The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-28 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

yesi.ertlay annouced the arrrival of the Iberia,
Captain Bolfen, at Southampton with the Peninsular
mails, which were landed under the superintendence
of Lieut. Brady, RN., Admiralty agent. The dates
are : Gibraltar, Oct. 19 ; Cadiz, 20 ; Lisbon, 21 ;
Oporto, 23; and Vigo, 24.
The Iberia brought home the following passengers :
Mr. Cockburn, Mr. Thompson, Dr. Phillips, Dr. Dombreck
and lady, Rev. W. Tottenham and lady, Mr. Walker, Mr.
Dickiaon' Mr. Van Zeller, Mr. Dyson, Mr. °wt.!, Mr.
Ormerod and family, Miss Commis, Mrs. Murat and son,
Mr. Roper, and Mr. Sandeman.

We have to report the failure at Oporto of the
how of Cockburn, Oreig, and Co. ; the particulars of
which will be found in the letter of our correspondent.
The liabilities amount to 45,000/. The Queen-Dowager,
on her way to Madeira, had arrived at Lisbon on the
22nd, on board the Howe. She was accompanied by •
the whole of the British squadron. The Queen of
Portugal embarked is her state barge at the arsenal,
and visited the Queen-Dowager on board the Howe.
She remained an hour on board, and then landed at
Belem, where apartments had been held in readiness
for the distinguished visitor.

LISBON, Ocr. 20.
In defiance of the protest of the liberal electoral
committee, ministers having fined upon Sunday last, the
17th, for proceediog with the municipal elections throughout
the kingdom, refused to listen to any remonstrance, and in
conformity with the original decree the elections (if the term
can be applied to the farce played off) took place upon that
day; and as the liberals as a body refrained from presenting
themselves at the urn, the Cabral nominees were returned
by a large majority. In the thirty-seven out of the thirty-
etght parishes into which Lisbon and its outskirts is divided
(in one there was no voting) the national party polled in all
but 2,395 votes; in fact in some parishes the liberals hardly
appeared in the field. In Camarate they tendered six votes
only, and in Louses but three, while the court forces mus-
tered to the number of and polled 5,474. Such a result
would seem to present a great fact, and apparently
argue strongly in favour of the Cabnds, and of
their popularity in the capital; but the protest
of the liberal committee looked into shows the re-
verie to be the ease. The esemiebse ha tbeisH
protest, charge the authorities with illegality in almost
every proceeding connected with the election, and with
frauds in the registration : for instance, such men as
Machado (one of our wealthiest and most respected mer-
chants), the Count de Mello, the Viscounts Villa Nova de
FO6COII and Sada Bandeirs, and others of the popular body,
have been, upon tke most feeble pretexts, struck off the list
of voter,. The government, too, not content with the
strong array of force possessed by them in the numerous
Cabral battalions, have even contrived to give this force a
duplicate quality. those of the men poessesaiog votes being
allowed to poll first in their civil capacity in the parish to
which they individually belonged, and then a second time, as
soldiers, lb the parish wherever their battalion or detach-
ment was quartered. In Lisbon everything passed off in the
quietest manner possible. Consequent upon these triumphs
the Queen's miud, it is said, is more bent than ever upon
gesturing Costa Cabral to power.
Some days back the Marquis of Fayal (son of the Duke of
Palmella) gave a dinner to Sir George Seymour and Sir
Charles Napier : to meet them there were alto present the
Marquis of Loule, uncle to the Queen (by marriage); Gen.
Pavan, Viscount Sada Bendeira •, M. Reis do Vmuiconcellos ;
and the Count de Tsipa. The Estandarte, Costa Cabral's
organ, which spares no abuse of England, converts this ban-
quet into the vehicle of a furious onslaught upon Lord Pal-
merston, simply from the fact of there having been present
at the dinner POTOELI, the ancient companion in arms of the
Duke of Wellington.
The government are in the greatest state of embarrass-
ment for money, and are again having recourse to the system
of borrowing. The following is the official account of monies
advanced them during the current month, and the terms
upon which it was advanced, by one of the most noted of the
minor'euroteurs, M. Lopez Pastor. The October loan to the
government by M. Pastor consists es follows :
In money Ra.15,000:090
Stock oldie Passive debt of 43 to 46 1,300:000
Government receipts from the month of February last 1,500:000
Total (eighteen contos) Re.15,000:000

