goods had produced little effect. The three days allowed for sending in
the returns having elapsed, the term was prolonged for eight days more,
with heavy denunciations against those who should attempt to evade
it. That part of the edict which related to English property might
easily be obeyed by those who chose to obey it; but the confiscation
of all English goods in a city where half the goods were English, was
as impracticable as it was oppressive; and the day after Junot had
issued his second decree upon this subject, he found it necessary to
publish a third, modifying the former two, and in fact confessing
their absurdity. It appeared, he said, that under these decrees the
merchants and shopkeepers could not dispose of many articles of
British manufacture; that the want of these articles kept out of the
market a great number of things which were in daily use, ♦DEC. 19.
OBS. PORT. P. 50.♦ and would raise the prices of those which were not
prohibited: such articles, therefore, as were not actually the property
of British subjects, might be sold, on condition that the owners gave
in an account of the British goods in their possession, and obtained
permission to sell them from the commissary at Lisbon, or some public
functionary in the provinces; that this permission should not be
granted unless the kind, quality, measure, quantity, and price of the
articles for sale were specified; that the vendor should hold himself
responsible for the amount of all which he disposed of, and should for
that purpose enter in his books the quantity of the thing sold, the
price, and the name of the purchaser; and give security for this if it
were required.
♦SCARCITY OF CORN APPREHENDED.♦
The trade of Lisbon needed not these new shackles. The stagnation of
commerce was indeed beheld by the French General with complacency, as
tending to the accomplishment of Buonaparte’s desires against England;
but in its more immediate effects he felt the security of his army in
some degree implicated. Lisbon is dependent for great part of its corn
upon foreign supplies: the failure of this supply had been contemplated
by the Prince’s government as one of the consequences to be expected if
he submitted to the demands of France; and when he gave orders to shut
the ports against England, an edict was issued, prohibiting all kinds
of cakes and biscuits, that flour might be reserved for bread alone.
♦NEVES, 263.♦ Grievously as a scarcity of corn is felt when it occurs
in our own country, in Portugal it is more literally a necessary of
life; for the Portugueze consume little animal food, and the potatoe
is hardly known among them; nor, indeed, is its culture successful.
When Junot took possession of Lisbon, it was apprehended that in the
course of two or three months there would be an actual want of bread.
The Russians consumed about 10,000 rations daily; a consumption which
made the French, as well as the inhabitants, regard them with an evil
eye. Junot disliked them on another account: he suspected that they
favoured the escape of British subjects and Portugueze emigrants to the
British squadron; and the Russian officers kept aloof from the French,
as if they were shocked at the profligacy of their conduct. But before
the close of the year intelligence arrived that Russia had declared war
against Great Britain; an event which excited as much exultation in
the French and their few partizans, as grief in the great body of the
people; for, notwithstanding the peace of Tilsit, many were they who
still rested their hopes upon the strength of Russia, and the personal
character of the Emperor Alexander.
♦MEASURES FOR PROVIDING THE ARMY.♦
Whatever jealousy had been felt upon this score was thus removed; but
the danger of scarcity still remained, and Junot’s first care was to
provide for the subsistence of the army, whatever might become of
the inhabitants. Many of the provisional authorities, in their fear
of famine, laid an embargo upon the corn within their respective
jurisdictions: this the French General forbade by a timely edict.
♦FEB. 16, 1808.♦ The Portugueze magistrates found themselves under a
government which exercised an unremitting vigilance, and made itself
felt every where; ♦OBSERVADOR PORT. 175.♦ and the orders of that
government were obeyed with a promptitude and activity which had long
been unknown in Portugal. Full use was thus made of the resources
of the country. Some corn he procured from Spain: it would have been
a heavy cost had it entered into his system to pay any part of the
expenses; ♦NEVES, 264.♦ Spain having little to export, the distance
being great, and the roads and the means of carriage equally bad.
♦DECEMBER.♦ All farmers and corn-dealers who might be indebted to the
crown were ordered to pay half the amount in grain, and deliver it to
the French commissariat at reduced prices. The march of the French
through the country had been like that of an army of locusts, leaving
famine wherever they passed; the tenantry, some utterly ruined by the
devastation, and all hopeless because of the state to which Portugal
was reduced, abandoned themselves to the same kind of despair which in
some parts of the New World contributed to exterminate the Indians,
and at one time materially distressed and endangered the merciless
conquerors. ♦THE PORTUGUEZE LEAVE THEIR FIELDS UNSOWN.♦ They thought
it useless to sow the seed, if the French were to enjoy the harvest;
and so generally did this feeling operate, that the regency which acted
under Junot found it necessary to issue orders, compelling them to go
on with the usual business of agriculture. ♦DEC. 29.♦ The encouragement
of agriculture served also as a pretext for breaking up the Portugueze
army. ♦DEC. 22.♦ Every subaltern and soldier who had served eight
years, or who had not served six months, was discharged, and ordered
to return to his own province. A like order was issued by the Spanish
general at Porto; and the Marques del Socorro, who commanded at
Setubal as governor of the new kingdom in which the Prince of the Peace
was to be invested, disbanded by one sweeping decree all the Portugueze
militia, discharged all the married men from the regular army, and
invited all the others to apply for leave of absence.
♦SPANIARDS UNDER CARRAFFA AT PORTO.♦
In the partition and invasion of Portugal, the court of Madrid was as
guilty as that of the Thuilleries; but the conduct of the Spaniards
during the invasion was far different from that of their treacherous
allies. The division of General Carraffa, which entered with Junot,
and was under his command, separated from him at Abrantes to secure
Porto, in case the army which was destined for that purpose should be
delayed. This general had acquired the favour of Junot by his exertions
at Alcantara, and had so far profited by his lessons, as to imitate
him at humble distance; raising a contribution of 4000 cruzados at
Thomar, and seizing 10,000 from the depositary at Coimbra; ... but he
was the only Spaniard who thus disgraced himself. ♦NEVES, I. 189.♦ The
force with which he accompanied Junot was little more than 2000 men;
it was doubled by the gradual arrival of reinforcements, and was then
annexed to the division of D. Francisco Taranco, ♦TARANCO TAKES THE
COMMAND THERE.♦ which, according to the convention of Fontainebleau,
should have consisted of 10,000 men, but did not in reality exceed
six, till its number was thus made up. Taranco’s army was formed in
Gallicia, of which kingdom he was Captain-General: he entered on the
side of the Minho, taking the Valença road; and having reached Porto,
issued a proclamation, much in the style of that which Junot had sent
before him, saying that he was come to deliver Portugal from the
disgraceful yoke of England, and assist her in taking vengeance upon
the English for their ferocious treachery toward all the nations of
Europe: fair promises followed of strict discipline and just dealing,
and bloody denunciations of punishment if resistance were attempted.
♦GOOD CONDUCT OF HIS TROOPS.♦ The Spanish general’s conduct was wiser
than his language; his promises were strictly observed, and no crime
was added to that of the iniquitous attack and intended usurpation. He
was, indeed, left at full liberty to act as his own disposition and
principles might incline; for these provinces were, according to the
treaty of Fontainebleau, to be formed into a kingdom for the former
Prince of Parma, as an indemnification for Etruria; and as his consent
had not been thought necessary to the arrangement which was to deprive
him of one kingdom, neither were his instructions for the government of
another.
♦SOLANO AT SETUBAL.♦
The Spanish general who entered Alem-Tejo to take possession of Godoy’s
kingdom was less fortunate; ♦NEVES, I. 307.♦ for he was compelled to
raise contributions from a ruined people, though in other respects
considerable latitude seems to have been given him, in deference to
his character and talents. This general was the Marques del Socorro,
D. Francisco Maria Solano, destined to leave an unhappy name in the
history of his country. During many years he had been governor of
Cadiz, where he had employed an almost unlimited power in the most
honourable and beneficial manner. It was his delight to ornament the
city, and to promote the convenience and comfort of the inhabitants.
One of the beneficial acts of his government was to abolish the
practice of burying in the churches: this he accomplished, not without
difficulty, during one of those contagious fevers which of late years
have so frequently visited that part of Spain. ♦JACOB’S TRAVELS.♦ He
is also entitled to be remembered with respect for the manner in which
he maintained the old humanities of war with the English squadron
which so long blockaded Cadiz: this conduct was the more honourable,
because Solano was decidedly a partizan of France, and had acquired a
dangerous love of political experiments in the revolutionary school.
