All difficulties being at length removed, the forts were delivered up, General Leite entered the city, and the French garrison, between 1400 and 1500 in number, were marched to Aldea Gallega. No insults were offered them on the way; and they were joined by their comrades, who, having been wounded at Evora, had been left in that city, and treated with careful humanity by the inhabitants. The garrison of Almeida were not removed so easily. The Portugueze had kept up an irregular blockade of that fortress after Loison’s departure; they borrowed fire-arms from the Spaniards of Ciudad Rodrigo, and were so little scrupulous in their mode of warfare, that a friar poisoned the water of a tank at which the cattle belonging to the garrison used to drink. Almeida might long have defied any efforts which the Portugueze or the Spaniards in that quarter could have made against it; it was, however, gladly delivered up, in conformity to the convention, and the garrison were marched to Porto, under a British escort, there to be embarked. ♦Tumults at Porto.♦ On the day of their arrival, they employed themselves in converting as much of their plunder as possible into money: purchasers were not wanting, and their market continued the whole day and night, horses being the ostensible articles. Such a traffic excited the indignation of all but those who were profiting by it; and that indignation was excited to the highest pitch, when, on the following morning, as the baggage of the French was examined at the Castle of St. Joam da Foz, in presence of the governor and of Sir Robert Wilson, several rich church vestments were found in one of the boxes. The horror which the Portugueze feel at sacrilege is perhaps hardly conceivable by those who are not acquainted with them. The governor himself, on this occasion, joined the populace in their outcry, and immediately gave orders that no vessel should be permitted to pass the castle. The news soon reached Porto, exaggerated as it passed from mouth to mouth; a mob collected, bent upon putting the French to death; and some insults were offered the English for protecting them. The Bishop, Sir Robert Wilson, and many officers, Portugueze and English, used their utmost exertions to quiet the tumult. They succeeded in restoring peace at St. Joam da Foz: but the crowd still continued on both sides the river; and at an early hour of the morning some thousand persons had assembled, with a determination to attack the French on board the transports: they placed artillery on both shores, and mounted guns on board the ships. Fortunately for the French, they were provided with sixty rounds each man, and one of the transports in which they were embarked was armed with six-pounders. The Bishop and Sir Robert Wilson again came down to mediate, and the latter was employed, without intermission, from nine in the morning till five in the afternoon in negotiating between the French General and the populace. It was in vain for the Frenchman to tell Sir Robert that he was bound to see the articles of capitulation executed to the very letter, ... that was impossible: he had secured their lives, and this was the utmost he could do. The mob insisted that the French should be disembarked, their baggage examined on shore, and that they should leave their arms: there was no alternative, and they were compelled to submit. No sooner had they left the transports, than the rabble boarded them, and began to plunder in their turn: every thing was ransacked; the very provisions and wearing apparel of the ship-owners disappeared. Here, however, the tumult ended: the more riotous of the populace retired with their booty; the better classes were ashamed of the disgrace which had thus been brought upon them; and every possible reparation was made, to the entire satisfaction of the British officers.

During the negotiation the French, who were not ashamed to propose any thing, proposed that an equal number of French prisoners should be set at liberty, in exchange for the Spaniards whom they had seized at Lisbon. This Sir Hew declared to be inadmissible; the Spaniards, he said, must be immediately set free, and not the interests alone, but the feelings of the Spanish nation were to be considered. He consented, however, to obtain for them, if possible, the release of such Frenchmen as had been arrested in Spain during the troubles, not having been taken in battle, or in consequence of military operations. Humanity induced him to this; and in communicating it to the Spanish authorities, he relied upon Spanish generosity for complying with his request for their deliverance. The scene at Lisbon, when arms, horses, and artillery were restored to the Spaniards who had been so long detained prisoners, was one of those spectacles at which the heart rejoices. They were about 3800 in number, some 2000 having effected their escape. The ceremony was made as public and impressive as possible, and the Spanish Commander distributed alms upon the occasion among the poor of Lisbon, which caused a general festivity. Applications for these troops were made from various parts of Spain. The Junta of Galicia required them; and some of the Spanish Generals at Madrid wished them to be embarked for Santander, there to join Blake’s army. Castaños, to whose judgement at this time that deference was paid which his great services had well deserved, was of opinion that they would be more serviceable in Catalonia than in any other part. For Catalonia therefore they were embarked in British transports, and Sir Hew advanced a loan of 90,000 dollars to purchase horses for them.

