agitation, to glance back to so early a date as February 17, 1294, and read of safe-conducts, or passports granted to Portuguese merchants by Edward I under the heading: Conditions of reciprocity with the English. A dispute followed, on account of the detention of an English ship on the coast of Portugal, which suspended the agreement for fifteen years. Then the government gave satisfactory explanations, a conference was held, and the safe conduct to Portuguese merchants confirmed, upon condition that they obeyed the Law of the Land—of England—to which they would be subject wherever they resided.
In 1344 the Sheriffs of London issued a proclamation ordering that the Portuguese be received everywhere as our friends and allies. Not to be to the rear in generosity D. Affonso IV guaranteed in the July of 1352 the same high protection to English merchants in his dominions. It is commonly stated that British merchants settled in Portugal three centuries ago, but the first mention of their residence in the country is made in a series of grievances brought before D. Joāo II by the Cortes of Evora as early as 1482.
England's first Treaty with Portugal was signed respectively by Edward III and D. Fernando. These mutual pledges were the precursor of a continuity of relations between the two countries which had their culminating point in the Peninsular War. At a later date British forces supported the partisans of the young queen, D. Maria II, daughter of D. Pedro IV, against the Miguelites. British sailors have won naval victories for Portugal off its Atlantic-bound cliffs, and more than once a British admiral has marched his men inland to capture towns held by Portugal's foes with the same prompt daring that the bluejackets of another day displayed in the relief of Pekin and the Boer War. There are not many acres of the rich soil of
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