The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-10 00:00:00

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LoNDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1847.

So repeatedly has the motion of the lion. Member
for Montrose been postponed, in reference to British
intervention in the political affairs of Portugal, that
public anxiety has been singularly increased instead
of diminished. Operations have already commenced,
or, to speak more definitely, instructions have long
since been transmitted from the Admiralty to Sir
WILLIAM PARKER, empowering him to place the
squadron under his command at the disposal of the
Government of Queen MARIA DA GLORIA ; and as
yet the representative legislators have pronounced no
opinion whatever upon the important question, whe-
ther it be advisable or not for England to bring matters
to a conclusion by an armed intervention. The interest
attached to the subject thus directly hastened before
the consideration of Parliament by Mr. HUME, has,
from its extraordinary character, shown, for at least
the nine-hundred- and-ninety-ninth time, the neces-
sity for the most expeditious passage of state docu-
ments through the hands of the Parliamentary prin-
ters. Postponement after postponement of the
expected discussion in the House of Com-
mons has driven the attention of the com-
munity to the very acme of expectation,
and has tended in a considerable degree to impart an
appearance of mystery to those ministerial arrange-
ments which have, we believe, been characterised
throughout by the most perfect good faith and sim-
plicity of intention.

Our opinions upon the disastrous disturbances in
the Peninsula have been so frequently expressed that
any explicit repetition of them here would be super-
fluous. The faithlessness of the reigning SOVEREIGN
is beyond all contradiction, and it is equally un&ni-
able, that if ever a people were justified in demanding
the fulfilment of the coronation oath, the inhabitants
of Portugal have been so justified. To gainsay either
of these assertions were to proclaim the patriotism of
the CABRALS and the generous policy of DIETZ.
Beyond this it is notorious that throughout the civil
war among the Portuguese cruelties have been per-
petrated by only cne portion of the belligerents, that
portion being the military force of the Royalists.
As proofs that we are guilty of no exaggeration in
this statement we refer to the unconditional expatria-
tion of the prisoners taken when the insurgents were
discomfited, and also to the villanous practices which
have recently attached such an infamous celebrity to
Torres Vedras.

To say that the interference of the allied Sove-
reigns was absolutely imperative from the clauses
contained in the Quadruple Alliance were a wilful
distortion of that solemn compact. Had the Junta in
any manner advocated the claims of Dom MIGUEL,
had the Count DAS ANTAS revealed an ambi-
tion on his part to transform hii sword, by a
species of military legerdemain, into a sceptre, had
the insurgent captain SA DA BANDEIRA indicated any
intention to destroy the " baubles" of monarchical
government, and establish a pet system of republican-
ism in its stead—then, but certainly not otherwise,
might the armed interference of England, France,
and Spain have been imperatively demanded by
MARIA DA GLORIA, in accordance with the letter of
the provisions contained in the articles of the Qua-
druple Alliance. But the Junta of Oporto did none
of these things : it emphatically denied any ulterior
views derogatory to the royal authority of the QUEEN
Regnant, it repudiated the supposition that its arma-
ments were raised for the furtherance of the claims of
Dom MIGUEL; its Commander-in-Chief, the Count
DAs ANTAS, expressed to our Plenipotentiary,
Colonel WYLDE, every readiness to accede to the
proposition forwarded for his acceptance by Lord
PALmEasToN, on the understanding that the other
consenting party in the arrangement, MARIA DA
GLORIA, would give some reasonable guarantee that
her engagements should be strictly fulfilled. Was
this an extravagant demand on the part of the Pro-
visional Junta and its leader ? Assuredly not. As-
suredly it was not extravagant for the representatives
of a nation to require some definite assurance that a
monarch, who had so continually acted with duplicity
and perfidy, would for once adhere to the conditions
of their reconciliation. Assuredly it was not extra-
vagant for those who had with comparatively little
bloodshed, and certainly with the commission of not
one heinous act of inhumanity, subjugated the whole
of a considerable kingdom, with the exception of the
capital and its suburbs, to require, before the deliver-
ing up of the conquered provinces, a ho3tage, as it
were, that their rational demands would in the end be
satisfied. There was nothing, we maintain, extrava-
gant in the simple conditional acquiescence pronounced
by the Oporto Junta and its mouthpiece, DAs ANTAS,
in the proposals delivered to them by Colonel WYLDE.

So much, therefore, as to the propriety of regard-
ing the popular movement in Portugal as a movement
necessitating either the armed interposition of adjacent
Governments or the rupture of the Quadruple Alliance.
That movement on the part of the Portuguese popu.
lation had proved itself to be no petty and provincial
revolt, but the unanimous outburst of a whole nation
for the realisation of its liberties and the maintenance
of its constitutional rights. The disturbance was not
a local revolt, but a comprehensive and—it must be
acknowledged—a moderate revolution.

It has, nevertheless, been deemed-advisable by the
English Government to hasten the reconciliation
between Queen MARIA DA GLORIA and her people,
by authorising Admiral PARKER to co-operate with
the land forces of her Portuguese MAJESTY. In
arriving at this decision our rulers have, we are
satisfied, been impelled by no rash affection for the
employment of physical force in preference to moral
force : they regard the misunderstanding, we doubt
not, between the SOVEREIGN of Portugal and the
people of Portugal in somewhat the same light as we
do ourselves; but they regard an armed intervention
as about the speediest means of arriving at the desired
termination to so many difficulties. On Friday
evening, however, the country will, we trust, be in
possession of the precise views entertained by her
MAJESTY'S advisers upon a matter which must
arouse the anxiety of all those who can sym-
pathise with a race struggling for their political
liberation. Coupled with the intelligence received
since the commencement of this article, that the
Count DAs ANTAS has been captured, together with
two thousand men, and all the property of the
Provisional Junta of Oporto, the anticipated discus-
sion upon Mr. HumE's inquiry must be considered
as one of the most important since the opening of
the present session.

Sir ROBERT PEEL presided yesterday at the eighth
anniversary festival held in aid of the funds of the
King's College Hospital. One would have supposed
that the theme of the Right Hon. Baronet's speech
presented no very striking materials for engaging the
interest of either his auditory, or the country, when
the purport of his remarks became publicly known.
Yet it is peculiar to some minds to invest the most
ordinary topics with sentiments that kindle the best
feelings of our nature, even when this result is the
least anticipated. It is this aptitude that attests to
the range and philosophical acquirements of the
speaker's mind. He views his subject in all its rela-
tions, direct and indirect, as they affect society at
large, and frequently, by the original turn of his in-
tellect, succeeds in placing it in a new light which
recommends it more favourably than ever to the at.
tention of his country. Expatiating upon the cause
of benevolence and charity, as connected with the
maintenance of institutions for giving relief in cases
of disease and accident, and alluding to the vast
amount of good that has been and is being daily ac
complished through their instrumentality, Sir
ROBERT PEEL proceeded to notice, that in
exhibiting "ce kindliness of our nature towards
the maimed and sick of our poorer brethren, by
:voluntarily contributing to the support of public