already too prevalent in the nation. In that paper, after insisting much on the insolence of the late English minister, and the little management with which the court of Madrid had been treated since his resignation, he affirmed, that if the purport of the secret treaty had been desired in a manner less offensive to the dignity of the catholic king, it might as easily have been obtained as it could have been justified, as it contained merely a reciprocal guarantee of the dominions of the several branches of the house of Bourbon, with this particular restriction, (seemingly thrown in to blind the British ministry) that it should extend only to the dominions which shall remain to France after the present war'.

Butthe fundamental articles of the treaty will furnish the best answer to that manifesto, and best explain the nature of the FAMILY COMPACT. By these it was stipulated, that the subjects of the several branches of the house of Bourbon shall be admitted to a mutual naturalization, and to a participation of the same privileges and immunities over all their European dominions, as those enjoyed by natural born subjects in the countries of their particular sovereigns. The direct trade to America forms the only material exception to this singular community of interests. Nor is the political union made less intimate than the civil.

The kings of Erance and Spain agree to look upon every power as their common enemy, which becomes the enemy of either; that war declared against the one shall be regarded as personal by the other; and that, when they happen to be both engaged in a war against the same enemy or enemies, they will wage it jointly with their whole forces, and observe the most perfect concert in their military operations. And they formally stipulate, that they will not make, or even listen to any proposal of peace from their common enemies, but by mutual consent; being resolved, in time of peace as well as of

7. Printed Manifesto.

war,

war, "each mutually to consider the interests of the allied crown as its own; to compensate their respective losses and advantages; and to act as if the two monarchies formed only one and the same power." The king of Spain contracts for the king of the Two Sicilies the obligations imposed by this treaty; and the three monarchs engage "to support, on all occasions, the dignity and rights of "their royal house, and those of the princes descended " from it."

To the boundless extent of these political stipulations, there is but one restriction; namely, that Spain shall not be bound to succour France, when she is involved in a war in consequence of her engagements by the treaty of Westphalia, or other alliances with the princes and states of Germany and the North; " unless some maritime power "takes part in those wars, or France be attacked by land " in her own country'." This exception of the maritime powers forms a key to the whole confederacy; as it shews, in the most satisfactory manner, against what power that confederacy is chiefly directed. It points out clearly, though obliquely, to the other powers of Europe, that their connection with Great-Britain is the principal circumstance which is to provoke the enmity of Spain; and to Great-Britain, that her humiliation is the grand object of the family compact.

This compact, which seems at length to have produced that intimate union between the French and Spanish monarchies, so much dreaded at the beginning of the present century, on the extinction of the Spanish branch of the house of Austria, (and which, as we have seen, it was the object of the partition treaties and the war of the grand alliance to prevent,) this compact would of itself have been sufficient, as soon as its true purport was known, to justify Great-Britain in declaring war against Spain; a power so intimately connected with her principal enemy, that it was become impossible to distinguish

8. Abstract of the family compact, published by the court of France. 9. Ibid.

the

the one from the other. And, after the steps that had been already taken, such a measure was now rendered unavoidable. Mutual declarations of war were accordingly issued by the courts of London and Madrid, in the beginning of the year; and the greatest preparations were made by both, for commencing hostilities with vigour and effect.

A. D. 1762.

Never had Great-Britain seen herself in 30 perilous a situation as the present. She was engaged, as a principal, in a war with the whole house of Bourbon; and, as an ally, she had the declining cause of the king of Prussia to support against the house of Austria, the empress of Russia, the king of Sweden, and the Germanic body. Nor was this all. As the strength of her victorious navy gave her a manifest superiority over the fleets of France and Spain, an expedient was fallen upon to engage her in a new land war; and, by that means, finally to exhaust her resources, and divert her attention from distant conquests or naval enterprises. This expedient was an attack upon the neutral kingdom of Portugal; a great political stroke, which naturally leads us to take a view of the state of that kingdom.

