The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-10 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

- -
• LISBON, JAN. 3.—The character of the Deputies elede,d
to serve in the approaching Cortes, and the measures whicr:
they may adopt, are the topics of deepest and most general
interest at the present moment in the political circles of
Lisbon. To a Chamber of prudent and intelligent repre-
sentatives the informed and well-disposed part of society
naturally look for a removal of those evils which afflict the
country ; but, unfortunately, the very circumstances which
render the assistance of a competent legislative assembly
necessary are those which are too often best calculated
to deprive a country of the advantages of a body of this
description. In this country the peculiar relation of parties
to each other, and the anomalous condition of society in
general, enhance the difficulties of predicating the actual
state of feeling of the people and their representatives, and of
predicting what turn affairs may shortly take. In such a
state of national disorganization, in which all the elements
of society are still in motion, the most experienced and
best informed on the character and condition of the country
are left without a compass to guide them to any satisfactory
conclusions as to future events. One would readily sup-
pose, that after the occurrences which recently took place
here, all those who possessed the right of voting would also
possess the will, and hasten with alacrity to the churches,
to take a part in the appointment of such men as would be
likely to carry their respective principles into effect in the '
Legislative Assembly of the Cortes. The very reverse,
however, of this hypothesis is that which has just been
witnessed throughout the electoral districts of Portugal.
Lisbon and its vicinity, for example, comprehending
a population of about three hundred thousand souls,
sent to the elections of the Deputies of the district not
more than about ten thousand voters. In Oporto and
the surrounding district, which contain about 150,000 in-
habitants, the number who voted did not exceed 5,000.
In considering these political phenomena, it is to be recol-
lected that they have occurred, not in a country where suf-
frage or the right of voting is limited, by many property
qualifications, but in a country where their Constitution ad-
mits of a suffrage almost amounting to what is called " uni-
versal" in England ; together with voting by ballot. If
such men had only the intelligence to understand, and the
moral courage to work, the representative principle, which
in theory they so much admire, the political condition of
their country would soon assume an aspect far different from
that which it now exhibits. Until they do something more
for the preservation of order and the advancement of good
government than advocating moderation in the pages of
the Correio, their complaints against the usurpation of power
by the mobs and National Guards of Lisbon, can only ex-
cite the pity or the contempt of the supporters of rational
liberty throughout Europe. It is owing chiefly to their
imbecility that the " Miguelites," the next party which
attempts to turn the circumstances attending these elec-
tions to account, presume to raise their voice in this part of
the Peninsula, and have the hardihood still to propose their
detested principles for the adoption of their countrymen.
Yet such is the fact. In the organs of this remnant of an
execrable faction (for even they, notwithstanding their com-
plaints against the tyranny of the democrats of Lisbon, pos-
sess a press unfettered by law and unmolested by the po-
pulace), it is gravely asserted, that the indifference of the
people to the election of deputies is an irrefragable proof of
the national disapprobation of the present order of things.
Their tender sensibilities, they add, about plunging the
nation once more into the horrors of a civil war, alone pre-
vented them from seizing on the representative power and
applying it to their own peculiar ends. A more satis-
factory explanation of the fact of so numerous a
constituency as exists in the country having pro-
duced so few voters on so important an occasion may,
perhaps, be found in the character and condition
of the people. The great mass, in fact, of the popu-
lation, attach little importance to political matters, and
leave them to be settled by a comparatively small propor-
tion of the inhabitants of Lisbon and the other large towns.
In a country in which, throughout a great portion of its
extent, the common convenience of roads is yet wanting,
and amongst the inhabitants of which political information
must be necessarily so little diffused, it would, if no other
causes existed to produce the effect, be unreasonable to ex-
pect the concentration of the public mind upon the attain-
ment of any object, however important. Years indeed
must roll away before the science of self-government—the
most valuable of all knowledge to a State—dispelling the
ignorance which now prevails throughout the country, shall
exhibit its inhabitants in the attitude of freemen asserting,
their rights through a well-regulated system of national re-
presentation.
The subject of the late rumoured visit of Don Miguel
to Portugal is, for the time being, in abeyance. Few now
entertain any apprehensions of this powerless bugbear. The
refusal of the Court of Rome to supply him with money is
said to be connected with the late desperate attempts of his
partisans here. Debility soon succeeds the fury which hun-
ger inspires ; low diet may not cure, but it may prevent the
madness of despotism from being mischievous. There are
no satisfactory accounts here of his present residence ; all,
however, agree as to his having left Rome, and being on a
mendicant excursion to some of his patrons on the other side
of the Alps. The depredations of his sole active adherents
in Portugal, the robbers and guerilla parties, give the only
importance to our provincial intelligence which it possesses
this week. Their outrages have been chiefly confined to
Guarda and Almada, in the vicinity of Lisbon. The late
regulations issued respecting the duties and importation of
port wine will not, it is generally supposed, be persevered
in by the Government.
BALL AT THE BRITISH LEGATION.

