from Sir Frederick Lamb, dated at Lisbon, on the 1st of March. Here then, we jump at once over an interval of five months, and transport Don Miguel from Vienna to Lisbon, passing over unnoticed, his intervening residence in England, and every thing that happened while he was here. Will it really be asserted, that his visit to England was merely a progress of pleasure and parade? that we brought him here for no other purpose than to show him how hard it could snow at a review, and how drenchingly it could rain at a stag-hunt? was there no Portuguese business done while he was in England? were there no protocols signed? were there no arrangements made, as to how he was to govern Portugal, when he got there? was nothing settled as to the oaths and en past in oblivion, and to restrain with firm- | ness the spirit of faction in Portugal; and to this engagement, England becomes a party. Nay, more; to these protocols are annexed, as part and parcel of this formal proceeding, three letters from Don Miguel: one to Don Pedro, to whom he vows obedience; one to the Infanta Isabella, then Regent at Lisbon, through whom he proclaims to Portugal, Amnesty, Constitution, Impartiality; and a third to the king of England, from whom he solicits good-will and support, upon the distinct undertaking, that he will govern Portugal by means of the institutions of Don Pedro. Here then we find Don Miguel entering into a convention with the King of England, by plenipotentiaries authorized on both sides; the purport of which convention is, that he shall admi-gagements, by which he was to bind nister Portugal according to the Constitution. It has been said, I know, that the English Ambassador attended these conferences, and signed these protocols only as a witness, and not as a party; but there is nothing in these papers, which at all bears out this assertion. If there is any document by which that is proved, that document ought to have been produced. But the very reverse appears from these papers. It is evident from them, that Austria and England held negotiations with Don Miguel, as to the line of conduct which he was to pursue as Regent of Portugal; and that when at last he was brought, and with much difficulty, to accede to their wishes, and agree to certain engagements, those engagements were formally recorded by the plenipotentiaries of the negotiating parties, in the shape of these conventions. I maintain that the subsequent violation by Don Miguel of these engagements so contracted by him, gave us a right to enforce them if we liked, by whatever means we might think most expedient; and I contend, that the publicity which was un-regulate the order of succession to the avoidably given to the whole transaction, and by which thousands of Portuguese were led to acts, by which their fortunes and their lives have since been placed in jeopardy, so committed the honour of England, as to leave us nothing to choose, but the means by which this right should be enforced. After this second part of the papers, comes an important gap. These protocols are dated at Vienna, in October 1827, and they are immediately followed by an extract from a despatch himself still deeper to the Constitution, throne of Portugal, which England and else settled in England? I must infer that something else was settled in England, because I find in these papers, an extract from a despatch from Sir Frederick Lamb of the 1st of March 1828, in which he mentious that he had successfully objected to a form of oath which Don Miguel proposed to take, and which Sir Frederick Lamb declares would have been "a total departure from all that had been settled in England." It is important that we should know what was settled in England, as to Don Miguel's proceedings in Portugal; and therefore I shall move for a statement with reference to this passage in the papers. From this point forwards, these papers become less and less satisfactory; and I must say, without meaning any thing uncivil, that there never was such a mystification practised upon Parliament, under pretence of giving them information, as these twenty pages of the Lisbon correspondence exhibit. They contain indeed a very clear and concise narrative of the successive steps by which, between the 1st of March and the 1st of July, Don Miguel transformed himself from the obedient and oath-taking lieutenant, into the rebellious and perjured usurper. But nearly the whole of this information might equally be found in the columns of private correspondence of the newspapers of the day, and is by this time safely entombed in the pages of the Annual Register. These papers are indeed ingeniously swelled by a copious infusion of Portuguese decrees, and addresses, and dissertations extracted from the Lisbon Gazette, and the Trombeta Final, and circumstantial accounts of military festivities, and loyal speeches from power-loving Bishops, which occupy full one-third of this part of the volume, and which seem put in, to swell the size, or to deter some from attempting to open it, and to bewilder those who do, and lead their attention astray; but which serve, as I can see, to give no useful or important information. But we look in vain for any thing to shew, what, during any part of this period were the sentiments and views of the English Cabinet; we look in vain for any thing to shew, what instructions they had given to our ambassador, when first he set out upon his mission, and what orders they conveyed to him afterwards, in consequence of his report of the doings in