It was sufficient for the British Commander in these transactions to follow the plain dictates of a humane and honourable mind. In settling a civil government, and thereby putting an end to the fearful anarchy which every where prevailed, he had a more delicate task. The Junta of Porto were intriguing to obtain a continuance of their power; and under a pretext that Lisbon would for some time be in a state of great confusion, they made their wishes known to Sir Hew, that the seat of the temporary government might remain at Porto, and that deputies from the other provinces, as they then did from the northern ones, should repair thither to transact business for those parts which they represented. The Bishop also observed, that an authority had been forced upon him, which he had accepted only in the hope of re-establishing the government of his lawful Prince; and that if it were thought expedient for him to retain it till the pleasure of the Prince was known, it must be under the condition of remaining at Porto, from whence the inhabitants would not permit him to depart, unless by a direct order of their Sovereign. Such an arrangement would be most beneficial to the kingdom in its present state; and that opposition to it which might otherwise be expected, would be obviated if Sir Hew Dalrymple would take upon himself to recommend it. This sort of finesse was little likely to attain its end with a British Commander. Sir Hew, who was better acquainted with the state of affairs in Spain than any other person at that time, had no such advantage in Portugal. But in politics, as in morals, there is a principle of rectitude which always leads us right, and that principle he followed. He neither lent himself to this intrigue, nor allowed the displeasure which it naturally excited to preponderate against the real services which the Bishop of Porto had rendered to his country, and the popularity which in consequence he then possessed. He replied therefore to the Bishop, that had there been no objection, the Council of Regency which the Prince had appointed at his departure, would now have resumed their authority of course; but seeing that some of its members were strongly suspected of being in the French interest, he felt himself authorized to state, that however desirous the King his Sovereign might be to interfere as little as possible in the internal affairs of Portugal, it was impossible for his Majesty, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, to acquiesce in the return of those persons to power. On the other hand, those members who had kept aloof from the interests of the enemy, and retaining their loyalty had retained the confidence of the nation, had an unquestionable claim to be reinstated in their situations. Declaring therefore that his instructions were to take measures for forming a Regency as soon as possible, composed of such persons of rank, character, and talents, as might be found ready to undertake, and qualified to discharge, the important trust, but with as few changes (particularly in the subordinate departments) as might be compatible with the public interests, in the fulfilment of this duty he naturally addressed himself to his Excellency and the Provisional Board of Government at Porto. “You,” Sir Hew continued, “have already turned your thoughts to the great question now at issue, and are doubtless prepared to propose measures for completing the Council of Regency so as to merit the confidence of the nation, and to prevent any just cause of discontent in any other provisional government, or other respectable description of the people. For my own part, I have only been able, from the information I have received since my arrival in Portugal, to form one decided opinion on this subject; which is, the infinite importance to the public welfare that your Excellency should yourself hold a distinguished place in the proposed Regency.”

The Bishop’s reply was, that he should readily acquiesce in whatever might be determined upon, except his own nomination to the Council; for he, better than any other person, knew what was necessary for the good of the public cause, and of the northern provinces, and therefore would not remove from the place where he had been stationed by God and by his Prince. It was soon, however, ascertained, that if this Prelate could not remain at the head of the government at Porto, he would not persist in refusing to accept a share in it at Lisbon. Sir Hew therefore, upon mature deliberation, and with the best advice which could be obtained, issued a proclamation, saying, that through the success with which Providence had blessed the British arms, the time was come when the re-establishment of the Portugueze government ♦Sept. 18.♦ could be effected. He gave the people due praise for the exertions which they had made against the French; and saying that no views of interest or of national aggrandizement could be imputed to the liberal policy of Great Britain, declared, that the best manner in which he could fulfil the intentions of his Sovereign, and promote the welfare of Portugal, was by restoring that Council to which their Prince had delegated his authority when he preserved his royal dignity from the insults of an implacable enemy, and secured his American dominions. One of that Council had been unhappily sent away from his country; others had incurred imputations which rendered their restoration impossible at this time. The three, however, who had contracted no such disability, the Monteiro Mor, D. Francisco Xavier de Noronha, and Francisco da Cunha e Menezes, he called upon to resume the administration, and with them the Desembargador Joam Antonio ♦Sept. 20.♦ Salter de Mendonça, and Brigadier D. Miguel Pereira Forjas Coutinho, whom the Prince had named to succeed in case of vacancies. These persons assembled accordingly, and to fill up the number which the act of regency appointed, elected the Marquez daz Minas and the Bishop of Porto. The Junta of Porto then dissolved itself, declaring, however, that if the Regency should again be overthrown by any new invasion of the enemy, (which they prayed God to avert,) or any other calamity, they should by that event enter again upon the full exercise of the authority which they now laid aside. The other Juntas were in like manner dissolved: the Regency was acknowledged throughout Portugal, and things resumed, as far as possible, their former course.

