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MS has not survived. Previously published: Monthly Magazine, 9 (June 1800), 439 [from where the text is taken], unsigned. New attribution to Southey.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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IN the
This kingdom, according to the statements of
the Portuguese, is 150 Portuguese miles in length, and 40 in
breadth. According to Büsching its
length is no more than 75, and the breadth 35 common German
miles.
All the provinces of Portugal are not equally fruitful. Oranges, which Estremadura, Alentejo and Algarve produce in great abundance, and of an excellent quality, are wholly wanting in the other provinces. On the other hand, Entre Duero e Minho distinguishes itself by its well-conducted agriculture. Traz los Montes is almost wholly barren, and cultivated only on the banks of the rivers. Beira produces all the necessaries of life: the sea that washes its shores abounds with fish: its pastures feed numerous herds of cattle; and it likewise furnishes honey and salt. Estremadura is not less favoured by nature: its wines are excellent. In Alentejo rice is produced. Algarve, too, is well cultivated. Portugal would be more productive, and the state of agriculture more flourishing, if the English had not got possession of the corn-trade.
The land-forces of Portugal consist of 29 regiments of infantry, and 10 regiments of cavalry; constituting altogether a military establishment of 30,000 men, under the command of 104 colonels, 150 majors, 42 generals, a field-marshall, a general of cavalry, a general of artillery, 3 inspectors-general, 8 lieutenant-generals, and 28 major-generals. Of the wretched state into which the army has here sunken, many striking proofs occur; the truth of which cannot well be doubted, as these facts are every where asserted, and no where contradicted. The Portuguese navy consists of 13 ships of the line, and 15 frigates. The trading vessels amount to scarcely 100.
The public revenue of Portugal is, according to some, 76, according to others 80, millions of French livres: and the debts of the state had, in the time of our traveller, already risen to the sum of 15 millions of cruzados. The chief branch of the king’s revenue is that drawn from the American mines; the yearly produce of which is estimated at from 50 to 60 millions, of which however a small proportion only comes into the royal exchequer. The trade of Portugal is, it is well known, entirely in the hands of the English.