Portugal; we look in vain for any thing to shew, what were those earnest and re peated remonstrances, which the Speech from the Throne, in July 1828, informed us, his majesty had been advised to make, "against those measures in Portugal by which the just expectations of his majesty had been disappointed," remonstrances too, which that same Speech informed us, had been utterly disregarded; we look in vain for any thing to show, what steps the advisers of the Crown took, to hold Don Miguel to his engagements with England, and to resent the gross indignity, which they themselves declare, he had put upon our sovereign. Here then I call for further information. We ought first to have a copy of the original instructions given to Sir Frederick Lamb; these are indispensable; they are necessary in order to shew what were the views and intentions of the Government, at the time when Don Miguel sailed from England; we ought next to have copies or extracts of all communications made to Sir Frederick Lamb, after his arrival at Lisbon, expressive of the sentiments of the Government upon Don Miguel's progressive departure from his engagements; and particularly it is fitting that we should have those earnest and repeated remonstrances, which were mentioned in the Speech from the Throne. When it is admitted by the Ministers themselves, that a gross indignity has been offered to the King of England, it is right that Parliament should know the nature and extent of that indignity, and the steps which have been taken by the advisers of the Crown, to assert the honour of the Crown. This is a matter which touches the honour of the country, and any attempt at concealment must necessarily excite a suspicion, that that honour has been imperfectly guarded. These instructions given to our ambassador, and these remonstrances, which he was ordered to make, would of course not be sufficient, without his report of the manner in which he executed those instructions, and of the temper in which those remonstrances were received; and further extracts are therefore necessary from the despatches of Sir Frederick Lamb; for these also, therefore, it is my intention to move. It has been stated, and there can be no doubt of the fact, that the usurpation of Don Miguel was unfortunately much assisted by the presence of the British troops at Lisbon, after his arrival; inasmuch as all possibility of resistance to the first steps of his proceedings, was prevented by the instructions under which our general was acting, to put down disturbances in Lisbon, and to protect the persons of the royal family. These instructions were given under other circumstances, and with far different views; but they became unluckily a powerful engine in the hands of the usurper. For these instructions I propose to move. I cast no blame upon these instructions. I do not censure the delay in removing the troops. To the latter I was myself a party, and however unfortunate its effects, it was ordered for the best, under the circumstances of the moment; but I do say, that as England had in this manner, however unintentionally, given to Don Miguel the powerful aid of her military protection, in the early execution of his revolutionary plans, we were on that account the more bound to have interposed in the after-stages, to compel him to adhere to his engagements. With this extract from the instructions to Sir W. Clinton in December 1826, we ought also to have any communication upon the same subject, which may have been made at the same time, to Sir W. A'Court, our then ambassador at Lisbon. With the Terceira branch of these papers, I shall not at present meddle. A right honourable friend of mine has given notice of a motion specifically upon that subject: I am glad he has done so. That outrage upon the laws of nations, that open and violent departure from all our boasted principles of neutrality and noninterference, is a matter of too much importance to be made an incidental topic in a general discussion, and well deserves. the undivided attention of the House. I shall purposely abstain from saying anything at present on that transaction; and I hope honourable Members will reserve their opinions upon it, till my right honourable friend shall bring it distinctly before the House. But among the papers which have been given relative to this affair of Terceira, there is a letter from the Duke of Wellington to Lord Aberdeen, of January 1829, in which the former states, that he incloses to the latter, a correspondence which had passed between himself and the Marquises of Barbacena and Palmella, regarding the arrival in this country, of the Queen, Donna Maria da Gloria; and with this correspondence Parliament ought, I think, to be made acquainted. It is well known, that the King of England, acting of course by the advice of his responsible counsellors, has recognised Donna Maria as lawful Queen of Portugal; and that, during her residence here, she was not veiled in that unpretending incognito, under which other sovereigns de Jure have shrouded their misfortunes, while taking refuge in this country, during periods of actual dethronement; but that she was received on all proper occasions, with those honours which are due to an apparent Queen. We have had a hint, not very obscurely given, in the Speech from the Throne, that the time might not be far distant, at which his Majesty might be advised to recognise the usurper of the crown of Donna Maria. It may be useful, and must be instructive, to be able to compare this correspondence, which