As Portugal, in some measure, owes to England the perfect recovery of her independency, and the family of Braganza their full establishment on the throne of that kingdom, the closest friendship has ever since subsisted between the two crowns. In consequence of this mutual friendship, founded on mutual interest, England gave a preference in her ports to the wines of Portugal above those of other countries: and obtained, in return for such indulgence, many exclusive privileges in her trade with that kingdom, of which she was considered to be the guardian. Envious of those commercial advantages, and sensible that England would not tamely relinquish them, whatever might be the disposition of his most faithful majesty, France suggested to Spain the invasion of Portugal; as the most effectual means of distressing their common enemy, if not of extending the dominions of the house of Bourbon.

The

The conquest of Portugal, indeed, seemed no distant or doubtful event. Sunk in ignorance and indolence, reposing in the protection of Engiand, and fed and adorned with the rich productions of Brazil, (where gold and diamonds are found in great abundance, and where the most luxuriant crops of rice and sugar may be raised almost without culture) the Portuguese had laid aside all attention to their internal defence. A long peace had utterly extinguished the martial spirit among them; and notwithstanding the increase of their resources, they had suffered their army insensibly to moulder away. The part of it which remained, was without discipline and without officers, and the fortresses on the frontiers were in no state of defence.

Nor were these the only circumstances favourable to the views of the house of Bourbon. Before Portugal had recovered from the shock of the earthquake that laid Lisbon in ruins, it experienced a civil convulsion of the most dangerous kind. This was a conspiracy against the life of Joseph, the reigning sovereign, and the fifth king of the house of Braganza. Less superstitious than most of his predecessors, he had banished the jesuits from his court; because their brethren in Paraguay, where they acted as sovereigns, had opposed the cession of certain territories, which he had exchanged with the king of Spain. He had also spirit and resolution to repress the encroachments of the Portuguese nobles, and to disconcert the ambitious views of the Duke d'Aviro, supposed to have a design upon the crown.

This nobleman, enraged at his disappointment in a favourite matrimonial alliance, by which he hoped to extend his political influence, entered into intrigues with the heads of the dissatisfied jesuits; namely, Malagrida, Alexander, and Mathos, formerly confessors to the royal family. They encouraged him in his purpose of destroying the king, and engaged in his conspiracy the Tavora family, the most ancient and powerful in the kingdom,

VOL. V.

3 G

kingdom, also disgusted with the court. The conspiracy failed, contrary to all human probability; and when it was SO near taking effect, that the king was dangerously wounded, by a shot through the back of his carriage in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, on the night of the third of September, 1758. He saved his life by returning to his country-house, instead of proceeding to the capital, in his way to which he would have been attacked by new assassins. The principal conspirators were seized, and executed in the beginning of the year 1759, and the jesuits of all descriptions were banished the kingdom. But the discontents among the nobility remained. The clergy were not in a better humour. The pope had resented the expulsion of the jesuits; and the body of the people, enslaved by the most blind superstition, made light of allegiance to a sovereign at enmity with the holy see.

Such was the state of the kingdom of Portugal, when the Spanish forces marched toward its defenceless frontiers, and the ministers of France and Spain presented to the court of Lisbon a joint memorial, (the first fruits of the family compact) in order to persuade his most faithful majesty to enter into the alliance of the two crowns, and to co-operate in their scheme for the humiliation of Great-Britain. In that memorial, they insisted. largely on the tyranny exercised by England over all other powers, (but especially in maritime affairs) and which the kings of Spain and Portugal were equally commanded by the ties of blood and their common interest to oppose. And they concluded with declaring, that as soon as his most faithful majesty had taken his resolution, which they doubted not would prove favourable, their troops were ready to enter Portugal, and garrison the fortresses of that kingdom, in order to avert the danger to which it might otherwise be exposed from the naval force of Great-Britain. To this extraordinary

10. Account of this conspiracy, published by the court of Lisbon.

memorial,