He had now an opportunity of indulging this passion; and the measures
which he attempted proved the goodness of his intentions, as well
as the errors of his judgement. While Junot’s edicts were in one
uniform spirit of tyranny, Solano was offering rewards to those who
should raise the greatest crops, or breed the most numerous flocks
and herds. ♦HIS SCHEMES FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SOCIETY.♦ He addressed
circular instructions to the judges, enjoining each of them, when he
had notice of any civil suit, to call the parties before him, hear
their respective statements, and advise them to settle the dispute
by arbitration. If they persisted in their appeal to the laws, he was
then to require from each, before the process went forward, a written
statement of the case, and the documents which were to support it. If
the thing contested did not exceed eighty milreis in value, he might
pronounce summary justice without farther examination: the losing
party, however, retaining a right of appeal to the superior courts. If
the value exceeded that sum, the parties were again to be exhorted to
come to some accord, or at least to agree upon shortening the process,
and avoiding all unnecessary delay and expense; and the judges were
empowered to do this, even without the consent of the parties, and come
as summarily as possible to the merits of the case. Another of his
projects seems to have been borrowed from the policy of the Peruvian
Incas, or the government of Japan. Every parish was to be divided
into districts, containing not less than one hundred houses, nor more
than two. Each district was to choose one among its inhabitants, with
the title of Commissioner, whose duty it should be to make out a list
of all the members of his district, their ages and occupations; to
interfere in all family disputes, for the purpose of accommodating
them; and to keep all persons to their respective employments. If
they were not obedient to his admonitions he was to denounce them to
the magistrates, that due punishment might be inflicted. ♦OBSERVADOR
PORTUGUEZ, 144–150.♦ He was also to walk his rounds for at least an
hour every night, accompanied by four of the most respectable men
of the district, to see that no prohibited games were played in the
taverns, and that nothing was committed offensive to good morals.
♦EMIGRATION FROM LISBON.♦
Such were the projects with which Solano amused himself at Setubal!
The conduct of his soldiers easily accommodated itself to the good
disposition of their chief. Accustomed to the same habits of life,
attached to the same forms of worship as the Portugueze, and speaking a
language so little different that they mutually understood each other,
the Spaniards lived among them like men of the same country; and, as
long as the power remained in their hands, the people of Alem-Tejo
and of the northern provinces experienced none of those insults and
oppressions which the French inflicted wherever their authority
extended. In Lisbon the burthen was at once heavier than in other
places and more galling; and most persons who had the power of removing
into the country retired from those daily and hourly vexations which
aggravated their sufferings. The rapacity of the French leaders opened
a surer asylum for others. Notice was given that all Brazilians who
wished to return to their native land might obtain passports, and be
permitted to embark in neutral ships. All who could invent any pretext
for availing themselves of this permission hastened to purchase it;
and the money which the French thus exacted was cheerfully paid as
the price of deliverance. The ships which carried Kniphausen colours
took out many emigrants in the dress of sailors, who smeared their
hands with pitch, the better to disguise themselves. ♦1808. JAN. 5.♦
The Nuncio[20], who during these transactions demeaned himself with
great propriety, and repeatedly solicited passports for Brazil, that
he might follow the court to which he was appointed, succeeded at last
in getting on board a licensed vessel, unknown to Junot, and reaching
England in safety, went from thence to Rio de Janeiro. Meantime the
most rigorous measures were devised to prevent any person from escaping
to the English squadron. All the fishing boats were arranged in
divisions, which were denoted by letters, and the boats then numbered;
and each had its letter and number painted on the bow and quarter in
white characters a foot long. The master of every boat was bound to
carry a list, specifying the letter of its division, the number of his
boat, his name, his dwelling-place, and the number and names of the men
on board. This paper was to be his passport at the different batteries,
and his protection from the watch-boats which patrolled the river, and
were charged to apprehend every person whose name was not inscribed in
the list, and to seize every vessel by which any part of the edict was
infringed, as a prize. The magistrate of every district was to deliver
in a list of all the owners of fishing boats in the corresponding
division, in order that their property might be answerable for any
infraction of these rules: a counter list was to be kept on board the
floating battery. All the owners of all the divisions were to appear
every Saturday at this floating battery, there to have their papers
verified. Every boat which had any communication with the English
squadron was to be confiscated; and all were bound to be within the bar
at sunset on pain of being fined one piece for the first offence, three
for the second, and of confiscation and corporal punishment for the
third.
♦FALSEHOODS RESPECTING ENGLAND. OBSERVADOR PORT. 181.♦
The sight of the British squadron off the mouth of the Tagus
continually kept alive the hopes of the Portugueze. Crowds of artizans
who had been thrown out of employment used to assemble upon the
heights of Santa Catharina, ♦NEVES, I. 261.♦ of the Chagas, Buenos
Ayres, and the other eminences, fixing their longing eyes upon the
English fleet, counting its number, and oftentimes deluding themselves
with a belief that it was entering the river to deliver Lisbon. It
was thought necessary to forbid these assemblages. Junot affected to
ridicule this popular hope, ♦NEVES, I. 245.♦ and said, in scorn of the
Marqueza de Angeja, who was known frequently to gaze toward the same
object, that she would make an excellent wife for King Sebastian. But
his own secret feelings were discovered by the falsehoods which were
sedulously circulated respecting England. A pamphlet was published
which pretended to describe the actual state of that country; and
which, the better to deceive the people, was made by the manner of
its license to appear as if it had been printed under the Prince’s
government. It represented our population at less than eleven millions,
our army as short of 100,000 men, our fleet in great part laid up for
want of naval stores; our debt insupportable, our paper-money at a
discount, our custom-houses almost shut up for want of any thing to
do; more than a million of manufacturers ruined, and publicly crying
out for peace, agriculture decaying for want of hands and of commerce,
and the people in despair, unable longer to support the burthen and
endure the misfortunes of a destructive war. To excite the hatred of
the Portugueze, ♦NEVES, II. 8.♦ it was affirmed by Junot that the
Prince had not been conveyed to Brazil by the English, but that they
had conducted him and his fleet, with all the treasures on board, to
England.
♦REPORT OF THE FRENCH MINISTER, M. CHAMPAGNY, CONCERNING PORTUGAL.♦
Junot, it is said, was not without some apprehensions of the
displeasure of Buonaparte for having suffered this prize to escape him.
When that tyrant was exasperated by the failure of his commanders,
he seldom condescended to ask whether success had been possible: in
the present instance he either was or affected to be satisfied; and
the principles upon which he had thus far proceeded were now made
known to the world in a report or M. Champagny, his minister for
foreign affairs: it bore date a few days before the secret treaty
of Fontainebleau. ♦OCT. 21, 1807.♦ After the peace of Tilsit, this
minister said, France and Russia had combined to restore peace to the
world, the sole object of all the Emperor Napoleon’s labours, of all
his triumphs, of all his innumerable sacrifices. He had a right to
call upon the continental powers to maintain their neutrality against
England; he had a right to demand that all Europe should concur in
re-establishing the peace of the seas, and those maritime rights
which England had haughtily declared she would respect no longer. All
governments ought to make war against the English; they owed this to
their own dignity, they owed it to the honour of their people, they
owed it to the mutual obligations by which the sovereigns of Europe
are connected. There was not any sovereign who would not acknowledge,
that, if his territory should be violated to the injury of the Emperor
of the French, he would be responsible. For instance, if a French
vessel were seized by the English in the ports of Trieste or Lisbon,
the sovereigns to whom those ports belong are bound to make the English
respect their territory by force; otherwise they would make themselves
the accomplices of England, and place themselves in a state of war
with the Emperor of France. When, therefore, the Portugueze government
suffered its vessels to be searched by English ships, its independence
was violated, with its own consent, by the outrage done to its flag,
just as it would have been if England had violated its territory or its
ports. ♦1808. JANUARY.♦ For the ships of a power are as portions of its
territory which float upon the seas, and which, being covered by its
flag, ought to enjoy the same independence, and to be defended against
the same attacks. The conduct of Portugal, therefore, gave the Emperor
Napoleon a right of proposing to it the alternative of making common
cause with him in maintaining the rights of its flag, and declaring
war against England, or of being considered as an accomplice in the
evil which might result to his Imperial Majesty from that violation....
Such was the law of nations as laid down by Buonaparte’s minister, M.
Champagny, and such the logic by which Portugal was proved to have
placed itself in a state of war with France!--M. Champagny proceeded
to affirm that Portugal had pronounced her own fate. She had broken
off her last communications with the continent in imposing upon the
French and Spanish legations the necessity of quitting Lisbon. Her
hostile intentions, which the language of perfidy and duplicity had
ill concealed, were then unveiled. Not only were the English and
their property placed in safety, but her military preparations were
directed against France; and she waited only for the arrival of the
English fleet and army which had plundered Denmark to avow herself.
