Star.
London, England, 1808-02-04 00:00:00

THtit,SDAI(, FF_I3ILITARir 4, 1..

midst of peace, she sought, in the pillage of her aree-
nals, for a few sad and bloody spoils.
But the scandal of this understanding between
the Portuguese Government and England; may be
traced to other times. When England meditated,n
1806, the rekindling in Europe that war which your
Majesty has so gloriously terminated, she sent a fleet
to Lisbon. The Ministers had conferences ; time
has developed the object and the result.
44 Have not the English squadrons, sent to the
River Plata, touched at Janeiro ? Did not the troops
sent to Buenos Ayres and Monte Video receive pro-
visions from the Brazils ? These distant succours
may have escaped the attention of Europe ; but she
saw Portugal receive and victual in her ports the
English ships destined to blockade Cadiz, to attack
Constantinople and Egypt ; those which were to land'
troops in Naples, to stir up revolt ; thost‘ which
were to introduce English merchandize upon all the
coasts of the Mediterranean, though Portugal knew
that all the ports in the South were ihut against them.
" A French Coninl, whom Portugal had acknow.l
ledged and admitted to the exercises:if his functions I
in the port of Faro, has been taken from his house by
the Intendant of the Customs, sent to prison, taken
out only to be exiled, and the Portuguese Govern-
ment refused for three months to repair that outrage.
" Protestations of neutrality ill concealed this
hostile conduct. The Court of Lisbon should have'
explained itself without shuffling, Your Majesty
proposed to it to accede to the system of the Conti-
nent ; and had it done so, you would have forgotten
every thing.
44 Far from deferring to your Majesty's proposals,
,the Portuguese Government had no other solicitude
'than that of informing the Court of London, of tran-
quillizing England relative to her interests, of gua-
ranteeing the safety of the English, and of their pro-
perty in Portugal. It had neither protected the
French nor their commerce ; the persons and trade of
their enemies have continued free and favoured.—
Portugal promised to join the cause of the Continent,
even to declare war against England ; but she wished
to make it, if I may use the expression, in concert
with her, to furnish her, under the appearance of hos-
tility, with the means of continuing her trade with
Portugal, and through Portugal with the rest of Eu-
rope ; a kind of war equivalent to a perfidious neutra-
lity. Succours were demanded of England ; and to
gain time, attempts were made to deceive your Ma-
jesty by vain declarations ; scruples were alleged upon
some of the consequences of the war, when none were
entertained upon the war itself, which breaks all ties.
44 In vain did your Majesty, deigning to condescend
to these metended scruples, modify your first demands;
the same refusals were renewed ; Portugal made pro-
mises, but delayed the execution, under different pre- ,
texts. At one time it was the Prince of Beira, a child i
of 142 years, who was to be sent to the Brazils to de-
fend that colony ; at another time it was a squadron
was
expected from the Mediterranean, which it
wish-
ed to have in safety in the Tagus.
" Thus Portugal, embarrassed by her own artifices,
making with the Court of London engagements, real
anduseful to the English—with France,vague and pre-
tended engagements--waited for succours and advice
from England, sought to delay the measures of the
Cabinet, and, humiliating herself before both, blindly
committed to the chance of events, the interests,
perhaps the existence of a nation, which unanimously
desired her not to give them up to a power so fatal to''
all its allies.
4, The epoch, which your Majesty had fixed for the
expected determination, which you had 'consented to
prolong for a month, arrived : Portugal decided her
own fate ; she broke off her last connections with the
Continent, by reducing the French and Spanish Le-
gations to the necessity of quitting Lisbon.
44 Portugal has placed herself in a state of war
with France, notwithstanding the benevolent disposi-
tion of your Majesty towards her. War with Portu-
gal is a painful but necessary duty. The interest of
the Continent, from whence the English ought to be
excluded, forces your Majesty to declare it. Longer
delay would only place Lisbon in the hands of the
English."

