The Express.
London, England, 1848-01-07 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

As stated in this paper of last evening the
Oriental Company's steam-ship Jupiter, Captain
Meehan, arrived at Southampton yesterday, and
landed her mails under the charge of Lient. T. J. Wil-
kinson, R.N.,admiralty agent. She left Gibraltar on
the 28th of ecember, Cadia the 29th, and Lisbon the
31st. There was no communication with Oporto,
but the Jupiter touched at Vigo, which she left on
the 2nd of January. A young seaman on board the
Jupiter was killea on the Ist by the bursting of a
gun, whilst the steamer was off Oporto signalling for
a boat from shore. The purser and • boy were
wounded by the same discharge.
LISBON, Bac. 31.

The first two public acts of the new administration
have certainly been most consisteat, and although of
a most irritating character, yet the public mind does
not seem to have been at all taken by surprise. On
the 24th inst. her Majesty, by a royal decree, rein-
states the Cabrals, both brothers, in their office of
privy councillors, from which by a former edict they
had been expelled. Her Majesty in the decree of re-
integration states that the royal decision is based
upon the fact that their expulsion and ignominious
dismissal from the list of councillors of the crown was
in every respect illegal, and in direct violation of one
of the most important articles of the constitutional
charter.
The Naga°, in remarking upon this miserable docu-
ment, very pertinently asks to be informed whether
the ministers who placed before her Majesty, for her
royal signature, a decree now asserted to have been
both unconstitutional and illegal, are or are not to be
impeached ? The press generally assumes, and public
opinion echoes the opieion, that Costa Cabral and his
brother will, immediately the Cortes meet, be called
to the ministry ; that the play of the protocol will be
considered as having terminated; and that England
will no longer oppose the accession of these
men to power. A rumour is, however, in cir-
culation that by the last packet Sir George Seymour
received instructions of a very stringent character
from Lord Palmerston, insisting upon the guarantee
of the British government, upon certain stipulations,
being complied with. Now, without pretending for
a moment to anything like diplomatic confidences,
yet I have been assured from a sure source that the
Cabrals will not immediately succeed to office, but
that Jack Cabral is to have the Brazilian embassy,
while Costa Cabral himself is to go to Paris, the
latter to be in the light solely of a temporary arrange-
ment, and until a more fit opportunity occurs for his
placing himself at the head of affairs. The second
act of the Saldanha administration is a most ob-
noxious one.

