The National Register.
London, England, 1808-08-14 00:00:00


_
..... ,
. .
. . . • , :s• : •
. .. _ . .
, . .
...
61,6,45 r
rm. _ rintrnatoNAL intaltrelt. ..: ~.
Av_________-------------

~---- -

---_ .
scat of kW 'loyal Bighim was fruity resolved aremove .
scat of Government to Brasil. whichlormed the most import:in.
and best•defeeod part of Ail dosainiontr; His Adis% Highness
then ordered bisvaboleartay to move tattle coasts and sea- ports
SUposieg that. as France bad "essentially obtained all she de-
maanded, she had aothing more •to ash ; confided In that good
Nth which.ouht to be coasidered as the fundamental principle
in every Government which hat ceased to be revolutionaryr, and
felt conscious that baviag done everything in his power to se-
cure the tranquillity of bis people, ad avoid as useless effusion
of blood, he had fulfilled all tbe duties of a virtuous Priam,
adored by 1114 subjects, and wbo to the Sttplrealeo Being aloft bas
to account for his actions. . -
" The Court of Portugal might then justly. and With every
of foundation; flitter itself that' that of the Thuilleries
would respect a neutrality which it had acknowledged by a so-
kindlema treaty,. and from which it derived such 'decided advantages,
when it was awaked from its security in the month of August,
180 i, by a formal declaration of the Minister of State for Foreign
Relatios, M. Talleyrand to Lord Yarmouth. NI which 4he
former notified to the ;alter, that If England di,d norbsake a ma-
ritime peace, the French blovernment would declare war against
Portugal, and order Oat country to he occupied by SO,OOO into.
It aas not with so,ooa men that the invasion of Portugal could
be effected, w
hat thiamperor of the French, who knew the se-
curity in .which Portugal found' herself in consequence of the
Treaty of neutrality, thought he could take her by surprise, and
this was sufficient tojustify his proceedings. The Court of Eng-
land was alarmed by the above declaratiou, and proposed and
offered to that of Portugal alt kind of succour ; but France,
which at that period had arranged every thing to crush the Prus-
sian Courttwhich then shine/aid defiance to the superior power
of the Empefor of the French; while a twelvemonth before it
would not attack* hint, though she might even have compelled
bin% to receive the law., and have saved Europe, jointly with
Russia and. Austria, found means topacify the Court of Portal-
- which she then, chose to spare, and could not conceive, that
,miler Perfidy could be the attribute cif a power,
whose
greatness should keep pace with that integrity and those d
fied sentimeits which suit so well an exalted' rank. The war
vhich was afterwards continued with Rissini aryl which might
perhaps have, saved Europe, if the union of the Govern.;
moots which divide it had been as close as it should have been,
il.l retarded the execution of the views of the and
of the
reach with regard to the Court of POrtUgal i and it was only
concluding the Peace of Tilsit, that the Court of the Thullle-
;it-4 in a dictatorial tone, such as might becotne Charlemagne
addressing the Princes, w hose Sovereign Lord he was. caused
the strange demand to be made to the Court of Portul,through
'he medium of the Frettph Charge d'Affaiks and byetbe Spanish
,stabassador, Ist, To shut up' the ports of Portugal against pa,
land ; td, To detain all Euglishatco who resided..in portugal •
and 3d, To ioutiscate all English property ; r, in case of refu-
sal, to expose itself to an immediate war with France and
tipain, because the French Charge d'Affaires and the Ambass
dor of Spain had orders to depart the Ist of, Sept. about three
weeks after the said proposition was made, in case the Court of
Portugal should not comply with all the pretensions a ihe two
Courts. The good faith of the French
Governmentr is no less
remarkable, with regard to the celerity with which, aftey hav-
ing made that declaration, and without waiting for the ansiver
of the Court of Portugal, it ordered all Portyaguese merchant-
ships to be detained which were in the.ports Of France, and by
that measure actually began hostilities without any previous de.
claratioa of war, and thus carried to a far disseter length sal
the procerdinp which formed its' continued tolgeof Vit.sach
again-4 England, which,' after suclva conduct will destly ,
valued. . •
• I" The Court of Portugal might thou well have adopted the '
kno a n maxim of the Roinans.and been conviaced, that disgrace-
fat conditions frequently saved those who refuse them, and
brought destruction over those by whom they were proposed ;
but on the ono side it could Dot believe that the Court of tile
Thuilleries made, in earnest, proposals which consmitted both its
honour and its digaity ; and on the fatter side, it hoped to wad
off the storm, desirout-of spariug the blood of its neoPie, and
placing implicit tonlinleacrs in the fricodship of his Britannic
Majesty, its old add faille's% ally, it ersteavoured to iender the
pretensions of the French Gov.efaaseat move mansterate, b y aceed.
ing to the shuttlag up of the ports. oodlefosing the two other
artickes, contrary -to thewiples of thopulalic law, and to the
tnedeli which salaamms the two natioas ; anti his Royal
- .. 4 • . i'..t

s

• ..

