Wellington in vain assured
them that English law would not suffer him to punish men on such
testimony; in vain he pointed out the mischief which must infallibly
overwhelm the country, if the soldiers discovered that they might thus
do evil with impunity. He offered to send, in each case, lists of
Portuguese witnesses required, that they might be summoned by the
native authorities; but nothing could overcome the obstinacy of the
magistrates; they answered that his method was insolent; and with
sullen malignity continued to accumulate charges against the troops,
to refuse attendance in the courts, and to call the soldiers, their
own as well as the British, 'licensed spoliators of the community.'"
"For a time the generous nature of the poor people resisted all these
combined causes of discontent, * * * * * yet by degrees the affection
for the British cooled, and Wellington expressed his fears that a
civil war would commence between the Portuguese people on the one
hand, and the troops of both nations on the other. Wherefore his
activity to draw all military strength to a head, and make such an
irruption into Spain, as would establish a new base of operations
beyond the power of such fatal dissensions.
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