The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-07-13 00:00:00

• PORTUGAL.
PROCLASIATIOI‘.
44 I, the Prince Regent, make known that the
French Government, under the pretence of pro.
tection, having invaded these kingdoms, to usurp
the Sovereignty of my Royal Crown, to establish
atheism on the ruins of the altars • to annihilate
the hierarchies of the EcclesiasticaCorporations,
to extinguish the tribunals, monasteries, and con-
vents ; to rob my faithful subjects, as well cc-
&missiles as seculars, of their dignities, belie.
ices, commends, dominion, employments, riches,
property, and commerce, and to reduce all to a
miserable and horrid state of slavery ; projects
which, unfortunately, would have bceu realized,
if the Divine Providence, which watches over
Portugal, bad net animated the loyalty of
the inhabitants of its different provinces to rise
almost at the same time, and oppose such per-
fidy, of which there are very few examples in the
history of nations. That it being indispensibly
necessary for the preservation of the religion, the
crown, and the national independence, so heroi.
cull, restored, to create armies capable of resist-
ill; the formidable forces of the common enemy ;
to clothe, arm, and provide them with all kinds of
ammunition ; to augment their pay, to organize
and maintain the Militia ; and to arm the whole
nation, at a time when the coffers of the Royal
Treasury, the public, and the arsenals, had been
estitely drained by the rapacity of the French
. aweetals, and the invasion of their troops ; the
. refletines of the country diminished by the sus-
piMMion of industry, commerce, and navigation ;
which made it necessary to tit out and supply a
sqisadron in the Streight to prevent the piracies
of the Algerine cruisers. That having made
. such extraordinary efforts without imposing new
gontribetions to burthen my beloved subjects,
, whom I wish to relieve of those they already
. troffer ; that the resources of the Royal Treasury
-not being sufficient to support my armies,
which, assisted by the brave troops of his Britan-
nic Majesty, my good friend and ally, expelled
lately the French from the city of Porto and pie.
violets of the North; and disbanded for want of
means, they called down total ruin on these king.
doms, of which the inhabitants of the provinces,
where the ferocity and tyranny of the said troops
have entered, will fur ever preserve a melancholy
remembrance.
" I am oblieed, much against my inclination,
to make use of' the supreme law, which, superior
to all the other laws, only contentplates the preser-
vatioa of the country, and of your holy religion ;
bet trusting to the repeated proofs of love, zeal,
wed patriotism of my loyal subjects, eclessiutics,
and seculars, in this cruel war, which is a religious
war, voluntarily offered themselves to a new sa-
crifice, which so much interests them, and con-
sists in contributing, for once only, such part of
their incomes as may be necessary to defend their
religion and the throne, and to preserve their said
itheleflten, property, lives, and public as well as in-
dividual liberty, which will be entirely lust if
there is not force sufficient to make a proper
resistance; wishlag, at all times, to adopt the
easiest means to supply this extraordinary and
iudispensible expence, I consulted thereon
with all the tribunals, Bcc. and having considered
every thing, I have thought 6t to decree as fol-
lows :
e The property of the Crown, although it be in posses-
sion of corporations, dignities, and ecclesiastical persom,
- without excepting soc 4 as have the care of the Royal
Chapel, shall pay two-tifths extraordinary of one year's in-
come.
" Two-fifths shall 'also be paid by the Commander of
the Three Military Order F, those of Malta, and the Presti-
monies.
" All the other ecclesiastical revenites, of whatever adtni-
ntration they may be, and those of the third order, confra-
riu and brotherhoods, with the excepting of the congreas
of the parishes, who do not receive Tythe,, the Asylums of
blisericordia and Expo,toa, and the ilmpitals, shall pay
three-tenths extraordinary.
" The tenants of premises in the city or couutry shall pay
one-teeth extraordinary; besides which the new impost of
three percent. shall be paid on the city premises, scivauts,
and bona.
" The same tenth extraordinary shall be paid out of sala-
ries, pensions, Oovermttent interests, or private, and of all
policies large and small.
" The said fifth, new impost, and tenths extraordinary,
shall be paid oat of the incomes of one year, for once only,
and according to law, besides the fifth new impost and tenth,
which is paid aserdinery from the said incomes ; and they
shall he recovered within two Isontbs from the date of the
ratification of this Decree, by the respective Superintendants
and Mistime's, who are sot to receive any pecuniary gratifi-
cation or easelasneat whatever; and they Atoll pay into the
Royal Treasury the seems as they reeeire them ; and at
the end of the said torus, they shall give an account of the
whole to the said Royal Treasury, regulating the recovery
of She same by the estimate of last year, except oa horses, on
which a Dew estimate must be formed. seeing that many of
My subjects have gratuitously given up theirs for the use of
the armies. The tenths, however, of the payment, which
may depend oo the Royal Treasary or Junta of Interests,
shall be discounted in the same way as the ordinary tenths,
when the respective payments are made.
" Trots this extraordinary rontribotion for defence, I am
pleased to exempt the premises in the city or country, which
may have been fired, sacked, or injured by the common ene-
my, especially those of the village of Malamute and neigh-
bourhood, which so much satered from the loyalty and con-
stancy of the ialsabitants, who are strong in my Royal recol-
intim to great them other indulgences. And I order the
Promderes of the districts and respective Cameras, to see the
houses of the poor roofed and floored, and to assist, as much
poiwible, those who have not the means in tbe sowing their
coca is the present year, with the surplus of the taxes in that
district.
" The body of merchants.and men of property shall pay
towards this same coutribstion for defence four hundred
tboomed Wittig, to be proportioned and recovered within ,
the said two months, by the Royal Board of Trade, with the
linildnet of seine merchants of known probity.
" The conosellors, NfiVeOeff, sotaries. and solicitors, the
physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, shall pay out of their
incase OT emoluments for the year, the proportions that may
be &ermined by the respective saperintendants and magi-
mimes, mined by competent arbitrators, according to the an-
nexed Schedule.
41 The said magistrates shall likewise determine the pro-
portions to be paid by the shops and public-homes, as men-
-1.,..2d in the said plan.