Star.
London, England, 1830-08-30 00:00:00

COUNCIL.

March 10,1767.
To the King's slost Excellent Majesty.
MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,—In obedience to your Ma.
jesty's commands, signified by letters from several of your Majesty's
Secretaries of Stare, we have taken into our consideration as well the
memorials of the British merchants trading to and residing in Portugal,
as the other papers therewith referred, relating to many grievances and
obstructions to which their commerce with that country has been, and
still continues to be, exposed ; and having examined the several matters
therein contained with all the attention due to so important a subject,
we beg leave humbly to represent to your Majesty our observations and
' opinions thereupon.
The nature of our commerce with Portugal is so well understood as
not to need any particular discussion. The treaties at present subsisting
between the two Crowns for promoting and encouraging this commerce,
and for the protection and security of those British subjects who, for
the purpose of carrying it on with the greater mutual convenience and
advantage to both countries, should have residence within the realm of
Portugal, at the same time that they exhibit a striking proof of the
great regard and attention which have been on our part repeatedly shown
to this branch of the national trade ; so they do, on the other hand, by
the importance of the concessions which they contain, fully evince the
high value which the Crown of Portugal has ever put upon the friend-
ship and alliance of Great Britain, and the jugc sense of the advantage
that nation derives from this commerce. The treaty concluded in the
year 1654, ratified in 1656, and confirmed by the marriage treaty of
1661, contains the most valuable concessions, and forms the basis of all
the rights, privileges, and immunities which your Majesty's subjects
arc entitled to enjoy in Portugal and its dominions ; and therefore will,
on this account, he frequently refened to in this our humble representa-
tion to your Majesty.
So long as the British commerce in Portugal :has been conducted in
conformity to the treaties on which It depends, it has been productive of 'I
great mutual advantage to both nations, and the assistance which the
kingdom has upon various occasions received front this, has been as
conspicuous as the benefits which at all times she derives from her trade
and commerce with us.

For some ye.trs pant, however, the British trade with Portugal has
been.'exposed to great and unusual difficulties and disadvantages. Your
Majesty's subjects who reside in that kingdom, and the merchants who
trade thither, represent in the strongest terms of complaint that their
personal rights and privileges arc violated, and their commerce im.
peded or obstructed, in direct contravention to treaty, by various laws,
institutions, and retrulations of that Court. A long catalogue of griev-
ances is exhibited upon this occasion, which we shall now proceed hum.
bly to lay before your Majesty, according to the order in which they are
stated in the merchants' general representation.
The British merchants in the first place complain that the privileges
and jurisdiction of their Judge Conservator, granted and established not
only by various edicts and decrees of the Kings of Portugal of very
ancient date, but more specifically ascertained and confirmed by the 7th
and 13th articles, of the treaty of 1664, are violated, and even super-
seded, in plain and express contravention to the stipulations and con-
cessions on which that institution is founded.

The facts which the complainants adduce in support of this complaint
are various : instances arc given not only of the rights and liberties of In.
dividuals having been violated by imprisonment of their persons
upon false and frivolous pretences, by illegal seizures of their
merchandize, books of account, and other effects, and by forcible
entry into their houses and warehouses by the subordinate officers
of various departments, without proper warrant and authority,
but grievances of a more general and permanent nature are
exhibited in their representations. They set forth, that by a
royal decree, dated the sth of May, 1742, they were subjected to the Se.
nate or City Court in everything belonging to the police: that by the
29th article of the pragmatic or sumptuary law, published the 24th of
Slay, 1749, the jurisdiction of their Conservator was taken away in all
matters relative to the breach of that law : that by a law of the present
King of Portugal, dated 30th October 1752, whereby it was expressly
ordained that no Judge Conservator should grant counter-mandates to
impede the execution of any writs or orders issued by the ordinary courts,
under the p. ashy of six months' suspension from his office, they were
consequently made subject to the writ or warrant of any judge what-
ever, in violation of that particular privilege annexed to the institu-
tion of theit Conservator, which makes the acquiescence of that magis-
trate a necessary preliminary to the seizure or arrest of a British sub.
jest. They further complain, that by the institutions of the
exclusive trading company of Para, of the general company for
the culture of the vineyards of Alto Douro, and by the statutes of the
newly.erectsd Junta de Commercio, all which arc of royal authority,
conservators are appointed to each of these bodies corporate, whose au-
thority supersedes that granted to the British Conservator ; and that
the jurisdiction of these new institutions, with privileges derogatory to
the jurisdiction of the British conservator, is so extensive, that your
Majesty's subjects, in carrying on suits for the recovery of their debts,
are under the greatest difficulties and disadvantages, being continually
involved in preliminary litigations and disputes concerning the compe-
tency of their conservatorial court, as all or most of their debtors belong
to some company or corporation, and thereby enjoy the privilege of a se-
parate conservator.

