not surprising that no high opinion of the power of France fhould be entertained in a country where her flag is feldom feen, but in the humiliating state of flying for fhelter from an inferior enemy. p. 122-24.

Mr Baring has also been at the trouble of making a very full and satisfactory reply to the strange exaggerations and mistakes of the author of War in Disguise, with regard to the frauds which that writer asserts to have been practised under the neutral flag; and even condescends to refute the more vulgar calumnies as to the encroaching spirit of America, and her disposition to take advantage of our present embarrassments to advance claims which she knows to be inadmissible. Mr Baring shows, by an accurate review of our whole proceedings towards that country from the era of her independence, that the very reverse of this is the case; and that she has submitted, with very little remonstrance, to the various capricious and arbitrary changes which we have made for the regulation of her neutral traffic,-though some of those were of a nature the most injurious, and founded upon pretexts the most untenable. Both Mr Brougham and he establish, in the clearest manner, that the substance of our Orders in Council was known at Washington at least a week before the embargo was laid on by Congress on the 22d of December last.

It is to little purpose, we fear, now to lay those facts before the public. There is an infatuation upon us which nothing but positive suffering, we are afraid, can dispel. Never, certainly, in the history of the world, was there an example of such uniform, long continued and fatal ill success as has attended our war system for these last fifteen years; and yet we are as much wedded to it as sanguine in our views of success-as credulous of ministerial vaunting, and as angry at anxious warnings, as when it was yet unshamed by failure, and flattered us with the prospect of giving law to a regenerated world. It used to be a maxim among political philosophers, that wars were begun by the court, and ended by the people. One of the parties seems now to have forgotten its function. We hope it will not be reminded of it by any great calamity. We shall make a miserable peace, indeed, if we refuse to make it till compelled by an apparent necessity. But if Government will persist in maintaining its attitude of arrogant repulsion till forced from it by the clamours of the people;-if it will cheer on that sanguine but fickle people till it turn and bear them down in the tumult of its retreat;-if calamity alone can bring us to a sense of our situation -then we congratulate ourselves on the passing of the Orders in Council, as the mildest form of that medicinal calamity. If persisted in, they will infallibly produce the utmost wretchedness and embarrassment in the country, and occasion that terrible revulsion,

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yulsion, which is the natural end and expiation of all popular enthusiasm. We shall then be forced upon a disadvantageous and dishonourable peace; but it will neither be so bad, nor so dearly purchased, as if we were forced upon it by the conquest of Ireland, or reduced to hail it as the means of escaping a revolution and a civil war.

ART. XIV. A Sketch of the Caufes and Confequences of the late Emigration to the Brazils. By Ralph Rylance. Svo, pp. 84. London. Longman & Co. 1808.

Vindicia Lufitana: or, an Answer to a Pamphlet, entitled, "The Caufes and Confequences of the late Emigration to the Brazils." By Edward James Lingham, Efq. 8vo. PP. 70. London.

Budd. 1808.

THESE are the only productions which the very fingular event of the extinction of the antient kingdom of Portugal, and the emigration of its fovereign to South America, have hitherto called forth and, with the exception of fome difcuffion in the daily and weekly journals, and a very few incidental remarks in the first debates of the Seffion, it feems to have excited no fpeculation among the regular combatants in the political circles. Per haps this was fcarcely to be expected, when the subject bore little immediate relation to the grand matters in difpute between the contending parties, and only affected the greatest interests of the country, and the general happiness of the fpecies. We are quite fenfible how vifionary and romantic it muft appear to the high public characters of the day, to feel an uncommon interest in such indifferent matters. They neither influence the votes of fenators, nor touch upon places and patronage, nor contribute to the change of miniftry, nor help the government to a triumph over its antagonists. Neverthel fs, we take the liberty of viewing them as involving confiderations of the utmost importance, and leading to both fpeculative and practical difcuffions, as interefting as any that have ever occupied the attention of political reafoners. Therefore, we rejoice that an opportunity is afforded us of entering upon the inquiry; and avail ourfelves of the publications mentioned at the head of this article, for the purpofe of bringing the whole fubject before our readers.

The pamphlet of Mr Rylance is certainly by a good many degrees the abler of the two now before us; while both profess to difcufs the fubject upon general views-are diftinguished by a conGiderable

Eiderable knowledge of the fubject-are marked with the most praifeworthy liberality of views upon all the other political queftions that incidentally occur-and, what is rather a fingular cir cumftance, are both dedicated to Mr Roscoe of Liverpool. Mr Rylance is a great deal calmer and more modeft in his language than his antagonist, who really seems to have little command over his temper; and lays his abuse about him with a moft unsparing hand. He also enters more fully into the fubject; which Mr Lingham, anxious only to vindicate the Portugueze government, is very prone to leave on one hand of him. We fufpect, too, that the former gentleman, deriving his information wholly from books, has been more careful to ftudy the different parts of the queftion; while the latter, apparently acquainted with fome portion of it from practical observation, has fallen into the common error of defpifing what others have written, and remained ignorant of a great deal of his subject, for fear of catching an error or two among the inquiries of fpeculative men. Too much praife, however, cannot be beftowed on both thefe authors for their liberal views of political matters; and, in this refpect, Mr Lingham deferves the palm; because, having taken up a fide of the question altogether different from that which either of our political parties espoused, he has kept quite clear of the leaft appearance of faction; while Mr Rylance has, without any material qualification, except perhaps his praife of Mr Rofcoe in the dedication, adopted the precife line of argument taken by the perfons in oppofition to the prefent ministry.

