Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/62

 52 J.H. Rose mittee of five men who were jointly to hold the portfolio of the war ministry, it is somewhat surprising that he took the Spanish forecast of events at all seriously. In any case, his despatches show "the inevitableness of the overthrow of the Spaniards in the ensuing weeks, when Napoleon with a mighty army scattered their levies and sent their still discordant deputies flying to the extremities of the Peninsula. But the work of the British envoy was not wholly undone : he had helped in the formation of a national representative body ; and that body and its successors, whatever their imperfections and follies (on which British historians have so complacently des- canted), enabled a seemingly moribund people to enter on a new lease of life and persistently to oppose Napoleon's schemes of domina- tion. Canning's despatches also tend to disprove the charges of recklessness and insular selfishness which Napier laid to his count. The British Foreign Minister at first helped the Spanish provinces as provinces because they possessed the only governmental machin- ery then available ; but he refused to recognize the provincial juntas, and sought by all possible means to further their union in a national assembly. The experiment broke down in 1808; but Canning un- doubtedly pointed the way toward a course of action which was to prove successful in the year 1813. It is time that his memory should be cleared from the charges which have been brought against him by Napier and by other Francophil historians. To show from evi- dence, which must be regarded as the final court of appeal, the com- plexity of the task which faced him and his agents in the Peninsula, and the manner in which he and they sought to grapple with it, has been my aim in this article. J. Holland Rose.