This curious paper concluded in a manner worthy of its reasoning and
its veracity. If, it said, this war was to make Portugal undergo the
fate of so many states which had fallen victims of the friendship of
England, the Emperor Napoleon, who sought not for such successes, would
without doubt regret that the interest of the continent should have
rendered it necessary. His views, which had constantly been raised with
his power, showed him in war rather a scourge for humanity than a new
prospect of glory; and all his wishes were that he might devote himself
wholly to the prosperity of his people.
♦SECOND REPORT, INDICATING MEASURES AGAINST SPAIN.
JAN. 2.♦
A second report of the same minister was published at the same time.
The house of Braganza, it said, had delivered itself up to the English
with all that it could carry away, and Brazil from henceforward would
be only an English colony. But Portugal was at length delivered from
the yoke of England. Her coasts had been left without defence; and
England was at this time threatening them, blockading her ports, and
wishing to ravage her shores. Spain, also, had had fears for Cadiz,
and now was fearing for Ceuta. Toward that part of the world the
English appeared to be directing their secret expeditions: they had
landed troops at Gibraltar; they had assembled there those who had
been driven from the Levant, and part of those whom they had collected
in Sicily. Their cruisers upon the coast of Spain were become more
vigilant; they seemed to wish to revenge themselves upon that kingdom
for the disgrace which they had suffered in its colonies. The whole of
the peninsula ought particularly to fix the attention of his Imperial
Majesty, whose wisdom would dictate to him such measures as the state
of things required. ♦JAN. 6.♦ This paper was followed by a report from
General Clarke, the minister of war, who announced that the corps of
observation of the Gironde under General Junot had conquered Portugal;
♦THE CONSCRIPTION FOR 1809 REQUIRED.♦ and advised that the conscription
for the year 1809 should be called out, because of the necessity of
shutting the ports of the continent against their enemy, and of having
considerable forces at every point of attack, in order to profit by the
fortunate circumstances which might arise for carrying the war into
the heart of England, of Ireland, and of the Indies. “Although,” said
the General, “the indignation of all Europe is roused against England,
although France has at no time possessed such armies, this is not yet
enough; English influence must be attacked wherever it exists, till
the moment when the sight of so many dangers shall induce England to
remove from her councils the oligarchs who direct them, and intrust
the administration to wise men, capable of reconciling the love and
the interest of their country with the interest and the love of the
human race. A vulgar policy,” he pursued, “would have induced your
Majesty to disarm, but that policy would be a scourge for France; it
would render imperfect the great results which you have prepared. Yes,
Sire, far from diminishing your armies, your Majesty ought to increase
them, till England shall have acknowledged the independence of all
powers, and restored to the seas that tranquillity which your Majesty
has secured to the continent.... Doubtless your Majesty must suffer in
requiring new sacrifices and imposing new burthens upon your people;
but you ought to yield to the cry of all the French, ... no repose till
the seas are set free, and till an equitable peace has re-established
France in the most just, the most useful, and the most necessary of her
rights.” ♦JAN. 21.♦ Accordingly, 80,000 conscripts, of the conscription
of 1809, were, by a decree of the senate, placed at the disposal of
government: they were to be taken from the youths born in the year
1789; according to the conscription laws, twenty was the age at which
they were ripe for slaughter, but the practice of dispensing with a
year had already been begun. ♦THREATS AGAINST ENGLAND.♦ The minister
of state, M. Regnaud de St. Jean d’Angely, pronounced an harangue upon
this occasion. “A holy and powerful league,” said he, “has been formed,
to punish the English oligarchy, to defend the right of nations, to
revenge humanity. From the Baltic to the Mediterranean, from the Nile
to the Neva, there hardly remain for the ships of Great Britain any
shores where they may land, any points where they are not forbidden to
touch. But it is not enough, by a just reciprocity, to have pronounced
against England this tremendous sentence of outlawry among nations; no
rest must be given her in the seat of her iniquitous dominion, nor
upon any of her coasts, nor in any of her colonies, nor in any of those
parts of the globe where she is not yet interdicted. Repulsed from one
part of the world, and menaced in all the other, England must not be
suffered to know where to direct the little military force which she
can command; and our armies, more formidable than ever, must be ready
to carry our victorious and avenging eagles into her possessions.
The pillage of the arsenal and port of Copenhagen, the emigration of
the Portugueze fleet, have not left the continent without ships: our
legions may yet reach the English militia; Ireland may still look for
succours against oppression; India may still expect her deliverers.”
♦THE ROYAL ARMS OF PORTUGAL DEFACED.♦
Well might the French nation have shuddered at the prospect of
interminable war which was thus held out by the ministers of a tyrant,
whose ambition increased with his power. He found, however, implicit
and servile obedience in the nation. Their crime brought with it
its curse, new successes only served as pretexts for demanding more
sacrifices; and at a moment when France had not an enemy upon the
whole continent of Europe, and a larger military force than had ever
before existed, more conscripts were thus called for in advance! But
though Buonaparte at this time despised the military force of Great
Britain as heartily as he hated its naval power, neither London, nor
Ireland, nor India, were as yet his objects. His projects for seizing
the whole Spanish peninsula were now mature, and these projects were
probably communicated to Junot by dispatches which arrived from Milan
the second week in January. A few days afterward that General went with
more than his usual pomp to the Foundery, destroyed the portraits of
the Braganzan kings, and gave orders that the Portugueze arms should
no longer be placed on the cannon. He gave orders also to deface
the royal arms which were carved in stone over the entrance, but no
Portugueze could be tempted to commit this act of treason; and when
some French soldiers broke the crown and defaced the shield, no sooner
had they left the place than the women gathered up the fragments to
preserve them as relics. The final act of usurpation was not long
delayed. ♦FEBRUARY.♦ Early on the morning of the first of February
the movements of the troops indicated that some great measure was
about to be announced, for which the public mind was to be prepared
by intimidation. Cannon were planted in the Rocio; the streets from
thence to head-quarters were lined with soldiers; and Junot, with all
the parade of military pomp and power, proceeded to the palace of the
Inquisition, where the Regents held their sittings. ♦JUNOT DECLARES
THAT THE PORTUGUEZE GOVERNMENT IS DISSOLVED.♦ Troops followed him,
filling the lobbies of that execrable edifice, and extending even to
the table where these poor puppets of authority were seated: amid this
scene of noise and tumult and indecorum he read a paper, of which
nothing more could be collected than that it pronounced the extinction
of the Portugueze government, and the consequent dismission of the
Regents from office. Rockets gave the signal when the General came
out, and salutes of artillery from the castle and all the forts and
batteries insulted the afflicted and groaning people. The city was soon
placarded with a proclamation in French and Portugueze, saying that
all uncertainty was now at an end, the fate of Portugal was decided,
and her felicity secured, because Napoleon the Great had taken her
under his omnipotent protection. The Prince of Brazil, in abandoning
Portugal, had renounced all right to the sovereignty of that kingdom.
The House of Braganza had ceased to reign, and it was the will of
the Emperor Napoleon that the whole of that fine country should be
administered and governed in his name, and by the General in chief of
his army. ♦JUNOT APPOINTED GOVERNOR FOR THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON.♦ “The
duties,” said Junot, “which this mark of benignity and confidence
on the part of my master imposes upon me, are difficult to fulfil,
but I hope worthily to discharge them. I will open roads and canals,
that agriculture and national industry may once more flourish. The
Portugueze troops will soon form one family with the soldiers of
Marengo, of Austerlitz, of Jena, and of Friedland; and there will be
no other rivalry between them than that of valour and discipline.
The good administration of the public revenues will secure to every
one the reward of his labours. Public instruction, that parent of
national civilization, shall be extended over the provinces, and
Algarve and Beira shall each have one day its Camoens. The religion of
your fathers, the same which we all profess, shall be protected and
succoured by that same will which restored it in the vast empire of
France, but freed from the superstitions which dishonour it. Justice
shall be equally administered, and disembarrassed of the delays and
arbitrary will which paralysed it; the public tranquillity shall no
more be disturbed by robbers, and deformed mendicity no longer drag
its filth and its rags through this superb capital. Inhabitants of
Portugal, be secure and tranquil! Resist the instigations of those who
would excite you to rebellion, and who care not what blood is shed so
it be the blood of the continent. Betake yourselves with confidence to
your labours; you shall enjoy the fruits. If it be necessary that in
these first moments you should make some sacrifices, it is that the
government may be enabled to ameliorate your condition. They are also
indispensable for the subsistence of a great army, which is required
for the vast projects of the Great Napoleon. His vigilant eyes are
fixed upon you, and your future happiness is secure. He will love you
as he loves his French vassals: study therefore to deserve his goodness
by your obedience to his will.”
♦COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENT FORMED.♦
A second decree, bearing date on the same day, was promulgated the
next. It explained the form in which Portugal was from that time
forward to be governed, in the name of the Emperor of the French, by
the General in chief of the French army in that country. There was to
be a council of government, composed of the General as president, a
secretary of state for the administration of the interior and of the
finances, with two counsellors of government, one for each department;
a secretary of state for the departments of war and the marine, with
a counsellor of government for the same departments; and a counsellor
of government for the superintendence of justice and public worship,
with the title of Regedor. The secretary-general of the council was
to be keeper of its archives. M. Herman and M. Lhuitte were the
two secretaries of state: the former had D. Pedro de Mello and the
Senhor d’Azevedo for his secretaries; the latter had the Conde de
S. Payo. The principal Castro was named for Regedor, and M. Vianez
Vaublanc secretary-general. There was to be in every province an
administrator-general, with the title of Corregedor Mor, to direct
all the branches of administration, to watch over the interests of
the province, and to point out to the government the improvements
which ought to be made in it; on which subjects he was to communicate
with the home secretary and the Regedor. The province of Estremadura
was to have two of these Corregedores: one residing at Lisbon, whose
jurisdiction was confined to that capital and its term; the other for
the rest of the province, and residing out of it, at Coimbra. There was
also to be in each province a general officer, to maintain order and
tranquillity: his functions were purely military, but in all public
ceremonies he was to take the right hand of the Corregedor Mor. This
precedence was not required to prove to the people that they were under
a mere military government.
♦WAR CONTRIBUTION IMPOSED.♦
The device of Buonaparte, an eagle upon an anchor, was now placed over
the arsenal; the official seals were ordered to bear the same impress
as those of the French empire, with this inscription, “Government of
Portugal:” and on the same day that possession was thus taken, and
protection promised, an edict was made public, dated from Milan Dec.
23, imposing a war contribution-extraordinary of an hundred million
of francs upon the kingdom of Portugal, as a ransom for individual
property of every kind. A second article of this memorable decree
directed the French general to take the necessary means for promptly
collecting this contribution; and a third declared that the property
of the Queen, the Prince Regent, and all the royal family, should
be sequestered, and that of all the fidalgos who accompanied him
also, unless they should return by the 15th of February. The decree
originally fixed the first, but as it was not published till the
second, Junot ventured to extend the term: even then, however, it
served only to show how little the framer of such decrees considered
what was possible; how impudently he set even the forms of equity at
defiance. It was now explained what those sacrifices were which the
people had been told on the preceding day were necessary to enable the
government to ameliorate their condition. The sum to be levied amounted
in Portugueze money to forty million cruzados. Junot decreed that the
two millions already paid, which he raised as a loan, and now called a
contribution, should be accounted as part of the sum, and allowed for
in the final payment. Six millions were to be paid by the commercial
part of the nation at three instalments; on the first of March, the
first of May, and the first of August. All goods of English manufacture
being, on account of their origin, liable to confiscation, were to be
ransomed by the merchants and tradesmen who possessed them, at a third
of their value. All the gold and silver of all the churches, chapels,
and fraternities in Lisbon and its district was to be carried to the
mint within fifteen days; no other plate being excepted than what was
indispensable for the decency of public worship. In the provinces the
collectors of the tenths were to receive the church plate and transmit
it to the mint, and the amount was to be carried to the contribution.
Archbishops, bishops, religious orders and superiors of either sex,
who possessed any revenue from land, or capital of any kind, were to
contribute two-thirds of their whole yearly income, if that income did
not exceed sixteen thousand cruzados, and three-fourths if it did;
... in consideration of which they were to be excused from paying
the regular tenths for the current year. Every person enjoying a
benefice which produced from six to nine hundred milreis, should
contribute two-thirds of his income; three-fourths, if it exceeded
the latter sum. All _Commendadors_ of the military orders or of Malta
should also pay two-thirds of their revenue. The donatories of crown
property were to pay double their usual tax; owners of houses, half
the rent for which they were let, or a proportionate sum if they
inhabited them themselves; land-holders, two-tenths, in addition to
the former imposts. The tax upon horses, mules, and servants, was
doubled. The _Juiz do Povo_, under orders of the _Senado_, was to rate
all trading bodies and booth and stall-keepers, and compel them to
pay their assessments by distress; and shops which were not under the
jurisdiction of the _Senado_ were to be rated in like manner by the
_Mesa do Bem Commun_, ... the Board of General Good, ... under the
inspection of the Royal Junta of Commerce.
The few persons who had thus long obstinately persisted in believing
or pretending to believe that France wished and intended to improve
the state of Portugal could no longer deceive themselves, and dared
not attempt to deceive others. The contribution thus imposed amounted
to four millions and a half sterling; the population of Portugal was
less than three millions: the sum demanded, therefore, was equivalent
to a poll-tax at a guinea and half per head. Yet even this statement
inadequately represents its enormity: from at least three-fourths of
the people nothing could be collected; and the mercantile part of the
community, who had been the most opulent, were already reduced to ruin.
The sum required exceeded the whole circulating medium of the country;
and the reason why it was permitted to be paid by instalments, and
not insisted upon at once, was, that the money received at the first
instalment might in the course of circulation find its way to serve
for the second! It was levied with the utmost rigour. ♦OBSERVADOR
PORTUGUEZ, 203.♦ The lowest hucksters, stall-keepers, and labourers,
were summoned before the _Juiz do Povo_, to be assessed in their
portion; and the merchants were ordered to appear in tallies before the
Junta of Commerce, and there reciprocally discuss their affairs, and
tax each other! The expulsion of the English, the emigration, and the
general distress, had left a very large proportion of the best houses
vacant, and rents in consequence had fallen nearly to half their former
value; but every house was rated at what it had brought in before these
events, and the owners of those which were untenanted were compelled to
pay three-tenths of what they would have received upon that valuation;
and the property of those who had neither money nor commodities to
satisfy the demand was seized without mercy. Articles which were
needful for the army were received in part of payment in kind. The
French officers turned speculators: they purchased colonial goods,
which they sent to France by land; and thus the money which they had
extorted was re-issued, to answer fresh exactions, or serve as booty
again. They carried on also a gainful trade in money; importing French
coin, which they forced into circulation, and exchanged for Spanish
dollars, or for the fine gold of Portugal, at an enormous profit; or
they purchased with it paper-money, which usually fluctuated between
28 and 30 per cent. discount, ... sometimes was as low as 35, and
sometimes could find no purchasers. With this paper, according to law,
they made half their payments at par: and when all their French money
was expended in this manner, Junot issued an edict, by which he fixed a
price at which it was to be received for the contribution, lower than
that at which he had suffered it to be introduced.
♦GODOY RECALS THE SPANISH TROOPS FROM PORTUGAL.♦
The decree which appointed Junot governor of Portugal, and extended his
authority over the whole kingdom, at once abrogated the secret treaty
of Fontainebleau. That treaty had served Buonaparte’s purpose, and the
Spanish cabinet was at this time too much agitated by home disquietudes
to resent this breach of faith, or take warning by it. Godoy, fallen
from his dreams of royalty, and trembling for his life, was ready to
make any sacrifice which might procure him the protection of France.
♦NEVES, I. 313.♦ ♦PART ONLY OBEY HIS ORDERS.♦ He had written to Junot,
requesting that Carraffa’s division might return to Spain; alleging,
that the English threatened a descent upon the coasts of Andalusia:
... but the French were not duped by a pretext which they themselves
had invented for a different purpose; and Junot, in conformity to his
master’s projects, detained the troops. Godoy probably wanted them to
protect the removal of the King and Queen to the coast, but he was in
no condition to insist upon any thing; and the abortive principality of
the Algarves, and the kingdom of Septentrional Lusitania, came to an
end before their intended lords had taken possession, and before their
denominations had been made public. The Spanish troops from Algarve
and Alentejo were recalled, and obeyed the order; those at Porto, and
Carraffa’s division, were more under Junot’s power; they were detained,
and Carraffa, upon the death of Taranco, by the French general’s order
took command of both.
♦THE WHOLE OF PORTUGAL UNDER COMMAND OF THE FRENCH.♦
Thus had Junot, in pursuance of his instructions, extended his
authority over the whole of Portugal. He was, however, far from feeling
secure in his usurpation. The temper of the people had shown itself;
and if the English had landed a force to attack him, his men were
but in ill condition to take the field; for they were sickly during
the whole of the winter months. ♦JOURNAL DE COIMBRA, 2. 74.♦ ♦THE
FLOWER OF THE PORTUGUEZE ARMY MARCHED INTO FRANCE.♦ For this reason
he had disbanded the militia, and broken up so large a part of the
native army; ... but the flower of that army was to be selected and
sent into France, that they might be made agents in inflicting the
same miseries upon other countries which their own endured. A great
number of the soldiers who had been picked for this service deserted;
and in consequence, the French code of martial law was declared to
be applicable to the Portugueze army, and death became thereby the
punishment for desertion. Six thousand infantry, and four regiments of
cavalry, were marched off, under the Marquez d’Alorna. Gomes Freire
d’Andrada, who had the highest military reputation of any officer in
the army, was second in command. The Marquez de Valença, the Marquez
de Ponte de Lima, the Counts Ega and Sabugal, and many other officers
of rank and family, went in this ill-fated army; some by compulsion,
others by choice, the leaders being devoted to Buonaparte.
