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NOTIFICATIONS relating to the Blockade of Pernambuco by a Portuguese Squadron.-April, July, 1817.

(1.)-Portuguese Circular to the Ministers of Foreign Powers. (Traduction.) Rio Janeiro, le 2 Avril, 1817. LE Soussigné, Conseiller-d'Etat, Ministre et Secrétaire-d'Etat de la Marine et des Pays d'Outremer, chargé par interim du Portefeuille des Relations Extérieures et de la Guerre, a l'ordre positif du Roi son Maitre, d'annoncer, suivant l'usage, au Seigneur Don Andrès Villalba, Chargé d'Affaires de Sa Majesté Catholique, que les motifs d'urgence en vertu desquels Sa Majesté Très Fidèle, avait fait empêcher la sortie des bâtimens étrangers, n'existent plus, et que par conséquent les dits bâtimens peuvent mettre à la voile en toute liberté pour se rendre à leur destination.

Le Soussigné annonce également au Chargé d'Affaires de Sa Majesté Catholique, qu'il part aujourd'hui une Division composée de 4 bâtimens de guerre. qui vont croiser à la hauteur du Gouvernement de Fernambouc, et bloquer étroitement tous les Ports du susdit Gouvernement Militaire, afin de contribuer à réprimer la Rébellion qui a éclaté dans la Ville de Recife le 6 du mois passé.

Le Chargé d'Affaires de Sa Majesté Catholique est invité à communiquer à sa Cour le contenu de cette Note.

Le Soussigné saisit cette occasion, etc.

Au Palais de Rio-Janeiro, le 2 Avril, 1817.

Don Andres Villalba.

EL CONDE DA BARCA.

(2.)-The British Minister at Lisbon to the Lords Commissioners of

(Extract.)

the Admiralty.

Lisbon, 18th May, 1817. DON MIGUEL FORJAZ has informed me, that a Frigate and an armed Brig, will be immediately despatched from hence, for the purpose of placing the Port of Pernambuco under Blockade; of which step, however, he should not be able to give a written intimation by this Packet. E. M. WARD.

The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

(3)—Notification of the Portuguese Legation at Washington.

Washington, 22d May, 1817. THE Port of Pernambuco, and the adjacent Coast, are effectually Blockaded by the Ships of War of His Most Faithful Majesty. The American Ships are, therefore, warned not to venture navigating to them, because the Law of Nations relating to strict Blockades will be rigorously enforced.

The Portuguese Consuls in the Ports of The United States having been forbidden, in the King's name, by his Minister Plenipotentiary, to grant any Consular Papers to Ships directed to that Port, as long as it shall continue in a state of Rebellion, information of the same is given to all Persons whom the knowledge of it may concern.

(4.)-Notification of the Portuguese Consul-General at Paris. (Translation.) Paris, 5th June, 1817. THE Insurrection which has broken out at Pernambuco has induced the Governor of Portugal to declare in a state of Blockade the Port and Coast of Pernambuco.

Every measure has been taken to render the same an actual Blockade. The Consul-General of Portugal at Paris, therefore, requests the Merchants and Ship Owners to suspend, until further notice, all Voyages which they may have in contemplation for that Quarter, otherwise their Vessels will be liable to seizure by the Ships employed in the Blockade.

THE CHEVALIER DAUPIAS.
Consul-General of Portugal.

(5.)-Notification of the Portuguese Vice-Consul in London. Consulate-General of the United Kingdom of Portugal,

Brazil, and Algarves. London, 10th June, 1817. IN consequence of the events which have occurred at Pernambuco, the Governors of the Kingdom of Portugal have directed the Blockade of that Port, and every necessary measure has been taken to render the same effectual.

For the due information, therefore, of Merchants, Ship-Owners, and all others whom the knowledge of the above intelligence may concern, and that ignorance of the existence of such Blockade may not hereafter be alleged, the present Notification is affixed.

ALEXANDER ANDRADE, Vice- Consul.

(6.)-Portuguese Circular to the Ministers of Foreign Powers. (Translation.) Palace of Rio de Janeiro, 6th July, 1817. THE motive that rendered the Blockade of the Ports of the Captainship of Pernambuco necessary having ceased, His Majesty the King, my Master, has been pleased to order the said Blockade to be raised, which I have therefore the honour to notify to you accordingly. I avail myself, &c.

Henry Chamberlain, Esq.

JOAO PAULO BEZERRA,

PROCLAMATION of the Portuguese Commander-in-Chief to the People, on the entrance of the Portuguese Troops into the Province of Monte Video.-November, 1816.

(Translation.)

CHARLES FREDERICK LECOR, Lieutenant-General of His Most Faithful Majesty's Army, Commander-in-Chief of the Troops employed in the pacification of the left Bank of the River Plate, Commander of the Orders of San Bento de Avis, and of the Tower and Sword, &c. &c. &c.

People of the left Bank of the River of la Plata,

The repeated wrongs which the peaceable Inhabitants of your Country, and those of Rio Grande, have suffered from the Chief, Artigas; the absolute prohibition of communication between your Countrymen and the Portuguese on the Frontiers; and lastly, the hostile disposition of his Troops in the neighbourhood of the Rio Pardo; are facts well known, and are more than sufficient to prove his intentions, and evidently to demonstrate, that no stable Government can subsist amongst you, nor the Portuguese Dominions be in security, so long as he oppresses you. A Chief who, appropriating your armed Force to his own purposes, has forced you, at the same time, to follow his opinions, a Chief, whose conduct has been hostile and suspicious, except in what regards his own private interests, cannot give prosperity to your Country, nor can your Neighbours rely upon any political relations with him.