After a preface vindicating the late minifters from certain filly afperfions of their fucceffors, Mr Rylance fets out with fome introductory remarks on the decline of the Portugueze monarchy, and a diftinct statement of the circumftances attending the great event in question. This is wholly taken from the documents published by the British government, from which our author gives the proper extracts, adding fome ftriking and important commentaries of his own. It is unneceffary for us to follow thefe details minutely. We fhall juft notice the points in difpute between Mr Rylance and Mr Lingham, and the general ftatement in which they both concur. It is admitted then, explicitly, by Mr Lingham, that no fhare whatever in the emigration can poffibly be claimed by the British ministry or their diplomatic agents at Lifbon. That was wholly, according to both thefe writers, the work of our enemies and our allies. The immediate fear of being conquered and dethroned, fays Mr Rylance, forced the Prince Regent to take a ftep which he wanted fpirit to take voluntarily. A magnanimous determination, fays Mr Lingham, not to fubmit to the lot of all monarchs whom the arms of France have overpowered, Q4

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induced out ancient ally to forfake his capital, and preferve his independence, by retreating beyond the power of the enemy. But both writers maintain, that England had no more to do with this meature than the man in the moon; and Mr Lingham goes out of his way repeatedly to condemn the British miniftry for attempte ing to arrogate any credit to themfelves for the refult of the enemy's threats and the Prince Regent's unaided deliberations. He even exprefsly fays, that the statement contained in Mr Rylance's note, p. 18, is, as far as he knows, perfectly correct. p. 28. And this statement, thus authenticated, we fhall extract, because it may be the means of preferving the remembrance of some material facts, which the arts of faction are conftantly attempting to pervert,

It is moft pofitively afferted by all the British residents in Lisbon who have lately returned, that the Prince was on board of ship when Lord Strangford went on fhore to feek him on the 27th; and that the flag of truce which Sir Sidney fent to request an audience on the 26th, returned with a notification from the Prince, that he was at that moment occupied in embarking. This was the first communication that took place between our envoy and the court of Portugal from the time of his leaving Lifbon, when the Prince of Brazil declared against us. It can. not be doubted, that these particulars are entitled to our belief on every account. The proclamations of the Prince are dated Nov. 26th; Lord Strangford faw his Royal Highnefs late on the 27th; on the 29th the whole Portuguefe fleet, royal family, court, troops, property, and all were at fea. This proves of itself the utter folly of conceiving that Lord Strangford's conference on the 27th could have affe&ted the proceedings of the court in the fmallest degree. Further, the despatch of Lord Strangford, if carefully examined, does by no means flate any thing at all inconfiftent with the fuppofition of his having gone afhore after the Prince Regent embarked. He does not fay that he saw the Prince on thore. He carefully avoids ftating, in direct terms, that his conference with the Prince had any hand in promoting the emigration. He fays nothing which can be conftrued into a direct attempt at miftating the facts, when the real truth comes to be known, But the defpatch is fo drawn up as to make ninety-nine readers in a hundred believe that Lord Strangford went on fhore on the 27th-faw the Prince there-talked him out of his alliance with France-and prevailed upon him to take refuge in the Brazils under the protection of England. It is impoffible that Lord Strangford fhould have written this despatch; and the government which fo attempts to deceive the public, by afcribing to itfelf and its agents what does not belong to them, feriously injures the character of the nation over whofe affairs it prefides. If any additional evidence were wanting, to prove the truth of the statements above made, we might mention that fimilar affertions have been repeatedly made in the public papers in favour of oppofition-and have never been denied by thofe under the influence of government,

It is perfectly manifeft, then, that the true explanation of the great event in queftion, is not to be found in the documents pub lifhed by the British government; and that this government stands convicted of a base and unworthy attempt, either to falfify the statements of their agent Lord Strangford, or to protect that noble Lord in giving to the world a delufive account of his conduct, for the purpose of arrogating to himself and his employers a credit which was due to neither. The whole tiffue of falfehood has moreover been fo clumfily woven, that the most cursory perufal of the papers is fufficient to detect the mean impofture. The mere confideration of dates is decifive of the question. To take only a fingle example. It turns out, that while Lord Strangford and Sir Sidney Smith were cruizing off the Rock of Lisbon by the firft part of the statement, his Lordship fhould by the latter part have been convincing the court on fhore that they should remove to the Brazils. It further appears, that after a fortnight's ceffation of intercourfe, (nay, and most hoftile proceedings on our part,) Lord Strangford went afhore one day; and the day after (in confequence, he tells us, of his conference with the Prince Regent) all hoftilities ceafed, and the Royal Family embarked for Brazil, and were out at fea in four and-twenty hours. Sir Sidney Smith, too, faw the hills covered with French troops, when there was not a foldier of that nation within eighty miles. But we ceafe to purfue fo humiliating a detail. Never was a more disgusting spectacle afforded, than this has been to all lovers of their country's honour; and whether the chargé d'affaires or the miniftry be the authors of the fabrication, the miniftry must bear the blame; for they adopted and patronized the imposture after it was detected; and though they have never, in any debate, dared to fay one word for their agent, they have rewarded him with honours, and fent him to reprefent his Sovereign.

The two authors now before us differ very widely on every other part of the fubject. Mr Rylance cannot explain Buonaparte's allowing the efcape of the Prince, unless he really meant and wifhed that this fhould take place. He is not, fays our author, fo bungling a politician as to permit events which are hurtful to him, and which he might, by a little forefight or activity, have prevented. To fuppofe a manifeft blunder on his part, is a difficulty which Mr Rylance would fain avoid. We have never feen him do fuch things:-we have no right to think it impoffible, that what has happened was the very thing he wished to fee. Any explanation, fays this writer, is more rational than the idea, that fo confummate a master of policy fhould, with his eyes open, have fallen into our fnare, and favoured the accomplishment of a mea Lure fubftantially detrimental to his interefts. Any fuppofition is

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