♦DISCONTENT OF THE PEOPLE.♦
Though the French despised the Portugueze troops as heartily as they
did the people, it was observed that they became more insufferable in
their personal conduct after the army was disbanded. As a body they
might safely despise them; but every individual was in some measure
restrained by the apprehension of individual vengeance, and the
certainty that if in any tumult the military, as was natural, should
take part with the people, the contest, though the event was not
doubtful, must be far more severe. When this restraint was removed,
they gave way to that insolence which adds a sting to oppression, and
rouses even those who have submitted to heavier wrongs. A peasant at
Mafra, Jacinto Correia was his name, killed two of these robbers with a
reaping-hook; and when he was put to death for it by military process,
he gloried to his last breath in what he had done, and repeated that if
all his countrymen were like him, there should not a single Frenchman
remain alive among them. ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, 156.♦ The punishment
was carefully made known in a proclamation, but the nature of the
crime was as carefully suppressed, lest it should find imitation. It
had, however, been determined to strike terror into the people by an
execution, which should furnish in its example nothing but what was
intimidating. ♦EXECUTIONS AT CALDAS.♦ Insignificant as the cause was,
the circumstances of this insulated tragedy deserve to be stated, as a
specimen of the spirit in which the military government of Portugal was
conducted. A number of French soldiers had been sent to the hospital at
the Caldas, a munificent establishment of royal charity, to be cured
of the itch by the baths at that place. They complained to General
Thomiers, who commanded at Peniche, that the peasantry insulted them;
and Thomiers sent a few stout grenadiers to take the first opportunity
of resenting any mockery which might be offered to their comrades.
These men paraded the streets, and drank at the wine-houses till they
began to invite a quarrel. A countryman, heated like them with liquor,
said to his companion as they were passing, I have killed seven of
these fellows myself. The vaunt, which was probably as false as it was
foolish, might have cost him his life in a regular way; but one of the
French, who heard him, immediately attempted to cut him down; ... he
ran to his mother’s house, which was close at hand, and calling out
to his sister to help him, she stood in the door-way, let him enter,
and instantly locking the door on the outside, put the key in her
bosom. The French endeavoured to force the key from her; the woman was
strong and determined: her cries were heard at a billiard table near,
where a cadet of the regiment of Pato, which was quartered in the
town, seeing a woman struggling upon the dunghill with three or four
French soldiers, jumped out of the window, and ran to her assistance;
the surgeon and a few others of the same regiment followed. A French
captain also came up: by this time a considerable crowd had collected;
the sword was knocked out of his hand by a stone, and he would have
been in some danger, if a Portugueze sergeant had not called out to the
mob to forbear, for he was a French officer. The soldiers now came up,
and the tumult ended with no other immediate evil than that one or two
of the first aggressors were slightly wounded: ... the woman was the
greatest sufferer; for one of them, with the pummel of his sword, had
beaten her cruelly upon the bosom. When the circumstances were made
known to Thomiers, his first intention was to pass it over lightly: as
the _Juiz de Fora_ of the town happened to be with him at the time, he
desired him immediately to send him any four fellows of bad character,
to whom a little punishment would do no harm, and who might represent
the town on this occasion. Such an arrangement, curious as it is,
would have been an improvement upon the ordinary course of Portugueze
justice. Four men, accordingly, against whom complaints had been
recently preferred by their wives, but who were entirely innocent of
the matter in question, were arrested, and put in confinement. Nine
days afterward, Loison, who commanded in the district, appeared at the
head of three or four thousand men, bringing Thomiers with him. The
woman was called upon to declare which of the soldiers had beaten her:
she pointed out the man, and there ended this part of the inquiry:
but on the other part, fifteen Portugueze were condemned to death;
among them the _Escrivam da Camara_, and one of the most respectable
inhabitants of the place, who happened to be in the room with her when
the tumult took place. They had been seen from an opposite house each
to take a musket and load it: ... this they acknowledged that they had
done; but they had taken no part in the disturbance, nor even gone into
the street. It was argued that they could not have loaded those guns
with any other intention than that of discharging them against the
French troops, and therefore they had incurred the penalty of death.
That sentence was passed against them; and the uncle of the _Escrivam_,
being one of the magistrates of the town, was ordered and compelled by
Loison to be present at the execution! Five of the condemned persons
took the alarm in time, and escaped. The surgeon leaped from a window,
and broke his leg: he was carried to the place of butchery upon a
hand-barrow, covered with a piece of sacking. While the execution was
going on, the Prince of Salm Kirburg, a young officer in the French
service, lifted up the cloth to see what was under it: the sight
shocked him, and he said to the French general it was monstrous to
bring a man in such a condition to suffer death, ... let them heal him
first, and then do with him what they would. ♦NEVES, CH. 30.♦ This
intercession availed: the surgeon was remanded to the hospital, and
Loison was content with having seen nine men put to death for an affray
in which not a single life had been lost.
The place where this tragedy was perpetrated is a little town,
containing not more than three hundred inhabitants; for its baths
and for the beauty of the surrounding country it was frequented by
strangers and invalids, and more wealth and more comforts were to be
found there than in any other of the provincial towns. In such a place,
where every one of the victims was known to the whole neighbourhood,
and all had their nearest relations and connexions upon the spot, it
may well be conceived what horror and what deep and inextinguishable
hatred this bloody execution would excite. The hatred Junot despised;
... Buonaparte prided himself upon setting the feelings of mankind
at defiance, and systematically outraging them for the purpose of
displaying his power; and in this, as in every thing else, his generals
were his faithful agents. The murders at Caldas were committed upon
this system, merely to strike terror through the country.... Junot had
refrained from making such an exhibition at Lisbon after the riot which
the first act of open usurpation provoked, because there were native
troops in the city; the population of a great capital would become
formidable if it were made desperate; and, moreover, there was the
English squadron in sight. But an opportunity had been watched for when
it might be done safely and with more effect; and an affair which the
nearest general passed over at the time as unworthy of serious notice
was made the pretext.
♦CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH GENERALS.♦
The immediate superintendence of these murders had been intrusted to
Loison. This general, whose military talents were considerable, had
lost an arm in action with the Portugueze in Rousillon; for which
reason the people now called him the _Maneta_, a name which will
long be held in abhorrence: not that he was more rapacious, or more
merciless, than his comrades; but, from the rank he held, he had better
opportunities for pillage; and it was his fortune to preside at almost
all the butcheries which were committed during the first invasion. Of
all the French generals in this army, it is said that there were only
two who preserved a fair character. These were, Travot, who commanded
at Cascaes, and Charlot at Torres Vedras. They mitigated, as far as
in them lay, the evils of which they were the instruments; but they
could do little toward repressing the cruelty, the excesses, and the
abandoned licentiousness of their officers and men. The language which
the French openly held was, that Portugal was a conquered country, and
therefore they, as conquerors, had a right to take what they chose and
do what they pleased there; ♦NEVES, II. 132.♦ and they acted in full
conformity to this principle[21].
They had entered Portugal with so little baggage, that even the
generals borrowed, or rather demanded, linen from those upon whom they
were quartered. Soon, however, without having received any supplies
from home, they were not only splendidly furnished with ornamental
apparel, but sent to France large remittances in bills, money, and
effects, especially in cotton, which the chief officers bought up
so greedily that the price was trebled by their competition. The
emigration had been determined on so late that many rich prizes fell
into their hands. Fourteen cart-loads of plate from the patriarchal
church reached the quay at Belem too late to be received on board.
This treasure was conveyed back to the church, but the packing-cases
bore witness of its intent to emigrate; and when the French seized it
they added to their booty a splendid service for the altar of the
sacrament, which had been wrought by the most celebrated artist in
France. ♦1808. MARCH.♦ ♦NEVES, I. 247.♦ Junot fitted himself out with
the spoils of Queluz, and Loison had shirts made of the cambric sheets
belonging to the royal family which were found at Mafra. These palaces
afforded precious plunder, which there had been no time to secure. The
plate was soon melted into ingots, the gold and jewels divided among
the generals, and the rich cloths of gold burnt for the metal, which
constituted the smallest part of their value. ♦NEVES, I. 229.♦ The
soldiers had not the same opportunities of pillage and peculation, but
they suffered no opportunity to escape: ♦NEVES, I. 240–1.♦ those who
were quartered in the great convent of St. Domingos pulled down the
doors and window-frames, and put up the wood and iron work to auction.
