The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-06 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

Tills DAY, Four &Clock.

•
We yesterday announced the arrival at Southamp-
ton of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Jupiter, Captain F. Meehan. Lieut. J. J. Wilkinson,
R.N., Admiralty agent, from Gibraltar, 26th ; Cadiz,
27th ; Lisbon, 29th and Oporto, 30th alt. ; and Vigo,
the let inst. The Jupiter has brought the following
passengers:
Lord Godolphin, Mr. Major, Mr. rooks, Mr. Leithierry,
Capt. A. Mereader, Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood, Mrs. West,
Mrs. Fuleher, Mr. Douthat, Mr. J. Wooly's', R.N. ; Mr.
and Mrs. Hodgson and family, Mr. Ronald, Mr. F. Canitr,
and Senor Seronha.

The annexed letter contains the latest and most im-
porhnt news from Portugal:

LISBON, Serr. 29.
Your last news from this will have made von
acquainted with the fact, that a committee f the principal
men of the popular party had addressed a representation
and remonstrance to the queen regarding tl e general state
of the country, the frauds in the electoral rrsriatrations, and
in respect to the general meisures ef the ministers in relation
to the approaching elections. I believe I mentioned to you
that, upon the liberal committee waiting upon Sir Hamilton
Seymour with a duplicate of this document, the ambassador
expressed himself as fully in accord with the views of the
petitioners, as approving the steps they hid taken, and
promising them all his aid and influence with the govern-
ment in the matter in qutation. It will now be necessary
to give you • copy of Sir Hamilton Seymour's reply
to the noblemen and. gentlemen by whom he was addressed,
before you can have explained to you the subs2quent evasive
conduct of the Portuguese government in this respect :
" 'denote, SEPT. 18.—Gentlemen,—I beg to acknowledge
the receipt of the letter you did me the honour to address to
me on the 14th inst., enclosing • copy of a representation to
her Majesty the Queen. Your letter gave me great pleasure,
and induces me to hope that the measures adopted by her
Britannic Majesty's government in regard to this country,
will have full effect at no distant period. Equally with your-
selves, gentlemen, it is the wish of her Majesty'a government
that Portugal should be in the enjoyment of peace and order.
As you do, so does her Majesty's government desire to see
the Portuguese enjoy ing all the benefits promised by the con-
stitution. The step you have just taken is well calculated to
promote the object of your wishes, which I am inclined to
hope will be advanced by the favourable reception of your
representation so opportunely addressed to the throne. So
soon as the operations of the constitutional government shall
be completely re-established upon a firm basis, so soon as
the country shall possess a real national representation,
and so soon as violent conflicts shall give place to parliament-
ary discussions, her majesty's
.government will see with
pleasure the triumph of the principles that have guided its
policy, and will view with satisfaction the increase cf pro
sperity that Portugal cannot fail to enjoy under the influence
of free and monarchical institutions. "G. H. SEYMOUR."
" Marquis de Louie, Conde das Antos, &c., &c."
After the reception of the remonstrance and petition by
the queen, a c-thinet council was immediately summoned ;
and, following upon that, Sir H. Seymour and the ministers
of France and Spain were invited to a conference, when the
Portuguese ministers expressed a desire to conciliate. They
admitted that, in the bitterness of feeling engendered by the
strife of parties, it was possible that many abuses might have
taken place in the registration ; and the question was then
put to Sir Hamilton Seymour whether a postponement of
the elections for two months would be considered us infring-
ing the stipulations of the protocol, if resorted to for the pur-
pose of giving time and opportunity for investigating,
and if found necessary, of annulling the registrations?
Sir Hamilton Seymour's response was most frank. Desirous,
he said, of aiding to the utmost in the pacification
of the country, of removing all cause of embarrassment, he
would take upon himself, as far as his government was con-
cerned, all responsibility of the act. The Spanish and
French ministers, coinciding with the views of Sir H. Sey-
mour, the matter was considered as definitively settled ; so
entirely so, that Sir H. Seymour made immediate congratu-
latory visits to Senor Aguiar, and to one or two others of the
popular chiefs, assuring them that, so far as tho registration
question went, all would be favourably settled ; and even
wrote to Lord l'almerston by last packet, to the effect that
a greet measure had been achieved towards a pacification of
parties. From the 18th to the 23rd no further intimation
reached the embassy in reference to the question. On that
day, to the surprise and disgust of the foreign ministers, a
royal decree appeared in the government Cemette, heralded
in by an official announcement of the reception by her Ma-
jesty of the petition, in which it was declared that many of
of the assertions were notoriously untrue : but that it
was still her royal pleasure to institute inquiry;
and, consequently, in a decree, embracing some six
articles or iso, the ministry are author and com-
manded to instruct the district governors of the seventeen
electoral districts to issue a commission of five persons in '
each district to inquire into the alleged frauds in the regis-
tration, and to report thereon. Mind the seventeen district
governors arc all Cabmlists, and the class of persons who are
chewed with the task of investigation are the very parties
complained against. Not alone this—the entire registration
throughout the country must be completed by the Ist of Oc-
tober; consequently, her majesty's pleasure in the distant
districts could not by any possibility be made known until
the registries were closed ; and the elections are to be hurried
on with the manufactured majorities. The whole proceed-
ing is moat disgraceful; and Sir Hamilton Seymour has
placed on record his protest against it. So much for the
people's guarantees—" the Queen of Portugal's good faith
pledged to her allies."
The Cabral journal, the Estaftdarte, is enraged at the
unflinching attitude assumed by Sir H. Seymour, and,
in an ablative article in its yesterday's number, the emboss&
dor is asked what he is " paid for," and whether he is here
to communicate and to treat with the subjects of Portugal,
or accredited to the court of the Queen ? But attacks from
such a source must be considered as the greatest eulogy that
could be passed upon his diplomatic exertions.
The Itevolumo, the popular journal, has recently attracted
great attention by a powerfully written paper upon the ad-
vantages to be derived, and to be solely derivable, from Eng-
lish alliance. The article is written in hostility to French
designs upon the Peninsular monarchies; grave facts aro
presented, and it is unquestionably one of the most profound
and statesmanlike documcn aof the time. I send you the
original in case i you may contrive room for it n your
columns, but as this probably will not be practicable I ex-
tract one or two passages of particular force. The editor, in
the first place, assumes, as his commencing position, that
French policy is, and must be, hostile to the independence of
Portugal, and that this fact is of no new date. French diplo-
macy, adds the writer, can never understand how Portugal
should exist independent of Spain, and that the fusion of
these two nationalities is one of the few ideas in which the
policy ef Louis Philippe is in perfect harmony with the tra-
dition of Versailles, with the records of the empire, with the
philosophical ambition of the republic, and with the com-
mercial views of the Freach manufacturing classes. Then
diverging to the subject of English alliance, the writer pro-
needs as follow!: