The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-04 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

Some progress has been made in the Cortes dur-
ing the last week. All the elections have been ap-
proved of, though some were strenuously disputed.
A vigorous effort was made to unseat Don Fran-
ciscod'Almeida' a nephew of the Duke of Saldanha,
on tho ground that he had not a legal qualification.
A subservient majority, however, decided that he
was within the pale of the law. At first sight it
would have seemed that he was expressly excluded
by the reformed charter, but the most stringent
enactments in this country are practically very
elastic. All yield to the ruling powers.
The Chamber of Peers is far from exhibiting the
same pliancy. If we are to judge from results,
the Ministry will be in a minority. On the ques-
tion of addressing the Throne in reply to the speech
delivered.bi the Dlike of Saldanha at the opening
of the session, no less than'2l voted with Viscount
Labervan, the leader of the Opposition, and 'Only 12
supported the Minister. From a consciousness of
their own weakness, the Government have used
every stratagem to prevent a meeting of the peers,
by keeping away from the house.
It is reported that the Queen refuses to consent
to the creation of a new batch of peers.
Some sensation was excited by a report of the
discovery of an infernal machine. But the whole
affair was turned into ridicule, and seems to have
been an invention of the police. It was once as-
serted that it was concocted to alarm the Queen,
and overcome her repugnance to the unconstitu-
tional proposition for swamping the peers.
The decision of the Stock Exchange is considered
fatal to the financial schemes of Senhor Fontes,
and will probably lead to a change in the Adminis-
tration as soon as the Duke of Saldanha is able to
attend to business. He is still an invalid, though
he derived considerable relief from a surgical ope-
ration to which he was compelled to §.ubmit.
Five per Cent. Inscriptions are quoted, at 40,
and shares in the Bank of Portugal hav_-0 risen to
310,000 320,000. Exchange on London is 841 for
bills at ninety days' date.
Vessels of War in the Tagus.—Her Majesty's
ship Sanspereil and steamer Inflexible ; French
steamer Peterel, Egyptian yacht Kassida Sthanie.

A TALE OF 1814.—A manufacturer, residing in the
Rue du Temple, Paris, who possesses a small property
near Montmorency, last week employed two labourers
to make some alterations in the garden. In digging the
ground, at about two feet below the surface, they came
on a skeleton, having a deep cut on the front part of he
skull. The authorities, being informed of the circum-
stance, sent for a medical man, who declared the skele-
ton to be that of a man of from thirty to forty years of
age, and that it must have been in the ground about
forty years. Some old men in the neighbourhood, on
hearing what had occurred, came forward, a:- stated
how the body had, in the first instance, been in4..rred. in
the garden. A retired clerk possessed the house and
property in 1814, living there with his wife, still in the
prime of life, and his daughter, a girl of about sixteen.
When the allies were on the point of entering Paris, he
determined to take his family to the capital, as being
safer, but his wife was ill at the time, and could not be
removed, and the daughter insisted on remaining with
her as companion. The husband was in doubt what to
do, when a party of Prussian soldiers were sent to
the house with billets. The clerk received them hos-
pitably, and the next morning, informing the officer
that he was obliged to go to Paris, requested him to
see that the ladies were not molested. This he pro-
mised faithfully to do. It so happened that the sol-
diers drank that day more freely titan they had for
some time been accustomed to do, and at last they
spoke of entering the apartments of the mother and
daughter. The officer endeavoured to keep them within
bounds, but they insisted on carrying their plans into
execution. The officer then cried out to the ladies to
escape ; and, placing himself before the door, endeavoured
to keep the soldiers at bay. They pressed On him, how-
ever, so sharply, that he was obliged to draw his sword
and defend himself. For some minutes he succeeded in
his attempt, but at last he received a deep cut on the
head, which felled him to the ground. The soldiers
then trampled him under foot, and rushed into the room
which had been assigned to the ladies, -but which they
found empty. The devotedness of the officer had not
proved fruitless, as, on hearing his voice, the daughter
had opened the window and called loudly for assistAnee.
A ladder was brought by a servant, and both the women
we got safely down before the soldiers burst into the
room. The
m. The women at once set off for Paris, and on the
way they metthemaster of
lie,t the hwoiuthsee,ettodwelhay, womtheenyt
re-
lated what had occurred, to
Marshal Blucher, and stated what had happened. A
party of Prussians were
,immediately sent to
and to
spot,
wthiethrionrgdleerasdetrosbeufrythte tthaeuane
or-
ders were duly executed, the spot chosen forinterring
unfortunate
rt
over un a
thei s officer,
grave. a n
disposedThoes
e shoot
the officer being the garden. The clerk and his family
then took a dislike to the place, and soon after
of it at leas than its value.—French paper,