The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-01-12 00:00:00

or TIII

MANIFESTO
••T'.:'' •II NATION TO THE ROVEREIONS ♦ND
PEOPLE OP EUROPE.

-~

The Porttignese Nation, animated with the most sin-
cere and ardent desire to maintain the political and com-
mercial relations which have hitherto bound it to all the
Governments and People of Europe, and having more
particularly at heart to continue to merit in the opinion
of illustrious men of all nations the.return and consi-
deration which have never been refused to the loyal and
honourable character of the Portuguese, judges it is in-
dispensihly necessary to the public a succinct hut frank
exposition of the causes which produced the memorable
events that have lately taken place in Portugal, of the
true spirit which directed them, of the sole object to
• which the changes tended that have been made, or which
it is intended to make, in the internal form of its Go-
vernment ,• it is confident that this exposition, rectifying
the false ideas which may perhaps have been conceived
of those events, will merit the kind attentions of the So-
vereigns and cf the people.
All Europe knows the extraordinary circumstances
which in 1807 forced his Majesty, John Vi. at that time
Prince Regent of Portugal, to remove with his Royal
family to his transatlantic dominions ; it is granted that
this resolution of bit Majesty was judged then of the
most decided advantage to the general cause of liberty
in Europe. Nobody, however, failed to perceive the
critical situation in which Portugal was placed by this
absence of its Prince, and succeeding events proved that
this forboiling was not vain or rash.
Portugal, separated from her Sovereign by the vast
expanse ca; the ocean, deprived of all resources from her
transmarine possessions, and of all the benefits of com-
merce by the blockades of her ports, anal governed at
home by a hostile force, which was then thought invin-
cible, seemed to have reached the final term of its poli-
tical existence. never to be replaced in time rank of in-
dependent nations.
In such a desperate crisis this heroic people did Dot
lose its honour, its courage, or its fidelity to its King,
which could not be torn from its heart by the force of
circumstances, nor by the preponderant power of the
enemy. They in fact displayed themselves in the named
energetic manner as soon as a favourable opportunity Of-
fered. The Portuguese, with the assistance of their Al-
lies, recovered at the expenee of the most painful sacri-
fices their political existence ; restored with generous
loyalty to their Monarch the Throne and the Crown ;
and impartial Europe most confess (though this justice
is not always done) that to them are also in a great mea-
sure owing the triumphs which have since been joined to
the advantages of the liberty and independence of
'thrones and Nations. It is more easy to conceive then
to express what was the internal situation of Portugal,
after circumstances so new, effects so extraordinary, and
a convulsion so general.
The ruin of its population; commenced by the emigra-
tion of the inhabitants who followed the Prince, or en-
deavoured to withdraw front the distrustful suspicion, or
the systematic perseenthon of the enemy ; was increased
by the two fatal invasions of 1509 and ISIO, and by the
inevitable losses of a long and obstinate war of seven
years.
Commerce and industry, which can never prosper but
tinder the beneficent protection of peace, security, and
public tranquillity, were not only depresses! and aban-
coned, hut seemed to have been wholly destroyed by the
unlimited liberty given to foreign vessels in the ports of
Brazil, by the disastrous Treaty of 181 U, by the conse-
quent decline of the national manufactures, by the
almost total destruction of the •••••••••ntibe Wet
naval force; by mho Absolute want of all care to protect
anal encourage these two most important branches of
public prosperity.
Agriculture, the basis of the riches and strength of
nations, deprived of the arms which the army or death
tonic from it; destitute of the capitals which supported
it, and which had been sometimes employed on objects
of the more urgent necessity, deprived of the vital
strength which it used to receive from the national in-
dustry, and from the active circulation of commerce,
noth domestic and foreign, lay in a fatal lethargy, and
presented to the astonisbeml spectator only the melan-
choly picture of famine and misery.
The sensible diminution of the public revenue, caused
by the ruin of the population, of commerce, anal of in-
dustry; by the irrevocable loss of the great sums which
the enemy violently extorted from the hands of the Por-
tuguese; and by the excessive expenses of the war, ob-
liging the nation to contract new and enormous debts,
for the payment of which its resources were engaged,
gave the final blow to public credit, which was already
shaken by the scandalous snalversations of the fiscal
agents, as well as by the most erroneous system of admi-
nistration.

If the Portuguese did not love and respect their
Prince and his august dynasty with a kind of love and
admiration almost religions. if they did not wish to
receive from his justice and kindness alone the reforms
Agit public improvements which such a state of things
i•nperiously demands, it would be very easy at that time
to tix limits to power, or dictate conditions suitable to
such urgent circumstances. They were not ignorant of
eleir rights: the general tendency of opinion, guided
by the lit of the ag.e, and openly manifested among
tiee most civilised nations of Europe, invited them to
sowh use of these rights which their ancestors had re-
coenized and exercised on less pressing occasions, the
victorious and triumphant army would bare supported
such just pretensions, and the nation would be now free
or certainly less unfortunate.

But the character of the Portuguese could not belie
itself. They chose rather to hope every thing from
their Prince than to give to Europe, already afflicted by
the late misfortune*, the sight of a turbnlent and 'inpa-
tient nation, or to appear to abuse the facility afforded
by circumcances to chew a spirit of revolt and want of
submission. The silent and peaceful endurance of their
evils was the blsis of their proceedings—oinfWence in
the acknowledged virtues of the Prince, the foundation of
their hopes. _

lint (it is hard to say it!) these hopes were wholly
deceived, and this suffering was car►ied to the utmost
extent to which it seems possible for the patience of
a high-spirited nation, full 51 the feelim: of its mis-
fortunes, and not ignorant of the means of remedying
them.

After this introduction, the Manifesto proceeds to ob-
serve, that it is unnecessary to paint in detail the melan-
choly picture of the progressive decline of Portitzal in
the last six years, as being notorious to all Europe.—
lieferrini to the proceeding, it states, as additional
cause' of ruin, the sending so many thousand troops
to Brasil to carry on a war of which Portugal bore the
bunko, sad which exposed it to the attacks of a pow-
erful neighlbour, always its rival, and now offended and
pro volteq.
• Continence was without encouragement, and every re-
/illation tended only to the advantage of foreigners.
Matsufactufers were equally discouraged, and while
tbeir own manufaitures were going to decay, and innu-
merable workmen reduced to idleness and want, the most
osignificast articles of furniture or dram w ere imported
trout other c.pantries. Portstruese vessels were taken by
.riends and enemies; insulted and captured by pirates. in
lit of our own fortresses. The Portuguese sew and
: cred. Bat why renew these profound sorrows ?