Whilst warlike preparations were making on every side, the ministers often received memorials from individuals, pointing out the object of our first attack.
The French have for some time been greatly addicted to politics. It is pretended that we caught the infection from the English, and that it was communicated to France by the way of Calais. A man of great wit said to me one day upon this head, that since this contagion had spread, an infinite number of people, whose labour and industry might have been very beneficial to the state, became idle spectators. In England this rage is not so dangerous; the citizens engage themselves as well with their own private affairs, as with the administration in general. But in France, when a man gives himself up to politics, he passes his life systematically.
The Count D’Argenson shewed me a memorial, which he had received from an unknown hand, bearing this title, Important advice to the government.
“We should not wage war, said the anonymous author, either in Germany or in America; the English navy is superior to ours: the English will in the end have the advantage over us. In opposing ourselves to their forces, we shall only compleatly ruin our own.
“We should take the field with a bold stroke. It should seem for some time past, as if our ministers were paid by the English government, to go into all the snares that were laid for them. It is only necessary that the court of London chalk out a plan, for that of Versailles to follow them. This bold stroke is to enter into alliance with Spain, and invade Portugal provisionally. The Portuguese are allies of the English, and this is a sufficient plea to conquer them: I say this is sufficient, for princes have long since thought they had no occasion for a pretext to make war: it was only necessary that an invasion favoured their designs.
“That kingdom is easy to invade; Portugal has neither armies nor officers, for we should not consider as soldiers, a few natives badly disciplined, who never saw fire, and commanders that never served. Some months must elapse before the English can send them troops and generals. Lisbon will be taken before the English fleet can set sail to defend it.
“Portugal being once in the hands of the French, the English will attempt nothing; or else at the peace, they will give up every thing.
“To form a judgment of the importance of this invasion, the advantages which Great Britain derives from Portugal should be considered.
“All Europe knows that this kingdom has no manufactures, and that the English furnish the Portuguese not only with every thing which promotes their luxury, but even their physical wants. Forty thousand artizans, in every kind of trade, are constantly at work for them. Portugal maintains forty thousand of King George’s subjects. These contribute to the support of an equal number of other citizens; and as this primitive industry is the source of infinite subordinate species of it, the interruption given to these manufactures would occasion a diminution in the general circulation.
“Eight thousand merchantmen sail every year from the river Thames to enter the Tagus; twenty thousand English sailors are therefore supported by this single branch of commerce.