should be delivered
immediately to the Portugueze government,--would the delivering up of
them wipe away the affront? Would it not rather appear, after the
omission to recognize the right, that we had ostentatiously taken upon
us to bestow--as a boon--- that which they felt to be their own?

Passing by, as already deliberated and decided upon, those conditions,
(Articles II. and III.) by which it is stipulated, that the French army
shall not be considered as prisoners of war, shall be conveyed with
arms, &c. to some port between Rochefort and L'Orient, and be at liberty
to serve; I come to that memorable condition, (Article V.) 'that the
French army shall carry with it all its equipments, that is to say, its
military chests and carriages, attached to the field commissariat and
field hospitals, or shall be allowed to dispose of such part, as the
Commander in Chief may judge it unnecessary to embark. In like manner
all individuals of the army shall be at liberty to dispose of _their
private property_ of _every_ description, with full security hereafter
for the purchasers.' This is expressed still more pointedly in the
Armistice,--though the meaning, implied in the two articles, is
precisely the same. For, in the fifth article of the Armistice, it is
agreed provisionally, 'that all those, of whom the French army consists,
shall be conveyed to France with arms and baggage, _and_ all their
private property of every description, no part of which shall be wrested
from them.' In the Convention it is only expressed, that they shall be
at liberty to depart, (Article II.) with arms and baggage, and (Article
V.) to dispose of their private property of every description. But, if
they had a right to dispose of it, _this_ would include a right to carry
it away--which was undoubtedly understood by the French general. And in
the Armistice it is expressly said, that their private property of every
description shall be conveyed to France along with their persons. What
then are we to understand by the words, _their private property of every
description_? Equipments of the army in general, and baggage of
individuals, had been stipulated for before: now we all know that the
lawful professional gains and earnings of a soldier must be small; that
he is not in the habit of carrying about him, during actual warfare, any
accumulation of these or other property; and that the ordinary private
property, which he can be supposed to have a _just_ titl