consequence of a perpetual war by land, and a disastrous war by sea, in which he only met with defeats, it was certainly a great advantage to France, that the commerce of Portugal should suffer no interruption; undoubtedly it was equally useful to both countries. By ravaging Portugal, by subjecting her to excessive contributions, in an unheard-of manner, without war, or any resistance having been made on her part, France has not obtained that advantage which a commerce useful to both countries would have procured to her.

The court of Portugal might then justly, and with every kind of foundation, flatter itself that that of the Thuilleries would respect a neutrality which it had acknowledged by a solemn treaty, and from which it derived such decided advantages, when it was awaked from its security, in the month of August, 1806, by a formal declaration of the minister of state for foreign relations, M. Talleyrand, to Lord Yarmouth, by which the former notified to the latter, that if England did not make a maritime peace, the French government would declare war against Portugal, and order that country to be occupied by 30,000 men. It was not with 30,000 men that the invasion of Portugal could be effected; but the Emperor of the French, who knew the security in which Portugal found herself, in consequence of the treaty of neutrality, thought he could take her by surprise; and this was sufficient to justify his proceedings. The court of England was alarmed by the above declaration, and proposed and offered to that of Portugal all kind of succour ; but France, which at that period had arranged every thing to crush the Prussian court, (which

then alone bid defiance to the superior power of the Emperor of the French, while, a twelvemonth before, it would not attack, and, perhaps, compel him to receive the law, and save Europe, jointly with Russia and Austria,) found means to pacify the court of Portugal, which he then chose to spare, and could not conceive that a similar perfidy could be the attribute of a power whose greatness should keep pace with that integrity and those dignified sentiments which suit so well an exalted rank.

The war which was afterwards continued with Russia, and which might yet perhaps have saved Europe, if the union of the governments which divide it had been as close as it should have been, still retarded the execution of the views of the Emperor of the French with regard to the court of Portugal; and it was only by concluding the peace of Tilsit that the court ofthe Thuilleries, in a dictatorial tone, such as might have become Charlemagne, addressing the princes whose sovereign lord he was, caused the strange demands to be made to the court of Portugal, through the medium of the French charge d'affaires, and by the Spanish ambassadors-1st, To shut up the ports of Portugal against England; 2d, To detain all Englishmen who reresided in Portugal; and 3d, To confiscate all English property; or, in case of refusal, to expose itself to an im mediate war with France and Spain, because the French charge d'affaires, and the ambassador of Spain, had orders to depart on the 1st Sept., about three weeks after the said proposal was made, in case the court of Portugal should not comply with all the pretensions of the two courts. The good faith of the French government is no less remarkable with

regard to the celerity with which, after having made that declaration, and without waiting for the answer of the court of Portugal, it ordered all Portuguese merchant-ships to be detained, which were in the ports of France, and by that measure actually began hostilities, without any previous declaration of war, and thus carried a far greater length all the proceedings which formed its continued topic of reproach against England; which, after such a conduct, will be justly valued.

The court of Portugal might then well have adopted the known maxim of the Romans, and, being convinced that disgraceful conditions frequently saved those who refuse them, and brought destruction upon those by whom they were proposed; but, on the one side, it could not believe that the court of the Thuilleries made in earnest proposals which committed both its honours and its dignity; and, on the other side, it hoped to ward off the storm, desirous of sparing the blood of its people; and placing implicit confidence in the friendship of his Britannic majesty, its old and faithful ally, it endeavoured to render the pretensions of the French government more moderate, by acceding to the shutting up of the ports, and refusing the two other articles, as contrary to the principles of the public law, and to the treaties which subsisted between the two nations: and his royal highness the Prince Regent of Portugal had no hesitation to declare, that those articles wounded equally his religion and the principles of morality, from which he never deviates; and which are, perhaps, the true cause of the uushaken fidelity which he has experienced on the part of his subjects.

