Romantic Nationalism and The Convention of Cintra

Abstract

SOME CIRCUMSTANTIAL BACKGROUND MAY BE NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND Wordsworth's reason for writing a major work of prose which, like some of his poems, deals with an action did not occur: failure of Britain to engage in an anticipated battle of Napoleonic wars. On 12 August 1807, Napoleon and Charles IV of Spain ordered by September I Prince Regent of Portugal declare war on Britain and seize all British possessions. On 18 October a French army under General Junot entered Spain; it arrived in Lisbon on 30 November and occupied city. By then, Prince Regent had fled to Rio de Janeiro. Napoleon was meanwhile emboldened in invasion by a domestic crisis: on 27 October, Charles Iv had arrested his son Ferdinand, charged him with treason and then pardoned him. Charles later abdicated but then sought to renounce his abdication. The crisis of legitimacy of Spanish throne was complete when Ferdinand surrendered his own claim. Joseph Bonaparte would have been appointed now to rule Spain had not riots broken out in Madrid, in May 1808, which led to a general revolt. On I August 1808, British expeditionary force under Sir Arthur Wellesley arrived in Mondego Bay, on coast of Portugal; it defeated Junot on 21 August but did not pursue: Sir Hew Dalrymple landed after Wellesley, and conveyed government policy of caution. It was at this moment General Kellerman asked a convention be negotiated; and between 23 August and 30 August terms were drawn up. The French army of 21,000 was permitted, by a superior British force, to evacuate from Portugal with all its equipment and possessions. The Convention of Cintra seems to me one of great political essays of Romantic era, but to call it a political essay is only a convenience. It begins as analysis and ends as a work of moral suasion, an eloquent statement of enthusiasm means to convert its readers to a larger cause than author can specify. Wordsworth wrote it with an urgency as driving as one feels in his major poems; yet its argument, plainly advancing a local cause under pressure of circumstance, remains difficult to reduce to practical wisdom. Its exhortations are at once republican, nationalist, and cosmopolitan: a curious blend. If, finally, Wordsworth professes an ideology of republican nationalism, reader is made to arrive at national self-feeling by vicarious association with another people's act of national resistance; it is resistance itself comes to be identified with spirit of revolution. So complete is this equation Wordsworth can say spirit of French Revolution is most alive in work of destroying the child of revolution, Napoleon. He wrote it not long after he had finished writing his Immortality Ode. Wordsworth was even more concerned at this than at other periods with demonstrating coherence of his and feelings; in realm of politics, The Convention of Cintra meant to prove his days Bound each to each by natural piety, just as ode meant to prove them so in realm of imagination and personal identity. Politics, for Wordsworth, no less than poetry is subject to a test of sincerity, which means a test of sensation. Recall his words in Preface to Lyrical Ballads about natural interest taken by poet in the goings-on of Universe; (1) same interest is shown by citizen, in The Convention of Cintra, who pursues the appearances and intercourse of daily life (PW 1: 304). The first of these concerns is abstract, second particular and gregarious, but both are outward-looking and tend toward civic-mindedness. In The Convention of Cintra, too, Wordsworth cares for that knowledge which is founded not upon things but upon sensations;--sensations which are general, and under general influences (and this it is which makes them what they are, and gives them their importance);--not upon things which may be brought; but upon sensations which may be met (PW 1: 304-5). …