FRENCH INVASION OF PORTUGAL.
Napoleon was equally clamorous against England as was Alexander for her conduct towards Denmark. While, however, he was making Europe ring with his maledictions against her, for violating the neutrality of Denmark, he was devising schemes and giving positive orders for falling upon Portugal in a time of peace. On the 27th of October it was agreed between France and Spain—That Spain should grant a free passage through her territories, and supply with provisions a French army to invade Portugal; that she should also furnish a body of troops to co-operate with the said French army; and that as soon as the conquest should be completed, the provinces which now composed the kingdom of Portugal should be divided between the King of Etruria, the King of Spain’s grandson, and Manuel Godoy, who was the Queen of Spain’s infamous favourite. Thus the province of Jutra Douro, and Minho, with the city of Oporto, was to fall to the lot of the King of Etruria, and was to be erected into a kingdom, under the name of Northern Lusitania; and the sovereignty of the Alentejo and Algarves was to be given to Godoy, who was to assume the title of the Sovereign Prince of the Algarves. These two principalities were to own the King of Spain as their protector; but France was to keep the city of Lisbon, and the provinces of Tras-os-Montes, Beira, and Estremadura until the period of a general peace. In consideration of obtaining this new kingdom, the Queen of Etruria, acting as regent for her son, was to abdicate and give to Napoleon those districts in Italy which he had previously annexed to the King of Etruria’s kingdom. This treaty was not signed, as before seen, until the 27th of October; but nine days before this a French army had crossed the Bidaso, and had commenced its march through Spain for the Portuguese frontier. This army was commanded by Junot; and on the 26th of November that commander advanced to Abrantes, within three days’ march from Lisbon. The Moniteur had already announced that “the house of Braganza had ceased to reign;” and as if to fulfil this imperial edict, the royal family embarked on board a British fleet and set sail for the Brazils, leaving the country in the hands of the enemy. In the whole, about 18,000 Portuguese abandoned their homes and their country with their sovereign. They were accompanied a part of their voyage by a strong British squadron, under the command of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith; and when that commander left them, he returned to blockade the Tagus. Junot’s first measure was, on entering Lisbon, to disarm the inhabitants: and this done he commenced the levy of contributions. In every respect he treated the country as a conquest of France, and his Spanish auxiliaries followed the example of his rapacity. The Portuguese, indeed, were so oppressed by the French and Spanish, that they everywhere cherished the intention of rising upon the invaders, and they looked to England, whose flag was never out of sight of their coasts, for aid in their extremity.