The civil governor of Lisbon has issued a de-
cree for the complete and effectual disarmment of
the people : the document is of great length,
and with innumerable clauses. In the first
place, it is asserted that, notwithstanding a
former order for delivering up into the royal arsenals
of all arms and military stores, the property of the
crown, that had fallen into the hands of individuals
during the late civil contest, yet that a considerable
portion both of arms and munitions were still unac-
counted for; a further period therefore of ten days is
allowed for their delivery, in which time, if the
authorities still apprehend that arms are concealed,
they aro authorised to enter any dwelling-house by
I day or night, and make search for the same. Inde-
pendent of the arms, public property, all fowling-
pieces, pistols, swords, B,:c. although belonging to
private individuals, are also to be given up to the
authorities. No exception is made. And in like case,
wherever the authorities have cause to believe that a
gun or a pistol may be in private possession, they are
equally. permitted by this decree to make forcible
entry into any premises where they may sus-
pect arms are concealed. A decree so stringent
and so unheard of as this has, as you
may suppose, produced the greatest excitement; it is
literally handing over the people to the military vio-
lence of the soldiery, and all the annoyance and pil-
lage incidental to domiciliary visits ; in fact, this
brutal mandate appears clearly the forerunner of a
system of government more odious and despotic than
ever. Every petty local justice, however insignifi-
cant, has it in his power to gratify his spleen and ill-
will, and more likely his cupidity, by entering the
house of any obnoxious neighbour or political oppo-
nent upon the pretext of a search for arms, and no
doubt exists but that the Cabral employes have in
contemplation the gleaning of a rich harvest from
this new source of income opened to them. It
was the license of domiciliary visits that first
rained the (pecuniary) fortunes of the Cabral..
Joze Bernardo Cabral. then a small justice,
contrived to have a wealthy priest denounced—
a most respectable old clergyman, of the name of
Guimaraes. The unfortunate man was known to be
very wealthy, and to be the possessor of a considerable
amount in specie and a large quantity of plate. His
house was assailed by the myrmidons of the law,
headed by this very Jozel Cabral; he was dragged
away to prison, and during the search the money and
the plate disappeared: and from that day forward
Joze Bernardo Cabral was a rich man. Such is the
present system of government, or rather misgovern-
ment, in Portugal, and similar to this is the rise of
very many of her present public men. I should not
have dwelt so much upon the subject, but that it is
now amongst the foreign population of Lisbon gene-
rally the all-absorbing topic of conversation. Fo-
reigners are not excepted in the decree, consequently
1 myself, or my next door English neighbour, must
within a few days deliver up our fowling.
pieces, or be liable to have our doors
broken open at midnight, our houses filled
with soldiery, and ransacked, and be quietly
marched off to the common gaol ; and, therefore, be-
fore the next wee'c expires it is unlikely that a single
Englishman will venture to remain a single night at
his country residence exposed to the chances of such
a contingency. There had been a rumour in circula-
tion of late that the English privileges had been
resigned by our government, and that the British con-
servatorial court was to be discontinued, a most im-
portant matter to English residents, as the two most
valuable privileges we possessed were the being
entitled to have arms in our possession, and to carry
theta by day and by night, and that no authority
whatever could enter an Englishman's house upon
any pretext between the hours of sunset and sunrise,
and then not without the personal presence or the
formal authority of the British jadge con-
servator. As the existence or non-existence of

these privileges became on the publication
of the decree alluded to, a most serious matter, I
wrote at once to Sir George Seymour, to ascertain the
exact position in which we stood. The following is
the reply I received under date of yesterday :-
30th Dec., 1847.—S;r,—In reply to your note, I have the
honour to acquaint you that it has been intimated to the
Portuguese government that no objection will be raised to
the clueing of the coneervatorial court, so soon as the two
cases brought some months since under the cognisance of the
court shall be decided.—l have the honour, &c. (signed)
G. H. Saysora.

Until now an Englishman's house in Lisbon was
sacred, and his cash-box safe from other peril than
the attacks of ordinary robbers ; but now that we are
handed over to the tender mercies and the protection
of Costa Cabral's authorities some few remarkable
scenes may be anticipated, and are likely to take
place.
On the morning of the 27th, all Lisbon was in an
uproar, and everything appeared confusion and alarm.
The whole force of police were early on foot, aided by
a strong body of the regular troops. Shortly after
the usual hours for opening the markets they were
suddenly surrounded, and for some time no egress was
permitted—the pretext was a forced relernitment ;
the consequence was that families were thrown into
the greatest distress by the seizure of some hundreds
of peaceable citizens : the sons of some were missing,
the brothers and husbands of others, of others again,
their servants. Now had youths only been pounced
upon of the ages and condition usually kidnapped for
soldiers in constitutional Portugal, some sort of ex-
planation might be given for the act ; but as the chase
and capture were indiscriminate, and children of ten
years of age and men of sixty were seized and crammed
Into the penal prisons, some other motive but the
assigned one mast be accepted as the reason of this
atrocious proceeding. The popular journals give it a
political colour, and ascribe it to party persecution,
boldly averring that of the reclamation! made by
parents or friends for the liberation of prisoners
none were attended to but those that came from the
partisans of the Cabrals. Certainly such a style of
proceeding in England would not a little astonish the
good folks of Hangerfozd or of Covent-garden mar-
kets. The political speculations that are afloat would
be uninteresting to narrate. The Cortes meet the day
after to-morrow, so that without being wearied with