JET. 28.] MISSION TO PORTUGAL. 335 



affected to be, satisfied that none was intended. But 

 before I went, our conversation with the Government 

 had been most unsatisfactory, not only as to their 

 disbelief of any peril, but also as to getting them to 

 make preparations against a design which they per- 

 sisted in considering, or at least in representing, as 

 very remote. That their means of defence, as far as 

 we could ascertain them, were very inadequate, was 

 but too manifest. It was very fit that we should 

 examine their preparations in the north, if it were 

 only to have a test of the accuracy of their statements. 

 But on the best consideration we could give to the 

 whole case, it appeared that the passage of the Pyre- 

 nees by the French army must at once seal the fate 

 of Portugal, whatever assistance we might be able to 

 render them ; and that therefore we should be driven 

 to the other alternative as soon as that passage was 

 effected viz., the prevailing on them to transfer the 

 seat of government to the Brazils. But we plainly 

 perceived that this was quite as hopeless as to make 

 them prepare effectually for their defence. I had 

 repeated discussions on this great question with Lord 

 St Vincent, and he never for an instant imagined that 

 they would voluntarily accede to the proposition. The 

 reluctance to remove was universal and deep-rooted, 

 wherever the subject was broached. Those at the 

 head of affairs, as often as we approached it, plainly 

 showed us that no result of an invasion, no terms 

 which a successful enemy could propose, would be 

 more hateful than their banishment for life across the 



