in the war excepting plunder.
Yet this is the war which his Majesty has been advised by his servants
to call, upon the assembling of his parliament, "a civil war between the
two branches of the house of Braganza in Portugal." The king is made, by
his Ministers, to declare that he is anxiously desirous to put an end to
this war. "I shall not fail to avail myself of any opportunity that may
be afforded me to assist in restoring peace to a country with which the
interests of my dominions are so intimately connected." Now, I know
something of war, and I know something of war in that country; and I
will tell noble Lords how they can put an end to it at once. Let them
put forth a proclamation recalling his Majesty's subjects from the
service of both parties engaged in the contest,--let them, at the same
time, carry into execution the law of the country; let them, when the
commissioners of the customs, in the execution of their exclusive duty,
seize vessels carrying out troops, ammunition and officers, who, I am
able to prove, are at this moment serving in those armies, leave the
adjudication of such seizures to the proper tribunals; and let not the
King's ministers interfere, and let them employ the British fleet in the
Levant, and other places, to which the attention of his Majesty's
government ought to be directed, instead of being employed in watching
the shores of the Douro and the Tagus--let them do all this, and they
will soon find that peace will be restored to Portugal without any
further sacrifice. But I am sorry to say these are not the measures
adopted by his Majesty's government, nor is the law carried into
execution by that government. My Lords, I engage to prove, that though
the commissioners of the customs did, in the autumn of 1831, detain
certain vessels in the Thames, having on board the very troops,
ammunition, and arms which have been since employed in this war; and
although these commissioners are, by the act of parliament, the persons
appointed to carry it into execution,--they were ordered, by a superior
power, not to interfere.

_February_ 5, 1833.

* * * * *

_Don Miguel de facto King of Portugal_.

Don Miguel having been appointed Sovereign by the Cortes, it was not the
business of the British government to offer any opposition to their
choice; and as long as we continued in office, we were seeking for the
means of recognizing Don Miguel as Sovereign, _de facto_, of