[TO TUE EDITOR OP THE " SP ECT AT OR
." ] SIR,—In the review of Sir Robert Peel's Life in the Spectator of February 18th your reviewer, in speaking of the defenceless state of the country in 1846, says that the Duke of Wellington was the first to awake to the grave position of affairs. I beg, however, to point out that the credit of this is doe to the late Sir John Burgoyne, who drew up a long and argumentative memorandum on the subject in 1846, which was printed and circulated amongst the Cabinet. Lord Palmerston then took up the subject, and wrote for the Cabinet a memorandum which has been published by Mr. Evelyn Ashley in his "Life of Lord Palmerston." It was not till the following year that the Duke of Wellington wrote his famous letter to Sir John Burgoyne. For those who care to look back to it all the correspondence on this subject will be found in the "Life of Sir John Burgoyne" published by the present writer in 1873.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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