'4 SECOND REPORT.-^JAN. 2,180 R.
44 His excellency recals to the recollection of his
Majesty how necessary were the active and vigilant
measures which have been taken, and so well second-
ed, by the rapidity of the march of the French troops.
Portugal only sequestered the English goods, when
the English were secure from that measure, which
Portugal did not even affect to execute. She con-
certed her evasion with the English ; and, a little
while before we received the news of it, a courier had
carried to Italy, where the Emperor then was, new
protestations of attachment to the common cause of
the Continent. He announced the return of M. de
Lema, who had quitted Lisbon, and the arrival of
the Ambassador Extraordinary M. de Marialva, pro-
bably the dupe, as was the courier, of the bad faith of
her Court.
" Portugal is at length delivered from the yoke of
England ; your Majesty occupies it with your troops ;
it had been left defenceless on the sea side, and a part
of the cannon on her coasts had been spiked. Thus
England menaces her at present, blockades her ports,
and would lay waste her shores. Spain has had fears
for Cadiz—she has had fears for Ceuta. It is against
that part of the world that the English appear to wish
to direct their secret expeditions. They have embar-
ked troops at Gibraltar ; they have recalled from that
quarter those which had been driven from the Le-
vant, and a part of those which they had accumulated
in Sicily. Their cruizers on the coast of Spain be-
come more vigilant, and seem to wish to revenge
upon that kingdom the reverses they have experienced
in the Spanish Colonies. All the peninsula deserves
to fix particularly the attention of your Majesty."
REPORT OF THE MINISTER OF WAR ON THE MEASURES
TAKEN BY FRANCE UNDER THE PRIM? CARCUM.
STANCES.-6TH JAN.
46 Your Majesty ordered me to form the first and

second Corps of Observation of the Gironde. The
first of those corps, commanded by General Junot,
has conquered Portugal. The head of the second is
ready to follow the first, if circumstances require it.
I Your Majesty, whose vigilance is never at fault,
wished the. Corps of Observation of the Ocean, con-
fided to Marshal Moncey, to be in. the third line.
The necessity of shutting the ports of the Con-
tinent against our irreconcileable enemy, and of hay-
ing upon every point of attack considerable means,
in order to profit by any of the fortunate,cirzumstan-
ces which may present themselves, 'to carry the war
into the heart of England, Ireland, and the ladies,
may render the levy of the conscriptioa of 1809 ne-

cessary.
"The party which rules at I.nndon has proclaimed
the principle of eternal war ; and the expedition to
Copenhagen has revealed it, criminal intentions.—
Though the indignation of all Europe has been ex-
cited against England—though at no period 'has
France had such numerous armies—it is not sufficient;
it is necessary that English Influence should be at-
taslted every where where it exists, till the moment in
which the Fight of so many dangers shall induCe Eng-
land to drive from her Councils the Oligarchs who
direct them, and to confide the Administration to wise
men, capable of conciliating the love and interest of
their country with the love and interest of the human
race.
'6 A vulgar policy would have made your Ma-
jesty disarm ; but such a policy would be a scourge
to France, and render imperfect the• great results
you have prepared. Yes, Sire, your Majesty, far
from diminishing your at mg, ought to augment them,
till England shall have acknowledged the indepen-
dence of all Powers, and restored to the seas that tran-
quillity which your Majesty has ensured to the Con-
tinent.. Undoubtedly your Majesty must suffer in
requiring from your people fresh sacrifices, and in im-
posing new obligatiotas on them ; but you ought also
to yield to the cry of all the French—" No repose till
the sea be free, and a just peace shall have re-esta-
blished France in the most just, the most useful,
and the most necessary of her rights."

PARLMMENTARr PROCEEDINGS.

HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY 8.
Lord AUCKLAND presented a petition from Sir James Innes,
the Respondent in the Appeal respecting the Roxburgh Estates,
praying_that the cause should be heard out of the regular course
OD the Bth of May neat. His Lordship, in support of the Petition,
principally relied on the advanced age of the Petitioner, which
left him little hopes of seeing the termination of the cause, if it
were not to be heard until those which preceded it in the list,
amounting to more than 160, were disposed of; and on the ground,
that the succession to the estates involved the right to several titles
and dignities.
The LORD CHANCELLOR stated the great inconvenience
which had resulted to suitors from the appointment of bye days of
hearing. There were now on the list 21 English appeals, 48
Irish, and 116 Scotch. It was of the utmost importance that the
strictest equity should be preserved in a matter where, after all
that could be done, great delay must occur with respect to some
of the parties. If the questions of peerage, which the Roxburgh
case involved, might be supposed to take it out of the common or-
der of bearing, he conceived the best way would be to appropriate
to it those days which were usually allotted to the Committee of
Privileges.
After some observations from Lords Lac or. anata and Seim-
eta Lord AucKi.AND intimated thathe should delay any further
proceeding on the Petition urfn Friday.
Lord LAUDERDALE presented a Petition from the Rev*
James Scott, Rector of Brampton Bryan, in the county of Here-
ford, against the Bill now before the House for repealing the Act
of the 47th of the Kin e. 75. which Act suspended the operation
of the 36th of the King, commonly called the Curates' Act.
The petition stated, that Mr, Scott was instituted to the Rec-
tory of Brampton. Bryan in 1801, and in 1805 was nominated to
the perpetual Curacy of Titley in the same county : that in 1806,
he wept to China as Chaplain in a King's ship, which is a legal
cause,of absence. The petition further stated, that Mr. Scott was
ignorant when he accepted the perpetual Curacy, that by the Cu-
rates' Act be then rendered his former benefice voidable; which,
if he had known, be would have procured a dispensation, as
L. L. B. of Oxford, to hold two benefices. Further, that during
the lest Session oT Parliament, in Mr. Scott's absence, a Bill was
under discussion fur relieving those, who; like himself, were igno-
rant of the Curates' Bill ands t several weeks after this, viz. on
the 27th of July 1807, the pn of the said Rectory presented
another Gentleman.
The petition then stated the provisions of the Act of the 47th
of the King, which secure the right o 1 Mr. Scott; and afterwards
added, that the patron of the rectory approved of Mr. Scott's ac-
ceptance of the curacy, and immediately thereupon became Mr.
Scott's tenant of certain tythes belonging to the curacy, which he
submitted was the strangest proof of the knowledge, assent, and
privity of the: patron ; that risen of the first professional eminence
were ignorant of the clause in the Curates' Bill. The petitioner
then stated, that priuted papers misrepresenting his case bad been.
industriauslreirculated to his prejudice. Thep prayed
against the bill now in the House, and that he might be heard by
Counsel, &c.--Ordered to lie on the table.—Adjourned.
•

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The American Intercourse Bill went through the C
Report ordered to be received to-mortow.
The Correspondence between the Directors of the Rank and
the First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer,
relative to a Loan, were laid upon the table.
The Bill for permitting the produce of the Brazils,
and other
Portuguese settlements, in South America. to be imported in ships
of that Country, was read a first time, and ordered to be road a
second time to-morrow.
The CHANCELLbR of the EXCHEQUER moved, that the
Dean of Litchfield ehould be requested to preach before the House
on Wednesday, the 17th instant.
NAVAL ASYLUM.
Sir C. POLE, in pursuance of the notice be had given, rose to
move for leave to bring in a bill to amend the Act passed last
Session, for establishing the Naval Asylum. In that bill it was
his intention to introduce a clause, tendering it peremptory upon
the Governors to appoint persons who hag served in the navy er
marines to all offices in that establishment. It was proper, as the
establishment was now supported by the public money, that it
should be under publis controuL
The title of the Act being read, the Hon. Member moved for
leave to bring in a bill to antet.d.
Mr. ROSE said, that the Act of last Session went no farther
than to authorise his Majesty to make a grant of the House at
Greenwich, and to direct the appointment of a Chaplain. It was
intended to pursue the same plan at the Naval Asylum that was
adopted at the Military Asylum at Chelsea. At the latter, the
Board was authorized, by warrant under the Sign Manual, to ap-
, point Milers, and to prepare instructions Ind regulations. He did
not think this was a fit subject for legislative intetference.
Mr.WIND HAM explained theca:lsthmian of the Military A sy-
i
!tun, and said that a preference was always given, in falls% the sr
pointmenu, to military odium.
Mr. THORNTON and Lord NEWARK severally explained
the regulation for =lntim% the algooliathaent of one of the ;wadi-