History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)Southey, Robert
History
History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5 (of 6)
Southey, Robert
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
the aid afforded to their ancestors in the hour of their distress. For
these reasons, the address should have his hearty concurrence.”
♦MR. PONSONBY.♦
Mr. Ponsonby in like manner, when the vote was moved in the Commons,
declared, “that it was not less due to the spirit of Portugal, than
to the magnanimity of Great Britain, ... that it was as consistent
with our interest, as it was material to our honour. The only regret,”
said he, “with which it is accompanied on my part, proceeds from the
reflection, that the vast expenditure of this country should render
it necessary to limit the vote to so small a sum.” But the liberality
of the British people has seldom been more conspicuously displayed,
than in the subscriptions which were made on this occasion. About
80,000_l._ was subscribed. The public grant was to be measured, not
by ♦PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION.♦ the necessities of the Portugueze sufferers,
but by the means of the British Government; and the Prince of Brazil
called it “a most ample donation, entirely corresponding to the
generosity with which a great nation and its Government had assisted
Portugal.” The individual proofs of beneficence were acknowledged in
the most honourable manner; the Prince issued an order, that the list
of subscribers should be printed at the royal printing-office, and
copies sent to the chambers of each of the suffering districts, where,
having been publicly read after mass, they should be laid up in the
_Cartorios_, or archives of the respective districts; the original list
was to be deposited among the royal archives in the Torre do Tombo at
Lisbon, “that the humanity of the one nation,” said the Prince, “and
the gratitude of the other may be attested to future generations.”
♦DISTRIBUTION OF THE GRANT.♦
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