1808.] [ 
59l J 
STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS IN DECEMBER. 
Containing official and authentic Documents. 
ee 
PORTUGAL. 
A Dispatcn, of which the following is 
a Copy, was received on tie 19th of 
December,from Lord Viscount Strangford, 
his Majesty’s Minister Plenipotentiary at 
the Court of yh by the Right Hon. 
George Canning, his Majesty’ s Principal 
Secre t: wy of State for Foreign Affairs :— 
His Majesty’s Ship Hibeenge. of the Tagus, 
Now. 29. 
Sir—I have the honour of announcing to 
you, that the Prince Regent of Portugal has 
effected the wise and magnanimous purpose 
of retiring trom a Kingdom which he could 
no retain, 
France, and that his Royal Highness and ta- 
mily, accompanied by most or his 
war, and by a multitude or his faithful sub- 
-jects and adherents, have this day departed 
trom'Lisbon, and are now on their way to the 
Brazils, uncer tite escort of a British fleet.— 
This giandand memorable event is not to be 
attrivuuted only to the sudden alarm excited 
by the appearance 0: a French army within 
the fronticis oj Portugal; it has been the ge- 
nuine result of the system of persevering 
confidence and moderation adopted by his 
Majesty towards toat country, for the ulti- 
mate success of which I had in a manner ren- 
dered myseif responsible ; and which, in obe- 
dience to your instructions, [ had uniformly 
continued to support, even unde: appearances 
of the most discouraging nature. 
I had frequently and distinctly stated to 
the cavinet of Lisbon, that in agreeing not to 
xesent the exclusion of British commerce. 
from the ports of Portugai, his Majesty had 
exhausted the means of forbearance; that in 
making thai concession to the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of the Prince Regent’s situation, 
his Majesty had done all that friendship and 
the remembrance of ancient alliance could 
justly require; but that a single step beyond 
the line of modified hostility, thus most re- 
luctantly consented to, must necessarily lead 
tocheextremity of actual war. The Prince Ke- 
gent, however, suffered himselffor a moment 
to iorget that, in the preseni state of Europe, 
no country could be permitted to be an enemy 
to England with impunity, and that however 
much his ‘iajesty might be disposed to make 
allowance for the deficieney o; the means pos- 
sessed by Portugal of resistance to the power of 
France, neither his own dignity, nor the in- 
terests of his people, would permit his Majesty 
to accept that excuse fur a compliance with the 
full extent of her unprincipled demands. On 
the 8th inst. his Royal Highness was induced 
to sign an order for tne detension of the few 
British subjects, and or tne inconsiderable 
portion of British property which yet remain- 
ed at Lisbon, Onthe publication of thvs or. 
longer 
except as the vassai of 
ships of 
der, I caused the arms of England to be ree 
moved from the gates of my residence, dee 
manded my passports, presented a final re- 
monstrance against the rectnt conduct of the 
court of Lisbon, and proceeded to the squa~ 
dron commanded by Sir Sidney Smith, which 
arrived oit the coast of Portugal some days af- 
ter 1 had received my passports, and which I 
joined on the 17th instant. 
I immediately suggested to Sir Sidney 
Smith the expediency of establishing the most 
tivorous blockade at the mouth of the Tagus 5 
and I had the high satisfaction of afterwards 
finding that | had thus anticipated the inten- 
tions of his Majesty: your dispatehes (which 
J received by the messenger Sylvester on the 
23d) directing me to authorise that measure, 
in case tne Portuguese government should 
pass the bounds which his Majesty had 
thought fit to set to his forbearance, and at- 
tempt to take any farther step injurious to the 
honour or interests of Great Britain. 
Those dispatcbes weie drawn up under the 
idea that I was stiil resident at Lisbon, and 
though I did not receive them uncd [ had 
actua.ly taken my departuie from that Court, 
still, wpon a careful consideration of the tenor 
of your instructions, 1 thougnet that it would 
be right to act as if that case had not oce 
curred. lresolved, theretore, to proceed forthe 
with to ascertain the effect produced by the 
blockade of Lisson, and to propose to the 
Portuguese aaa ag the only condi- 
tion upon which the blockade estld cease, 
the alternative (stated by you) either of sur- 
rendering the fleet to his Majesty, or of im- 
mediately employing it to remove the Prince 
Regent and his family to the Brazils. 1 took 
upon myself this responsibility, in renewing 
negeciations after my public functions had 
actualiy ceased, convinced that, although it 
was the fixed determination of his Majesty 
not to suffer the fleet of Portugal to ‘all into 
the possession of his enemies, still his Mae 
festy’s first object continued to be the applic 
cation of that fleet to the original purpose, ef 
saving the Royal tamily of Braganza, from 
the tyranny of France. I accordingly request- 
ed an audience of the Prince Regent, together 
with due assurances of protection and security 5 
and upon receiving his Royal Highness’s an- 
swer, 1 proceeded to Lisbon on the 27th, in 
his Majesty’s ship Confiance, bearing a flag 
of truce. J had immediately most interesting 
communications with the Court of Lisbon, 
the particulars of which shall be fully de- 
tailed in a future dispatch. It suflices to 
mention inthis place, that the Prince Régent 
wisely directed all his apprehensions to a 
French army, and all his hopes to an English 
fleet; that he received the most explicit as- 
surances from me that his Maj-sty would ge- 
nerously overlook those acts of unwilling and 
momentary 
