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Keswick Museum and Art Gallery. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
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I have been beating up in all directions for information of the affairs of Spain in 1809, & at last it has proved
to some purpose, for I have obtained an introduction to, & opened a correspondence with the Duke de Albuquerquesxx el Catalogo de los Academicos de numero de la Real Academia Española, que
se halla al principio del Diccionario de la Ligua Castellana, publicado en 1803.”xx me the Semanario Patriotico,other information from some of his friends in the Cortes. Meantime I shall send him
some specific queries as to certain operations of the armies in which the D. of Albuquerque was concerned, – & if I can but extract
specific answers from him it will be all I want.
By the same channel I have a way opened xxxx for obtaining information respecting Romanasxx Xxxxxxx of the Secretary of States
offices. For these introductions I am indebted to Henry Robinson, whom I
never saw but once. – but whom I liked well enough by what I then saw & what I have since heard of him, to apply to for assistance,
– he having been in Spain since we met. He is a man of great ability, & in all most important matters of opinion after
my own heart.
In consequence of having discovered these new but distant sources of information my arrangement for the volumexx intended after relating &
commenting upon the Parliamentary Proceedings respecting Spain & Portugal to have continued with the xxxx history of the
peninsula from the time of the xxxxx evacuation of Coruña down to the landing of Sir A Wellesley at Lisbon, when the breaking out of the Austrian war took
place.xxxxx
<occurences> of the year, – & conclude the volume with the remaining part of the Spanish affairs. Upon this plan I have kept
the press waiting for the last fortnight in hope of obtaining some details respecting the second siege of Zaragoza.xx war in Spain. Luckily there was not copy enough in Ballantynes hands to go farther, & by throwing the whole of the peninsular
history together at the end of the volume, I shall gain from six to eight or ten weeks, – in which time information may reach me from
Spain & Lisbon.
In this time xxxxxx you could xxxxxxxxxxx learn for me, if you do not already know, whether Gen.
Freire was indeed a traitor, or only a weak irresolute man, having neither confidence in his troops nor in himself.xxx any intimation that the Regency supposed
him innocent, nor can I discern that any steps were taken against the M. de Loule & the other nobles who were sent prisoners to
Lisbonxx a matter of doubt. What is become of these people? are they, after the old custom, in confinement, &
forgotten there? Is it possible to procure a set of the Gazetasxx chaff.
I have got on a good way in the year, the 5th 7. & 8th chapters are
written, & what new information I may obtain will be woven into them. a gap remains in the 6th for Zaragoza. I
was upon the 9th to day – containing Soults xxxxx capture of Porto,xx got thro the Walcheren business,off of. I expect to compleat the whole early in March
Give me love to my Aunt – of whom I look anxiously every day for
good news. We are going on well. – B Freres list