Nothing shows more certainly the great advance of what were called “French principles”--that is to say, of democratic ideas--in Portugal during the last few years, than the cordial reception which Junot received. At Santarem he was welcomed by a deputation of the Freemasons of Portugal, who had been made by persecution, as in other continental countries, a secret society for the propagation of democratic ideas; the army made no attempt to resist; neither villages nor towns rose in insurrection; and the Council of Regency, which consisted of the Marquis of Abrantes, the Marquis of Olhão, General Francisco da Cunha e Menezes, General Francisco Xavier de Noronha, Principal Castro, and Pedro de Mello Breyner, President of the Treasury, instantly submitted. The people of Lisbon had been disgusted with the wavering and unpatriotic policy of the Prince Regent; they complained with reason that he had wasted time in diplomacy instead of preparing for defence; they contrasted his yielding to Spain at the Treaty of Badajoz with the gallant conduct of John I., and the successful wars of John IV.; and they looked upon his departure for Brazil as a base desertion of his country. For all these reasons they welcomed the French, and the democratic leaders hoped that the Emperor Napoleon would annex their country, and grant it representative institutions. Junot at first acted with the greatest prudence; he certainly raised two millions of francs in Lisbon by requisition, and seized all the money in the royal treasury, but at the same time he gratified the Portuguese people by refusing to give the Spaniards any of the plunder, and he encouraged them in the belief that the Emperor would not destroy their independence. His next step was to disband the whole Portuguese army, and to quarter French troops in all the more important cities and fortresses. Not satisfied with this, Junot then raised a powerful Portuguese force, consisting of two divisions of infantry, two regiments of çaçadores or light infantry, and three regiments of cavalry, which he despatched to France under the command of Lieutenant-General Dom Pedro de Almada, Marquis of Alorna, and Major-General Gomes Freire de Andrade. This force which was known as the Portuguese Legion, contained all the most disciplined officers and soldiers of the nation, and did gallant service under Napoleon throughout the French campaigns in Spain, Germany, and Russia, and the remnant of it served under his standards at Waterloo. Thus freed from the presence of the most dangerous element of resistance, Junot began to show his own disposition. He now made no effort to conciliate the Portuguese democrats, and laughed at their idea of a Portuguese constitution; he hoisted the tricolour flag on the Citadel of St. George; he divided the country into military governments under his generals; and finally on the 1st of February, 1807, he issued a proclamation “that the House of Braganza had ceased to reign.”