XI. September. CHAP. to have suppressed for the sake of professional considerations and courtesy, never more un1808. worthily bestowed. The soldiers of Buonaparte in Portugal had forfeited all claim to those courtesies which honourable men will always delight in rendering to honourable enemies. They had disgraced their profession and their country, and it behoved the British, for the sake of theirs, to have testified their sense of this in the most decided manner. But instead of shunning any farther intercourse than was necessary for the execution of the treaty, they entered into social intercourse with the French, entertainments were mutually given, and British Generals sate at Junot's table in company with the men who were responsible for the horrors committed at Evora and Leiria. They were not fully informed of those crimes, and certainly did not believe Junot and his people to be so thoroughly destitute of honour as they soon found them. But proof enough of their wickedness had been given in public and official acts; and in thus appearing for a time to forget the real character of the cause in which Great Britain was engaged, a moral fault, as well as a political error, was committed. The French continue to plunder. Elated no doubt by this, as well as by their success in negotiation, the French continued that system of public and private robbery for which they seemed to think the convention had granted them entire impunity. General Freire complained to Sir Hew Dalrymple that they were plundering the treasury, the museum, public XI. 1808. libraries, arsenals, churches, and the houses and CHAP. stores of individuals. The British commissioners for carrying the convention into effect, Major- September. General Beresford and Lord Proby, informed him, that except the military and naval stores there was no kind of public property which the French intended to relinquish; that they meant to carry off the valuables of the Prince, the plunder of the churches, and much of the property of individuals; that they had packed up the royal library, and most of the articles of the museum; that during the negotiation they had taken a sum of about £22,000 from the Deposito Publico, which was in fact a robbery of individuals, that money being deposited there till litigations concerning it should be decided; and that even after the terms were signed they had actually demanded the money arising from the revenues of the country. The merchants of Lisbon addressed a memorial to the British Commander, stating that Junot had exacted from them a forced loan of two million cruzados, promising that payment should be made out of the enormous war-contribution which he had imposed; they had not been paid, and it was now his intention to depart without paying them; they therefore prayed for redress, and likewise that some steps should be taken for recovering their ships and property which had been unlawfully sequestered in France. There was something absolutely comic in the Question impudent persuasion of the French that they baggage. VOL. II. R concerning XI. 1808. CHAP. might continue to pillage, and carry off what they pleased, under protection of the British army. September. They proposed to take away the Vasco da Gama and some Portugueze frigates; the Gama, it may be remembered, was the ship wherein they had embarked great part of the treasure which they had collected. The reply was, that these vessels did not belong to them, and they were only to carry away their individual baggage. Junot actually demanded five ships to remove his own personal effects. Such a demand was of course pronounced to be inadmissible. Sir Hew declared he would not listen to any proposal which compromised his own honour and that of the British nation. He perceived, that owing to the shameless and open manner in which the French were preparing to carry off public and private property, popular indignation was strongly excited, and that because of the interpretation which they by their conduct affected to give the convention, this feeling was little less directed against the English than the French. He instructed the commissioners therefore to require the restoration of these plundered goods; "by this means," said he, "affording a proof to the Portugueze nation that we at least act with good faith, and are therefore entitled to use the necessary measures, however vigorous, for the protection of those obnoxious persons for whose safety that faith is pledged." The commissioners exercised their charge with becoming firmness. The money taken from the XI. 1808. articles Museum. public deposit they compelled the French to pro- CHAP. mise to replace,.. a concession which was not obtained till after a very long discussion. The September. spoils of the museum and royal library were also The French reclaimed. They had been selected, General endeavour Kellermann said, by M. Guiffroi, a member of to carry off the National Institute: the objection, indeed, on from the the part of the English, he admitted to be well founded; nevertheless, he observed that these articles, consisting chiefly of specimens in natural history, and interesting manuscripts, were, in general, duplicates,.. that they were precious acquisitions for the sciences; . . the sciences were of all countries, and far from making war upon them, we ought to promote their communication. They wished, therefore, to select articles of natural history at their pleasure, and to leave for them such compensations as the English might think proper. Of course, the British commander returned a most decided negative, saying he could not sell articles which were not his, and would not allow them to be removed: and the French general was compelled to issue a general order, commanding all individuals of the French army, or administration, to make restitution of whatever they had taken from any public or private establishment, within four-and-twenty hours. bark horses, It was something to have wrung from them They emsuch a confession of robbery; yet within a few carriages, hours after this very order had been issued, and picJunot's first aide-de-camp, Colonel de Cambis, carried off the Prince Regent's horses from the are recovered. XI. 1808. September. CHAP. royal stables, to embark them as General Junot's property. Having been compelled to restore them, this same officer the next day endeavoured in like manner to carry off two carriages belonging to the Duke of Sussex, and it was necessary to threaten him with being carried prisoner to England, if he persisted in this sort of conduct. It was ascertained that Junot had embarked a collection of pictures from the house of the Marques de Angeja; restitution was demanded, and he said they had been given to him. This was found to be false; and Junot then laid the affair upon a relation of his who was embarked with him, but who immediately endeavoured to conceal himself in one of the transports. A threat of detaining the General brought this person back; he was ordered on shore, to give an account of the transaction, and as he refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the commissioners, or to land, was compelled to do both, and to produce the pictures. They carry off large sums in money. But in other cases the commissioners were bound by the letter of a treaty, in which it now appeared that one party could not have pre'sumed too little upon the honour of the other, nor one too much. All the money which these plunderers had collected they were allowed to carry off. Sir Hew observed, that this description of property could never come under the provisions of the treaty, and that it was impossible to identify it, or prove exactly from whom it was obtained. But Ayres Pinto had pointed out a |