The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-15 00:00:00

PETITIONS.

Mr. GRANTLEY BERKELEY presented a petition
from the Catholic clergymen and laymen of the county
of Gloucester, praying for an extension of the franchit-e.
Lord BROOKE presented several petitions ft.( m
Stratford upon-Avon in favour of the Health of Towns
Bill.

Mr. DUNCOMBE presented a petition, praying for a
repeal of the ratepaying clauses of the Reform Act.
ANATOMY ACT.

Mr. MACKINNON presented a petition against. the
provisions of the Anatomy Act.
Mr. FERRANI) also presented two petitions frim
Leeds and Huddersfield to the same effect.
HEALTH OF TOWNS BILL.

Mr. HUME presented a petition from the inhabitants
of Hampstead in favour of the Health of Towns Bill. '
POOR-LA W —CENTRALIZATION.
Mr. FERRAND presented a petition from the Board
of Guardians of the Wakefield Union, complaining of
the present system of centralization, and praying the
House not to adopt that principle in the Poor-law Ad-
ministration Bill now pending before the House.
EDUCATIONAL GRANTS.

Mr. R. D. MANGLES presented a petition nume-
rously signed by inhabitants of the eastern parts of the
country, complaining of the exclusion of the Roman
Catholics from a participation in the grants of money
voted by this House for the purpose of education.
AFFAIRS OF PORTUGAL.

Mr. T. DUNCOMBE gave notice that he should, upon
the first convenient opportunity during the adjourned
debate on Portugal, move, as an amendment to the motion
of the Honourable Member for Montrose, that .Great
itain having become a party to a foreign armed
interference in the affairs of Portugal, with a view of
terminating the civil war existing in that kingdom,
it is the opinion of this House that upon
tranquillity being restored, it will become the duty
of the British Government to endeavour by every
just and legitimate means in its power to confer upon
the people of Portugal the full enjoyment of their
constitutional rights and privileges.—(Hear, hear.)
ISLE OF MAN.
Dr. BOWRING gave notice that on an early day he
would call the attention of the House to all the unre-
dressed grievances of the Isle of Man.—(Laughter.)
QUARANTINE.
On the order of the day that the House go into Com-
mittee on the Navigation Laws,

Dr. BOWRING-desired to know what changes this
proposed alteration would effect in the laws of quarantine?
Mr. MILNER. GIBSON said that ships with clean
bills of lading would be admitted from any port without
quarantine.

NAVIGATION LAWS.
The House then resolved itself into a Committee upon
he Navigation Laws, the resolutions were adopted, and
he Chairman obt tined leave to bring in a Bill.
The House then resumed.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.
Mr. BANKES asked what was proposed to be
the line of procedure with regard to public
business on Wednesday, and whether it was in-
tended to go on with the Encumbered Estates
(Ireland) Bill on that day. If so, the Poor Removal Bill
which he had fixed for that day would have no chance
of being proceeded with. He regretted that the
Noble Lord had proceeded with the suspension
of the Navigation Laws to-night, as his Noble
Friend the Member for Lynn would have been present
had he been aware that the resolution was to be moved
to-night. He wished to knew at what future stage it
would be convenient that the discussion should be taken.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said that if the Noble Lord
the Member for Lynn desired to oppose the measure, he
had no objection to take the discussion on the second

reading. -
ENCUMBERED ESTATES (IRELAND) BILL.
Mr. SHAW desired to ask the Noble Lord whether
be meant to bring forward the Encumbered Estates
(It*land) Bill on Wednesday next. There was very
considerable apprei,enaion entertained respecting this
Bill. It was very important, and was looked to with
great anxiety.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL—I intend to bring it for-
ward as soon as possible, but I do not see that I can do

so before Wednesday se'imight.
WESTMINSTER HALL.
Mr. S. WORTLEY wished to call the attention of the

House to the state of Westminster Hall. A temporary
wood work had been erected by the Committee of the
Fine Arts for the purpose of an exhibition. Leaving
that wood work erected was most dangerous, and he
trusted that it was not intended to use the Hall for the
proposed exhibition this year, and that it would be
removed, as it obstructed the view of one of the noblest
sights in the kingdom.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said
that his Noble Friend the Commissioner of Woods and
Forests was not in his place. He had no doubt what-
ever that when called upon he would be able to give

a satisfactory answer. -
PORTUGAL—ADJOURNED DEBATE.

