flight of the other. The alarm may be exaggerated; but it is difficult to conceive how so many persons, stained with no crime, should seek safety in exile, if their apprehensions of danger were altogether groundless.

Under treaties which have now existed nearly two centuries, his Majesty is bound to defend the Kingdom of Portugal from all attacks by a foreign enemy: and, equally with his royal predecessors, he has shewn himself ready to assist his ancient ally in a moment of danger or of difficulty. His Majesty cannot but feel that the best chance for safety and tranquillity in Portugal, is now to be found, in the maintenance of the Charter granted by the Emperor Don Pedro, and in his Imperial Majesty's abdication of his rights to that crown. Any attempt on the part of the Infant to set aside the Charter, is calculated to excite its adherents to consider the Emperor Don Pedro as their Protector,-perhaps, their avenger. The least that could be expected, in such a state of things, is that Don Pedro should, contrary to his Majesty's most earnest entreaties, delay his abdication; and should order from Rio de Janeiro the execution of those laws, upon the acceptance of which in Portugal, his Imperial Majesty had declared his abdication to depend. The foundation would thus be laid for a civil war betwixt the two great parties in the State, the one headed by the Emperor,-the other by the Infant-and Portugal thus divided, enfeebled, and exhausted, would fall an easy conquest to a foreign enemy. It is not with Portugal, placed in such circumstances, that his Majesty's predecessors, or himself, have been allied;-or that the strength of England has been put forth for her assistance.

The undersigned has, therefore, received his Majesty's commands to inform his Excellency the Marquis de Palmella that these occurrences, and the consequences too obviously to be apprehended from them, have excited the anxiety of his Majesty for the fate of Portugal, and the welfare and happiness of the Infant himself. The undersigned does not conceal from his Excellency, that this anxiety has not been removed from the minds of his Majesty's servants, by the extract of the letter from the Vicomte de Santarem, inclosed in his Excellency's note of the 8th instant.

The impression made by such acts-inconsistent as they are with the oaths repeatedly taken, and the promises so frequently renewed, by a Prince-cannot be removed by the letter of a minister, declaring that the intention of his master is not that which the whole spirit and tendency of his Government, ever since his accession to it, but too clearly indicate.

Under these circumstances, his Majesty waits for the result of the events now passing in Portugal, though without impatience, yet with an anxiety proportioned to the interest which he has invariably felt for the happiness and tranquillity of that kingdom, and to the sense which his Majesty sincerely entertains of the risk to which all these advantages, as well as the security and honour of his Royal Highness, are exposed, by the conduct of the Portuguese Government, from the moment of his Royal Highness's return.

The undersigned, &c.

The Marquis de Palmella.

DUDLEY.

[It will have been seen in the above Despatch that England expresses deep anxiety for the welfare and happiness of a Prince, instead of standing forward to maintain the constitutional principle, which must have been an effectual check upon that Prince, which he had taken an oath to observe, and on the faith of which oath alone we consented to his proceeding to Lisbon.

It only remains for us to add a Despatch of the Earl of Aberdeen to the Marquis de Barbacena, in reply to a demand that Great Britain should, according to the stipulations of existing treaties, grant assistance to Donna Maria da Gloria to take possession of her kingdom.

In this Despatch the British Government endeavours to prove that England gave no guarantee against the effect of Don Miguel's conduct.

What must not be the enthusiasm of Russian agents at seeing England reduced to such shifts as these?]

THE EARL OF ABERDEEN TO THE MARQUIS DE

BARBACENA.

Foreign Office, 4th February, 1829.

THE undersigned, &c. thinks it unnecessary to repeat the statements which he has already had the honour of addressing to the Marquis de Barbacena, &c. in reply to the arguments brought forward by his Excellency, with the view of establishing the claim of her Most Faithful Majesty, under the existing treaties between Great Britain and Portugal, to receive from the King his master those effectual succours which may be necessary for the conquest of her kingdom. For although these arguments have been again adduced by the Marquis de Barbacena, in the note dated on the 27th of January, which the undersigned has had the honour to receive, yet as, in the judgment of the undersigned, they have been already fully disproved, he is content to leave the result of the discussion to the deliberate reflection of the Marquis de Barbacena himself.

It may be maintained that the stipulations of the treaties existing between the two Crowns give no right to claim the succour in question. It may be contended, with equal justice, that the conduct of the Infant Don Miguel, since his return to Lisbon, can afford no valid grounds for imposing upon Great Britain the obligation of complying with the demands of the Marquis de Barbacena.

Had it been the object of the Marquis de Barbacena's note to describe that conduct, and to awaken the resentment of his Majesty, the task, although perhaps superfluous, would not have been difficult, for, in point of fact, his Majesty had already evinced his displeasure, in the most grave and unequivocal manner, without having recourse to the extremity of war. His Majesty resented the conduct of the Infant precisely in the same manuer as the Emperor Don Pedro himself, who maintains a commercial intercourse between the sub

jects of Portugal and Brazil, although his diplomatic relations with the Portuguese Government have ceased.

But the question for his Majesty's Government to consider is, not the degree of reprobation which may be due to the measures adopted by Don Miguel, but, whether or not, it can be truly asserted, that his Majesty has given any guarantee against the effects of the misconduct in question. Upon this subject the undersigned entertains no doubt whatever, and the absence of any such guarantee is a sufficient answer to the remonstrance of the Marquis de Barbacena.

The Marquis de Barbacena, probably feeling that neither the stipulations of existing treaties, nor the conduct of this misguided Prince, afford his Excellency any real grounds for demanding from his Majesty succours, of the nature to which he has referred, now proposes that his Majesty should enter into a new treaty with the Emperor of Brazil, expressly for the purpose of effecting the con quest of Portugal. To this proposition his Majesty's servants can by no means advise his Majesty to accede. Such a course, which has not been sanctioned by existing treaties, would, if adopted under present circumstances, be both imprudent and unjustifiable. It is clear to the undersigned that to enter into a treaty with Brazil, as proposed by the Marquis de Barbacena, would be, in point of fact, to throw the whole burden of the conquest on the King his master, while the Emperor Don Pedro would be the nominal principal in the war. The King's servants cannot but foresee likewise that their acquiescence in the proposal of the Marquis, sooner or later, might but too probably involve all Europe in a war, a misfortune which, as it is the greatest they are able to contemplate, they are determined to avert by every means in their power.

The prosperity of Portugal and of the House of Braganza being objects constantly near the heart of his Majesty, no time was suffered to elapse after the disappointment of his Majesty's hopes by the conduct of Don Miguel, before his Majesty sent his ambassador to the Court of Rio de Janeiro, furnished with instructions, which the circumstances of the case appeared to demand, and which might have been effectual in producing a reconciliation between the Em