The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The dissatisfaction manifested by the organs of ex-
treme opinions, both Revolutionary and Tory, is not
the least valuable tribute that is paid to the conduct
of his Majesty's Government in their administration,
not only of our domestic, but of our foreign 'affairs.
The abuse of faction is always evidence—and not very
equivocal either—of the upright intention of those
against whom it is directed ; and when the Times and
Standard, with the things that crawl in the same path,
though journeying perhaps to a different destination,
shall mitigate their fury, the people may rest assured
there is cause for suspicion and distrust. How forcibly

is this principle illustrated by the unmeaning outcry
raised against the King's Ministers in consequence of
the late intelligence from Lisbon ! Ultra-Tory and
Ultra-Radical have joined their " sweet voices" in a
loud chorus of discontent : the one party because
Lisbon was not " laid in ashes ;" the other because

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the Queen and Court were protected from the
wrath of a sanguinary and excited soldiery. Of
a verity ye are a humane and consistent pack,
having the honour and the dignity of your country
sincerely at heart too ! What is the ground upon
which the Government is assailed in this affair ? So
far as we are able to collect from the mass of misrepre-
sentation and stupid buffoonery with which the columns
of both classes of journals are overlaid, two grounds of
objection are taken against the conduct of the King's
representative at Lisbon. We speak to the common
sense and the right feeling of Englishmen when we
ask them to look at that conduct, and, judging of it
from the unassailable facts we shall lay before them,
pronounce whether these charges be well founded ; or
whether the British Government, consistently with the
duty and the honour of our country, could have adopted
a line of conduct different from that which has drawn

down this factious disapprobation. At once we fully
recognise the principle that the British Government
have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Por-
tugal. The form of its Government, the nature of its
institutions, the extension or modification of monarchical
or democratic principles are matters for the considera-
tion and decision of the Portuguese themselves. With
their arrangements we have nothing to do. So far,
then, we presume, there can be no difference of opinion ;
and we proceed from the principle to its application.
It may be convenient for the purposes of so-
phistry or declamatory invective, to mix up the
recent occurrences in Lisbon with the history of past
disorganisation, and by stringing together the worn-
out accusations against the policy that gave Portugal
a Constitution, and rid her of a despot, to endea-
vour to turn the public mind from the only question
that is at issue—namely, whether the conduct of our
Government, first, in strengthening our fleet in the
Tagus, and, secondly, in refusing its aid to effect a
counter-revolution, is obnoxious to the charge, the
one of being an interference in the internal affairs of
another country, the other of being an abandonment of
an ally whom they had betrayed into a situation of
danger and difficulty. Anxious to meet the question
with candour and fairness, we thus put. it in a form
to which we cannot anticipate any exception. When
intelligence was received by the British Government
that the Constitution of 1826 was overthrown, and,
ii; opposition to a large and most influential party in
the country, that of 18'20 was proclaimed, they took
the precaution of strengthening the fleet in the Ta-
Without relying on the authority of a Tory or-
gain which proclaimed that in doing so " they acted
ior once with a spirit %worthy of British statesmen," we
put it to the prudence and to the sense of honour of
every dispassionate man, could his Majesty's Ministers
:have possibly adopted any other course ? Look at the
columns of the Tory Press, and of some of its obscure
ressilutonary abettors—look at the communications
daily received from Lisbon—appeal to any man who
knows aught of the country and of its people, and
doubt if you can, that the Queen with the Court were
in danger—that the English residents had a right to
expect the protection of their Government for their
lives and properties. If the Royal Family of Portugal
and our own people who were at Lisbon were in peril,
what Minister would dare incur the responsibility of
leaving them a single hour unprotected ? We protest
we cannot comprehend the ground upon which any
man—upon which any Englishman—can impeach the
conduct of our Government in thus affording protection
to those who have a right to expect it. These people
are daily dinning in our ears "that no Englishman eau
venture his life in the streets of Lisbon"—that " tli
Queen is at the mercy of the infuriated soldiers"—and
yet have the inconceivable stupidity to complain,
in the very same breath, that our naval force should
have been strengthened in the Tagus ! What ob-
ject had the British Government, asks one of these
consistent inquirers, in stationing seven sail of the
line abreast of Lisbon ? We repeat, to protect—not
to interfere. Had a single British subject been mas-
saceed, had a single British warehouse been burned,
with what savage 'delight these hypocrites would have
gloated over the ruin, pointing to it in judgment against
the weakness, the imbecility, the indecision of Lord
Palmerston. But the presence of an adequate British
force at once afforded a protection and a refuge to our
allies and our subjects. The hope of those whose code
is " Ireland in blood—Lisbon in ashes !" has been
frustrated—their prey has been snatched from them,
and hence their cry of disappointment. To those who
complain of the amount of our force, and the position
it occupies, we have only to say they speak in utter
and culpable ignorance, not only of the nature of
those interests it is necessary to protect, but even of the
very geoag raphical situation of the town of Lisbon. If
it became necessary to remove the effects of the large
class of mercantile inhabitants, and to protect their
dwellings, which are chiefly in the vicinity of the Black
Horse-square, it would be not only difficult, but almost
impossible, to do so effectually, unless a ship of war oc-
cupied the position of the Talavera. To talk of our ships
mooring at Belem, or even " The Packet-stairs," would
be equivalent to placing a vessel at Blackwall for
the protection of our Custom-house, were it ne-
cessary to protect it. Those who have ever taken the
trouble of looking at any chart of the Tagus, have
found its banks castelled with formidable forts—some
of them monuments of Lord Wellington's professional
foresight—all of course in the hands of Portuguese,
well garrisoned, and prepared for offence or defence.
In taking precaution for the safety of the British re-
sidents, was it not clearly the duty of our Government
to take such precaution as in any emergency might
prove effective ? But enough of this part of the sub-
ject. We have no apprehension that any British sub-
ject, uninfluenced by that bad and un-English feeling
that would forge party weapons out of our national
dishonour, will condemn the prudence that has arrayed
so formidable a force before Lisbon. But the British Go-
vernment are highly culpable, it appears, for the course
adopted during the movement of the 3d and 4th. Before
the public mind can be influenced by the indecent vi-
tuperation of the Times, or the hobbling pedantry of its
colleague, facts now too well authenticated must be
more successfully misrepresented. We utterly deny
that the British Government ever induced or ever
sanctioned an impression that our fleet in the Tagus
would aid or assist in effecting a counter4evolution.
Mere assertion to the contrary the public will treat as
it deserves—with scorn. We also utterly deny that
the conduct of the British Representative at Lisbon
could have given the remotest countenance to hope or
expect his assistance in re-establishing the Charter of
Don Pedro. On the contrary, we stated before—we
repeat now—that when applied to, his immediate and
distinct reply was, that if necessary he should afford
i
protection to the Queen, but no co-operation n any
political movement. These are facts—they cannot be
distorted or denied. Away then with the charge, in
the face of these facts, that England encouraged the
party of the Queen, as it is called, in their mad at-
tempt to re-establish the Constitution of 1826. Ano-
ther unintelligible ground of accusation is, that the
three hundred marines returned to their ships " with-
out having effected anything." The public can un-
derstand, though it will scarcely sympathise with, that
characteristic complaint of the Tory Press—that no
blood has been spilled ; that " nothing has been
(lane." The marines were landed at the desire of the
Queen—at her desire they were re-embarked. Those
essho ordered them to land have the consolation of re-
Ilea.ing that their presence between two exasperated
partieSepreventedthe effusion of human life, though we
can readily conceive how such an effect should be a