While Sir Hew Dalrymple was employed in carrying the terms of the convention into effect, putting an end to the anarchy which prevailed, and preparing with all possible speed to advance into Spain, an outcry which he little expected had arisen against him at home. The official account of the battle reached England a fortnight before the news of the armistice and convention: tidings came with it that the French had proposed to evacuate Portugal, and the news of Junot’s unconditional surrender was looked for as what must necessarily ensue. When the terms of the convention were received the Park and Tower guns were fired; but the public feeling was not in accord with this demonstration of joy, and never was any public feeling so unanimously and instantaneously manifested. The hopes of the nation had been raised to the highest pitch; their disappointment was in proportion, and it was expressed with a violence only to be explained by the deep and general abhorrence which the conduct of the French in Portugal had provoked. The capitulations of the Helder and of Buenos Ayres were remembered as less mortifying than the convention of Cintra. Nothing else could be talked of, nothing else could be thought of: men greeted each other in the streets with execrations upon those who had signed this detested convention; it kept them waking at night, or disturbed their sleep, like a misdeed or a misfortune of their own. The London newspapers joined in one cry of wonder and abhorrence; on no former occasion had they been so unanimous. The provincial papers proved that, from one end of the island to the other, the resentment of this grievous disappointment was the same; some refused to disgrace their pages by inserting the treaty; others surrounded it with broad black lines, putting their journal in mourning for the dismal intelligence it contained; some headed the page with a representation of three gibbets, and a general suspended from each, cut in wood for the occasion.

What could be done? There were not wanting writers who called upon government to annul the convention. The Romans, they said, would have done so, and have delivered up the generals who signed it, bound and haltered, to the enemy’s discretion. Would it be argued, that to break the treaty would be to break our faith towards the enemy? Why, it was so framed that it could not be fulfilled without breaking our faith towards each and all of our allies! We were the allies of Portugal; and it was a breach of faith towards Portugal, to transport this army of thieves, ravishers, and murderers out of the country in which they had perpetrated their crimes, and from which they had no other possible means of escape. We were the allies of Spain; and it was a breach of faith towards Spain, if four-and-twenty thousand French troops, cut off from all succour and all retreat, should be conveyed, under the British flag, into their own country, with arms and baggage, that they might join the forces with which Buonaparte was preparing to march against the Spaniards. We were the allies of Sweden; and it was a breach of faith towards Sweden to carry Russian sailors through the Swedish fleet for the purpose of manning Russian ships against the Swedes. Were we then to annul this treaty with our enemies, or to betray our friends? for to this alternative our triumvirate of generals had reduced us! No law of nations could justify them in making such stipulations; no law of nations therefore could justify us in performing them. But the French, it was urged, had already fulfilled their part of the convention; they had evacuated the fortified towns, and admitted us into Lisbon. Thus we had already reaped the advantages, and were, in honour, bound to carry into effect the remainder of the treaty, which was advantageous to them. In whatever way we acted, some loss of honour was inevitable; but it was less disgraceful to break the terms than to fulfil them; better that the French should reproach us, than that they should compliment us upon a fidelity which enabled them to injure our allies. The blow, it was affirmed, might have gone far towards deciding the fate of Europe. France had lost one army in Andalusia, and how deeply Buonaparte felt the loss was shown by the anxiety with which he concealed it from the French people. What might not have been the effect of the destruction of a second and larger army, following so close upon that of the former! How would it have encouraged the Portugueze, given new animation to the Spaniards, and raised the hope and the courage of those various states who were suffering under the tyrant’s yoke!

The conditions which had been granted to the Russian Admiral were condemned with the same vehement feeling of disappointment. The intimate connexion which had so lately subsisted between the Courts of London and Petersburgh, and the personal regard which the British Admiral entertained for Admiral Siniavin, had been adduced as reasons why an agreement acceptable to both nations should be concluded. Certainly it became us to manifest every mark of personal respect toward the Russian officers, because, though the false policy of their government had engaged the two countries in war, there existed no angry feelings nor jarring interests between them; and the wishes of both were for a renewal of that long established intercourse which was beneficial to both. It also behoved us especially to show ourselves grateful for the protection which the Russians had afforded to the English and Portugueze refugees, and the facilities which they had given them of effecting their escape. These were personal favours, for which the obvious personal return should have been to have immediately sent home men and officers under an engagement not to serve against us or our allies, and to have shown towards them every courtesy and kindness by which the evils of hostility can be mitigated. But that personal regard should influence the terms of capitulation, was a thing as unheard of as the terms themselves. “Hold in deposit!” The phrase had never before been known in the British navy. They knew what it was to fight their enemies; they knew what it was to beat, capture, sink, burn, and destroy them, according to the spirit and letter of their instructions. This was said by the navy, and by the nation; and the bitter reflection arose, how would Nelson have received such a proposal!

