BLOCKADE OF LISBON. (Hansard, 22 July 1833)

The Marquess of Londonderry

said, he rose with considerable embarrass, to submit to their Lordships the Motion of which he had given notice on a former occasion, after what had fallen from the noble Earl. It did, however, appear to him, in consequence of what had occurred on previous evenings, that the noble Earl laboured under a perfect want of information with respect to the notification which had been sent to Lloyd's from the Foreign Office. When he first mentioned the subject of the capture of the Portuguese fleet, he was merely referred to the public journals, as containing all the information which Government possessed on the subject. That was on the 15th of July; but when he saw the notification from the Foreign Office, dated on the very same day, and which appeared in the papers of the 16th, he came down on the following evening, to procure, if possible, some explanation on that point, to learn on what information that notice was founded. The first answer he received across the Table was, that the papers should be given; but the noble Duke (Duke of Wellington) behind him having stated his impression of the effect which this extraordinary proceeding would produce, the noble Earl was put on the qui vive, and then he asked for a little time to consider of the matter; and now, when he was prepared to state the reasons which induced him to call for these documents, he was told, that the papers which he had demanded should be accorded to him. He would not, as that was the case, state what he meant to do hereafter, until he saw those papers. There might be grounds to justify the Foreign Office in taking such a step, and he wished to be made acquainted with them; but he thought, that the whole was a fabrication got up in this country; and he believed, that up to the present moment no official documents had been received from Oporto on the subject; that no indication, in an 1042 official shape, of any intention of Don Pedro to order the blockade of the Portuguese ports had been received here. He believed, that no notice of such an intention had been received from abroad by the agent at Lloyd's. No intimation of any such intention was to be met with in the Oporto Chronica. The question which he wished to put to the noble Earl, and which he did not think the noble Earl would be able to answer, was, whether any notification had been received from the Consul at Oporto as to this intended blockade? He had caused application to be made at Lloyd's within a few days as to whether any official communication had been received by the Committee from Oporto on this subject?—whether any statements derived from a known and official source had reached them?—and whether there was any well-founded statement on the subject in the Oporto Chronica? The answer he received from Lloyd's was, simply, "That the notice from the Foreign Office was considered to be most effective." Now, that notice he believed to have been concocted at the Foreign Office between that office itself and M. Lima. He had deemed it to be his duty to call their Lordships' attention to these points, reserving himself, when the documents which the noble Earl had promised were laid before their Lordships, to take such a course as the information contained in them would warrant. As to a blockade of the Portuguese ports, he knew not how it could be effected by Don Pedro, when it was recollected, that from Cape St. Vincent to Viana there were twelve ports, and an extent of coast of 400 or 500 miles. The noble Earl had pronounced several panegyrics on the conduct of the House of Commons, but he questioned, whether, in the end, the noble Earl would be thanked for what he had done, or for the course which he had pursued. Notwithstanding all the noble Earl's eloquence, and all his powers of oratory, yet much of what he addressed to the House might be described in the manner in which he had described the speech of the noble Duke (Duke of Buckingham) near him, as something of "sound and fury," or as the noble Secretary of State had observed of a speech of a noble friend of his, as something "perfectly childish;" perhaps that might not be considered sufficiently classical, and he would use the word "puerile." The noble Marquess concluded 1043 by moving for "copies of all papers received at the Foreign Office before the 15th inst which come from a competent authority, and which have induced his Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to issue a letter to the Committee of Floyd's, announcing the blockade of the Portuguese ports."