Mr. BORTHWICK resumed the adjourned debate.
He regretted that the present question did not come be-
fore the House for discussion at a much earlier period.

The Noble Lord said, that in the then state of the nego-
tiations he could give no direct information, but that
the interference, if made, would be effectual for the
protection of the Queen, and for that also of the British
residents in Portugal. The Noble Lord had given the
same reply, and this was all the information which either
the House or the country could obtain until a French
newspaper published the protocol on which this
interference was founded, to all Europe. In all
the foreign politics of the country he (Mr. Borthwick)
had always, to use the words of a Right Hon Friend
near him, adopted the plain and open course prescribed
by the constitution. This was what he had advised
when her Majesty was about to pay a visit to a foreign
potentate, but neither in that instance nor in
this had the Noble Lord adopted such a course.
He could not but blame the Government for interfering
with the affairs of Portugal until they had pursued the
usual constitutional course of taking the opinion and ad-
vice of that House upon the subject, as Mr. Canning did
in 1826,when a similar interference was asked by Portugal.
The Noble Lord said that it was necessary to interfere
for the interests of Portugal and of this country. Now,
if it should be proved that the result of this interference
had not been attended with these benefits, but, on the con

trary, tended to alienate the affections of the Portuguese
people from this country, and to disturb the peace of
Europe, what then would become of the arguments and
the course of conduct pursued by her Majesty's Go-
vernment? He wished to know film the Noble Lord

at the head of the Foreign Affairs whether the present
prisoners of war in Portugal, who had been in arms
under Sada Bandeira, were not entrapped into their
present position I He hoped the Noble Lord would give
ample information on this point, and enable the House
by giving it the means to form a correct judgment on
them. It was to this description of violation of state-
ments, it was to the present description of international
law that the. Queen of England's name and the
name of Parliament was asked to be attached.
The Hon. Gentleman then proceeded to relate, in de-
tail, the political intrigues which had lately taken place
in Portugal, under the influence and direction of Costs
Cabral, remarking that those intrigues produced dis-
content throughout the whole country, and eventually
Costa Cabral was obliged to retreat from office. The
Duke of Palmella was then called into office, and the

proclamation and proceedings of that honest Minister
had all but restored tranquillity and revived commerce
in Portugal, when the Queen acting again under the
advice of the Cabralists, drove that patriotic Nobleman
from her Councils, and replacing him by the Marquis
of Saldanha, and the creatures of Cabral, who had
succeeded in bringing that unhappy country to her pre-
sent lamentable condition. The Noble Lord at the
head of the Government had represented that state of
things to be the result of the proceedings of three parties,
who had possession of the country, namely, the party
attached to the cause of the Queen—the Junta, and
those who followed the fortunes of Don Miguel; but
that representation was not correct.—(Hear, hear.)
The true cause of the discontent evinced by the
people of Portugal was produced by the ty-
rannical intrigues and unblushing tazation.—(Hear.)
The Hon. Member for Cork was a repealer, but there
was never any objection made to taking the vote of that
Hon. Member on subjects which came before the notice
of the House, neither was it for a moment attempted to
be insinuated that the Government were inclined to be-
come repealers. The case was decidedly parallel to that
of Portugal in the present instance. The Noble Lord
bad said, that had the Junta of Oporto succeeded, blood
would have flowed in the streets. There was no founda-
tion at all for such a charge, neither was there any rea-
son for supposing that more acts of cruelty or injustice
would be perpetrated by the Junta, than had
already been committed by that party whom the
Noble Lord called the constitutional party of Por-
tugal.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord had stated
that by the course the Government had adopted
an end would be put to despotism. It was no such
thing. All that he had secured was the ghost of a dead
constitution. The charter of 1826, of which mention
had been made, had been gambled and frittered away by
a thousand Acts. Why, the Queen herself was fickle as
fortune itself, and she had violated her promises and
pledges to the people as often as she had rose from her
hed i
nto
te
intended
dw to
b fromr
in
gthe
back N otbhlee
prisoners Lord, o
whenf
therTeos Torres
.e
Governments
v He
wished
e
dras, and whence they intended to bring
They talked largely of an amnesty, but they did not even
know where those prisoners were. The Noble Lord the
Member for Lynn knew
positivelyalready bound to, if not arrivedat, Angola.that theyr hesewpri-
soners were to have been sent to the Azores or to
Madeira, or to some other place rather than Africa.
This was communicated in secret to the representative,
of her Britannic Majesty in Portugal, but it was 'fier-
wards discovered by 11.. Southeron, and communicated
to the Noble Lord the Foreign Secretary, that the