Yet their insolence was more intolerable than their rapacity, and
their licentious habits worse than both. The Revolution had found the
French a vicious people, and it had completed their corruption. It had
removed all restraints of religion, all sense of honour, all regard for
family or individual character; the sole object of their government
was to make them soldiers, and for the purposes of such a government
the wickedest men were the best. Junot himself set an example of
profligacy: he introduced the fashion of lascivious dances, imported
perhaps from Egypt ... one of them bears his name; and the Portugueze
say that no man who regards the honour of his female relatives would
suffer them to practise it. The Moors have left in the peninsula relics
of this kind which are sufficiently objectionable: that, therefore,
which could call forth this reprehension must be bad indeed. The
decency of private families was insulted: the officers scrupled not to
introduce prostitutes, without any attempt at disguising them, into the
houses where they were quartered; and happy were the husbands and the
parents who could preserve their wives and daughters from the attempts
of these polluted guests.
♦STATE OF LISBON.♦
The situation of Lisbon, at this time, is one to which history affords
no parallel: it suffered neither war, nor pestilence, nor famine, yet
these visitations could scarcely have produced a greater degree of
misery; and the calamity did not admit of hope, for whither at this
time could Portugal look for deliverance? As the government was now
effectually converted into a military usurpation, it became easy to
simplify its operations; and most of the persons formerly employed in
civil departments were dismissed from office. Some were at once turned
off; others had documents given them, entitling them to be reinstated
upon vacancies; a few had some trifling pension promised. All who had
depended for employment and subsistence upon foreign trade were now
destitute. Whole families were thus suddenly reduced to poverty and
actual want. Their trinkets went first; whatever was saleable followed:
things offered for sale at such a time were sold at half their value,
while the price of food was daily augmenting. It was a dismal thing to
see the Mint beset with persons who carried thither the few articles
of plate with which they had formerly set forth a comfortable board,
and the ornaments which they had worn in happier days. It was a dismal
thing to see men pale with anxiety pressing through crowds who were
on the same miserable errand, and women weeping as they offered their
little treasure to the scales. Persons who had lived in plenty and
respectability were seen publicly asking alms ... for thousands were at
once reduced to the alternative of begging or stealing; and women, of
unblemished virtue till this fatal season, walked the streets, offering
themselves to prostitution, that the mother might obtain bread for her
hungry children, ... the daughter for her starving parents. Such was
the state to which one of the most flourishing cities in Europe was
reduced!
♦APRIL.♦
As the general distress increased, tyranny became more rigorous, and
rapine more impatient. Many of the convents could not pay the sum at
which they had been assessed, their resources having suffered in the
common calamity; their rents were consequently sequestered, and the
intrusive government began to take measures for selling off their
lands to discharge the contribution. The rents of inhabited houses
were sequestered, to answer for the assessment upon untenanted ones
belonging to the same owner. At the beginning of April a prorogation
of two months, for the payment of the last third of the impost, was
promised to those who should have paid the first by the end of the
month; ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, P. 123.♦ on the 28th eight days grace was
proclaimed for the payment of the first third; after which rigorous
distress was to be levied upon the defaulters, not for the first
payment alone, but for the whole contribution; ♦IBID. P. 174.♦ and
this threat was enforced. Suicide, which had scarcely ever been heard
of in Portugal, became now almost a daily act. There is no inhumanity
like that of avarice. The Royal Hospital at Lisbon was one of the
noblest institutions in the world. Under the house of Braganza it was
the admiration of all who knew how munificently it was supported,
and how admirably conducted: under the usurpation of the French more
than a third part of the patients who died there perished for want of
food. Meantime the French government, affecting to compassionate the
misery which it had created, made an ostentatious display of relieving
the poor, and issued billets of two francs each, ♦IBID. P. 200.♦ in
Portugueze money 320 _reis_; four hundred of which were distributed
weekly among forty parishes, and five more added afterwards for a
parish which had been overlooked. This measure was none of that
charity which vaunteth not itself. The billets were given only at
one place; crowds flocked thither in expectation; and the amount of
this eleemosynary expense was loudly boasted and exaggerated by the
French and their partizans, ... the whole sum thus expended scarcely
exceeding 40_l._ per week. After a few weeks the billets were not
regularly paid, and at length they became worthless: and this was the
extent of the liberality of this execrable government in a city where
they reckoned their plunder by millions! ♦NEVES, II 157.♦ To complete
the miseries of this devoted country anarchy alone was wanting; and
it soon necessarily resulted from the barbarous system of the French
wherever the immediate pressure of their authority was not felt. ♦EVORA
NO SEU ABATIMENTO GLORIOSAMENTE EXALTADA, P. 5.♦ After the disbandment
of the Portugueze army, troops of banditti were formed, who robbed in
companies with perfect impunity. The edict which prohibited all persons
from carrying arms left the traveller entirely at their mercy; and not
content with being masters of the roads, they levied contributions upon
the smaller towns and villages.
♦INCREASE OF THE SEBASTIANISTS.♦
The French, in the pride of their strength, and their ignorance of the
national character, despised this poor oppressed people too much to be
in any fear of what despair might impel them to; and one remarkable
effect of the general misery tended at once to increase their contempt
and their security. There exists in Portugal a strange superstition
concerning King Sebastian, whose re-appearance is as confidently
expected by many of the Portugueze as the coming of the Messiah by the
Jews. The rise and progress of this belief forms a curious part of
their history: it began in hope, when the return of that unhappy prince
was not only possible, but might have been considered likely; it was
fostered by the policy of the Braganzan party after all reasonable hope
had ceased; and length of time served only to ripen it into a confirmed
and rooted superstition, which even the intolerance of the Inquisition
spared, for the sake of the loyal and patriotic feelings in which it
had its birth. The Holy Office never interfered farther with the sect
than to prohibit the publication of its numerous prophecies, which were
suffered to circulate in private. For many years the persons who held
this strange opinion had been content to enjoy their dream in private,
shrinking from observation and from ridicule; but, as the belief had
begun in a time of deep calamity, so now, when a heavier evil had
overwhelmed the kingdom, it spread beyond all former example. Their
prophecies were triumphantly brought to light, for only in the promises
which were there held out could the Portugueze find consolation; and
proselytes increased so rapidly that half Lisbon became Sebastianists.
The delusion was not confined to the lower orders ... it reached
the educated classes; and men who had graduated in theology became
professors of a faith which announced that Portugal was soon to be the
head of the Fifth and Universal Monarchy. Sebastian was speedily to
come from the Secret Island; the Queen would resign the sceptre into
his hands; he would give Buonaparte battle near Evora on the field of
Sertorius, slay the tyrant, and become monarch of the world. These
events had long been predicted; and it had long since been shown that
the very year in which they must occur was mystically prefigured in the
arms of Portugal. Those arms had been miraculously given to the founder
of the Portugueze monarchy; and the five wounds were represented in
the shield by as many round marks or ciphers, two on each side, and
one in the middle. Bandarra the shoemaker, who was one of the greatest
of their old prophets, had taught them the mystery therein. Place two
O’s one upon the other, said he, place another on the right hand, then
make a second figure like the first, and you have the date[22] given.
The year being thus clearly designated, the time of his appearance
was fixed for the holy week: on Holy Thursday they affirmed the storm
would gather, and from that time till the Sunday there would be the
most tremendous din of battle that had ever been heard in the world;
... for this April was the month of Lightning which Bandarra had
foretold. In pledge of all this, some of the bolder believers declared
that there would be a full moon on the 19th of March, ... when she was
in the wane! It was a prevalent opinion that the _Encoberto_, or the
Hidden One, as they called Sebastian, was actually on board the Russian
squadron!
Those parts of the old prophecies which clearly pointed to the year
1640, when the event for which they were intended was accomplished,
were omitted in the copies which were now circulated and sought
with equal avidity. Other parts were easily fitted to the present
circumstances. A rhyme, importing that he of Braganza would go out and
he of France would come in, which was written concerning the war of
the Succession, was now interpreted to point to the prince of Brazil
and Buonaparte; and the imperial eagle which was preserved in the
Spanish banners after Charles the Fifth, and against which so many
denunciations had been poured out, was the device of this new tyrant.
