Note 42 — SECTION IX: CHAPTER II

Napier enlarges on this incident at great length in pages 14-19 of his second volume. In his persistent dislike for Canning, Castlereagh and Mr. Frere, as well as for the Spaniards, he concludes that the business ‘indicated an unsettled policy, shallow combination, and had agents on the part of the British Cabinet, and an unwise and unworthy disposition in the Supreme Junta,’ while Smith was ‘zealous and acute’ and Cradock ‘full of zeal and moral courage.’ It is hard to give an unqualified assent to any one of these views. Smith was wrong in acting without giving any notice of his intentions to the Junta: Cradock’s zeal was equally untempered by discretion. The British Cabinet, acting on the information available in the end of December, was right to be anxious about Cadiz, and equally right to abandon its attempt to occupy the place in March, when the conditions of the war had changed, and the Junta had shown its dislike to the proposal. As to the Spaniards, the matter was only broached to them in February, when the danger of an immediate French advance had passed away, and they were entirely justified in their answer, which was framed as politely as could be contrived. We must not blame them overmuch for their suspicion: England, though now a friend, had long been an enemy—and the fate of Gibraltar was always before their eyes.