- m

engagement entered into was not to be kept, and that
the prisoners were sent to Angola. The reason alleged
fur this breach of faith was the interference of lwnd
on their behalf. Ile would ask, then. when tht, was the
case with regard to the prisoners of Torres Vedras,
what guarantee had th, y that ail whee engagement.
with regard to the affairs of Portug.,/, would in- oh-
served by the Queen of that eottutr.)?—(Hear, hear.)
What security did the Noble Lord give the people of
Portugal that their liberties would be respected,
now that the insurrecti:i was said to quashed?
He (Mr. P. Borthwick) said in his place in
the House of Common, that no intimation whatever bad
been given to Das Antes that hostilities woul.i be waged
against him by the British force. The lion. Member
read several extracts from the instructions sent out tO
Wylde, to show that no notice w;ite.ever hail
tv,•ort given him that such were the intentions of the Bri-
tish Government, and no such instructions hod been sent
out to hurt
by the Noble Lord.—(Hear. h,Tr,) He de-
nted that the _Noble Lod had wade µup e aeh
cation, and he no called
luipdeon,
who, he in ro
him togetauipaur;ill,;l4,: itinadd
the conduct of Colones w
used a threat to Sa Da I;:.ndier:nwciabticiohn.w_as(cire:.ltre,mip,:aibrl.;
s of thr,Prtnce
in its nature and false in its
c
There was no similarity betwet.'l the cpsfau;tugo.lnthe
.l become their
of Orange and that of the Queen
one case the people sought for Prin,
monarch ; in the other, the people were clittutitted as to
v.hom should be the sovereign. The p.-,:'le were dis-
united aid distracted, and whilst the e"untr) such
sate it was impolitic in the high ,tt d .gte, .`or this
country to interfere. In 1830 tt r p pi von)
rose and depos d tlnir s v, t t but
interfered to re-estab,ish the Li ii,;i!w
Of thi- he did not complain, hecaus- :fp &if rence be-
tween the case of Belgiumn and of l'or.u„ol was equally
great. The interference being itnpnlitte, and being
to,ked upon with jealousy, and a. a wanton and un-
called for act by a vast mass of the people of Portugal,
they would find that it would result in the destruction of
the country, in the annihilation of her trade, and in the
bloodshed of her people. In order to illustrate his
argument, the Hon. and Learned Gentleman referred at
some length to the works of Grotius and Vallet,
and argued from them, that the intervention
of England was opposed to the law of nations.
The importance of an alliance between this country
and Portugal was admitted by every one, and
by no one with greater force than the Noble Lord.
There was no greater fallacy in the Noble Lord's speech
than that the interference of this country would promote
and strengthen our alliance with Portugal, but the object
which it had in view was opposed to the will of the
people, and therefore could not tend to that end. The
end of it would be this—either the destruction of the
Crown, the establishment of a republic in Portugal, or
the absorption of that country by Spain—an act which
would be against the whole policy whist] this country
had pursued for centuries. He denied that there was any
groundfor believing that the Miguelites intended to
organise a conspiracy for the purpose of subverting
the sovereignty of Portugal. Louis Philippe ascended
the throne of France, because he was pledged to give
utterance and to support the doctrines of the people—to
support popular principles ; and was it not remarkable
that he should have lent himself to this intererence ;
but there was nothing in the documents to lead one to
believe that France would have interfered if Great
Britain had declined. He apologised to the House for
the length to which his address had extended, and in
conclusion begged to ask the Noble Lord, the Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs, upon the broad unquestionable
principle of the law of nations—upon a knowledge of the
alliance and amity subsisting between the state of Great
Britain and Portugal, with a view to the practical
benefit of Europe, and of the maintenance of that amity
and that friendly and close alliance, how he could justify
the course which he had adopted ? In the name of
outraged humanity, in the name of the people of Portu-
gal, who had been deprived_ of their liberties, he called
upon the Noble Lord the representative of her Majesty'
to stand up in his place, and to vindicate this monstrous
exception—for he (Lord Palmerston) admitted it to be
an exception to the general rule which guided our fo-
reign policy. He asked him to show by some facts, in
addition to that already published not even in the speech
or the Noble Lord at the head of the Government—he
asked him to explain the necessity that had urged him
to depart from the universal rule—from the general rule
of diplomatic practice in a matter of this sort. He was
at a loss to know why they protected the Queen of
Portugal rather than any other tyrant.—(Hear, hear.
All the heirs, save one, to the Crown of Spain, had been
married to persons beneath their rank, and were thus
prevented from inheriting the Crown; one remained, and
that was the Duke de Montpensier; and what was
wanting to render his claim complete? Why, nothing
but the severance of Portugal and Spain; and it had ever
been the policy of this country to prevent Portugal from
being absorbed by the latter country; and why, then,
should we desert the course which we had ever taken:
He would again apologise for having occupied the attune
tion of the House.

