cities in Europe. Whole families were suddenly reduced to poverty and absolute want. All who depended for employment and subsistence upon foreign trade, were now destitute. Their trinkets went first, what ever was saleable followed; these things were sold at half their value, while the price of food was daily augmenting. Persons who had lived in plenty and respectability were seen publickly asking alms, and women, hitherto of unblemished virtue, walked the streets, offering themselves to prostitution, that the mother might obtain bread for her starving children, the daughter for her starving parents. These were sights which the French generals and officers beheld without compunction; but the consequences which their invasion produced in the provinces threatened to affect themselves. Their march through the country had been like that of an army of locusts, leaving famine wherever they past. The peasantry, some utterly ruined by this 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 South America, contributed to exterminate the Indians, and at one time materially distressed and endangered their cruel conquerors.— They thought it was useless to sow the seed if the French were to enjoy the harvest; and so generally did this feeling operate, that the mock regency, which acted under Junot, found it necessary to issue orders compelling them to go on with the usual business of agriculture.

The encouragement of agriculture was made a pretext for breaking up the Portugueze army. 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. The Spanish general at Porto, acting upon the same system a's Junot, and, as yet, unsuspicious

of the fate which the French were preparing for his own country, issued a similar order; and the marquis de Soccorro, who commanded at Setubal, as governour of the new kingdom, in which he expected that that miserable puppet and traitor the prince de la Paz would soon be invested, diabanded, by one sweeping decree, all the Portugueze militias, discharged all the married men from the regular army, and invited all others to apply for leave of absence. In the partition and invasion of Por tugal, the wretched 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 trea cherous allies. Neither insult nor outrage was committed by them; and while all the measures of the French were directed to the two purposes of enslaving the Portugueze, and enriching themselves, the Spanish generals courted and obtained the good opinion of the people. The province of Alem Tejo suffered no exactions during the time that it was under the marquis de Soccorro; and while Junot's edicts were in one uniform spirit of tyrant ny, the Spanish marquis was offering rewards to those who raised the greatest crops, or bred the most numerous flocks and herds. Some of his decrees indicated a curious passion for legislating. 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 judgment without farther examination; the party cast, however, re

tained a right of appeal to the su periour courts. If the value exceed ed this 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.

This decree implied good intentions, however inadequate the means may have been to produce the end designed; but another of the marquis's projects seems to have been borrowed from the policy 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, to prevent all idleness, 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 punish ment might be inflicted. He was also to walk his rounds for at least an hour every night, accompanied with 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. Such a system of police, if it were practicable in Europe, would be pernicious; but though the marquis was a visionary politician, his feelings seem to have been originally so good, that it is to be lamented such a man should have become the tool of the French, and sacrificed his life and his honour in their service.

The conduct of the Spanish soldiers corresponded with the dispositions of their chiefs. Accustomed

to the same habits of life, attached to the same idolatry 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 experienced none of those insults and oppres sions under which the inhabitants of Lisbon were suffering. Notice was given in that city that all Brazilians who wished to return to their own country might obtain passports and permission to embark in neutral ships. All who could assign any pretext for availing themselves of the permission, hastened to purchase passports, and the money which the French exacted in this instance was cheerfully paid. Meantime the most rigorous measures were taken to prevent any person from effecting his escape to the English squadron. All the fishing boats were divided into districts denoted by letters, and then numbered, and compelled to have their letter and number painted on the bow and quarter in white, and of a foot high. The master of every boat was bound to carry a list containing the letter of his district, the number of his boat, his name, his dwelling place, and the number and names of the men on board.→ This list was to be his passport at the different batteries, and his protection from the guard or watch boats which patroled the river, and were charged to apprehend every person whose name was not inscribed in the list, and to seize the vessel as a prize. The magistrates of every district were also to deliver a list of all the owners of fishing boats, in order that their property might be seized in case of any infraction of these rules; and a counter list was to be kept on board the floating battery. All the owners, of whatever district, were to appear every Saturday at this floating battery, and have their lists 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 six and thirty for the first offence, three for the second, and confiscation of the boat and corporal punishment for the third.