•.w4 1‘.•140,

received
rioas
with

.• • •
•

HighneSs the MU, Mtge., of ..no tation O.
al. bad lies • aid
dare, that those two articles wad:Odell equally his religion
the principles of moralityfrom which he sever deviated, abd
which are perhaps the true castle of the 'what eo fidelity which
he has experienced on the part Of his subjects.
" The French Government then ofiserved a liar of coudoct to
wards his Royal Highness and his dominions, which weeld,tae
unprecedented in history, were not the lovas!on of dwitserlopi
by France at the tittle of' the Executive Directory of a sisisjlar
descriptio. General Juno' without any previous doehtenSioes
without having obtained the consent of the Prince Redeot fir
Portugal, entered that kingdom with the vanguard of
toilhs anay,
assuring the people of the country, he was worthies our
his Royal Highness against an invasion of the Eneclish and that
he entered Portugal as &General of a friendly and allied Power.
He received 611 his journey convincing proofs of tae .good (alp'
of the Portuguese Government, for he witneoed the perfect un-
easiness which 'prevailed with regard to France, and that all
the Portuguese High-
troops were near the coast. Ills Royal
gess the Prince of Portugal, surprised in such an extraorditutry
manner, might have rallied aronod him the body of troops, %bids
were at a small distance from him, caused the fro
-h deet to
ebter the port of Lisbon, and thus cot to pieces the small and
miserable corps with which General Junot was 114VallCing% with
idegree of hoseerwhich would have been iiilicolous, had not
Crerteral Junot, w conduct otVenice and Lisbon was but 140
well known, relied on the feelings of a virtuous Pripee, WIWI ~.
would never have exposed his people to the most dreadful cala-
mities by a sure ant success, Which would only have served to
chasten the audacity; of a man, who like many others, abused
the power with which be was entrusted, or who acted in purse-
since of orders which cannot beustified.
" His Royal Majesty the prince Regent, then adopted the
only measure which could suit his situation, according to the •
principles which he had constatoly followed, to save the blood
of his people, and In order to prevent the criminal plan of the. •
French Government front being carried into esecutimt. which
had no
less in view than to secure his Royal Person, and
the whole Royal Family, order to divide, at its own will and
pleasure, the spells of the Crown of Portugal, nod the Portu-
ese domittiom. Providence seconded the efforts of a just
Prince, and the magnanimous yesolution which hit Royal High-
gess adopted, to retire with his Aughst Royal Family to Brazil,
disconcerted at once tbe efforts of the French Government, and.
exposed. in the light, iu the face of Eurape, the crimi-
nal and - - of a Governor which aims at the
uttisersal -hole World, if
the great - stiptsr
into wt
to oppose
Royal I
learned
the pit.
shameful
true .
Royal
Bray'
accoati..
account
mil
over

e

land n
Tt
hrie:tvit
offered
which
sian C
of the
yrould
bun t
Russ;
gal,
a sin
greal
tied
yet
men
Fro
by
rie
adi
ttu
thi
at
sa
I
•

tail' In tsseirr........_ _ e,
nil treacherous vrews of a G0vern0......
!rsal domination of all Europe and of the whole NN ono, IL
;rent European Powers, •ruitstld from the lethargic stipor • i
whicir they ore sunk.do not make common cause vigorously
ppose an vabition so immoderate and enceisive. Since his
al HigimeOfssafe arrival in his dominions in Brazil, he has
ned-with beecor, not Only the asurpatinn of Portugal, and
pillage lota 'tender practised in that country• hot al-o the
meful proceediag of the Emperor of the French, who, fts the
,t Dictator or F.tirope. dares.to represent it as a crime of his
yal Highnss, that. he has retioved his seat of Goveriottent le
azil, aad in s foil
sub.jecta who follower% him, to have
!oitipatiligl a*Prince Oho,* all his people revere, still more on
moot of his'virtites then orthe rights of hii /I.ll4ust 11.41 al Fa,-
ly which lie 'hit: inherited, and by virtue of which he _reigns
er than. his Royal Iligltness has witnessed with horror the
with whicir an attempt has been made, in an official
6 ittoseribertlie iigiiti of his August Royal Family, to . . .
h ofPnrtugsl, with which he will rater part ; apd Ise
id to demand -of the has
of the French., from st hat
1T of the
.Law of Nations he has drawn 'bailor istrinci pies anil
eceived soca tut antherity, claiming to this sohject the most
tolls consideration or all the European Powers, who raiinot iei
in indifference what has here been stated. Red the introduc,
[ion of at new- Government in Portugal 'without hit eon-ent, as
well as the raising of an etorbitant contribution, demanded from
a country which opposed no kind of resistance to the a
nd of the
French troops, and which on this very ground could not con.i7
der its
sts being at Vitt? with France. The most remote po
terity, as well as impartial Europe, will see with grief such
trausaetion4, the forerunners of barbarism and misery, such as
those which followed the downfall of Roman Latpire, and
\
which cannot be avoided, unless e%ertions he made to restore the
equipoise of Europe by an on:miming* effort, and.with a oh- I :
' \
Thins of all Ideas and *cling of rivalship, which has hitherto
been the true cause of tkat alliditfuell power which threaLoas lit
swallow up all. ail 4- •, t.
'•-•siir osaiitt.l..-ust. 4 •- • .
. • '........ d•
. . .
14.. .• - .i.
Mt, ~' ..• b 3.... . - ' .Nt .h: .7,i W, • '‘,—.4....0 •
, •
.. . a
• % t