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

communication, and the civil war will at once be termi-
nated, without further effusion of Portuguese blood, and
without further destruction of Portuguese property; and,
if such should be the result, her Majesty's Government
will derive the sincorust and most heartfelt pleasure
from having been instrumental in bringing to pass so
happy an event.
You are instructed to read this dispatch to the Por-
tuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs, and you will give
him a copy of it, in order that he may the better be able
to bring under the consideration of his colleagues the
communication which it contains.—l am, &c.,

PALNIERSTON.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON TO SIR HAMILTON SEYMOUR.

Foreign-office, April 5, 1847.
Sir,—With reference to my other dispatch of this
date I have to state, that if there should be any hesita-
tion as to adopting the arrangement therein proposed,
ou will employ all the arguments which 3 our own re-
flections and your knowledge of the condition of the
country and of the state of parties will naturally
suggest.

If the Portuguese Government should consent to adopt
the plan of proceeding which her Majesty's Government
have proposed, it is essentially necessary that you
should have some written record of her Must Faithful
Majesty's intentions, as set forth in my other dispatch,
before Colonel Wylde sets out for Lisbon; because it
would be in the highest degree improper that a British
officer should be the bearer of such an announcement to
the Junta, unless the Queen of Portugal had previously
pledged herself to the British Government on the matters
in question in such a manner as to make it impossible
for any of her Ministers, officers, and advisers after-
wards to break or evade any part of the engagement
so contracted towards her Majesty's Government.
The four conditions which are enumerated in my
other dispatch seem to her Majesty's Government to
provide for everything (with one exception, which I shall
presently advert to) which any reasonable Portuguese
could expect or wish for.
A general and full amnesty is the usual sequel of' the
termination of a civil war, in which large numbers of
men of various classes have taken part; because to punish
all would in such cases be impossible, and to select par-
ticular indivi,luals for punishment would, as savouring
more of personal vengeance than of even-handed justice,
be useless as an example and impolitic as a measure of
administration. Such an amnesty, however, would of
course not prevent the Queen from removing to the half-
pay list such of the commissioned officers of the regular
arwy now serving with the Junta as she might not wish
to:retain on full pay; nor ought it to prevent the Queen
from removing, if she should think fit to do so, any mu-
nicipal or other civil officers who have taken part in the
revolt, and who hold their offices during pleasure from
the ',Crown; but there may he some persons falling
within this description who have followed the stream in
Mace's i❑ which they were employed, without having
been party leaders, and whom it may net be necessary or
useful to remove.

The recal of all persons sent out of the kingdom is a
measure of indispensable necessity. The persons to
whom this measure would apply are the Torres Vedras
prisoners and the Duke of Pa!melte.
It is needless to dwell upon the reasons which make
it indispensably necessary that the Torres Vedras pri-
soners should be brought back without the least delay.
With regard to the Duke of Pa'melts, it is to be ob-
served, that he was sent out of the kingdom without
having been guilt) or even accused of any offence ; that
the mann, r in which the order was given him was calcu-
lated to wound his feel ngs deeply, and is known to have
done so. But the Duke of Palmella, from his rank, his
political station, and his ample fortune, is a person of
considerable importance in the country; and it is be-
lieved that the great body of the Portuguese nobility
resent very much the treatment a hich he has expe-
rienced. An invitation to the Duke of Palmella to
return, or a summons to him to resume his place in the
Chamber of Peers, would on this account be politic as
well as just.
The immediate re-establishment of the ordinary law,
and of the constitution of the country, is too obviously
necessary to require to be enforced by any argument,
and not a day should be lost alter the submission of the
Junta in revoking all the unconstitutional edicts which
have been issued since the resignation of the Palmella
Administration.
The sooner the Cortes can be convoked the better :
not a constituent assembly, but the ordinary Cortes, ac-
cording to the charter as it was in force before the
change of Ministry on the 6th of October ; and the elec-
tions should take place as soon as the insurgent forces
are disbanded, and the Queen's municipal officers have
been re-established in their proper authority in every
part of the country.
The immediate appointment of an administration
which, if it cannot command the confidence of the
country (and, divided as the nation is, this could be
hardly expected of any men), may yet not excite its
distrust, appears to be a measure of the most urgent
necessity, even if the civil war was to go on, and no
cormeunication with the Junta was to take place. It is
easier for her Majesty's Government to say what men
ought not to form part of such administration, than to
suggest the names of those who might properly compose
it. It is manifest that! none of the Cabral party and no
members of the Oporto Junta should, in the present state
of things, be appointed to office.
I have said, in the earlier part of this dispatch, that
there is one arrangement which seems indispensable,
but which is not mentioned in my public dispatch
of this date ; and that is, the departure of M. Dietz
from Lisbon. Unless M. Dietz leaves Portugal,
all other arrangements, and all attempts to reconcile the
Court and the discontented part of the nation, will be
vain; and Colonel Wylde must not, under any circum-
stances. leave Lisbon for Oporto until M. Dietz has em-
barked and sailed for England. His departure is a sine
qua non condition of any step whatever on the part of
her Majesty's Government to interfere in any way in
the affairs of Portugal. It is needless to explain the
well-known reasons which render this condition indis-
pensable.
If Colonel Wylde is sent to Oporto, it is desirablethat
he should go thither by sea in one of her Majesty's
ships of war. He would in that manner appear at
Oporto more entirely as the representative of the British
Government and the organ of the Government at Lisbon
than if he entered Oporto from the camp of Marshal
Sandanha. He would of course communicate with Mar-
shal Saldanha, as occasion might require, after his