About the middle of January, Junot went, with more than his usual pomp, to the foundery, broke the portraits of the Braganza kings, and gave orders that the Portugueze arms should no longer be placed upon the cannon. Two days after wards he returned, and ordered the royal arms that were carved in stone over the entrance, to be defaced: no Portugueze would be the instrument of this poor insult, though the workmen were tempted by the offer of a six and thirty. Some French soldiers were then told to do the work. They broke the crown in pieces, and defaced the shield; and no sooner had they left the place than the populace eagerly gathered up the fragments of the crown, to preserve them as relicks. It was remarked that the invaders became more insolent after they had disbanded the Portuguese troops. As a body they could not have feared them; but every individual was, in some measure, restrained by the apprehension of individual vengeance; and any tumult which might take place would have been rendered far more serious if the military, as was natural, had taken part with the people. They now began to insult the Portuguese with scoffs and sarcasms, and openly to plunder them. This was not always done with impunity. A man at Mafra killed two Frenchmen with a reaping hook. He was put to death for it; but, to his last breath, he gloried in what he had done, and repeated, that, if all his countrymen were like him, there should not a single Frenchman remain alive. The name

VOL. V.

of this brave Portuguese was Jacinto Correia.

On the first of February the guns were fired, and Junot informed the people, in a proclamation, that the fate of Portugal was decided, and her future felicity secured, because Napoleon the Great had taken her under his omnipotent protection. The house of Braganza had ceased to reign, and the fine country which formerly had been their portion was now to be governed in his name, and by the general in chief of his army. "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 Portuguese troops, commanded by their most approved leaders, 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 publick revenues will secure to every one the reward of his labours. Publick instruction, that mother of national civilisation, shall be extended over the provinces, and Algarve and Beira will one day have their Camoens. The religion of your forefathers, the same which we all profess, shall be protected. Justice shall be freed from the delay and arbitrary will which paralysed it heretofore; the publick tranquillity shall no more be disturbed by robbers, and deformed mendicity no longer drag its filthy attire through this superb capital." The Portuguese author bursts out in a strain of indignant irony upon what he calls this French masterpiece, this oracle of felicity. "The roads and canals which were opened," he exclaims, "were sackages, deaths, and desolations. The publick instruction was,

that all the schools were closed; that the professors were driven out to find subsistence where they could; that some of the scholars fled, and some died of hunger! The protection which the French afforded to religion was, that they stript the altars, stole the church plate, murdered the priests, defaced the images, and mocked the God who created them! The administration of justice was, that whoever had money won his cause; whoever could get the interest of a physician to his excellency, of a colonel Prost, a prince of Salm-salm, a general Loison, a madame, French or Portuguese, carried every thing, and overcame all difficulties. Robbers there were, indeed, none, after the French entered; for they were ashamed to exercise their vocation before such expert proficients as the soldiers of Napoleon. There was not an oliveyard which they did not cut down when they wanted fire; not a house in which they did not take up their quarters as in an inn; and when they went out of it, they were loaded with the bedclothes. Deformed mendicity was no longer to appear; but the number of mendicants was tripled, and they lay dying for want, in the streets! And the tranquillity and security of the people was, that they forsook the villages and fled into the wilds, and, even there, were persecuted and hunted down."

The device of Buonaparte was now placed over the arsenal. It was an eagle upon an anchor. 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 for the omnipotent Napoleon, and protection promised in his name, an edict appeared, dated from Milan, December 23, imposing a war contribution extraordinary of 100,000,000 of franks upon the kingdom of Portugal, as a ransom for individual property of every kind. Junot decreed,

that the two millions of cruzados atready paid (which he raised as a loan, and now called a contribution) should be accounted as part of this sum, and allowed for in the final payment. Six millions were to be paid by the commercial part of the country; one third on the first of March, one on the first of May, and the remaining one on 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, within the city of Lisbon and its district, was to be carried to the mint within fifteen days, no other plate being excepted than what was necessary for decent 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. All archbishops, bishops, religious orders, and dignitaries, who possessed any revenue, from land or cattle of any kind, should contribute two thirds of the whole yearly income, if that income did not exceed 16,000 cruzados, and three fourths if it did; for which they were to be excused from paying the tenths for the current year! Every person enjoying a benefice producing from six hundred to nine hundred milreis per year, should contribute two thirds of his income, three fourths if it exceeded the latter sum. All commendadors of the religious orders, or of Malta, should also pay two thirds of their revenue. The donatories of crown property were to pay a dou ble tax. All owners of houses, half the rent for which they were let, or a proportionate sum if they inhabited them themselves. All landholders, two tenths, in addition to the former imposts. The tax upon horses, mules, and servants, was doubled. The Juiz do Povo, under