TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE rumoured appointment of Lord Strangford to the embassy at Brazils has given occasion to the Times to circulate a charge against his Lordship, which had lately been resuscitated by Colonel N apier, in 'a note to his History of the Peninsular War. The attack and his answer to it may be seen under our division of "the Press." It is alleged, that in a desp,atch dated off the Tagus, but really written in England, Lord Strangford , took credit to himself, and actually had the reputation with the Ministry, of having persuaded the Royal Family of Portugal to emigrate to their transatlantic possessions. The fact is—and it is allowed by Lord Strangford now—that he had no influence on that avent ; and it is asserted that he never claimed the merit of it. Moreover, the despatch, though rewritten in London, was wholly compiled from several despatches composed "off the Tagus," and thus connected
together by desire of Mr. Canning. This statement is made by Lord Strangford, in his pamphlet in answer to Colonel Napier.
An umpire in this matter would say, on reading the sentences of Lord Strangford's despatch, in which he describes his interview with the Regent of Portugal on the Tagus, that he designed ingeniously to secure to himself the merit of the step in question, without actually committing himself to a false assertion ; and with regard to the despatch and its fictitious date, that, though the charge is true, his Lordship has successfully explained the circumstances out of which it arose.
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