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
Messengers from the House of I,..rds bronght down
certain Bills, which were laid upon the table of the
House.

Mr. CHRISTIE defended the course taken by tits
Government, which had taken measures to obtain the
Queen's consent to the terms of the constitution before
they consented to interfere. The Hon. Member for
Wycombe demanded more for the people than was asked
for by the Junta, and his notions of liberty went further
than those whom he represented, for he said that, what
he desired wns, the charter of Don Nitro in its original
integrity.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord did not in-
terfere to give one party a triumph over another, but in
order to restore peace to Portugal; and the charge of
aiding and abetting despotism in another country
was as unfounded as it it were made against
the Presbyterian gentry of England who fought against
the Crown, in order to obtain Constitutional liberty, but
who, when they saw the country in danger, and the Con-
stitution jeopardised, changed sides, and arrayed them-
selves by the side of the King. The Hon. Member for.
Montrose said that the principle of intervention was un-
warrantable, but there were combinations of circum-
stances that required statesmen to depart from general
rules and general principles. If they were entitled to
interfere in a war of succession, were there not circum-
stances which would justify their interference in prevent-
ing a war of succession? They were as well entitled to
prevent the evil as to remedy it. Upon these grounds, it
appeared to him that the Government had an ample de-
fence for their interference in the affairs of Portugal.
He hoped that henceforth Portugal would be secure of
that constitutional freedom which had been guaranteed
for it by that Constitution which had been so much
violated.

