The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-16 00:00:00

PORT UGAL.

The Margaret steamer arrived on Friday night at '
Falmouth—from Gibraltar, 4th inst. ; Cadiz, sth ; Lis-
bon, Bth ; Oporto, 9th ; and Vigo, 10th.
LISBON, Nov. B..—The draught of the new Treaty,
proposed some time ago by this Government, and re-
jected by Lord Palmerston, has been sent back, with 1
alterations, by Lord Aberdeen. I understand it arrived,
by the Margaret steam-packet, on the 30th ult. From
what I can learn, it appears that his Lordship consents
to give up all the remaining privileges enjoyed by
British residents in this country, including that of hav-
ing a Conservatorial Court for the decision of all judi-
cial cases in which they may be concerned, and that
uo exclusive advantage to British trade over that of
other foreign nations is to be stipulated for. The
basis of the Treaty is to be the principle of reciprocity,
according to which the trade of each of the two coun-
tries is, within the territories of the other, to be placed
on a perfect footing with that of the most favoured
nation. It is proposed that, under certain restrictions,
the British colonies shall be open to direct Por-
tuguese trade, provided Portugal be willing to recipro-
cate in the same way. Those restrictions are, however,
of a nature to render the concession offered by England
of little value. Portuguese vessels are to be allowed to
convey all except illicit articles to our colonies ; but
wine and brandy are all that Portugal can export in that
direction, and they both come under the head of illicit
articles, inasmuch as they cannot, by the existing Acts of
Parliament, be introduced into any of the British colonies
(properly so called) but in British vessels—Gibraltar, to
which the rule does not apply, being, strictly speaking,
not a colony, but a military station. The only benefit,
therefore, that Portuguese vessels might derive from it
would be, by taking salt to Newfoundland and bringing
back cargoes of fish, and in this way certainly they
could interfere greatly to the prejudice of our shipping.
The amended draught is at present under consi-
deration with this Government, and will probably
be sent back with further alterations tending to
the greater advantage of Portugal, particularly as
regards the opening of the British colonies to Portu-
guese trade. With the further details of the proposed
treaty I am unacquainted, but I believe the above are its
leading features. The English residents here are not
much pleased with the prospect of losing their few re-
maining privileges ; and I really cannot see why they
should be so quietly given up, unless it be to punish the
parties for their flagrant abuse of them during the
Miguelite contest, when the privileges in question, by
screening the persons and property of the Liberals, were
used as a lever for the overthrow of Don Miguel. They
are dissatisfied, too, with the arrangements said to have
been proposed respecting trade, as they justly consider
that, all circumstances taken into account, England has
a right to claim from Portugal, not only an equal, but
a far greater degree of favour than is accorded by the
latter to any other nation. But the omission to secure
this advantage will become of no sort of consequence,
if once we succeed in making a commercial treaty with
Spain, by which that country shall admit our manufac-
tures at a reasonable scale of duties. Such a treaty
would be virtually a death-warrant to this country, and
would soon bring upon it the doom it has richly de-
served for its churlish commercial policy.
We need not, in such case, trouble ourselves to ship
any goods direct to Portugal, as we shall be able to
smuggle them in from Spain. A reflux of the contra-
band trade, from the latter back to the former, will
follow of course, and this country will not only lose the
duties on the goods, as well as the intermediate profits
on the smuggling traffic, so long and so profitably carried
on, but will be loft without anything to counteract the
drain of coin consequent upon the clandestine introduc-
tion of Spanish wheat constantly going on across the
border, and will moreover be inundated with English
goods to a far greater extent than at present. The
f. Portuguese then will see their folly when it will be
too late to remedy its evil effects. As, however, we
' have cot yet a treaty with Spain, there could be
no harm in making " assurance doubly sure," by se-
curing a good one with Portugal.
• The Budget was approved of by the Deputies on the
Gth, without any discussion, by 60 votes to 12.
No other business of any uarticular importance ha

been gone through at the Cortes.
Her Majesty's steam-vessel Pluto has just entered this
port. The report from the guard ship at Belem states
that she brings despatches for Lord Howard de Walden.
She comes from Southampton.