The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-27 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

Sir,—ln you paper of the 28th ult., I read in the article
of news headed "Rome," the following passage :
"On the 16th inst. a grand reception took place 'at the
Farneso Palace, on the part of the Royal Family of Naples.
On the sanie'eroning hiS ExralfEi4 the Field Marshal the
Duke of Saldanha, Ambassador of his Faithful Majesty,
near the Holy See, opened the noble rooms of the Torlonia
Palace in Borgo, by a splendid feast. The chief dignitaries
of the Church, the members of the diplomatic corps, the
Roman princes and nobles, &c., filled the rooms, of .which

the Duchess of Saldanha, 'as well as her husband, did the
honours in the most amiable and hospitable manner. The
duke is said to be on the point of leaving Rome to proceed
to London, to fill there also the post of Portuguese Ambas-
sador. 'He will leave,' says a letter in the Unita Cattolica,
4a most lasting recAlection of himself as a grand seigneur,
and a zealous and distinguished Catholic."' (The italics are
mine.)
This extract suggests to me (as it will suggest to any
Portuguese acquainted with the chequered and eventful
antecedents of the Ambassador) most curious and not over-
edifying reflections. The first thought that offers itself to
everyone is the oddity of the juxtaposition of the two re-
cep 7 re-
ceptions • one by the legitimate and revolutionary despoiled
Royal Family of Naples; the other by the revolutionary
representative of a usurping Government, imposed on my
reluctant country, through the instrumentality of the
same revolutionary Duke, by the most revolutionary, sand
most scandalous quadruple alliance. No doubt, the chief
dignitaries of the Church, the Diplomatic Corps, the Roman
princes and nobles passed, with the greatest composure,
from presenting to the betrayed Royal Family their re-
spects amidst expressions of sympathy, to sipping the ices
of the revolutionary Ambassador, amidst floods of light
and flattery. I wonder, however, whether any of the com-
pany reflected that in those ices, and cakes, and sweet-
meats, and splendour, they were enjoying the fruits of the
spoil of Convents, Monasteries, Cathedrals, Churches, Con-
fraternities, most impiously confiscated and robbed •by the
Ambassador himself and his freemasonic party ?
Yes, whilst the few remaining old religious men, expel-
led by Saldanha and his friends from their convents and
property, aro living in poverty and misery ; while the few
old nuns still existing in some convents are almost starv-
ing, having been plundered by the most liberal thieves
whom Saldanha has helped into domination, and now re-
presents at Rome ; he is spending sums and exacting sala-
ries (from a court and Government that wished to keep
him away at any price) out of all proportion with the
means of the country ; has, notwithstanding that the revo-
lutionists have swallowed all the riches and possessions of
the-Portuguese Church, in Portugal itself and her colonies,
they are making loans upon loans on the most ruinous
terms, every year or every six months (vide Times of the
day before yesterday, where a new one of those loans is
spoken of).
How has this " great duke" of yesterday risen to his duke-
dom ? Why, by his services as a good soldier (which he un-
doubtedly is), to the revolutionary party, under the wings of
Lord Palmerston and Louis Philippe and their perfidious
quadruple alliance. Without him Don Pedro and his Free-
masons would not have been able to abolish the religious
orders, to plunder the Church and the State in Portugal, to
open the doors of the kingdom to the Protestant propa-
ganda, to bring the country to the present fearful condition
of infidelity, demoralisation, and ruin.
Saldanha was merely a cadet son, having only his pay
and no other, or hardly any other property, being at the
same time the most lavish spendthrift, to whom no money
is ever sufficient. I really think that the first real property
he possessed was that of a convent and its land, which he
shared, or bought for a song, in the scramble for the Church
plunder in 1834. He had not, it is true, been so well ap-
portioned as his fellow-revolutionists Palmella and Car-
valho, for instance, who got some of the most splendid
estates in the country, belonging to the Augustinian
Monasteries of Lisbon and Coimbra, but he had one of the
convents at least, which I do not know whether he still
possesses or not. His brother-in-law, Mr. John Smith—
whom ho made a sort of secretary of his, and took with
him to Portugal in 1831 or thereabouts (after having been
lodging at his father's house, as a refugee then in England,
which led to the marriage of the duke with his present
wife)—has also got a convent at Alenquen, where he re-
sides, and where the duke has been staying with him for
some time. Now Mr. John Smith had not, it seems, much
money out of which to buy a Convent, were it not under
the fostering influence of his now brother-iu-law, the
"distinguished and zealous Catholic" Ambassador at Rome,
who gives splendid feasts to the Cardinals and Roman
Princes, &c., at the expense of the despoiled Portuguese
Church and nation.

It is notorious in Portugal that Saldanha consented in
going to Rome as Ambassador, at the supplication of the
other precious masonic Duke Loul6, and of the two revo-
lutionary Kings, father and son, on condition of having his
numerous debts paid off by the Government, a good sum
of money given him for preparation and the voyage, and a
large salary, for those feasts ho is giving, attended by the
principal English Catholics at Rome, who have such short
memories as not to remember that the present Duke,, be-
sides having been the main instrument for the triumph of
the masonic revolution and usurpation in Portugal, has
made three or four revolutions afterwards, under different
banners and pretests, being nor Ambassador at Rome be-