short time after the first rains. Oporto will be seized upon by a detachment, and they will be facilitated down the Tagus by large barco-longos. The Spanish army will probably secure all the passes, which the Portuguese cannot resist; three thousand men of a corps d'élite, under such an officer as Sir Brent Spencer or William Stuart, would secure St. Julien's and the Bonzée, I think; but Lord Rosslyn, General Oakes, or Colonel Stuart, who served under Sir Charles Stuart, who was sent to Portugal to examine into the state of the army and magazines, can give you a very correct statement of the force necessary for those important objects.

Your lordship is quite right in your judgment of sending Sir John Duckworth to cruize to the westward of the Rock of Lisbon; but you should not keep me here one hour, if you expect any thing decisive to be done with the court of Portugal.

Yours ever,

ST. VINCENT.

To Rear-Admiral Markham.

My dear Admiral,

Hibernia, near Ushant, 1st August 1806.

Scarce a day passes without my hearing of the ruin of one or more valuable young men, sub-lieutenants of gun-brigs. Mr. Simpson of the Haughty, who was day-mate of the San Joseph, and made a sub-lieutenant, is a recent instance of it; such a wretched squalid creature I never beheld; and Captain Ricketts tells me that a finer or better young man never existed, while he served in the San Joseph. You should give four boys of the second class to each gunbrig, in addition to her complement; they would very soon become good seamen.

Yours ever,

ST. VINCENT.

My dear Lord,

To Viscount Howick.

Hibernia, near Ushant, 2d August, 1806.

Is it not very probable the ten ships of the line in the outer road of Brest (which I am confident are held in readiness to proceed to sea at a moment's notice, notwithstanding the intelligence you have received to the contrary,) may, by eluding the vigilance of my successor, push for the Tagus? To provide for such an event, an instruction to Sir Charles Cotton, or Sir Charles Pole, to make the best of his way to the bar of Lisbon, should he not be able to ascertain the route of the enemy, seems advisable.

Every vessel we speak with from Bilboa, confirms the account of a French army being assembled at Bayonne, and that it is destined for Portugal; so that I entertain no doubt of the fact. There are fewer vessels than ever was known at Bayonne, St. Jean de Luz, Bilboa, St. Andero, St. Sebastian, or any of the ports on the north coasts of Spain; which proves that this army is not intended for embarkation.

I fear this westerly wind and rainy weather retard the progress of Lord Lauderdale, and keep Sir J. Duckworth in port: the good old maxim, of going to sea to look for a wind, being ill attended to. It is a practice I never will depart from during the summer months. We have not split a sail, or met with the most trifling accident, although we have been close in with Ushant, every day.

Yours most truly,

My dear Lord,

To Viscount Howick.

ST. VINCENT.

Off Ushant, August 8th, 1806.

The vigilance of the enemy has alone prevented Tom Johnstone from doing what he professed. I wish your

lordship could inspire the officers of his Majesty's fleet with the same zeal to protect them in port; where, I am bold to say, there is not an officer on deck, either at Spithead or the Downs, Cawsand Bay, the Nore, or Yarmouth Roads, during the night; and any of them might be carried by an open boat, or the whole destroyed by fire-vessels. Ever yours, most truly,

ST. VINCENT.

I

Tom Johnstone was a smuggler, a daring, intrepid fellow, and, I believe, outwitted a great many people besides the officers of the revenue. suspect he had a great hand in recommending the attack on the sluices of Slykens, by General Coote and Sir Home Popham.-See Naval History.

CHAPTER XV.

Lord St. Vincent arrives in the Tagus with six sail of the Line-State of Portugal at that time-Object of the mission-Precautions taken by the Admiral to facilitate the embarkation of the Court, should they decide not to go-Two letters to Viscount Howick-To B. Tucker -To Viscount Howick-Several on the subject of the mission, and the conduct of the court of Portugal-To Rear-Admiral MarkhamTo Henry Brougham, Esq. (now Lord Brougham)—To Viscount Howick-To ditto-To the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, now become first lord of the Admiralty-To the same-To Lord Howick -To Rear-Admiral Markham.

FROM the acute observations of his lordship the reader may now trace the causes of that revolution, which at this moment is desolating the unhappy Peninsula.

The history of the mission to the court of Portugal, in 1806, deserves the strictest attention. The predictions of Earl St. Vincent on this subject were realized. The weakness and vacillation of the house of Braganza justified all his most unfavourable anticipations. Unimproved by experience, unawed by events of daily occurrence, the princes of that corrupt family persevered in their deeds of misrule, cruelty and injustice, until the measure of their crimes was full; and the same causes which have invariably produced the same effects, have thrown not only the

kingdom of Portugal, but the whole peninsula, into a state of revolution, anarchy, and civil war. The emigration offered by Earl St. Vincent and Lord Strangford, in 1806, was rejected at the time, but embraced within two years after; and from that period to the present moment the affairs, both of Spain and Portugal, have been gradually sinking into what appears to be almost hopeless and interminable misery; to that state of misery which history, both sacred and profane, assures us has invariably been the lot of those nations, whose rulers and people have forsaken the paths of religion and of justice.

My dear Lord,

To Viscount Howick.

Hibernia, at anchor below Belem Castle, 14th August 1806.

It is not my intention to bring more ships of the line into the Tagus than is stipulated by treaty; the surplus will cruise in the vicinity, to be ready for the finale. The boats of such of the squadron as have joined are in good order, the Hibernia's numerous and powerful. I have taken measures to obtain uniformity in the clothing of the marines, by appointing Captain Lewis, an old and zealous officer, inspector-general. The captains, subalterns, and intelligent serjeants, embarked on board the other ships of the squadron, attend the parade of the Hibernia occasionally, and take pattern of our additional appointments, which are well adapted to this climate. We are waiting for the pratique-boat, but lest a packet should be upon the point of sailing, I enclose this to Lord Strangford.

Yours most truly,

ST. VINCENT.