There were members who boldly asserted in Parliament that the Portugueze did not like the English. A more groundless assertion had seldom been hazarded there. The connexion between England and Portugal was not an ordinary one, built upon immediate interests, and liable to change with the chance of circumstances. There were nations with whom, during the long struggle against Buonaparte, we were in league one day, and at war the next, the hostility being without anger, and the alliance without esteem. Our friendship with Portugal was like our enmity to France, founded upon something deeper. From the day when Portugal first became a kingdom, with the exception of that unfortunate period when the Philips usurped its crown, England had been its tried and faithful friend. When Lisbon was conquered from the Moors, English crusaders assisted at the siege; ... English archers contributed to the victory of Aljubarrota, which effected the first deliverance of Portugal from Castille; ... an Englishwoman, a Plantagenet, was the mother of that Prince Henry, whose name will for ever remain conspicuous in the history of the world; ... the Braganzan family, when it recovered its rights, applied, and not in vain, to its hereditary ally; ... and when Lisbon was visited by the tremendous earthquake of 1755, money was immediately voted by the English parliament for the relief of the Portugueze people; and ships laden with provisions were dispatched to them in a time of scarcity at home[13]. These things are not forgotten ... if there be a country in the world where the character of the English is understood, and England is loved as well as respected, it is Portugal. The face of its rudest mountaineer brightens when he hears that it is an Englishman who accosts him; and he tells the traveller that the English and the Portugueze were always ... always friends. ♦SIR A. WELLESLEY’S INSTRUCTIONS.♦ That old and honourable friendship was now once more to be tried and approved. An expedition sailed in March for Portugal. The commander’s instructions were, in case he should find that Lisbon had been evacuated by the British troops, to proceed to Cadiz, and land the army there, if the government would admit them into the garrison. Mr. Canning stated in his advice to Mr. Frere, that the delicacy of this point was felt and acknowledged, and the former refusal had been received without the least resentment or surprise. But circumstances were now materially changed. The security of Cadiz was impaired while the French possessed Portugal, and it was thought advisable to give the Junta one more opportunity of reconsidering the question. Permission would now undoubtedly have been granted had it been required; fortunately it was not needed. ♦GENERAL BERESFORD APPOINTED COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE PORTUGUEZE ARMY.♦