Note 583 — SECTION VIII: CHAPTER II

There is an undertone of gloom in most of Bentinck’s very capable letters, which contrasts sharply with the very optimistic views expressed by Doyle and most of the other military agents. On Oct. 2 he ‘feels the danger forcibly’ of the want of a single commander for the Spanish armies. On Sept. 30 he remarks that ‘the Spanish troops consider themselves invincible, but that the Spanish Government ought not to be deluded by the same opinion.’ On Nov. 14 ‘he must not disguise that he thinks very unfavourably of the affairs of Spain: the Spaniards have not the means to repel the danger that threatens’: most of his letters are in more or less the same strain.