s; without which help, as a British General has informed us, that
landing could not have been effected. And it is in this manner that
they are repaid! Scarcely have we set foot upon their country before we
sting them into self-reproaches, and act in every thing as if it were
our wish to make them ashamed of their generous confidence as of a
foolish simplicity--proclaiming to them that they have escaped from one
thraldom only to fall into another. If the French had any traitorous
partizans in Portugal, (and we have seen that such there were; and that
nothing was left undone on our part, which could be done, to keep them
there, and to strengthen them) what answer could have been given to one
of these, if (with this treaty in his hand) he had said, 'The French
have dealt hardly with us, I allow; but we have gained nothing: the
change is not for the better, but for the worse: for the appetite of
their tyranny was palled; but this, being new to its food, is keen and
vigorous. If you have only a choice between two masters, (such an
advocate might have argued) chose always the stronger: for he, after his
evil passions have had their first harvest, confident in his strength,
will not torment you wantonly in order to prove it. Besides, the
property which he has in you he can maintain; and there will be no risk
of your being torn in pieces--the unsettled prey of two rival claimants.
You will thus have the advantage of a fixed and assured object of your
hatred: and your fear, being stripped of doubt, will lose its motion and
its edge: both passions will relax and grow mild; and, though they may
not turn into reconcilement and love, though you may not be independent
nor be free, yet you will at least exist in tranquillity,--and possess,
if not the activity of hope, the security of despair.' No effectual
answer, I say, could have been given to a man pleading thus in such
circumstances. So much for the choice of evils. But, for the hope of
good!--what is to become of the efforts and high resolutions of the
Portugueze and Spanish Nations, manifested by their own hand in the
manner which we have seen? They may live indeed and prosper; but not by
us, but in despite of us.

Whatever may be the character of the Portugueze Nation; be it true or
not, that they had a becoming sense of the injuries which they had
received from the French Invader, and were rouzed to throw off
oppression by a universal effort, and to form a living barrier agains