Star.
London, England, 1808-08-15 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

PROCLAMATION EY THE DUKE OF ASRANTES, GENERA.
IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY IN PORTUGAL, ETC. TO THE
PORTUGUESE.
44 PORTUGUESE l—What madness has possessed you?
Into what an abyss of evils would you plunge your-
selves ! After seven months of the most perfect tran-
quillity and harmony, what reason can make you take
up arms—and against whom ?—Against an army
who will insure your independence, and maintain the
integrity of your country ; without which you must
cease to be Portuguese. Who could urge you thus
to withdraw from your own interests ? You wish,
then, that the ancient Lusitania should become a pro-
vince of Spain. What can you hope against a nume-
rous army, valiant and inured to war, before which
you will be dispersed as the sand of the desart, which
is impetuously blown by the winds of the South ? Do
you not perceive, that those who hurry you on have
no other object than to satisfy their own rage ; and,
provided the Continent was embroiled, their wish for
biro] would cease? If these perfidious insulters'in-
vade your territory, leave them for me to fight : it is
the duty of my army : it is your part to be peaceable
in your fields. I pity your error ; but if it continues,
and you remain deaf to my voice, the punishment
shall be terrible. Can you regret a dynasty which
has abandoned you, so that you are no more to be
counted among the nations of rank in Europe ? What
can you desire more than to be Portuguese, and inde-
pendent ? The Great Napoleon has promised you
this. You yourselves have asked him for a king, who
aided by this all-powerful and great Monarch, might
be able to recover ycur unhappy country, and place
it in the rank to which it belongs.
44 At this moment, doubtless, your new Monarch
expects to approach you ; but, instead of faithful sub-
jects, he will find none but rebels. I hoped to place
im in a peaceable kingdom, and I am to shew no-
thing but ruins and graves ? Will he reign in a deso-
late country ? No, by no means. You will not be
any thing but a wretched province of Spain. Your
customs, your laws, all have been maintained ; your
holy religion—and is it not ours ?—has it suffered the
least insult ? On the contrary, is it not you that violate
it ? You suffer it to be influenced by heretics, who
only wish your ruin, and the destruction of your re.
ligion. Ask the unhappy Roman Catholics of Ire.
land, under what oppression they groan, in their ow*
country, by the orders of their own Government. In
obeying the Ministers of this holy religion, (of which
the first precept is obedience and submission to the
laws) who dare provoke you to murder and assassi-
nate men who lived among you as among their bro.
thers ? Unhappily for them, they will pay dearly for
the evils which they cause; and you, al o, unhappy
Portuguese, will be the victims of it.
44 If any abuses still exist in the Administration,
every day's experience will diminish them. My de-
cree, on the 14th of June, has already modelled an
interesting part of the finances, in assuring to the sol-
diers their pay; the wages to the Administrators and
Judges are also regularly paid.
14 The Emperor Napoleon, satisfied from nr" re-
porth of the public spirit existing in this kingdom,
has presented you with half the contribution, and it is
now he will fulfil all the wishes you have formed.
46 Why will you let yourselves be dragged on bit
the influence of a banditti, at the very moment that
you should gather the fruits of tranquillity—at the
very moment you should be happy ? Portuguese,
you have but one moment to implore the clemency
of the Emperor, to disarm his wrath. Already the
arnica of Spain touch your frontiers ; at every point
you are lost, if you hesitate. Disperse your armies ;
return peaceably to your firesides ; imitate the nlinH
quillity of your capital and the provinces that stir,
round you; attend yourselves to the work of your
agriculture ; make up your harvests ' • a fine crop the
sky ensures you, after the fears of a horrible famine.i
from which I have preserved you. Chace from
amongst you those wretched brigands of which the
only aim is to pillage your tcwns ; merit ycur pardon
by a quick submission—by a prompt obedience to my
orders; or behold the punishment that awaits you. • '
" Every village or town in which the people have
taken up arms against my army, and of which the,
inhabitants have fired upon my troops, shall be deli...
were," tip to pillage and entirely destroyed, and the
inb ibitants shall be put to the sword.
" Every individual four.d in arms, shall be shot in
the field. _ (Signed) 44 DUKE OF ABRANTES."
1* nviiiiirsiters, Lisbon, Jiu.e 1 s, 18015:'