MADRID, DEC. 28.—Mr. Villiers's first ball this season
took place last evening ; the rooms were tolerably well
lighted up. In regard to furniture there was no improve-
ment upon what was seen at the last ball, which took place
two years ago, with the exception of a second-hand carpet,
which I believe was sometime since brought from Cadiz
or Gibraltar ; in every other respect the same tapestries
and carpets, the same chairs, &c., which " Campo Alanje's"
ancestors had put in some two centuries back, still stocd
there. But what might be wanting in novelty, attrac-
tion, or brilliancy of decorations, was amply compensated
by the hospitality, urbanity, and affability of the host to
his numerous guests. There was a tolerable, if not a
very numerous muster of the high nobility of the
country ; I do not mean such provincial nobility as the
Marquis de Herrera, or the Marquis Villa Garcia, whose
incomes run from thirty to one hundred and thirty-five
pounds per annum, and whose private characters had better
not be touched upon ; but grandees of Spain, such as the
Medina Celis, the Villa Hermosas, the Hijases, the Castro
Torrenos, &c., &c. The beauties of the evening were la
Concha Mejorada ,las d' Aranda Sobrinas del Conde U manes,
las de Camarasa, la de Magallon, Sobrina, del Marques de
San Adrian, la Condesa de Corres, Mademoiselle Heredia,
(laughter of the Countess Escalona, all connected with the
families of grandees, the Marquesa de Villa Garcia (if she
could look modest !) the Senoritas de Beruese, las Senoritas
de Aguilar, daughters of the Spanish Minister in London,
and various others. The ladies who made the most splendid
show of brilliants were the sister of Count Cervellon, the
Countess Sebastiani, Mademoiselle Villaviciosa, &c.; but I
Missed the classic beauty of Mademoiselle de Rayneval, the
daughter of the late French Ambassador at this Court.
Various of the Ministers were present. M. Calatia.tva
looked the Spanish gentleman ; M. Landero, the obliging
Spanish barber ; M. Lopez, a wild man from the woods,
who starts at suddenly finding himself out of his element ;
M. Mendizabal, with the Grand Cross of the Tower and
Sword, positively looked like a highwayman, who had way-
laid the Duke of Terceira or Marshal Saldanha, and taken
from them that order which they had so deservedly earned.
Luckily there was but one Portuguese gentleman present ;
but even he must have lamented the evil hour in which the
Queen of Portugal had been persuaded, or perhaps actually
bullied, when at Cintra, into disgracing such a highly-prized
Military Order by conferring it on the ever-weep-
ing, and, as he is now called, youthful, Mendiza-
bal. It is, however, quite true that it was done upon his
assuring her Most Faithful Majesty that although he had lost
his fortune in her service (he never had any to lose) he would
not claim from Portugal the sum of 120,000/. for certain

.*

commissions to which hi was entitled; thus barefacedly en.
sheavouring to conceal from the young, unsuspecting Queen,
that even after credit was given for the said sum he would
still be indebted to Portugal upwards of two hundred thou.
sand pounds sterling, not one farthing of which his he up
to this time offered to pay. The French, Danish, Belgian,
Portuguese, Swedish, Mexican, Brazilian, and Greek, Minis,-
ters were present, as well as Mr. O'Connell's Reveren
Charge d'Affaires, in full canonicals. The well-knowna
Abbe Osoriu, M. Martinez de la Rosa, and Monsieur and
Madame Moutufar, the once celebrated belle of Madrid,
came in ono carriage ; old General Castanos likewise
honoured our Mhuister with his presence. The Abbe
Escano, M. Bertram de Lis, and many other equally well-
known persons were very foshionably dressed ; but, to cut
the matter short, the whole Went off with eclat, and the
Calle de Alcale did not return to its habitual state of
nightly deathlike solitude until about four this inorning.—
Correspondent of the 3forning Post.