took place upon her arrival in this country, with the announcement, whenever it may be made, that we have recognised and sanctioned her dethronement. We have been informed in a Speech from the Throne, that negotiations have been undertaken for the purpose of reconciling the Princes of the House of Branganza, or, as I should say, for that of inducing Don Pedro to acquiesce in the usurpation of Don Miguel; and I intend to move for the production of those negotiations. In the Speech from the Throne at the close of the Session of 1828, it was stated, that "his Majesty relied upon the wisdom of the august head of the House of Braganza, to take the course which should be best calculated, to maintain the interests and honour of that illustrious family, and to secure the peace and happiness of the dominions over which it presides." Very sound doctrine this, and perfectly consistent with the principles of non-interference. It informed us that the head of the House of Braganza was the best judge of matters which concerned the interests and honour of his own family, and which affected the peace and happiness of his own dominions. But one could not, help thinking that its enunciation at that particular moment, was intended to convey a hint to the sovereign in question. But what happens in February 1829? Why then it comes out, that this reliance upon the wisdom of the head of the House of Braganza, had been neither very firm nor very long lived; and that, with all our reliance upon the wisdom of this august person, we had thought that this wisdom might be much assisted by a "Ample room, and verge enough, The characters of Hell to trace." little advice from an English ambassador, | so, I shall propose to the House to ask for as to the best means of maintaining the this information. I am the more induced honour and interests of his family, and of to do this, because a part of these negosecuring the peace and happiness of the tiations has already appeared in print, dominions over which that family reigns: and I am sorry to say, that what has so and accordingly an ambassador was sent appeared, shows, that the Government of for that purpose to the Brazils. And the England placed these negotiations upon a Speech of February 1829 informed us, that basis, which has been unequivocally con"his Majesty, deeply interested in the demned by Parliament; and that they prosperity of the Portuguese monarchy, made the immediate marriage of Donna had entered into negotiations with the Maria to Don Miguel, if not the sine qua head of the House of Braganza, in the non, at least the fundamental principle of hope of terminating a state of affairs the only arrangement which they were which is incompatible with the permanent willing to propose. Now, I know pertranquillity and welfare of Portugal." fectly well, that this marriage formed part. Why, Sir, do what we will, and say what of the original plan of Don Pedro, in we like, there is a fatality, which draws us, 1827, and was, on that account, encoulike the moth into the candle, to mix raged by the English Government at that ourselves in Portuguese affairs for time; but will any man tell me that this the truth is, and no Government can marriage could rest, in 1829, upon the deny it, that the real interests of England same grounds as in 1827 ? Could it in are concerned in maintaining the tran- fact be called the same marriage? What quillity, and protecting the welfare of Por- had happened in the interval? What, as tugal: and even those very Ministers, who far as this marriage is concerned, had not professed to abandon that tranquillity and happened in the interval? One short year welfare to their fate, find themselves com- only, had indeed elapsed, but upon the pelled to step in, though too late and records of that one short year, Don Miguel without success, and to make an attempt to had found restore them. The communication from tha Throne at the end of last Session, implied, that the negotiations which had been announced at the beginning of the Session, were still going on, as it stated "the determination of his Majesty to use every effort to reconcile conflicting interests, and to remove the evils, which still pressed upon Portugal." But the Speech at the opening of this Session, informed us in plain terms, that those negotiations had entirely failed, as it stated that "His Majesty lamented that he was unable to announce the prospect of a reconciliation between the Princes of the House of Braganza." Now, I apprehend it is usual, I am sure it is becoming, that when Parliament has been informed from the Throne, that negotiations have been entered into, and has learnt from the same quarter, that those negotiations have failed, some information should be laid before Parlia ment, to enable them to judge whether the failure is in any degree imputable to those, who have been the advisers of the Crown in the course of the transaction; and it might have been expected, that, without waiting for a motion upon this subject, the Government should themselves have laid before Parliament the details of this negotiation. But as they have not done Will any man venture to assert, that if, in 1827, Don Pedro, or Mr. Canning, could have read forward into the Book of Fate, and have foreseen the events of 1828, they would for one instant have entertained the project of such an alliance; and could we have believed, if we had not known it to be certain, that in 1829, with the events of 1828 fresh before their eyes, an English Cabinet could have