Let us then, Inhabitants of the Province of Monte Video, put an end to the state of uncertainty that ruins your Country, and disturbs the Frontier of the Kingdom of Brazil. I am sent by my Sovereign with the Troops you behold, and who will be followed by others, to avert so many evils. They do not march to conquer you, nor to destroy your property; on the contrary, their only object is to overcome the Enemy, to free you from oppression, to re-establish your tranquillity, to abolish the Extraordinary Contributions that have been laid upon you, and to treat every one with kindness, with the exception only of those who dare, henceforward, to disturb the public peace.

Inhabitants to whom the interests of your Country are dear. Remain tranquilly in your houses; trust to the promises which I make to you, in the name of my Sovereign. He has appointed me to be at the Head of a Provisional Government in this Province, and I protest, by the honour of an old Officer, and a faithful Subject, that I will scrupulously fulfil the Orders I have received from that August Lord, all of which are directed towards your happiness.

CARLOS FEDERICO LECOR.

MANIFESTO of The Supreme Director of the United Provinces of South America, on the internal State of the Country.--Buenos Ayres, 14th February, 1817.

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,

(Translation.)

THE motives, Citizens, which have determined me to issue this Manifesto, are of the most painful description; yet since it is no longer possible for me to bear with the unparalleled insolence by which the Supreme Authority is obstructed in the exercise of its functions, I must raise my voice once for all, in the full confidence that you will do justice to my feelings, and that the importance of the subject will induce you to fix your impartial attention, as well upon those principles which have served as a basis for my conduct in the management of public affairs, as upon the strong measure to which I have just had recourse,

From the first moment of my entering Office, I have employed every means to induce the Malcontents to come to a reconciliation; nor have any Parties been more free from the effects of vindictive feelings than my personal Enemies, it being to them, more especially, that I was anxious to give unequivocal proofs of my desire for harmony and concord. I have extended this feeling to every Town and City, but in none have I had so many opportunities of manifesting it as in Buenos Ayres. Amongst those who were personally opposed to me, many have had the generosity to respond to my friendly call, whilst, from others, on the contrary, fresh wrongs have been my only recompense. To rise superior to the latter, however, was not difficult, after my firmness had enabled me to forgive the former. I considered that my chief object was to prove the sincerity of my promises, and I felt that the sacrifice of my personal feelings was equally compatible with the respect due to my authority, and the preservation of the public tranquillity entrusted to my care. But experience has shewn, that in these unhappy times such moderation is fraught with danger, and that private hatred finds a malevolent gratification in depriving the object of its abhorrence, even of the opportunity of practising the virtues it may possess. I know that, even after the many public and incontestable proofs I have given of my forgiveness of private injuries, the attempt will be made to deprive me of the credit due to examples of forbearance so frequent and yet so difficult; but I glory, Citizens, in such sentiments, nor do I dread the investigation of their origin: the sources of the good that has been effected in my time are not in myself; -the genius of a Country renowned for its firmness and resolution amidst the most appalling dangers, could not fail to communicate its influence to the Individual who has the direction of its energies.

But this genius, which, in well-ordered States, causes the Public Authority to be respected, is, in Countries convulsed, like ours, con

tinually opposed by habits of insubordination, by enmity, ambition, envy, and licentiousness. All these passions craftily disguising themselves under the mask of patriotism, conspire to sap the foundations of the Government, by individually attacking the character of every Member of its Administration, calumny taking the field, and reckoning for its protection upon the patience and forbearance of its victims.

What I here speak of is matter of common notoriety. Every Citizen, who takes the slightest interest in, or who is in the smallest degree connected with, Public Affairs, can testify that an Insurrection against the Government is daily expected, and that, as each morning dawns, the only wonder is, that it has not yet burst forth. The cry, that a Revolution is at hand, is re-echoed from the centre of the Capital to the remotest parts of the Country, the lists of proscription are drawn up, the means ready, the causes assigned, the plans arranged, and confiscation, imprisonment, and death prepared. The Newspapers conceal, with more or less ability, the venom of their malice, while innumerable Agents of discord and misrule are employed in giving the most odious application to expressions, upon which the Writer, when it serves his purpose not to be fully understood, can put the most harmless and inoffensive construction. Corrupting, by arts such as these, the public mind, or employing them to prevent its being undeceived, these Journals exercise over it a moral despotism, using, as their weapon, a right which is the inheritance of liberty itself.

I appeal to you, O People, whether it be not true that, when reading or listening to such invectives, you have not actually believed that the Government, and those connected with it, were implicated in treasonable and perfidious plots, concocted with the Portuguese, or some other Power, for the purpose of selling the Country, or subjecting it, without your concurrence, to conditions the most humiliating? Say, is it not true, that you have frequently heard,—that every sacrifice should be made, every risk be run, in order to get rid of an inefficient and perfidious Government; that similar language, the concomitants of which have been the grossest calumnies, has inspired you with the worst of fears, and that, in your despair, you have resolved to adopt the plans of those who have filled your bosoms with so much mistrust, with so many base and unworthy suspicions?

How could it be expected that the Government, which, having its attention awakened by these alarms, was fully occupied in providing for its own safety, and in counteracting the efforts of the discontented at Home, could maintain a respectable attitude in Foreign Affairs; or that, the Public Authority being degraded, and impotent for the preservation of internal order, it could make itself feared by external Enemies? Informed, step by step, of the machinations in progress, the Government was convinced that the sole result of a perseverance in them would be the punishment of their Contrivers: from day to

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