"It was the opinion of the Council that Lord Cochrane's pension ought to be paid, notwithstanding any question as to the limitation of prizes, or any defects in the prize accounts."—Correio Mercantil, Aug. 29, 1854.
Yet notwithstanding these expressions of opinion, less than half the interest of even the limited sum admitted to be due to me was awarded.
The Commissioners admit in the preceding Report that my speedy annexation of the Portuguese provinces was unexpected, and this alone should have made them pause ere they awarded me less than half the interest of my own money, withheld for 30 years—themselves retaining the principal—the amount received, being, in reality, insufficient to liquidate the engagements which I had of necessity incurred during the thirty years of neglect to satisfy my claims—now admitted to be beyond dispute. Their admission involves the fact that the "unexpected" expulsion of the Portuguese fleet and army saved Brazil millions of dollars in military and naval expeditions against an organised European power, which only required time to set at complete defiance any efforts which Brazil herself was in a condition to make. It was, in fact, a question of "speedy" annexation, or no annexation at all, and it was this consideration which impelled me to the extraordinary measures adopted for the intimidation of the enemy, in the absence of means for their forcible expulsion. But is it generous to reward a service of such admitted importance, by giving me less than half the interest of a sum—acknowledged as a right which could no longer be withheld?
Is it not ungenerous to exclude me from my share of the prize-money taken in the first expedition, though a prize tribunal is at this moment sitting in Rio de Janeiro to consider the claims of officers and men, nine-tenths of whom are dead? Is it not ungenerous to have engaged me in the extra-professional service of putting down revolution and anarchy in the Northern provinces, and when the mission was successfully accomplished, to have dismissed me from the Imperial service without one expression of acknowledgment or the slightest reward?
But to put generosity out of the question—is it wise so to do? That, says Burke—"can never be politically right which is morally wrong." Brazil, doubtless, expects other nations to keep faith with her, and it is not wise on her part to afford a precedent for breaking national faith. The Amazon is a rich prize, and may one day be contested. What reply would Brazil give to a power which might attempt to seize it, under the argument that she broke faith with those who gave her the title to this, the most magnificent river on the face of the earth, and that therefore it was not necessary to preserve faith with her? It would puzzle Brazilian diplomatists to answer such a question.
From what has been adduced in this volume, it must be clear to all who have perused it with ordinary attention that Brazil is to this day in honour bound to fulfil the original stipulations solemnly entered into with me, and twice guaranteed under the Imperial sign manual, with all the official ratifications and formalities usual amongst civilized states. This I claim individually; and further—conjointly with the squadron—my share of the prize-money conceded to the captors by Imperial decree, without which customary incentive neither myself, nor any other foreign officer or seaman, would have been likely to enter the service. My individual claim, viz. the pay stipulated in the Imperial patents, was agreed upon without limitation as to time, as is clear from the expression that I should receive it whether "afloat or ashore," "tanto em terra como no mar," i.e. whether "actively engaged or not"—whether "in war or peace." I have committed no act whereby this right could be cancelled, but was fraudulently driven from the Imperial service, as the shortest way of getting rid of me and my claims together. These are no assertions of mine, but are the only possible deductions from documents which have one meaning, and that incontestible.
I claim, moreover, the estate awarded to me by His Imperial Majesty, with the double purpose of conferring a mark of national approbation of my services, and of supporting the high dignities to which—with the full concurrence of the Brazilian people and legislature—I was raised as a reward for those services, the magnitude and importance of which were on all hands admitted. To have withheld that estate, after the reasons assigned by His Imperial Majesty for conferring it, was a national error which Brazil should not have committed, and which it should, even now, be careful to efface; for by approving the dignities conferred, and withholding the means of supporting them, it has pronounced its highest honours to be worthless, empty sounding titles, lightly esteemed by the givers, and of no value to the recipient. Had this estate cost anything to the Brazilian nation, a miserable economy might have been pleaded as a reason for withholding it; but even this excuse is wanting. Any territorial grant to myself could only have been an imperceptible fraction of the vast regions, which, together with an annual revenue of many millions of dollars—my own exertions, without cost to the Empire, had added to its dominions "unexpectedly" as the Commission appointed to investigate my claim felt bound to admit. If Brazil value its national honour, that blot upon it should not be suffered to remain.
With regard to the sum owing to me by Chili, for which, in the event of its non-payment, both His Imperial Majesty Don Pedro I. and his Minister José Bonifacio de Andrada made the Brazilian nation responsible. The discussion in the National Assembly testifies to the validity of the claim, which therefore rests upon the generosity no less than the good faith of Brazil, for whose interests, in accordance with the most flattering promises, I was induced to quit Chili. To this day, Chili has not fulfilled her obligations to me; the miserable pittance of £.6000, which—by some process I do not now care to inquire into, she has fixed upon as ample remuneration for one who consolidated her liberties and those of Peru, supporting her navy at its own expense during the operation—constituted no part of my admitted claim for the capture of Valdivia and other previous services, involving no dispute. Payment of this sum (67,000 dollars) was promised at the earliest possible period by the then Supreme Director of the Republic—but to this day the promise has never been redeemed by succeeding Chilian Governments. With regard to this claim, founded on the concessions of His late Imperial Majesty and his Minister, I am content, as before said, to leave the matter to the generosity of the Brazilian nation. The other, and more important claims, I demand as a right which has never been cancelled, and which a strict sense of national honour ought not longer to evade. If it be evaded, the documentary history of the whole matter is now before the world—and let the world judge between us. I have no fears as to its decision.