§ Mr. E. Davenportrequested the attention of the House upon a subject of great public interest, and upon which he might or 1202 might not find it necessary to take some ulterior step, according to the answer he might receive from the Secretary of State. The House was aware, that for some time past the accounts from Portugal had been of a very distressing character; and the feelings of disgust which they had excited had not been diminished by the recollection that that country, beyond all others in Europe, had been influenced by British councils. The case seemed briefly to be this:—Some three years ago, a prince, known only by the precocity of his crimes, who, before he had reached the years of manhood, was guilty of one of the most atrocious murders ever recorded; and who had succeeded in imprisoning his father, and had nearly usurped his power, was sent to expiate these offences, and to study the arts of constitutional government under that able master, that tried and assured friend of free institutions, prince Metternich, that celebrated diplomatist, who, to other advantages, added that of the intimate friendship of his majesty's present Secretary for Foreign Affairs. As soon as his education was judged to be complete—he meant, of course, that of the prince, not the minister—he was invited to assume the government of his native country, and to preside over that free constitution, which, to say the very least of it, was brought to Lisbon by the hand of a British minister, now high in his majesty's confidence. Before, however, he was allowed to quit Vienna, he was understood to have given the most unequivocal pledges of allegiance to his sovereign and to the new system he had established, to the courts of London, Vienna, Paris, Madrid, and Rio Janeiro; and, to make his regeneration still more evident, and perhaps to obtain letters of pratique as to the soundness of his mind, he took England in his road, and enjoyed the rare advantage of passing some days in the society of the constitutional king of these realms. Soon after reaching Portugal he took the oaths to the constitution; but scarcely was that ceremony concluded, when, with a perfidy without example in modern times, and which would have done justice to the most celebrated models of antiquity, he threw off the mask, dissolved the Cortes, the only organ of the constitution, and set on foot a rigorous persecution against all who were supposed favourable to that new order of things, which he had just sworn to maintain. The consequences were dismay 1203 and confusion, without parallel since the days of the French Revolution; the unhappy constitutionalists flying to the Tagus to seek an asylum in any ship destined to any port, so that they might escape the fangs of that apostolical Nero; and this moment of horror and agony was, he grieved to say, the one of all others selected for withdrawing the British troops: even the forts on the Tagus were surrendered: and among others the Bugio, which was the key to Lisbon, was given up, and turned into a state dungeon. Now he begged to be distinctly understood as being no advocate of war. Nothing he had said had any such tendency; it was the want of a vigorous, humane, and generous policy which he lamented; and he must ever think that the removing of troops at so terrible a moment, and thus for the sake of a few paltry pounds compromising millions - worth of national honour, was as inconsistent with sound policy, as it was with the humanity of the British character. It left behind it the appearance of a cold-blooded, unfeeling, transaction; and this feeling was not diminished by a report, that an officer of high rank, holding a lucrative but useless office, had held language here, and written letters to persons in Don Miguel's confidence, urging them to persevere; and thus tending to cast imputations of treachery, which it was quite impossible to believe could have any foundation. Now the information he would ask, was, first on what conditions, and in trust for whom, were the forts in the Tagus surrendered?—what steps were taken previous to their surrender, to obtain payment of the money due to us for the troops?—and lastly, in what relation do we now stand with the Portuguese government?—Were we bound to support the usurper, or were we not rather bound to use our influence against him, and in favour of our ally?
