The Sun.
London, England, 1822-01-24 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

LISBON, JAN. 2.—The decive of the Cortes,
for the establishment of the Bank of Lisbon,
having received the Royal assent, is promulgated
in the usual form as a law of the kingdom, and
appears in the Dianie do Governo of to-clay.
The charter is granted for twenty years. There
are to be 10,000 shares, each of the value of
500,000 rees, to be paid half in paper currency
Ind half in coin. The subscription to be opened
on the Ist January 1822, under the inspection
of the persons named by the President of the
Cortes; and as-soon as '2,500,000 rees are sub-
scribed, 150 subscribers, who have the largest
number of shares, are to form a general assem-
bly, and choose, by a majority of votes, a Pre-
sident and sixteen Directors, each of whom must
be a Proprietor of at least twelve shares.
The Cortes continue to discuss the articles of the Constitu-
tion, and have now arrived- at title 5 which treats of the judi-
cial power.

In the Sitting of to 2d, Mr. Pesanha rose and said he could
not approve of that chapter of the project which treated of the
judicial power, either on the whole or in part ; that the Portu-
guese were in very different circumstances from other nations,
having resumed their liberty in a manner so extraordinary, that
it resembled a festival rather than a revolution, and having
the good fortune to possess a Piing who embraced with perfect
good-will the new system, they ought not to be sparing in the
salutary reforms to be made in the judicial power ; he therefore
proposed and presented a counter project as an amendment to
the chapter in question, and begged permission to read it. This
request caused a great debate, to know whether it would be
permitted to read a new project entirely opposed to that under
discussion, and it being resolved that it should be read, Mr.
PeSanhA requested that Mr.. Bastos might read it for him,'
which was granted. The latter powerfully supported the new
project, and it was resolved that the following question should
be discussed :
If there shall be or not' judges of the fact (Juries) as well in
civil as in criminal eases?

This important subject was discussed in succeeding sittings ;
many Members, who approved of the introduction of Juries in
criminal causes, being adverse to them in civil causes. At
length, in the sitting of the 9th, the matter being judged to have
been sufficiently discussed, the President put the two follow-
ing questions, and that the votes on the second should be taken

I. Has the Constitution to determine that from the time of
its publication there shall be Juries in civil and criminal
causes ?—Decided in the negative.
11. Has the Constitution to declare that there 'are to be
Juries in civil and criminal causes in the cases and in the man-
ner which the law shall determine ?

The Assembly now proceeded to the vote individually (ap-
pel nominal), and when any Deputy voted that there should
not be Juries in civil causes, there was a great noise in the

galleries.

Mr. Petro di Magalhaes rose and said, that he had resolved,
from the commencement of the debate, to vote that there should
be juries in civil and criminal causes; but that he thought fit to
declare, in the presence of the whole ' nation, that it was not
meanness or fear which induced him to vote thirs, but solely his
conscientious conviction : he showed the enormous dangers that
attended such noisy interruptions, how fatal they had been
in some assemblies, how the favourers of despotism took ad-
vantage of them, and afterwards asserted that the votes of the
Deputies were influenced by them ; he made other observations,
and desired the articles of the
,internal regulations of the Cor-

tes, relative to this subject, to be read, which being done
by the Secretary, Freire and several of the Deputies having
made some reflections on the subject, the President recommend-
ed order, and said he had so much confidence in the spectators
in the galleries, that he ventured to assert they would not
give any farther reason for enforcing the articles of the regu-

lation :

The voting then proceeded, and the following was the

result.

esolved unanimously—That there shall be Juries in crimi-