The court of Portugal then began

to adopt measures for securing its retreat to that part of the Portuguese dominions which is not exposed to any invasion, the consequences of which might create alarm. For this purpose, it ordered all such ships of war as were fit to keep the sea to be fitted out, and also directed all the English to leave its dominions, and sell their property; with an intention to shut the ports against England, in order thus to avoid an effusion of the blood of its subjects, which would probably have proved useless, and to endeavour to comply with the views of the Emperor of the French, in case he should not allow himself to be softened down by that justice with which the court of Portugal asserted the rights of its independence, along with those which resulted from the treaty of neutrality concluded in 1804. The court of the Thuilleries, unwilling to agree to any conciliatory measures, and having demanded not only the shutting up of the ports, but also the im prisonment of all British subjects, the confiscation of their property, and the dereliction of the project to retreat to America, his royal highness the Prince Regent of Portugal, who knew, on the one side, that his Britannic Majesty, his true and old ally, informed of all the transactions which were going on, would consent to the shutting up of the ports, in order to save Portugal from the invasion of the French, and who was convinced, on the other side, that there was no longer any Englishman in Portugal who was not naturalised in that country, and that all English property had been sold, and even its amount exported, adopted the resolution to shut up the ports against England, and even to comply with the rest of the demands and preten

sions of France; declaring, however, at the same time, that, should the French troops enter Portugal, his royal highness was firmly resolved to remove the seat of government to Brazil, which formed the most important and best defended part of his dominions. His royal highness then ́ordered the whole of his army to move to the coast and sea-ports; supposing that as France had essentially obtained all she demanded, she had nothing more to ask; confiding in that good faith which ought to be considered as the fundamental principle in every government which has ceased to be revolutionary; and feeling conscious that having done every thing in his power to secure the tranquillity of his people, and avoid an useless effusion of blood, he had fulfilled all the duties of a virtuous prince, adored by his subjects, and who to the Supreme Being alone has to account for his actions.

The French government there observed a line of conduct towards his royal highness and his dominions which would be unprecedented in history, were not the invasion of Switzerland by France, in the time of the Executive Directory, of a similar description. General Junot, without any previous declaration, without the consent of the Prince Regent of Portugal, entered the kingdom with the vanguard of his army, assuring the people of the country through which he marched that he was going to succour his royal highness against an invasion of the English, and that he entered Portugal as the general of a friendly and allied power. He received, on his journey, convincing proofs of the good faith of the Portuguese government; for he witnessed the perfect easiness which prevailed with regard to

France, and that all the Portuguese troops were near the coast. His royal highness the Prince of Portugal, surprised in such an extraordinary manner, might have rallied around him the body of troops which were at a small distance from him,' caused the English fleet to enter the port of Lisbon, and thus cut to pieces the small and miserable corps with which General Junot was advancing, with a degree of temerity which would have been ridiculous, had not General Junot, whose conduct at Venice and Lisbon has but made him too well known, relied on the feelings of a virtuous prince, who would never expose his people to the most dreadful of calamities by a sure first success, which only could have served to chastise the audacity of a man, who, like many others, abused the power with which he was entrusted, or who acted in pursuance of orders which cannot be justified.

His royal majesty the Prince Regent then adopted the only measure which could suit his situation, according to the principle which he had constantly followed, to save the blood of his people, and in order to prevent the criminal plan of the French government from being carried into execution, which had nothing less in view than to secure his royal person and the whole royal family, in order to divide, at its own will and pleasure, the spoils of the crown of Portugal and the Portuguese dominions. Providence seconded the efforts of a just prince; and the magnanimous resolution which his royal highness adopted, to retire, with his august royal family, to Brazil, disconcerted at once the efforts of the French government, and exposed, in the clearest

light, in the face of Europe, the criminal and treacherous views of a government which aims at the universal domination of all Europe, and of the whole world, if the great European powers, roused from the lethargic stupor into which they are sunk, do not make common cause vigorously to oppose an ambition so immoderate and excessive.