Lord J. MANNERS said that he rose, with much
pain, to support the motion of the Hon. Member for
Montrose. It had been stated on the part of the Go-
vernment, that the interference of this nation bad been
necessary, in order to secure the peace of Portugal as
well as that of the adjacent nations. He would ask the
House, in respect of the assertion that the state of Por-
tugal required this intervention, what benefit had the
Peninsula ever derived from their interference in their
domestic concerns? Intestinal discord had been the re-
sult of it, and disergasisation had gone on to such a
degree, that the country had become a by-word to other
nations. lie would refer to the opinion which had been
given by the Noble Lord the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs, that the constitutions, both of Spain and Portugal
had been violated, and that those freedoms which had been
guaranteed to the pc,ople had been most flagrantly
violated. It was well known this, the very last revolu-
tion which had taken place in Portugal had been suc-
cessful without the slightest danger or injury to the
throne or liberty of the Queen of Portugal, and what
reason was there to suppose that, had the present revo-
lution been carried out, any more disastrods circum-
stances would have occurred than had taken place in the
former instance? The proceedings which had taken
place in reference to the Portuguese Government had—
so far from reconciling it to the people—separated
it from them, and rendered oppression more
certain to the people of that unfortunate country.
The Noble Lord (Palmerston) distinctly reminded Mr.
Bulwer that the British force: were sent to Lisbon in
1826, under the terms of a treaty, in order to prevent a,
threatened invasion? He reminded him of Mr. Can-
ning's conduct on that occasion. Very different had
been the conduct of the Noble Lord on the present. Mr.
Canning deprecated, in 1826, the very course which had
been pursued in 1847 ; he deprecated Britain meddling
with the internal concerns of any foreign nation.
But what was the defence presented? Altogether
hypothetical ; the possibility of Don Miguel usurping
the Throne, and the necessity of preventing an event
which, whensoever it should nappen, was certain, it was
said, to be unpopular. Unpopular 1 then how he (Lord
John Manners) asked, what distant prospect could there
be of the event taking place ? He would leave the
Noble Lord, or any other gentleman, to explain that.
Had it been argued that they had interfered to prevent
bloodshed, or if they had actu slly interfered to prevent
this there might have been a show of reason. But md,,
they allowed the Queen's troops to engage, and to,
butcher the peasants, and to drench the country with
blood. It was, however, justified on the ground of its
being necessary for the intere,u. of Great Britain. It
had been said that Spain would interfere, whatever
course might be adopted by Britain, and Government
bad acted only in defence of the interests of Britain
and of Europe. He denied that Spain would have interfered
without the countenance of Great Britain, and if she
bad, that was no reason to justify Great Britain pursu-
ing a course which in itself was unjustifiable. Leek
where this principle led? Let them suppose a revolu-
orsienotfheGserecaitrcußmristtaainne,ewsuHldowsb:ot
tion in Spain. Then France and Portugal would no;
doubt feel themselves called upon to interfere. What
pwroeucladt e be
th
interventionc
she after the course she was at present pursuing? She
had committed herself to intervention in t. e affairs of
the Peninsula. He agreed with the lion. Member for
Shrewsbury in thinking that this could not be the sours*,
which they ought to pursue on this occasion. Well
might Das Antas assure Colonel Wylde that it was ne-
cessary the insurgents should have some guarantee that
their just demands should be secured equally with those
of the Queen, for they had but too true a presentiment
(Lord
that the conditions entered into on the part of the Queers
of Portugal would be violated. He J. Manners)
said, therefore, that it was incumbent on England to see
that the conditions laid down as th.- grounds of its inter-
vention should be observed, sad that the party of the
Queen should not be allowed to act in the despotic and.
cruel manner they had hitherto done. The Noble Lord:
had attempted to justify this intervention by an appeak
to precedents, and he had referred to the revolution whicit
had occurred in this country in 1688. He (Lord Job.n
Manners) that a revolution which
g ht
supportedmaintained,ntt
ae
supported at all.--(Flear.)
He did not think thAt a case had been matte out frit. their
interference on this occasion.—(Hear, hear.) Nothing
tr eerqt ae required
e t o
o b
ue
could be more unjust; also, nothing could bfimore cruel
than the Queen's troops in quelling the insvorreetion, sad