Such language as this arose from a right feeling; but the disappointment of well-founded and high-raised hopes had heated the public mind, and disqualified it for regarding the whole transaction dispassionately. The manner in which the Portugueze had been overlooked in the negotiation was aggravated in England by persons who supported the pretensions of the Junta of Porto; and undue stress was laid upon the neglect of formalities which could not have been overlooked if the Portugueze General had been acting with the British army as he ought. There had been one serious omission affecting the Portugueze, which was, in not insisting upon a stipulation that the troops of that nation who had been sent to serve in Buonaparte’s armies should be restored to their own country; such a stipulation ought to have been required, though it would undoubtedly have been broken. The other oversights which were objected were merely frivolous, and the manner in which, through all the subsequent details, the feelings as well as interests of the Portugueze had been consulted, had already contented them, and made them grateful for the conduct of their allies. There was another cause which exasperated the English people: they compared the treatment of Junot’s army with that of Dupont’s, and were mortified by a comparison which ought rather to have elated them; for looking to what seemed advantageous, and not to what was just, they did not perceive that in deferring to a popular cry the Junta of Seville had broken a solemn engagement. The strong disapprobation with which Sir Hew Dalrymple regarded that breach of faith, acted upon him, perhaps unconsciously, when he allowed the French the utmost which could be claimed upon the most liberal construction of the letter of the treaty in their favour.

Meetings were convened in most parts of England to express the indignation of the people at the convention, and call for the punishment of those by whom it had been negotiated. The Common Council presented an address to the same purport, and were told in reply that it was inconsistent with the principles of British justice to pronounce judgement without previous investigation, and that their interposition was not necessary for inducing the King to institute a due inquiry into a transaction which had disappointed the hopes and expectations of the nation. Accordingly the three Generals were recalled, and a Board of Inquiry was appointed, composed of the Earl of Moira, General Craig, Lord Heathfield, the Earl of Pembroke, Sir George Nugent, and Lieutenant-General Nicolls, with Sir David Dundas for president. Their decision, after a long and full investigation, was, that they could not pronounce, with confidence, whether the victory of Vimeiro ought to have been pursued or not; but, considering the extraordinary circumstances under which two new commanders arrived from the ocean, and joined the army, (the one during, and the other immediately after the battle, and these successively superseding each other, and both the original commander, within the space of twenty-four hours,) it was not surprising that the army was not carried forward until the second day after the action, from the necessity of the generals’ being acquainted with the actual state of things, and proceeding accordingly. On a consideration of all circumstances, they were of opinion, that no farther proceeding was necessary; and, however some of them might differ respecting the fitness of the convention, it was their unanimous declaration, that unquestionable zeal and firmness had been exhibited by all the three generals.

As this was, in fact, delivering no opinion at all, the board was called upon, by the Duke of York, as commander-in-chief, to resume its consideration of the armistice and convention, and pronounce decidedly whether they thought them adviseable. The armistice was disapproved by Earl Moira; the convention by the same nobleman, by the Earl of Pembroke, and General Nicolls: thus, six of the seven members approved the armistice, and four approved the convention. The dissentient members delivered in their reasons for the opinion which they gave. General Nicolls and Earl Pembroke confined themselves to a military point of view. Earl Moira took a wider scope, and argued ably against the moral and political effects of the treaty. The proceedings ♦Jan. 18, 1809.♦ were concluded by a declaration from the King, adopting the unanimous opinion of the board, that no farther proceeding was necessary; but expressing his disapprobation of those articles of the convention in which stipulations were made, directly affecting the interests or feelings of the Spanish and Portugueze nations. That disapprobation his Majesty had signified to Sir Hew Dalrymple when the treaty was first laid before him, and he repeated it, deeming it necessary that his sentiments should be clearly understood, as to the impropriety and danger of the unauthorised admission, into military conventions, of articles of such a description. Nor could he forbear observing, that Sir Hew’s delaying to transmit the armistice concluded on the 22d of August, till the 4th of September, when the ratified convention was transmitted at the same time, was calculated to produce great public inconvenience, and that such inconvenience had, in fact, resulted therefrom. The King abstained from any observations upon other parts of the convention.

Thus the whole censure fell upon Sir Hew Dalrymple. But it was seen by the people that the great error of judgement had been committed at home, in not providing that the General by whom the campaign was planned should carry it to the end. And how often may it be observed in history, as in private life, that the course of events is better directed to the end desired, than if the persons most interested in the success could themselves have ordered it! So it was in this campaign, which at the time so severely disappointed the nation. A more splendid triumph might have been obtained in the field, a higher tone might have been taken in the negotiation; but in either of these cases Almeida and Elvas would have been left in possession of the enemy; and whatever efforts might have been made for reducing them, they could easily have held out till the dispersion of the Spanish armies. It would then have been a great object with the French to relieve the garrisons, and this would have brought them to Lisbon at a time when there were neither preparations nor means for resistance there.