Since his royal highness's safe arrival in his dominions in Prazil, he has learned, with horror, not only the usurpation of Portugal, and the pillage and plunder practised in that country, but also the shameful proceeding ofthe Emperor of the French, who, as the true dictator of Europe, dares to represent it as a crime of his royal highness's, that he has removed his seat of government to Brazil; and in his faithful subjects who followed him, to have accompanied a prince whom all his people revere, still more on account of his virtues than of the rights of his august royal family, which he has inherited, and by virtue of which he reigns over them. His royal highness has witnessed with horror the hardihood with which an attempt has been made, in an official paper, to proscribe the rights of his august royal family to the crown of Portugal, with which he will never part; and he is entitled to demand of the Emperor of the French, from what code of the law of nations he has drawn similar principles, and received such an authority; claiming to this subject the most serious consideration of all European powers, who cannot see with indifference what has here been stated, and the introduction of a new government in Portugal, without his consent, as well as the raising of an exorbitant contribution, demanded from a country

VOL. I. PART I.

which opposed no kind of resistance to the entry of the French troops, and which, on this very ground, could not consider itself as being at war with France.

The most remote posterity, as well as impartial Europe, will see, with grief, similar transactions the forerunners of ages of barbarism and misery, such as those which followed the downfal of the Roman empire, and which cannot be avoided, unless exertions be made to restore the equipoise of Europe, by an unanimous effort, and with a total oblivion of all ideas of rivalship, which have hitherto been the true causes of the elevation of that monstrous power which threatens to swallow up all.

After this correct and true statement, made by his royal highness the Prince Regent of Portugal to Europe and to his subjects, of every thing which has taken place between the Portuguese and French government; and, as the Emperor of the French has not only invaded Portugal, and laid that country under the most dreadful and almost incredible contributions, under the cloak of friendship, but has also long ago withdrawn his embassy from his royal highness's court, and even caused Portuguese merchant ships to be seized, which were in his ports, without any previous declaration of war, and contrary to an express article of the treaty of neutrality, from which he derived the greatest advantages; and, lastly, declared war against him, according to the report, of the minister for foreign affairs his royal highness, after having resigned his cause into the hands of the Almighty, whom he has every right to invoke in so just a cause, thinks it due to his rank, and to the

dignity of his crown, to make the following declaration:

His royal highness breaks off all communication with France, recalls all the members of his embassy, if any should yet remain, and authorises his subjects to wage war, by sea and land, against the subjects of the Emperor of the French.

His royal highness declares null and void all the treaties which the Emperor of the French has compelled him to conclude, and in particular those of Badajoz and Madrid, in 1801, and that of neutrality in 1804, because he has violated, and never respected them.

His royal highness shall not lay down his arms, unless in concert with his Britannic majesty, his old and faithful ally, and will never agree to a cession of Portugal, which forms the most ancient part of the inheritance and of the rights of his august royal family.

When the Emperor of the French shall have satisfied, in every point, the just claim of his royal highness the Prince Regent of Portugal, and shall have relinquished the dictatorial and imperious tone in which he lords it over oppressed Europe; and when he shall have restored to the crown of Portugal all he has invaded in the midst of peace, and without the least provocation, his royal highness will avail himself of the earliest opportunity to renew the connection which has always subsisted between the two countries, and which ought to exist between nations which will nener be divided but by the principles of an inordinate ambition, which, according to the experience of ages have also proved destructive to the welfare and tranquillity of all nations by which they were adopted.

Rio Janeiro, May 1, 1808.

No. 36.-Reports of the Minister of Foreign Affairs relative to Portugal, published in the Moniteur of January 24, 1808.

First Report, Oct. 21, 1807."There is no sovereign in Europe who does not acknowledge that if his territory, his jurisdiction should be violated, to the detriment of your majesty, he would be responsible for it. If a French ship were seized in the port of Trieste or Lisbon, the government of Portugal and the sovereign to whom Trieste belongs would have to consider that violence and damage done to your majesty's subjects as a personal outrage: they could not hesitate to compel England, by force, to respect their territory and their ports: if they adopted a contrary conduct, if they became accomplices of the wrong done by England to your subjects, they would place themselves in a state of war with your majesty. When the Portuguese government suffered its ships to be visited by English ships, its independence was as much violated by its own consent, by the outrage done to its flag, as it would have been had England violated its territory and its ports. The enemy ought to be placed in a state of interdict, in the midst of the seas, of which he pretends to reserve to himself the empire. In this position, all the powers could, and ought to expect from each other a mutual support. And at what moment did Portugal betray the cause of the Continent? Ought England to expect still to have an ally, when, exercising her violence on every sea, she menaced the new world as well as the old; attacked, without any motive for aggression, the flag of the Americans, and dyed their own shores