SECTION VI.--ANARCHY IN PORTUGAL. _Sir J. Cradock to lord Castlereagh, February 20, 1809._ “_Northern parts._--It may be difficult to manage any money-transactions in Oporto, for the populace in that town have been suffered to become the masters; and it was by an exchange of public and private property that the commissariat money has been lately secured.” _Sir J. Cradock to Mr. Villiers, February, 1809._ “To gratify a mob, the other day, at Oporto, a guard of the sixtieth regiment was given up, and disarmed by baron Eben.” _Captain Brotherton to sir J. Cradock, March 17, 1809, Lamego._ “Considering the tumults, and the state of effervescence of the public mind, and the blind fury of the populace--it will neither be useful nor safe to remain amongst them.” _Sir J. Cradock to lord Castlereagh, March 26, 1809._ “The disposition is good, but the proceedings are those of an ungovernable mob, _exposed to the evil effects of designing persons_.”--“I confine myself to the north of Portugal and Oporto, for the same excesses have not taken place at this side the Douro; but the principles of insubordination, I should fear, would prevail.”--“If the confusion and anarchy that prevail at Oporto will permit a defence some exertion may be expected.”--“Ammunition has been abundantly supplied, _but no quantity would meet the consumption expended in the manner it has been in the Tras os Montes_; an attempt to save which was, I believe, the occasion of Bernadim Friere’s death.” _Sir J. Cradock to lord Castlereagh, March 30, 1809._ “The anarchy that prevails at Oporto must, I fear, render every exertion unavailable for defence; and such is the ungovernable spirit of the populace, _that it is very difficult to say what part they might take if the proceedings of the British did not suit their views_.” _Sir J. Cradock to Mr. Frere, March 29._ “Oporto and all its concerns, with the bishop, nominally, at its head, is in the hands of a wild ungovernable populace, _that has already committed the most cruel excesses_. I fear the same spirit exists in what is called the Portuguese army.” _Sir J. Cradock to Mr. Frere, January 29, Lisbon._ “Without a British force in Lisbon, the authority of the regency would pass away, and the scenes of Oporto would take place here.” _Report of captain Lawson, January 30, Lisbon._ “Last night, my servant returning from the post-office was attacked by a party of Portuguese pike-men, headed by one of their own officers, who severely wounded the horse in two places, and slightly in several places, and obliged him, the servant, to put himself under the protection of the guard at the town-major’s office, to save his own life: the outrage was committed without the slightest provocation.” _General Langwerth to sir J. Cradock, February 1, Lisbon._