The subjugation of Portugal was neither a recent nor a secret project of Napoleon’s. His intentions with respect to the house of Braganza were known in 1806 to Mr. Fox, who sent lord Roslyn, lord St. Vincent, and general Simcoe on a politico-military mission to Lisbon, instructing them not only to warn the court that a French force destined to invade Portugal was assembling at Bayonne, but to offer the assistance of an English army to repel the danger. The cabinet of Lisbon affected to disbelieve the information, Mr. Fox died during the negotiation, and the war with Prussia diverting Napoleon’s attention to more important objects, he withdrew his troops from Bayonne. The tory administration, which soon after overturned the Grenville party, thought no further of the affair, or at least did not evince as much foresight and ready zeal as their predecessors. They kept, indeed, a naval force off Lisbon, under the command of sir Sydney Smith; but their views seem to have been confined to the emigration of the royal family, and they intrusted the conduct of the negotiations to lord Strangford, a young man of no solid influence or experience. Suddenly, the Russian squadron, under admiral Siniavin, took refuge in the Tagus, and this unexpected event produced in the British cabinet an activity which the danger of Portugal had not been able to excite. [Sidenote: Parliamentary Papers, 1809.] [Sidenote: Sir John Moore’s Journal, MS.] It was supposed, that as Russia and England were in a state of hostility, the presence of the Russian ships would intimidate the prince regent, and prevent him from passing to the Brazils, wherefore sir Charles Cotton, an admiral of higher rank than sir Sydney Smith, was sent out with instructions to force the entrance of the Tagus, and to attack admiral Siniavin. To ensure success, general Spencer, then upon the point of sailing with five thousand men upon a secret expedition, was ordered to touch at Lisbon, and sir John Moore, with ten thousand men, was withdrawn from Sicily, and directed to aid the enterprise; but before the instructions for the commanders were even written, the prince regent was on his voyage to the Brazils, and Junot ruled in Lisbon. Sir John Moore, however, arrived at Gibraltar, but hearing nothing of sir Sydney Smith, nor of general Spencer, proceeded to England, and reached Spithead the 31st of December, from whence, after a detention of four months, he was despatched upon that well-known and eminently foolish expedition to Sweden, which ended in such an extraordinary manner, and which seems from the first to have had no other object than to keep an excellent general and a superb division of troops at a distance from the only country where their services were really required.