Mr. Secretary Peelregretted that the hon. gentleman had not confined himself to a mere statement of the questions which he intended to ask, instead of having introduced a mass of observations and comments. He would answer the hon. gentleman's three questions in a plain and distinct manner. In answer to the first question, as to the forts given up, he had to state, that before the arrival of Don Miguel, it was determined by the British government—all fear of the invasion of Portugal having been removed—that the 1204 British troops should be withdrawn. And he begged to remind the House, that those troops were sent to Portugal, in fulfilment of an ancient treaty, for the purpose of preventing invasion. They were not sent to that country to support any form of government. The time had arrived when the apprehended danger was at an end, and those troops were, of course, withdrawn; and as a necessary consequence of that step, the evacuation of these forts took place. He thought the hon. member must agree with him, that nothing could be more contrary to the principle on which that expedition was sent to the shores of Portugal, than to keep those troops there when all idea of invasion had ceased. The hon. gentleman then asked him, whether this government expected payment of the sum due from Portugal to Great Britain, on the condition of the forts being given up? In answer to that, he had only to say, that he should be sorry if England had set so bad an example before Europe, as to keep those fortresses until payment of that debt was effected. The original condition remained in full force, as to the payment of that debt. The sum due was not half a million of money; it amounted to about 160,000l. For that sum this country had a right to prefer a claim; but he could not think, that, under any circumstances, it would have been prudent for Great Britain to keep possession of those forts until that debt was liquidated. With respect to the third question,—namely, "what is the state of the relations at present subsisting between this country and Portugal?" he had to inform the hon. gentleman, that, at this moment, the political functions of the English Ambassador at Lisbon were suspended. The instructions which had been sent to the British Ambassador, were, he conceived, sufficiently manifested by this fact. As some allusion had been made by the hon. gentleman with respect to the education of Don Miguel at Vienna, he wished to state, that the Ambassador of Austria at Lisbon had acted entirely in concurrence with the sentiments of the English government. He believed that the course taken by the Court of Austria, and by the Austrian Ambassador, was precisely the same as that pursued by the British Court. The hon. gentleman had made a most serious charge against an individual who had not an opportunity to defend himself. Now, he must say, that 1205 when hon. gentlemen preferred accusations of that kind against any person, whatever his rank or situation, they ought to weigh, with scrupulous exactness, the evidence on which charges of so grave a nature were founded. No gentleman ought lightly to make a charge of murder in the British senate, when the person thus assailed had no opportunity of defending himself.
Sir J. Macintoshsaid, he had heard with great satisfaction the declaration of the right hon. gentleman, that the British government, as well as the other governments of Europe, had suspended all diplomatic intercourse with the present rulers of Portugal. Such a suspension amounted to a declaration, that the present chief of that country was a rebel and an usurper, and to an approbation of the noble efforts of those faithful Portuguese, who had taken up arms against that atrocious usurpation, in defence of the cause of legitimate authority and constitutional liberty. He fervently prayed for the success of that glorious resistance pronounced to be lawful by the unanimous voice of Europe. Whatever might he his opinion about the moment chosen for our evacuation of Portugal, he rejoiced, on one account, that it had occurred so early. We had been told in the last and present year, that the Portuguese people were enamoured of servitude; that they loved even the despotism of Don Miguel; that England had imposed a constitution on them, and crammed it down their throats. The people of Portugal had now belied those assertions. Since the departure of the British army, they had risen to assert their liberty, to destroy tyranny, to overthrow usurpation, and to maintain the authority of their lawful prince. Even, if fortune should not crown their efforts, (which, God forbid), they had done enough to vindicate their character, and to justify that interposition of England, which was indeed no more than the bare observance of treaties, but which seemed to be obnoxious to many in this country, merely because that observance incidentally led us to give countenance and help to attempts made by a monarch to give liberty to his subjects. Events seemed as if they had been disposed for the express purpose of illustrating the impartial fidelity with which England had observed her engagements to Portugal.
Mr. Secretary Peelsaid, he wished to 1206 repair an accidental omission. Of course he could know nothing of the supposed letters; he could not say whether such letters were or were not written; but this he could state most explicitly, that no individual had any authority to speak the opinion of the British government except the British Ambassador. He would add further, that if any person supposed that government viewed the conduct lately pursued in Portugal with any feelings other than those manifested by the suspension of the British Ambassador's functions, he entirely misconceived what was felt by the government generally, and by every individual of which it was composed.
§ Mr. E. Davenportsaid, there was not an individual acquainted with the affairs of Portugal, who entertained the slightest doubt of the charge which he had made in the early part of his observations. Lord Liverpool had stated to a friend of his, that he had not a doubt of the fact.