t
it;--certain it is that, betrayed and trampled upon as they had been,
they held unprecedented claims upon humanity to secure them from further
outrages.--Moreover, our conduct towards them was grossly inconsistent.
For we entered their country upon the supposition that they had such
sensibility and virtue; we announced to them publickly and solemnly our
belief in this: and indeed to have landed a force in the Peninsula upon
any other inducement would have been the excess of folly and madness.
But the Portugueze _are_ a brave people--a people of great courage and
worth! Conclusions, drawn from intercourse with certain classes of the
depraved inhabitants of Lisbon only, and which are true only with
respect to them, have been hastily extended to the whole Nation, which
has thus unjustly suffered both in our esteem and in that of all Europe.
In common with their neighbours the Spaniards, they _were_ making a
universal, zealous, and fearless effort; and, whatever may be the final
issue, the very act of having risen under the pressure and in the face
of the most tremendous military power which the earth has ever seen--is
itself evidence in their favour, the strongest and most comprehensive
which can be given; a transcendent glory! which, let it be remembered,
no subsequent failures in duty on their part can forfeit. This they must
have felt--that they had furnished an illustrious example; and that
nothing can abolish their claim upon the good wishes and upon the
gratitude of mankind, which is--and will be through all ages their due.
At such a time, then, injuries and insults from any quarter would have
been deplorable; but, proceeding from us, the evil must have been
aggravated beyond calculation. For we have, throughout Europe, the
character of a sage and meditative people. Our history has been read by
the degraded Nations of the Continent with admiration, and some portions
of it with awe; with a recognition of superiority and distance, which
was honourable to us--salutary for those to whose hearts, in their
depressed state, it could find entrance--and promising for the future
condition of the human race. We have been looked up to as a people who
have acted nobly; whom their constitution of government has enabled to
speak and write freely, and who therefore have thought comprehensively;
as a people among whom philosophers and poets, by their surpassing
genius--their wisdom--and knowledge of human nature, have
circulated--an