the right, future events made manifest. But the principal reason which influenced Mr. Thornton and Moore, was this, that by the latter withdrawing himself from Sweden, he left his government at liberty to act as was judged advisable, without being embarrassed by any consideration for his personal safety: whereas, had he refused to submit to the arrest, he would probably have had a guard of soldiers immediately placed over him; as Alopæus, the Russian minister, had been confined a few months before, and all his papers seized.

Upon Moore's return to London, the reception he met with from the Duke of York was highly gratifying. He told him, the King thought it most fortunate that the army had been placed in the hands of one who had the firmness to resist the King of Sweden's importunities.

Unanimous approbation, is, however, rare; and that minister who had been persuaded of Moore's having resisted with obduracy the solicitations of the Queen of Naples, censured him also as not sufficiently compliant to his Swedish Majesty; and persevered to impugn his memory, even after his decease. Yet it became manifest, from the augmenting mental aberration of that Sovereign, that if Moore had conceded to his demands, the troops would have been consumed in frantic projects; whereas, by opposing them with constancy, and bringing back the army to England, the opportunity was acquired of employing it in a glorious enterprise.

CHAPTER XV.

MOORE LANDS IN PORTUGAL-TRANSACTIONS

THERE.

WHEN the army returned from Sweden, it was allowed no respite, not even to disembark, but was despatched instantly to Portsmouth. The boundless ambition of Bonaparte had impelled him to subdue every nation around. Italy and Holland were conquered; Prussia, Austria, and Russia humbled; at Great Britain, guarded by a matchless fleet, he looked askance; but having pushed the King of Portugal from his throne, the Spanish monarchy became the next object of his desires. And being wont to eke out his martial feats with wily stratagems, he sowed jealousies between the king of that country and his son, and beguiled both by hollow flatteries. So, by putting on the guise of an ally, he insinuated several French corps into