The Express.
London, England, 1858-10-11 00:00:00

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SONDON. MONDAY. OCT. 11.

SPORTING 124TELLIORNCR.

A SPECIAL EDITION of the ■ EXPRESS,"
simataining the results of the day's Races, is pub-
lished every evening during the Sporting Season, at
aim o'clock.

Tin facts relative to the dispute between the
Garen:masts of France and Portugal, which has led
to the despatch of two great French men-of-war
to the Taps for the purpose of supporting the
French demands, are clearly very imperfectly
known to the Paris journals ; and in England we
have not as yet any authoritative information on the
subject. It is neessesry, therefore, to speak with
caution and reserve ; more especially as it is stated
that the Portuguese Government admit that in
another controversy with the Cabinet of Paris—that
about the French Sisters of Charity—they are not
in the right

Of course all oar sympathies in England are with
our ancient, and, on the whole, well-behaved ally,
Portugal, whom we are bound by treaty to defend
against unjust attacks. Portugal has moreover
turned over a new leaf on the subject of the
African trade since the accession of Dom PEDRO ;
Chiefly, no doubt, because by the complete abolition
of the traffic in the empire of Brazil, the Portuguese
slave dealers have for the last few years been de-
rived of what was their great market; bat to a
large extent also in consequence of the sincere
efforts of the Cabinet of Lisbon to convert their great
and various posseesiotus on either coast of Africa to
better and more useful porpoise than the exportation
of human beings for sale. Substantially, t►erefore,
Portugal has (by the preliminary policy of Brazil)
been converted into an anti-slave-trade power ; and
the traffic is at present confined in an open manner
to the Spaniards and Americans, and indirectly to
the French Government. This is an additional
news why the British public should watch with
interest, and the English Government afford all
reasonable and proper support to, the Government of
Portugal in its new career.

The Portuguese colonies of Angola on the western
onset, and in the Mozambique Channel on the eastern
coast of Africa, have very great agricultural and mi-
neral resources, which only need adequate supplies of
continuous labour to be brought to hear on their cul-
tivation and production. But if foreign states are to
be permitted, against the wishes of the Portuguese
Government, to resort thither for the purchase of
African emigrants, then it is clear that the prosperity
of those possessions will be interrupted and retarded,
and that Africa will not have gained by the with-
drawal of the Portug'iese from the slave trade.
The Cabinet of Lisbon has consequently adapted a
wise, judicious, and perfectly defensible policy, in
determining that no such emigration shall be carried
Cu thence.

It is perhaps one of the inconveniences of the long
and intimate connexion of England with Portugal,
el the many and great eerrieti England has rendered
to that country, of the importance of the Tagus to
England in a maritime point of view, and of the
preservation of Iberian independence chiefly by
English exertions, that they have rendered the
pokey of France towards Portugal one of jealousy and

aeniunvenees—oometimee even of ill-will. Under
whatever Government, Frames never fails to treat
Portugal with a certain amount of rigour and hau-
teur. When ;nations arise between the two coun-
tries, the Government of France is sure to asennie a
peremptory and arrogant tone in the diocesan°.
And more than once before the present ocearrence
French ships of war have been prematurely and
ortentatiously sant to support French diplomacy at
Lisbon. Such demoturtrations are perhaps in reality
intended rather for England than for Portugal; and
they generally terminate by English advice to yield
and give way.

On the other hand, it is not to be denied that the
Patna-mei Government 4 its discontinue with other
countries (with England quite as much as with
France) practises all those arts of delay, excuse, con-
tention, and insincerity, which are the true causes of
half this world's quarrels. Mach, then, as we ar♦
inclined to sympathise generally, and in this par-
ticular case especially, with Portugal, and strongly
as we object to the recent proceedings of France on
the coasts of Africa, we must be much batter is-
formed of all the circumitanoes, and of the character
sad details of the controversy, before we gratify our
primary inclinations by pronouncing Portugal to be
entirely right, and France indefensibly wrong.
We certainly have not been slow or laggard in
showing to the public on both sides of the Channel
what the true character of the French scheme of
African Emigration amounts to. It is in substance
• Slave Trade, equally hart ful to Africa as Ow Slave
Trade which Prance is still bound to co-operate
with England is suppressing. Bat although quite
as pernicious to Africa, it is not the lawless,
piratical, brutalising African Slave Trade de-
salinised in oar treaties; and there lies tho great dif-
ficulty of the case. The French Government deny
that it is a Slave Trade at all t and although we can
incontestably show that to all intents and purposes it
amounts to a trafficking in negroes and to pro-
moting slave hunts in Africa, and although our
Government have addressed remonstrances against
its motinuanos to the Cabinet of Paris, oar cruisers
have neither instructions nor authority to mire on
the high seas French vests 1s carrying them pur-
chased African emigrants to French colonies; and

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