The Secret Island had lately been seen from the coast of Algarve,
and the quay distinguished from which Sebastian was to embark, and
the fleet in which he was to sail. The tongues of the dumb had been
loosed, and an infant of three months had distinctly spoken in Lisbon
to announce his coming. One believer read prophecies in the lines of
those sea-shells upon which a resemblance to musical characters may be
fancied. The effect of this infatuation was that in whatever happened
the Sebastianists found something to confirm their faith, and every
fresh calamity was hailed by them as a fulfilment of what had been
foretold. The emigration of the Prince and the entrance of the French
were both in the prophecies, and both therefore were regarded with
complacency by the believers. When the French flag was hoisted they
cried Bravo! these are the eagles at the sight of which Bandarra, one
of the greatest prophets that ever existed, shed tears! During the
tumult in Lisbon their cry was, Let them fire! let them kill! all this
is in the prophecies. This folly gave occasion to many impositions,
which served less to expose the credulity of individuals, than to
increase the prevalent delusion. One Sebastianist found a letter from
King Sebastian in the belly of a fish, appointing him to meet him
at night on a certain part of the shore. A more skilful trick was
practised upon another with perfect success. An egg was produced with
the letters V. D. S. R. P. distinctly traced upon the shell; the owner
of the hen in whose nest it was deposited fully believed that it had
been laid in this state, and the letters were immediately interpreted
to mean _Vive Dom Sebastiam Rei de Portugal_. The tidings spread over
the city, and crowds flocked to the house. The egg was sent round in
a silver salver to the higher order of believers. ♦NEVES, II. 142.♦
After it had been the great topic of conversation for three days, it
was carried to Junot, by whom it was detained as worthy of being placed
in the National Museum at Paris. These things naturally excited the
contempt and ridicule of the French; nevertheless, when Junot, as if
to put out of remembrance the very names of the Royal Family, ordered
the ships that were called after the Prince and the Queen ♦OBS. PORT.
P. 275.♦ to be called the Portugueze and the City of Lisbon, he altered
the name of the St. Sebastian also.
♦EDICTS TO PREVENT EMIGRATION.♦
The Comte de Novion was succeeded in the police department by Lagarde,
the fame of whose rapacities in Venice and other parts of Italy
prepared the people to expect in him what they found. ♦APRIL 7.♦ The
first edict of this new minister commanded the _Corregedores_ and
_Juizes do Crime_, or Criminal Judges, to make out in the course of
the ensuing fortnight a list of all the persons who had emigrated from
their respective jurisdictions, specifying in every instance the place
of abode both in town and country, the parish and street, the number
and the floor of the house. Sequestration of the emigrant’s property
was to follow as soon as possible; and any person, though father or
child, or in their default the nearest heir, who should attempt to
conceal or cover any part of the property, was to be treated as having
criminally taken possession of that to which he had no right. If any
person fled after the publication of this decree, his name, with all
particulars concerning him and his disappearance, must be sent to the
Corregedor, or Criminal Judge, within eight-and-forty hours, by the
owner of the house which he had inhabited; or its chief tenant, if it
were divided among many; or all its inhabitants, if the person dwelt in
one of his own, and by those persons also to whom he should have left
the keys and intrusted the care thereof. If any of these persons failed
in informing in due time, they themselves would be considered as having
intended to subtract property destined to sequestration. ♦APRIL 5.♦
It had already been ordered that all flags of truce from the British
squadron should be fired upon: that any person caught in attempting
to reach the fleet should be punished with imprisonment for not less
than six months, or with death, according to the circumstances; and
that the master of the boat, and all other persons convicted of having
consented to assist in the escape, should suffer capital punishment.
It was now enacted, that every one having newspapers, letters, or any
communication of any kind from the British ships, should instantly
deposit them, or give account thereof, at the Intendant General’s
office, on pain of being treated as an agent of the English; and the
same penalty was decreed against every one who should spread news from
the fleet, unless he specified his authority and named the person
from whom his intelligence came. Notice was also given that an office
was opened to receive information against those who were seeking to
emigrate, against the boatmen who would facilitate the escape of such
persons, and against all agents of the English; and it was added, that
on proof of the accusation, Junot would determine what reward should
be given to the informer. ♦OBS. PORT, P. 224.♦ Lagarde had taken
possession of the Inquisition; the old establishment of that devilish
tribunal gave place only to one for political persecution, as if the
edifice itself were polluted, and destined always to deserve the
execrations of mankind.
♦SPECIAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL.
APRIL 8.♦
The next edict announced the formation of a special tribunal for
all criminal cases. It was to consist of a President, who must be a
superior French officer; a French _Capitam Relator_, which may be
rendered Captain-Attorney-General; four other officers, of whom three
must be French, the fourth a Portugueze; one Portugueze judge versed in
criminal jurisprudence; and a secretary, who might be of either nation,
but must speak both languages. Death was decreed against all who
should be convicted of having been engaged in insurrection and popular
commotion, or present at an armed assembly, these offences holding
the first place: the same punishment for murder, either accomplished
or attempted, arson, and robbery accompanied with violence; death
or the galleys for burglary; stripes and the galleys for disobeying
the law respecting the use of knives and other deadly weapons. It is
remarkable, that though the preamble spoke of the insufficiency of
the penal laws, all these punishments were, in the edict, sanctioned
by references to the Portugueze, as well as to the French Code. But
death for the crime of espionage, or for seducing any person to pass
over to the enemy, was enacted by Junot’s own authority. The sentences
of the Tribunal were to be without appeal. In the body of the decree
it was said, that inasmuch as robberies had infinitely multiplied both
in Lisbon and the whole kingdom, this Court should take cognizance of
all offences of that nature, the General in Chief having so decreed
in his desire of protecting with all his power the property of the
inhabitants: but the Tribunal was never embodied; when any persons were
to be _fusiladed_, a military tribunal sufficed for the summary forms
with which these murders were committed.
♦MEASURES OF POLICE.♦
The new Intendant was active in issuing edicts. Lisbon was infested
by dogs, who, belonging to no one, found subsistence in the filth and
offal which were cast into the streets. ♦APR. 9.♦ The police guards
were ordered to kill all whom they met in their rounds; the French
soldiers were invited and entreated to assist in delivering the city
from this nuisance, and the rabble were tempted to exert themselves
by the promise of fifty _reis_ per head: as long as the premium was
paid, these poor animals were hunted down without mercy; the French
however soon became weary of the expense, and the butchery then ceased
after more than 2000 had been killed. ♦APR. 11.♦ Another edict forbade
old keys to be exposed for sale at the old iron stalls, because of
the obvious facility which they afforded to thieves. These measures
affected to reform glaring evils, though not of importance, and against
which there were already existing laws; but Lagarde’s chief attention
was directed to the two objects of securing the intrusive government
and enriching himself. There soon occurred a curious specimen of his
administration of justice. A quarrel took place in the Mouraria between
a Portugueze soldier and three Frenchmen, and the Portugueze was
killed. The scene of this transaction happened to be the worst part
of Lisbon, and it occasioned a great tumult among the inhabitants of
the _Rua Suja_, or Dirty Street, and three other such sties of filth
and iniquity: more French collected; the mob had the advantage, and
the riot was not appeased till a French serjeant of grenadiers was
killed, a soldier mortally wounded, and three others severely cut by
the knives of the Portugueze. Upon this an order appeared from M.
Lagarde, decreeing that twelve of the inhabitants of these streets,
being persons who bore the worst character there, should be apprehended
and imprisoned for three months, unless they declared who were the
chief instigators of the disturbance: that all the common strumpets who
lodged in these four streets should quit them within four days, on pain
of having their heads shaved and being banished from Lisbon; and that
all eating and drinking houses in the said streets should be shut up
for six months, unless the owners would give information against some
person concerned in the affray. The result of the order was, that every
strumpet who could pay a six-and-thirty was suffered to continue in
her abode as not having been concerned in the riot: that the taverners
paid from one to five pieces each, according to their means; the
victuallers from eight milreis to two pieces; ♦OBS. PORT. P. 250, 256.♦
the twelve hostages from twelve milreis to six pieces each; and the
sum total which M. Lagarde extorted from these wretches as the amends
for two Frenchmen killed and three wounded, amounted, according to an
exact account, to 862 milreis; more than five times the weekly sum
distributed by the intrusive government among the starving population
of Lisbon.
♦DEPUTATION OF PORTUGUEZE TO BAYONNE.
