Heligoland was captured on September 4th, 1807, and whilst the Government were still debating about the best means of making use of it, news was arriving from the opposite corner of Europe which made the new acquisition seem more and more valuable, for the French designs on Portugal were becoming manifest. The Prince Regent’s friendship for us was receiving shock after shock from Napoleon’s menaces, and it was obvious that the time was at hand when the cordon which had blocked against our shipping every harbour from the Baltic to Dalmatia, except Gibraltar and the coasts of Portugal, would be drawn across the entrance of the Tagus also. Napoleon demanded three things of the Prince Regent. Two of these demands, of which the whole number were levelled against England, the Prince had courage to refuse, namely, the detention of all Englishmen then in Portugal, and the confiscation of their property. The third demand, which was also the most important of the three, he at last conceded, with a kind of weak belief that he would thereby, while sacrificing the neutrality of his country, promote a general peace; and accordingly, on October 27th, Mr. Chamberlain, the Post-Office agent at Lisbon, transmitted to his Department a copy of a proclamation issued on the 22nd, which announced that the harbours of Portugal were henceforth closed to British vessels, whether of war or commerce. “Some private information I have just received,” wrote the agent, in commenting on this proclamation, “leads me to apprehend that this government may seize the English who remain here—and certainly they have had strong and sufficient warning to withdraw—in order thereby to appease the wrath of Bonaparte.” And he went on to lament that the moment had been let slip for supporting the Prince Regent with a British fleet. “Every preparation is made to oppose the entry of a fleet, and I much fear that it will now be impossible for any but a very immense force to attempt the Tagus. I have long dreaded this, for I have been aware of the system that was being carried out, and it grieves me beyond expression to see the moment rapidly approaching when the navy and all the Brazilmen, which are just so many men-of-war, the finest vessels in the world for carrying troops, fall into the hands of Bonaparte. There is perhaps yet time to prevent this evil, but it is barely possible....”