The New Hampshire Gazette

The French King's
Declaration of
WAR
against Portugal.

The King and the Catholic King being obliged to support a War against England, have entered into reciprocal Engagements to curb the Ambition of that Crown, and the Despotism which it pretended to usurp, in every Sea, and particularly in the East and West Indies, over the Trade and Navigation of other Powers.

Their Majesties judged that one proper Step for attaining this End, would be to invite the King of Portugal to enter into their Alliance. It was natural to think that the Proposals which were made to that Prince on this Subject, in the Name of his Majesty and of his Catholic Majesty, would be readily accepted. This Opinion was founded on the Consideration of what the most Faithful King owed to himself and to his People, who from the Beginning of the present Century have groaned under the imperious Yoke of the English. Besides, the Event hath but too clearly shewn the Necessity of the just Measures taken by France and Spain with regard to a suspicious and dangerous Neutrality that had all the inconveniences of a concealed War.

The Memorials presented to the Court of Lisbon on this Subject have been made public; all Europe hath seen the solid Reasons of Justice and Convenience, which were the Foundation of the Demand on the King of Portugal: to these were added, on the Part of Spain, Motives of the most tender Friendship and Affinity, which ought to have made the strongest and most salutary Impression on the Mind of the most Faithful King.

But these powerful and just Considerations were so far from determining this Prince to unite with his Majesty and his Catholic Majesty, that he absolutely rejected their Offers, and chose to sacrifice their Alliance, his own Glory, and the Good of his People, to his unlimited and blind Devotion to the Will of England.

Such Conduct leaving no Doubt concerning the King of Portugal's true Intentions, the King and the Catholic King could consider him from that Time only as a direct and personal Enemy, who under the artful Pretext of Neutrality which would not be observed, would deliver up his Ports to the Disposal of the English, to serve for sheltering Places for their Ships, and to enable them to hurt France and Spain with more Security and with more Effect.

Nevertheless, his Majesty and his Catholic Majesty, thought it their Duty to keep Measures with the most Faithful King; and as the Spanish Troops have entered Portugal, this Invasion, which was become indispensably necessary, was not accompanied with any Declarations of War; and the Troops have behaved with all the Circumspection that could be required, even in a friendly and neutral State.

All his Moderation hath been thrown away: The King of Portugal hath just now declared War in form against France and Spain. This unexpected Step forced the Catholic King to make the like Declaration against Portugal; and the King of France can no longer defer the same Resolution.

Independent of the Motives which are common to the two Monarchs, each hath separate Grievances to alledge against Portugal, which of themselves would be sufficient to justify the Extremity to which their Majesties see themselves with Regret obliged to proceed.

Every one knows the unjust and violent Attack made by the English in 1759, on some of the French King's Ships under the command of the Portuguese Forts at Lagos. His Majesty demanded of the most Faithful King to procure him Restitution of those Ships; but that Prince's Ministers, in contempt of what was due to the Rules of Justice, the Laws of the Sea, the Sovereignty and Territory of their Master (all which were indecently violated by the most scandalous Infration of the Rights of Sovereigns and of Nations) in answer to the repeated Requisitions of the King's Ambassador on this Head, made only vague Speeches, with an Air of Indifference, that bordered on Derision.

At the same Time, the Court of Lisbon, pretending to be ignorant that Sovereigns, who hold their Rank from their Birth only, and the Dignity of their Crowns, can never permit, under any Pretext, any Potentate, to attempt to infringe Prerogatives and Rights belonging to the Antiquity and Majesty of their Thrones, hath pretended to establish, without Distinction, an Alternative of Precedence between all the Ambassadors and Foreign Ministers about the King of Portugal. The King, being informed by his Ambassador, of the Notification that had been made to him of this extraordinary and unexampled Regulation, signified in Writing to the most Faithful King, his just Dissatisfaction; and his Majesty declared that he would never suffer any attempt to be made to diminish the Rights essentially inherent in the representative Character with which he is pleased to honour his Ambassadors and Ministers.

However justly the King was authorized to express, at that time, his Displeasure on account of these Grievances, and several other Subjects of Complaint which he had received from the Court of Portugal, his Majesty contented himself with recalling his Ambassador, and continued to keep up a Correspondence with the Most Faithful King, which he very sincerely desired to render more intimate and more lasting.

That Prince, therefore, can only blame himself for the Calamities of a War, which he ought, on every account, to have avoided, and which he hath been the first to declare.

His Offers to observe an exact Neutrality might have been listened to by the King and the Catholic King, if past Experience had not taught them to guard against the Illusion and Danger of such Proposals.

In the Beginning of the present Century, the Court of Lisbon was very forward to acknowledge King Philip V. of glorious Memory, and contracted formal Engagements with France and Spain: Peter II. who at that Time filled the Throne of Portugal, seemed to enter cordially into the Alliance of the two Crowns: But after dissembling his secret Intentions for three Years, he broke all his Promises, and the Neutrality which he had afterwards sollicited, and which in a Letter to the United Provinces he had even advised her to embrace, and joined the Enemies of France and Spain. The same Confidence and the same Security, on the part of the two Crowns, in the present State of Things, which undoubtedly have been followed by the like Defection of the Court of Lisbon.

United to the Catholic King by indissoluble Sentiments of tender Friendship and common Interests, the King hopes, that their united Efforts will be favoured by the God of Hosts, and will in the End compel the King of Portugal to conduct himself on Principles more conformable to sound Policy, the Good of his People, and the Ties of Blood which unite him to his Majesty, and his Catholic Majesty.

The King commands and enjoins all his Subjects, Vassals and Servants, to fall upon the Subjects of the King of Portugal; and expressly prohibits them from having any Communication, Commerce or Intelligence with them, on Pain of Death; and accordingly his Majesty hath from this Date revoked, and hereby revokes all Licences, Passports, Safe-guard, and Safe conducts, contrary to these Presents, that may have been granted by him, or his Lieutenant Generals, and other Officers, declaring them null and void, and of no Effect; and forbidding all Persons to pay any regard thereto. And whereas in Contempt of the 18th Article of the Treaty of Peace between France and Portugal, signed at Utrecht, April 11, 1713, (and by which it is expressly stipulated, That in case of a Rupture between the two Crowns, the Space of 6 Months after the said Rupture, shall be granted their Subjects respectively, to sell or remove their Effects, and withdraw themselves, if they think fit) the King of Portugal hath just now ordered, that all the French who are in his kingdom, should leave it in the Space of 15 Days, and that their Effects should be confiscated; his Majesty by way of just Reprisals, commands, that all the Portuguese in his Dominions shall, in like manner, leave them within the Space of 15 Days from the Date hereof, and that all their Effects shall be confiscated.

Versailles, June 22, 1762.