GENERAL HISTORY. 



[163 



lousie« and prejudices will permit 

 its adoption, seems at the present 

 a matter of doubt. 



The kingdom of Portugal during: 

 this year enjoyed that exemption 

 from hostile devastations which 

 had been secured by the exertions 

 of its great defender, interrupted 

 I only by that irrufition of the French 

 1 1 into the lower Beira which was in- 

 tended as a diversion in favour of 

 Badnjos, then under siege by Lord 

 Wellington. Opportunity was 

 therefore given for the operations 

 of agriculture, and the other means 

 of recovery from tiie severe cala- 

 mities it had undergone ; and it 

 cannot be doubted that the sums 

 of money derived from English 

 subsidies, and the expenditure of 

 the English troops in their passage 

 tlirough Lisbon, materially aided 

 the resources of tlie country. The 

 assiduity of Marshal Beresford and 

 the authority of Lord Wellington 

 had placed the military establish- 

 ment of Portugal upon a verj' re- 

 spectable footing ; and before tiie 

 close of 1811 there were numbered 

 of troops of the line and in gar- 

 rison above 54,000, of militia 

 58,000, and of the ordenanza, 

 •armed partly with pikes, partly 

 I with muskets, above 200,000. Of 

 the regulars, a large proportion 

 served with the allied army in 

 Spain, and on various occasions 

 acquired great credit. 



On February 13, the govern- 

 ment of Portugal issued a procla- 

 mation addressed to the people in 

 general, comparing their past and 

 present state, and although point- 

 ing out the improvement of their 

 condition, yet showing the neces- 

 sity of precautionary measures 

 against such sudden inroads as 



might possibly be made by the 

 enemy. Of these, they specify 

 the three following : 1. All persons 

 capable of bearing arms must be 

 exercised in the use of them ; and 

 those whose age or sex unfit them 

 for military service, must take 

 measures by anticipation for re- 

 pairing the places of security in 

 case circumstances shall make it 

 necessary : 2. They must carry off 

 or conceal all money, gold, silver, 

 or jewels which might tempt the 

 avarice of the enemy : 3. They 

 must carefully conceal, or if ne- 

 cessary destroy, all provisions that 

 cannot be carried off, and remove 

 cattle and carriages, in order to 

 defjrive the invader of means of 

 subsistence and advance. 



That the Portuguese government 

 did not entirely depend upon this 

 country for defraying the expense 

 of a war, a principal object of 

 which was the security of that 

 kingdom, was evinced by the asser- 

 tion of Lord Liverpool when, in 

 March, a message was brought to 

 parliament from the Prince Regent^ 

 recommending the continuance of 

 the subsidy paid to Portugal. His 

 lordship said, that it would be a 

 mistake to suppose that this sub- 

 sidy of two millions sterling was 

 adequate even to the military ex- 

 penses of that country; for that 

 its government had advanced, in 

 addition, the sum of 1,800,000/. 



The treaty of amity, naviga- 

 tion, and commerce between Por- 

 tugal and Russia, concluded at 

 Petersburgh in 1798, now draw- 

 ing to a termination, a renewal of it 

 was agreed upon by the two parties, 

 to remain in force till June 1815, 

 with no other alteration than an 

 addition to the duty on Portuguese 

 [M 2] winti 