proposed to a Father and a Sovereign, to consign his infant daughter, with her rival right upon her head, to the care and custody of a man, who had shewn that he dealt with perjury as an amusing exercise of ingenuity; in whom, by their own admission, cowardice makes cruelty an instinct; and who, in yielding to his fears, in glutting his revenge, or in grasping after regal sway, has spared neither infancy nor age, and respected neither sex nor station. Could such a proposition have been made with any other view, but to secure to Don Miguel the fruits of his violence and injustice; and does not this tally with all the rest, and bear out those, who maintain, that throughout the whole of these transactions the Government of England has incessantly laboured to assist and confirm the usurpation of Don Miguel. The basis upon which this negotiation was founded, seems to have consisted of five principal propositions. 1. The immediate marriage of the Queen of Portugal with the Infant, Don Miguel, who should take the title of King. 2. The conclusion of a family compact, of which the Emperor of Austria should be umpire. 3. That in case of the death of the Queen without issue, before Don Miguel, (quod Di prius omen in ipsum convertant) the crown should pass to the royal branch of Portugal; (that is, to Don Miguel.) 4. That in case of the death of the King Regent, the Queen should reign. 5. That no notice should be taken of the changes, which had happened, in the form of Government in Portugal. There was also a sixth condition of minor importance, that as a preliminary to this arrangement, the Queen should immediately be removed from this country, and placed under the care of the Court of Austria. Upon the project of the marriage, I shall not say another word; but I must remark upon that latter part of the first article, which proposes that Don Miguel should, upon his marriage, assume the title of King, that this would be a direct violation of the laws of Lamego, relative to the succession to the throne; which have for nearly seven hundred years been considered as the fundamental laws of the Portuguese monarchy. The laws of Lamego declare, that a Queen of Portugal shall marry only a Portuguese Noble; but they add, that this Noble shall not assume the title of King, till there has been issue male of the marriage. How then, consistently with that law, could Don Miguel assume the title of King, immediately upon his marriage with a child of nine years old? As to the second article, relating to the family compact, it was perhaps natural, considering the family connexion, that if an umpire were required, the Emperor of Austria should be chosen. But the third article is most remarkable and ominous. I wish to say as little as possible, of those words of evil import, which contemplate the early and premature death of this unhappy child. The ancients, indeed, thought it unlucky distinctly to mention such things, and had a superstitious belief, that deaths too plainly spoken of, were also too likely to happen; but such refinements are unsuited to diplomatic transactions; and truth compels me to confess, that any arrangement, which had for its object, the immediate marriage of Donna Maria to Don Miguel, would have been imperfect in its details, if it had not provided, at least for the possibility, that she might never live to pass the age of childhood. But the latter part of this article abrogates the rights of three members of the House of Braganza, in direct violation of the laws of Lamego. By those laws, the daughters of the King of Portugal, provided they are born in Portugal or its dependencies, succeed to the throne equally with sons, in preference to his brother; unless such daughters should marry a foreigner, and thereby forfeit their right to the throne. Now, Don Pedro has three daughters besides Donna Maria, who were all born in the Brazils, before the final separation of that country from Portugal, and while it was still a dependency of Portugal; and all these three Princesses have therefore, in reversion, precisely the same right to the throne of Portugal, as that, of which we have recognized the validity, in the person of Donna Maria. These reversionary rights could not be affected by the manner in which the reign or the right of Don Pedro came to an end; and they are equally valid, whether we hold with some, that Don Pedro forfeited his right to the crown of Portugal by accepting that of the Brazils, when it was separated from Portugal, and by thus becoming the sovereign of a foreign country; or whether we maintain with others, that his reign over Portugal ceased only by his own act of abdication. For if we take the most unfavourable assumption, and admit, that Don Pedro forfeited his rights to Portugal, from the moment when he became Emperor of separated and independent Brazil, still that forfeiture could only be personal to himself, and prospective to children to be thereafter born to him; but it could not be retrospective in its operation, and it could not extinguish rights, which had been created previously, and which had accrued to his children already born, from the hour of their birth, and which were inherent in them, from the first moment when they began to breathe. But if we take the other view of the case, and consider Don Pedro's right to Portugal to have ceased only by his own abdication, it is clear, that that abdication could only be tantamount to political death, and that instead of extinguishing the rights of those who derived through |