The peculiar rights and immunities which British subjects residing
in Portugal derive from the institution of a distinct judge-conservatur,
have their foundation in royal edicts and concessions of the Crown of
Portugal, almost as early as the first establishment of British con.
coerce in that kingdom ; and these concessions are fully stated in the
papers referred to; but as the privileges thereby granted are confirmed
in their full extent by the subsequent treaties between the tiro Crowns,
all that can he necessary on this occasion will be to have recourse to
those stipulations of treaty.
By the 7th and 13th articles of die treaty of 16.il it is stipulated,
" That for judgio:..; all causes that relate to the English, a judge-con.
set vator shall be deputed, from whom no appeal shall be granted, except
to the court of Itelacao, where the suits shall be determined in four
months at most after the appeals. That no alcayde, as he is commonly
call.d, t or other officer of the King of Portugal, shall arrest or impeach
any of the people of England, of what rank or condition soever, ex.
cep ing in a criminal cause, where he is apprehended in the fact, unless
he be East empowered in writing by the judge-conservator."
These articles do in such clear and express terms establish and
confirm the authority and independency of the British judge-con-
set valor, and the rights and immunities which British subjects re-
siding in the dominions of Portugal arc entitled to from that insti-
tution, as not to leave room for any doubt, that in all cases where
the houses anti warehouses of individuals have been broken open and
ransacked, their books and effects seized and distraincd, and their
persons imprisoned, without a warrant of their judge-conservator,
whether such acts of violence have been committed by officers belong.
fug to the Custom-house, to the Health-office, to the police, to the
contractor for tobacco, soap, and cards, to the Junta de Commercio, or
to any other officer or tribunal, they are direct infringements and
violations of the rights and privileges to which your Majesty's
subjects are entitled by the said treaty ; and it no less clearly
follows, that every domestic law or regulation of the Court of
Portugal, however innocent in its principle, which by any of its
provisions takes away or supersedes the jurisdiction of the British con-
servator in any other case than the single one excepted in the 13th
article above recited (as in the case of the sumptuary law of 1749, as
will as of the royal decree relative to the palice) is properly stated to be
in that particular an infraction of treaty. In the ramie light we consider
the law passed by the King of Portugal in 1752, which suspends from
his office an) judge-conservator who shall grant counter-mandates to
impede the execution of any writs or warrants issued by the ordinary
courts, as well as all such articles and provisions in the institutions of
particular trailing companies (as in that of Para and of the %Vine Com-
pany) or any other bodies corporate (as that of the Junta deCommercio),
which give to them respectively peculiar conservators, in whose favour
the exclusive and independent jurisdiction of the British conservator is
perStlit

The institution of the Ouneral Company for the culture of the vine-
yards of Alto Douro by Royal charter, dated on the 10th of Sept. 1750,
is complained of by the merchants of the factory at Oporto as contain-
ing amity regulations and restrictions prejudicial to their commerce, and
subversive of those rights, privileges, and immunities to which they
ate entitled upon the faith of national treaties.
By the prtantble to the law which establishes this company, it should