The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-02 00:00:00

STATE OF PORTUGAL.

(From the Periodicodos Pobres no Porto.)
By our article of Wednesday our readers will see
that we are condemned to death, not according to the
sentence of the law, but by the hand of an assassin !
Not for crimes we have committed, but for not holding
the npinions of the Septembrists. Such is our situation
—such is the situation of our unfortunate country
The Clubs have sentenced us to die, and M. Joao
Pedro de Sancta Clara Lemos, Captain of the 13th
Regiment of Infantry, was not ashamed to perform the
vile part of an assassin. Who could have expected
such conduct from a man who belongs to the noble pro-
fession of arms. This gentleman left Lisbon for the
purpose mentioned on board of the Vesuvio, and
arrived here on the 6th instant ; on Monday he
formed his plan of attack, on Tuesday he proceeded
to execute it, and on Wednesday at daybreak he
retreated to the steam-vessel, in which he had taken
a berth, and went to convey to his friends of the
Tagus the news of his treachery, of his defeat, and of
his cowardice. We congratulate the city of Oporto
that it is not stained with this crime ! It appears
that amongst its inhabitants not one could be found
so base and unprincipled as to take upon himself
so odious an office. To shed. the blood of a Portu-
guese citizen it was necessary that a hired assassin
should come from Lisbon ! What melancholy consi-
derations occur to us ! Who is the man that took upon
himself this base and execrable office, who crossed the
sea to assassinate his fellow-being:? It is M. Sancta
Clara, an officer of the Portuguese army, a man who
was confined with us in the tower of St. Julian, as a
Constitutionalist, who long slept by our side, and who
calls himself a Liberal ! And who is the victim ? A
Liberal, sentenced like himself as such in 18'24, con-
demned to death in 1829, afterwards sentenced to be
banished for life to the garrison of Pongo Andongo,
buried for .two years in the dungeons of St. Julian, a
man nearly blind, burdened with a family, and lately
spoiled and robbed by the men of September ! And
what is the crime which this man has committed that he
should be assassinated ? It is that he does not follow the
colours of the Septembrists ; that he is a public
writer—that he uses the right which the Constitution
guarantees to all Portuguese citizens. Gracious God! at
what a state of things have we arrived ! Behold the
liberty which the men of September give us ! Behold
the liberty which the Apostles of the Rights of Man,
the preachers of equality, are preparing for us ! Their
liberty is the dagger—their equality assassination. But
as it is certain that the criminal is always a coward, M.
Sancta Clara waited for us concealed behind a door,
whence he aimed the most furious blows at our head ;
we struggled with him, blind and without arms, wrested
his bludgeon from his hands, and when he found that
we were assisted, he fled without completing the crime
which he had engaged himself to commit. He fled to
Lisbon, bearing on his countenance the stamp of his
shameful crime. Muffled up in a cloak, he found him-
self alone on the deck—none of his fellow-travellers ap-
proached him, not even some Septembrists who were on
board, such was the dread of his premeditated crime. After
he committed the offence he dared not appearin the streets
of the unconquered city (meaning Oporto), %hose inhabit-
ants regarded him with horror. His conduct was satis-
factory to only a few Anarchists, whose desires we
know, and whose fury we shall be able to avoid. We
have often had death before our eyes—we do not seek
it, neither do we fear it—when the moment for our
leaving the world shall come it is indifferent to us
whether we die of sickness or by the hand of an assassin.
We shall not cease to combat with our pen the enemies
of our country. We are no Kotzebue—but we are not
forgetful of his melancholy end.
If our country had a government, we would have re-
course to the government ; if the law had any power,
we would pray for the application of the law ; but in
the present state of demoralization, we entrust our
cause to public opinion, and place our life in the hands
of God, who will sooner or later avenge us. Let us,
however, remind our political enemies that our death
cannot increase, but must rather diminish, their strength.
The party which seeks to enforce its doctrines by
means of assassination, has no power but that which is
supplied by crimes ; what can they gain by our death ?
There will be one Chartist the less ! Men die, but
their works remain !"
[Sancta Clara is the person who addressed a chal-
lenge to Lord Brougham, and threatened to burn his
own inexpressibles of British manufacture, &c. &c.
The person whom he attempted to assassinate is one of
the editors of the above journal. His offence is, that
he has helped to undecieve the puplic as to the conduct
of the Septembrists in the affair of the slave trade, and
has made some bitter jests upon their foolish vapouring
about England, and has rendered them ridiculous as well
as odious in the eyes of men of common sense and right
feeling. It is said that Santa Clara is cracked ;it
may be so, but it is certain that this captain of infantry
s a cowardly scoundrel.]