APR. 22.♦
By another edict all gunpowder, artillery, fire-arms, and weapons of
every kind, in the possession of merchants or other individuals, were
ordered to be carried to the arsenal, and deposited there till the
owner having obtained a licence for his ship to sail, should want to
embark them. ♦OBS. PORT. P. 249.♦ As soon as they were delivered in,
the best pieces of cannon were spiked and the musquets disabled. Such
precautions were now become more needful for many reasons. May is the
month in which[23] provisions are always dearest in Portugal; and at
this time Buonaparte’s plots against Spain were drawing toward their
completion, and the ferment which had arisen in that country extended
to Portugal. The Spanish troops from Alemtejo were all removed to
Lisbon, and so divided as to be completely within the power of the
French; and to amuse the Portugueze people with hopes, reports were
circulated that the contribution was remitted, and that the sequestered
property would be restored. Halcyon days were now to succeed. ♦OBS.
PORT. P. 262.♦ There was to be nothing but prosperity for Portugal.
A deputation had been sent to Bayonne to offer the homage of their
countrymen to Buonaparte. The persons appointed for this were either
those who were thought dangerous in their own country, or useful in
France. They were the Marquises of Penalva, Marialva, Valença, and
Abrantes, father and son; the Counts of Sabugal and Arganil; Viscount
de Barbacena, the Inquisitor-General, the Bishop of Coimbra, the
Prior of Avis, D. Nuno Caetano Alves Pereira de Mello, D. Lourenço
de Lima, Joaquim Alberto George, and Antonio Thomas da Silva Leitam.
On the Prince’s birth-day, when the streets were strongly patroled
lest that anniversary should call forth any expression of popular
feeling, a letter from ♦LETTER FROM THE DEPUTATION.♦ this deputation
was made public. It assured the Portugueze, that if any thing could
equal the genius of the Emperor Napoleon, it was the elevation of
his soul, and the generosity of his principles: that with a truly
paternal affability he had manifested those principles in his use of
the rights which circumstances gave him. His army had not entered
Portugal as conquerors. He bore no enmity to their Prince, nor to the
royal family; he sought only to connect them with the rest of Europe
in the great continental system, of which they were to be the last and
closing link, for he could not tolerate on the continent an English
colony. It depended upon the Portugueze themselves to show, by their
conduct in this respect, whether they were now worthy still to form a
nation, or must be annexed to a neighbour, from whom so many causes
tended to divide them. The Emperor knew and lamented the privations
which, in common with the continent and America, Portugal endured
during the temporary interruption of her commerce; but this was the
consequence of a struggle, the result of which would amply compensate
for them. The weight of the contributions had impressed his heart, and
his goodness had dictated a promise that it should be reduced to just
limits, compatible with their means. These intentions of the Emperor,
the deputies said, would, they doubted not, excite in the Portugueze
the greatest gratitude. They meantime would continue to fulfil near
the person of the Emperor, and conformably to his orders, the duties
of a mission which had no difficulties, since the goodness of Napoleon
united with his wisdom to simplify their dearest interests.
♦JUNOT MADE DUKE OF ABRANTES.♦
Upon the publication of this letter, the heads of the first corporate
bodies were made to understand, that they must wait upon Junot, whom
Buonaparte had created Duke of Abrantes, and request him to transmit
the expression of their gratitude to the Emperor for the gracious
reception with which their deputies had been honoured. The Dean of the
Patriarchal Church spoke in the name of the clergy; the _Desembargador
do Paço_ and High Chancellor for the magistracy: both these speeches
were remodelled by the intrusive government, and then printed; so
that men who were groaning over the miseries of their country, were
made appear to that country as if they crouched to lick the feet
that trampled upon her. The Conde da Ega, one of the most devoted
partizans of France, spoke for the nobles. Junot in reply told them,
that Portugal, under the protection of the great Napoleon, would soon
be replaced in that rank to which a Vasco da Gama and a Joam de Castro
had raised it by their conquests; a Luiz da Cunha and a Pombal by their
policy; and he desired that a Junta of the Three Estates might be
assembled forthwith, to express the wishes of all classes in a manner
worthy of the nation, and worthy of the monarch to whom they addressed
themselves. ♦HE HOPES TO BE MADE KING OF PORTUGAL.♦ The intention of
this meeting was, that the Portugueze should request to have Junot
for their king, a business which Ega was to manage in the Junta. This
intrigue was unexpectedly counteracted by another, of which Carrion de
Nizas, a French officer of cavalry, M. Verdier, a French subject born
and always resident in Portugal, and the Desembargador Francisco Duarte
Coelho, are said to have been the prime movers. Carrion de Nizas had
the reputation of being the best informed man in the French army. M.
Verdier was a man of great knowledge and extraordinary talents, fond
of the country in which he had passed his life, but too enlightened
not to perceive and lament the abuses by which it had been debilitated
and degraded. He was too far advanced in years, and too wise a man, to
wish for those sudden and violent revolutions, of which the evil is
great, certain, and immediate, and the good contingent and remote. Such
a revolution however had occurred, and he was perforce involved in it,
having been called from a numerous family at Thomar, ♦NEVES, T. II. C.
42.♦ where he had a large cotton manufactory, that Junot might avail
himself of the knowledge which he was known to possess.
♦THE JUIZ DO POVO PROPOSES TO ASK FOR A KING OF BUONAPARTE’S FAMILY.♦
Whatever may have been the motives of the French officer in opposing
Junot’s pretensions to the crown, those of M. Verdier, and the
Portugueze who acted with him, cannot be mistaken, and ought not to be
condemned. Unlikely as it appeared that the House of Braganza should
recover the throne, they desired in this dissolution of government, to
build up the best system which circumstances seemed to allow; and for
this purpose they drew up a paper which they entrusted to the Juiz do
Povo, Jose de Abreu Campos, that he might produce it at the assembly.
The Junta of the Three Estates was but a mere name which might give
colour to the proceedings of Junot; the Juiz do Povo was little more;
but one name served well in array against another, and moreover this
had a popular sound with it, favouring that order of things which
these persons were properly desirous of restoring. Accordingly when
the deputies of the clergy and the various bodies corporate assembled
in the mock Junta, and some person, after the Conde da Ega’s speech,
would have answered for the Juiz do Povo, Campos spoke boldly and
honestly for himself. He declared that he did not assent to what was
going on, and that he had no authority to assent, for he was not a
representative of the people. What was proposed could not be their
wish, as the paper with which he had been entrusted would show. He
then, amid the confusion which his unlooked-for opposition occasioned,
produced and read a paper to this effect: that the Portugueze, looking
upon France as their mother country, inasmuch as the first conquerors
of Portugal from the Moors were French, and mindful of the aid which
they had received from France when they recovered their independence in
1640, acknowledged with all gratitude the protection which the greatest
of monarchs at this time offered them: they desired a constitution and
a constitutional king, who should be a prince of the imperial family;
the constitution with which they should be content was one in all
things like that which had been given to the duchy of Warsaw, with only
an alteration in the mode of electing the national representatives,
which should be by chambers. The better to conform with their ancient
customs, they desired that the Catholic and Apostolic Roman religion
might be the religion of the state, requiring the admission of all the
principles established by the last Concordat with France, whereby the
free and public enjoyment of all modes of worship was tolerated: that
there should be a minister specifically charged with the department
of public instruction: that the liberty of the press should be
established as it then was in France, because ignorance and error
had caused their decay: that the legislative power should be divided
into two houses, and communicate with the executive: that the judges
should be independent, and the Code Napoleon established: that causes
should be publicly tried with justice and dispatch: that all property
held in mortmain should be set free: that the public debt should be
paid, for which means were not wanting: and that the number of public
functionaries, who in the general change must be displaced, should
all receive decent and equitable pensions, and upon every vacancy be
♦NEVES, T. II. C. 42.♦ preferred, provided they were duly qualified.
♦FATE OF THE MOVER OF THIS SCHEME.♦
Junot and the sycophants who hoped to figure at his court were incensed
at this opposition to their project. They easily overpowered the
Juiz do Povo in the meeting, and the Intendant of Police was then
instructed to find out the persons who had instigated him. M. Verdier
in consequence was sent back to Thomar in disgrace. This was what he
would most have wished, could he have returned to that tranquillity
and domestic happiness which he was wont to enjoy. But the crimes of
his countrymen were visited upon him. In the tumults which ensued,
the people among whom he had lived so long, and by whom he had been
deservedly loved and respected, imagined that as a Frenchman he must
needs be a partizan of France, and he was compelled to return to Lisbon
for safety. There, as long as the French continued in Portugal, he
remained under the inspection of the police, a prisoner by Junot’s
orders in his own house. Upon the restoration of the legitimate
government, the part which he had taken was remembered as a crime, and
he was ordered to leave the kingdom. The forms of justice had long been
dispensed with in Portugal; and a man who had violated no allegiance,
who had broken no law, who had offended in no point of honour or of
duty, was marked for punishment, when those who had sinned in every
point were overlooked. Junot however had little leisure to enjoy his
dreams of royalty; he was roused from them by the events in Spain, to
which it is now necessary to recur.