light, in the face of Europe, the criminal and treacherous views of a government which aims at the universal domination of all Europe, and of the whole world, if the great European powers, roused from the lethargic stupor into which they are sunk, do not make common cause vigorously to oppose an ambition so immoderate and excessive.

Since his royal highness's safe arrival in his dominions in Brazil, he has learned, with horror, not only the usurpation of Portugal, and the pillage and plunder practised in that country, but also the shameful proceeding of the Emperor of the French, who, as the true dictator of Europe, dares to represent it as a crime of his royal highness's, that he has removed his seat of government to Brazil; and in his faithful subjects who followed him, to have accompanied a prince whom all his people revere, still more on account of his virtues than of the rights of his august royal family, which he has inherited, and by virtue of which he reigns over them. His royal highness has witnessed with horror the hardihood with which an attempt has been made, in an official paper, to proscribe the rights of his august royal family to the crown of Portugal, with which he will never part; and he is entitled to demand of the Emperor of the French, from what code of the law of nations he has drawn similar principles, and.received such an authority; claiming to this subject the most serious consideration of all European powers, who cannot see with indifference what has here been stated, and the introduction of a new government in Portugal, without his consent, as well as the raising of an exorbitant contribution, demanded from a country,

VOL. I. PART I.

which opposed no kind of resistance to the entry of the French troops, and which, on this very ground, could not consider itself as being at war with France.

The most remote posterity, as well as impartial Europe, will see, with grief, similar transactions the forerunners of ages of barbarism and misery, such as those which followed the downfal of the Roman empire, and which cannot be avoided, unless exertions be made to restore the equipoise of Europe, by an unanimous effort, and with a total oblivion of all ideas of rivalship, which have hitherto been the true causes of the elevation of that monstrous power which threatens to swallow up all.

After this correct and true statement, made by his royal highness the Prince Regent of Portugal to Europe and to his subjects, of every thing which has taken place between the Portuguese and French government; and, as the Emperor of the French has not only invaded Portugal, and laid that country under the most dreadful and almost incredible contributions, under the cloak of friendship, but has also long ago withdrawn his embassy from his royal highness's court, and even caused Portuguese merchant ships to be seized, which were in his ports, without any previous declaration of war, and contrary to an express article of the treaty of neutrality, from which he derived the greatest advantages; and, lastly, declared war against him, according to the report of the minister for foreign affairs; his royal highness, after having resigned his cause into the hands of the Almighty, whom he has every right to invoke in so just a cause, thinks it due to his rank, and to the

F

dignity of his crown, to make the following declaration:

His royal highness breaks off all communication with France, recalls all the members of his embassy, if any should yet remain, and authorises his subjects to wage war, by sea and land, against the subjects of the Emperor of the French.

His royal highness declares null and void all the treaties which the Emperor of the French has compelled him to conclude, and in particular those of Badajoz and Madrid, in 1801, and that of neutrality in 1804, because he has violated, and never respected them.

His royal highness shall not lay down his arms, unless in concert with his Britannic majesty, his old and faithful ally, and will never agree to a cession of Portugal, which forms the most ancient part of the inheritance and of the rights of his august royal family.

When the Emperor of the French shall have satisfied, in every point, the just claim of his royal highness the Prince Regent of Portugal, and shall have relinquished the dictatorial and imperious tone in which he lords it over oppressed Europe; and when he shall have restored to the crown of Portugal all he has invaded in the midst of peace, and without the least provocation, his royal highness will avail himself of the earliest opportunity to renew the connection which has always subsisted between the two countries, and which ought to exist between nations which will nener be divided but by the principles of an inordinate ambition, which, according to the experience of ages have also proved destructive to the welfare and tranquillity of all nations by which they were adopted.

Rio Janeiro, May 1, 1808.

No. 36.-Reports of the Minister of Foreign Affairs relative to Portugal, published in the Moniteur of January 24, 1808.

First Report, Oct. 21, 1807."There is no sovereign in Europe who does not acknowledge that if his territory, his jurisdiction should be violated, to the detriment of your majesty, he would be responsible for it. If a French ship were seized in the port of Trieste or Lisbon, the government of Portugal and the sovereign to whom Trieste belongs would have to consider that violence and damage done to your majesty's subjects as a personal outrage: they could not hesitate to compel England, by force, to respect their territory and their ports: if they adopted a contrary conduct, if they became accomplices of the wrong done by England to your subjects, they would place themselves in a state of war with your majesty. When the Portuguese government suffered its ships to be visited by English ships, its independence was as much violated by its own consent, by the outrage done to its flag, as it would have been had England violated its territory and its ports. The enemy ought to be placed in a state of interdict, in the midst of the seas, of which he pretends to reserve to himself the empire. In this position, all the powers could, and ought to expect from each other a mutual support. And at what moment did Portugal betray the cause of the Continent? Ought England to expect still to have an ally, when, exercising her violence on every sea, she menaced the new world as well as the old; attacked, without any motive for aggression, the flag of the Ame ricans, and dyed their own shores

with their blood; when, scandalous ly famous by the disasters of Copenhagen, which she surprised in the midst of peace, she sought, in the pillage of her arsenals, 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, in 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. 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 provisions 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; those which were to introduce English merchandise upon all the coasts of the Mediterranean, though Portugal knew that all the ports in the south were shut against them. A French consul, whom Portugal had acknowledged and admitted to the exercise of his functions 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 government 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 Continent; and had it done so, you

would have forgotten every thing. Far from deferring to your majesty's proposals, the Portuguese government had no other solicitude than that of informing the court of London, of tranquillising England relative to her interests, of guaranteeing the safety of the English, and of their property 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 hostility, with the means of continuing her trade with Portugal, and through Portugal with the rest of Europe; a kind of war equivalent to a perfidious neutrality. Succours were demanded of England; and, to gain time, attempts were made to deceive your majesty by vain declarations: scruples were alleged upon some of the consequences of the war, when none were entertained upon war itself, which breaks all ties. In vain did your majesty, deigning to condescend to these pretended scruples, modify your first demands-the same refusals were renewed--Portugal made promises, but delayed the execution, under different pretexts. At one time, it was the prince of Beira, a child of twelve years, who was to be sent to the Brazils, to detend that colony-at another time, it was a squadron expected from the Mediterranean, which it was wished to have in safety in the Tagus. Thus Portugal, embarrassed by her own artifices, making with the court of London engagements, real and useful to the English-with France,

vague and pretended 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. 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 legations to the necessity of quitting Lisbon. Portugal has placed herself in a state of war with France, notwithstanding the benevolent disposition of your majesty towards her. War with Portugal 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."

Second Report, Jan. 2, 1808."Ilis excellency recalls to the recollection of his majesty, how necessary were the active and vigilant measures which have been taken, and so well seconded, 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 concerted 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 Le

ma, who had quitted Lisbon, and the arrival of the ambassador-extraordinary, M. de Marialva, probably 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 embarked troops at Gibraltar; they have recalled from that quarter those which had been driven from the Levant, and a part of those which they had accumulated in Sicily. Their cruizers on the coast of Spain become more vigilant, snd 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 on the present circumstances, 6th Jan

uary.

"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. Your majesty, whose vigilance is never at fault, wished the corps of observation of the ocean confided to Marshall Moncey, to be in the third line. The necessity of shutting the ports