The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-05 00:00:00

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4i47.

LONDO!r, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 5.

TIME Cabinet of Lisbon have presented to the
Portuguese Chambers a selection of papers, docu-
mots, and correspondence relative to their recent
rupture with the Frecch Government, and its accom-
modation. Tl Opposition in that Legislature have
very properly n.pired that the disclosure should be
full and oomph te. To !his demand, however, the
Marquis of Lout 1., the Prime Minister, hue replied
that grave and u,:zun• circumstances connected with
other Powers f.rbi..l compliance. Whereupon the
Opposition have taken issue with the Cabinet, and
it is by no means improbable that this reticence may
prove fatal to :he present Government of Portugal
and lead to important ministerial changes in that
kingdom.

As the existing Portuguese Administration is one
of very liberal principles and advanced opinions, and
possesses the confidence of the young £INc, and had
also up to this point secured by its policy the
support of the country, there are many reuona why
its overthrow, should it take place, will be • matter
of regret. Portugal is exactly in that position when,
at the eommerzement of a new and hopeful reign, it
is desirab:e that • Liberal policy:should firmly take
root in i•a Goverornent, and Rhea a return to the
personal and etwrapt system that characterised the
Cabinets of the late reign, and from which the pre-
sent Cabinet are comparatively free, should not be
risked. Nevert brier, in the humiliation to which
the kingdom has been recently subjected, it is right
and proper that the Opposition in the Chambers
should be jealous and suspicions of a Government
which, by their own confession, have kept bsek im-
portant paper, necessary for an accurate comprehen-
sion of the whole ease out of which the humiliation
arises; and if the consequences of the retention be
disastrous to the Government and mischievous to the
country, their responsibility rests otherwise than
with the Opposition.
It is not, however, to protect and defend them-
selves that the Cabinet of Lie'son have practised this
reticence and withheld papers from the Coster. It
is avowedly because of external pressure from fo-
reign Governments. So far indeed as the Corre-
spondence laid before the Chambers goes (which is, '
however, by no means c impiete), it would appear that
the Cabinet, in a most painful position, worthily
upheld the national honour and dignity, yielding
only to threats of violence when deserted by the
State on which Portugal had every right to rely for
support, if not for protection. It is apparently to
screen other Governments from pnblic censure that
a complete knowledge of all the facts has been de-
nied to the Legislature of Portugal.
The Portuguese Government have, if we are to
credit the information which reaches nr, been placed
en this cruel situation with respect to the omitted
papers. The Government of France have insisted
that, pending the inquiry which the knreatin is
now making into the real character and tendency of
the French scheme of African Emigration, docu-
ments which impeach tLe morality of the operations
of its agents in the Portuguese possessions in Oriental
Africa should not lie laid before the Portuguese
Chambers. And the English Government, we regret
to be told, have expressed a wish that certain por-
tions of the correepoodence between our Foreign-
office and the Portuguese Gosernment should also be
withheld. So bet teen tae French demand and the
English request, the Portuguese Cabinet have been
ceacuseed into • line of conduct the apolozy for
which only tends to throw additional discredit on
what was already sufficiently indefensible. The
whole proceeding. must necessarily form a subject
for the consideration of Parliament as soon as it re-
assembles.

FOR a man who wishes to " do good," the Dean
of CARLI+LE has a most unfortunate way of
going to work. Two things strike him as
especially painful in the popular way of keep-
ing Christmas—people get drunk, and they go
to see the pintomin.i,s. "It is,' he says, "a
" thing taken for gr.inted that at this season people
" should be dru.,1.." We cosy hope that this is either
a gross, but of course unintentional, exaggeration,
or that there is .omethmq special in the experience
of the Very Reverend orator. From other parts of his
speech we do not Junto that what he meant to say
was that the festi...e chariot:l, of the season is held
to reduce the di•grsee attaching to the weakness
of excessive which, however, is something
very dithrent trim his sweeping accusation-4n
accusation which, thanks to the general advance of
society in iotell.g• ace and 04,1 f-respect, and, let us
cheerfully acknowledge, thanks to the exertions
societies such as liner to which the lhan lends his
adescacy, had never leas foundation tnan at the
pigment time. ne Very Reverend gentleman pro-
ceeded to say, tita• •• What struck him again was,
" that the worthy magistrate, sitting in the chair of
" Justice, let offenders (drunkards) off more easily
" because they were kieptn4 llfristrfa&D. To hie
" mind, if he h been in the magiatrate's place, he
" wou:d have Luca them double for being drunk
"on Christmas•dry." litre is an assertion which
there is no gaiusi.ng. We quite believe that the