arrival at Oporto.
If it should be urged, as an objection to the course
recommended by the British Government, that it would
lead to the resignation of Marshal Saldanha, you will
observe that, according to this plan, that resignation
would become comparatively unimportant; because, if
the Junta submit, any general may be competent to
command an army which, in that ease, will have no
military operations to perform; and if the Junta persist
in resistance, the concert which will follow between the
Queen of Portugal's allies will render the task of her
general so light and so easy that there are several offi-
cers in her service who would be competent to perform it.
It is most probable that the Junta will gladly accept
the communication to be made to them; but, even if some
portion of the Junta should be for holding out, there
can be no doubt that many of the leading men among
them, and the great majority cf their followers, bill
declare themselves satisfied with the announced arrange-
ments. _ _ _

But the Court may demur. This is scarcely probable.
You will in that case respectfully, but firmly, represent
the desperate condition of the country, and the hope-
lessness of a successful and permanent termination of
the civil war by any means within their present com-
mand. But it once their Majesties could be rescued
from the advisers by whom their better judgments are
now shackled and controlled, and if they could be left
to the guidance of their own sound sense, and good
understandings, and just feelings, even without the aid
of a Ministry more worthy than the present of their
confidence, no doubt can be entertained that they would
gladly avail themselves of an offer which, while it would
maintain unimpaired the honour and dignity of the
Crown, would restore peace and tranquillity to their
dominions, and save the nation which they govern from
great and otherwise inevitable calampitiL—lßintst.3rreo.,s.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON TO THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS
OF THE ADMIRALTY.
(Extract.)
Foreign-office, May 22, 1847.
I transmit for your information a copy of the protocol
of a conference which was held at this office yesterday
by the Plenopotentiaries of Great Britain, Franco, Spain,
and Portugal, and I have to signify to your Lordships
the Queen's commands that instructions should be given
to Sir William Parker in accordance therewith.
It is an olject of much political importance that upon
every occasion in which any naval operation, however
trifling, may be undertaken, the French and Spanish
naval flag should, if possible, accompany the British, in
order that such public manifestation of the agreement of
the three Governments may, by its moral effect, dd to
the impression which any such operation may ofit itself
be calculated to produce.
Sir William Parker will be the best judge of the man-
ner in which, when your Lordships' instructions reach
him, be can best give effect to the intentions of her
Majesty's Government; and it is the opinion of her
Majesty's Government that the fulfilment of their inten-
tions cannot be better secured than by leaving the man-
ner of carrying them into effect entirely to the discretion
of Sir William Parker. But his attention might be
directed to the expediency of immediately taking pos-
session of the steamers and other vessels now in the
service of the Junta, and of delivering over those
steamers and othi•r vessels to the Queen's Government ;
and Sir William Parker might also be desired to con-
sider the practicability of dislodging the troops of the
Viscount Sa Bandeira from Satuval, either by an attack
from the sea-side, combined with a movement by the
Queen's troops on the land front, or by a single attack
by the ships of war.
It would, moreover, be desirable that the blockade of
Oporto should without loss of time be rendered effective.
The: ships of Great Britain, France, and Spain cannot,
indeed, according to the law of nations, be employed in
actually enforcing that blockade, by turning away mer-
chant vessels, either going in or coming out.
That function must be performed by the ships of war
of the Queen of Portugal; but the British ships which
may be off the port ma.; be of use in keeping the Per-
t ti“ uese blechading force upon its proper ground.
It is probable that a Spanish force will advance from
Salamanca, and descend along the right bank of the
Douro, in order to co-operate with the force under Mar
stud Saldanha of the left bunk, and thus to cut off from
Oporto the supplies which that city now draws from the
productive country to the north of it.
There seems reason to expect that if this operation is
properly executed by land, and if the bl.eknde is effec.
Roily enforced by t fp:I.:0 will t 1 ion!, 13;`
tO surrender tat of suprlies, acid
Ll odshed. But 111,- • d bleb
Government is now about to assume in regard to the
civil ear, by reason of Great Bfitain engaging in active