From Oporto the accounts are very unsatisfactory, the
government proceeding in the most arbitrary manner.
Gen. Guedes, one of the junta chiefs, desirous of returning
to Lisbon, applied to the proper authorities for a passport. It
was granted immediately, but almost as immediately re-
scinded by order of the governor. There the matter rests,
and there must the general remain. From Coimbra, too, the
seat of the university, a remonstrance has been submitted to
froverement signed by nearly 300 of the students, complain-
tag of military license and outrage. The unfortunate officer
Coelho, who was so barbarously cut about the head the other
day by one of the Queen's palace guard, remains in consi-
derable danger ; the assassin has been simply confined to
barracks and nothing more. What makes the case more
repulsive is, that while the poor bleeding wretch was crying
for succour, and vainly striving to protect his head against
the sabre cuts aimed at him, the captain of the
guard, a subaltern officer, and two other non-commissioned
officers, were standing by, while from the windows .pf the
palace several of the servants encouraged the cowardly oil-
lam in his brutality: one spectator actually taunted the poor
man with the cries of " VC ao ProtocoUo poe Me acetates"
(go to the Protocol for help)! while a lady in waiting on the
Queen, the daughter of a marquis (of new manufacture)
stood in a balcony overlooking the scene, seemingly enjoy-
it.
Her B. Majesty's war steamer the Vixen came into the
Taps yeiftmloy, having on board the Duke of Fabulist and
family, who, it is given out, is merely en route for Madeira
on account of the delicate state of the duchess's health. The
duke landed towards the evening at the Caes do Sodre, the
mercantile promenade, and although it would appear his
coming was quite unexpected, yet he was immediately recog-
nised and received with marked respect by everybody present.
The duke's arrival is by many connected with public affairs,
and has thrown the court sod the Cabral faction generally
into the greateet consternation. Picture to yourself the sud-
den irruption into a larder of a smart little terrier, at a
moment when a parcel of hungry rats an comfortably re-
gating themselves with their plundered provender, and you
will have some faint notion of the alarm and terror, and the
scampering to and fro, of the greedy political vermin sue.
rounding Donna Maria.
We have been enduring a succession of extremely had
weather off the coast. This caused the unusual delay in the
arrival of the lest packet from England. She has not yet
returned from the south, but is expected to arrive during the
night. In the Tagus we have quite a little fleet of merchant
vessels waiting for the weather to moderate before venturing
over the bar. On Monday morning last there was a terrible
storm all over Lisbon, accompanied by thunder and light-
ning, and the fall of two thunderbolts, one falling in the
river close alongside the Portuguese frigate Rainha, and
another striking upon the Convent of Sent* Monica and
setting fire to a portion of the building and doing consider-
able damage, besides causing the liveliest alarm to the re-
cluses. The weather has since moderated. _

In mercantile news, I regret to have to record the failure
of two English houses, one the firm of Cockburn, ()nig, and
Co. if Oporto ; their liabilities are stated at nearly two hun-
dred centos of reis, about five and forty thousand pounds
sterling ; they, however, show against that sum sense 2,000
pipes of wine in store, and have offered their creditors
62 per cent., to be paid in three years. The other failure is
of the Lisbon house of Joseph Van Zeller and Sons, ship-
pers, who are also agents of the Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Navigation Company ; but this last event is of unim-
portant character, and it bad been anticipated. It is be-
lieved to be insignificant in amount ; the business of the
firm had been principally limited to some trifling shipments
in freight and a small trade u ships' provision dealers.
The commercial exchanges are almost nominal, u it is at
present almost impossible to negotiate even known paper
upon the Lisbon Bourse, and the difficulty has been in-
creased by the large amount of Brasilia's bills on the market,
to the value of nearly sixty thousand pounds ; and these,
from the short remaining time most have to run, being pre-
ferred u remittances.

Orr. 21.—N0 news yet of the steamer from the south—
doubtless delayed by the bad weather. Sir Charlca Napier,
with the squadron, went over the bar to-day to meet the
Howe, now momentarily expected, and to escort the Queen
Dowager into the Tagus. The Diario of to- day announces
the loss and total wreck on the coast, in tho neighbourhood
of Aveiro, of the English schooner Emma, of Dartmouth,
from Newcastle, beund to Seville with coals, master and
crew saved. The °items, one of the royal yacht s tuadron,
which arrived last week, still remains in the river. Erni-
g;on from Portugal to the Brazils is continuing upon a
scale, princixprovinces
y from the of Minho, Douro,
an the Tres os mans

Ocr. 22.—The packet is at last arrived. She came to
anchor yesterday afternoon. It is now positively known
that the Duke of Palinella leaves in a day or two fur
Madeira. Shortly alter his landing, a letter was addressed to
the duke by Prince Fernando, the queen's husband, but
written in her majesty's name, and, in obedience to the royal
mandate, the duke proceeded to the palace forthwith. The
interview lasted upwards of three hours: nothing is abso-
lutely known as to what took place, but the queen is repre-
sented as having evinced. desire to conciliate : of course much
speculation is afloat upon the subject. The duke's friends
affirm that the distinguished diplomatist is perfectly weary
of the petty intrigue and trumpery broils an which Donna
Maria's miserable court is eternally embroiled, and that he
has no intention whatever of mixing himself up in public
affairs. The Cabral journals accuse the court of being too
partial in not ordering the duke out of the country forthwith.
The ministry, it is believed, is on its last legs, and the civil
governors of Oporto and Castello have sent in their resigna-
tions; it is even stated that ministers have actually tendered
theirs in a body; should this be the case, and the queen
accepts their resignations, it will be difficult to avert a popular
tumult—for who are to be their successors ?

The exchanges yesterd►y had a wide range. A very small
amount of business was done, but paper wa► taken at as low
a quotation as 53, and as high as 54. In the value of metals
there is no novelty.

The following has just been communicated to us :
Dr. Rae, the enterprising officer in the establishment of
the Hudson's Bay Company who was employed to deter-
mine the quest;on of the continuity of the land of North
America with Boothin Felix, has returned, after having
most successfully accomplished the object of his expedition,
and has proved beyond a doubt that Boothia Felix is a
peninsula, and that the assertion of Sir John Ross to that
effect was true, while the imaginary passage of SirJ. Barrow
and Commander J. C. Rom is for ever closed. It appears
that Dr. Rae, after an unsuccessful attempt to boats during
the summer of 1846, returned to winter at Repulse Bay, and
in the spring of this year re-maned the isthmus, and traced
the out all the way to Ross's discoveries in 1831.