The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-16 00:00:00

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stances connected with the crime that had been com-
mitted. He had even heard the knife with which the
murder was committed sharpened. The judge inter-
rupted him, observing, Do you mean to say that you
did nothing all the time?" The answer was that he
" never interfered in matrimonial disputes." Now that
resembled what the Noble Lord suggested. By inter-
fering, he believed that they bad done something
towards preventing bloodshed. He thought that the
Government had, as he had already asserted,
acted with the wisest policy in this interference in the
affairs of Portugal. If they bad abstained altogether
from interference, they would be acting most disgrace-
fully, because it would show incapacity, while by their
present interference they had succeeded in restoring
the constitution to Portugal. He therefore would sup-
port the policy which her Majesty's Government had
adopted.—(Hear, hear.)
The Duke of WELLINGTON, who was almost in-
audible at the commencement of his address, said, it
was most essential to the interests of this country to
preserve peace in all the countries of the world.
Agreeing, as ho did, in the propriety of this Govern
ment refraining from an interference with the affairs of
any other Government, he still expressed a hope, and as
far as his knowledee went, his belief was, that a British
Ambassador or a British Minister, in every part of the
world, would exercise a most important influence in
maintaining the peace of the particular courery in which
such Minister should reside, and so far as was necessary
for the maintenance of the tranquillity of that country,
and of the policy pursued by the Government existing
in it. He had the conviction, from other reasons besides
those he had mentioned, that there should be a strict
abstinence from interference with the internal Gov' rn-
ment of another country ; but he still held that the pre-
sence of a British Ambassador, cognisant of everything
that was going on in that country, had a most powerful
influence in maintaining tranquillity in that country, and
in maintaining the form of Government existing within
it. His Noble Friend (Lord Stanley) had made a most
eloquent speech, and throughout the course of it had
more than once expressed his disapprobation of the in-
terference of this country with the affairs of Portugal,
and said, that in no case could an interference be justi
fled. The Noble Lord complained of Cabral, and all
that he said of the Cabral Administration was true.
The Noble Lord, the Minister in that country, had la-
boured to the utmost of his power, and as far as he
could, in order to have the Government conducted on
honourable principles. The acts, however, of which
his Noble Friend complained, had been the common
acts of the Government ever
tusigna in a
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utnotryai,dthpenor, was
Portugal—under
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obligations,
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consi-
derable disturbance. This country was under oblige-
by the old existing relations ; and it was the in-
terest of this country, by her commercial
and by her political relations to maintain the tranquillity
of Portugal.. This country had an interest in the political
existence, and the independence of the Government, as
well as in the tranquillity of the country. Her Majesty's
Ministers were under the necessity of sending to that
country an armed force in order to give protection to
her Majesty's subjects, whose interest it was to reside
there, and whose property was all in that country. Here
there was a British force in that country in a state of
disturbance; this country had an interest in her political
independence, and a British force was there for the pro-
tection of the British subjects exposed as they were to
the misfortunes of war. It must be recollected that!
parties in that country were nearly equally divided,
at least there was no great military event. This
equality existed not only in Oporto, but somewhat nearly
so in Lisbon, and it was found that the general in com-
mand of the troops at Oporto, to the amount of from
4,000 to 5,000 men, embarked from Oporto with the in-
tention to take them down to Lisbon, and there to effect
by them what no one would for a moment defend—the
dethronement of the Queen—who would thereby be
under the necessity of leaving Lisbon, or possibly putting
herself on board the British fleet. Was it desirable that
that should be effected—that which this country had
power at hand to prevent? The officer at Oporto had
already commenced a blockade of the river, and duly
sent in a notice, that in case the Portuguese fleet should
attempt to sail out, they would be seised by the block-
ading force. But now he would shortly call the atten-
tion of their Lordships to the mediation. It was true
that the natural mediator with Portugal was the
British Government. But it was unnecessary
for him to remind them that a mediation, in order to
consult the interests in question sufficiently, must be pos-
sessed of some military power ; and this country had,
on the present occasion, a British fleet near the seat of
disturbance. It might be said that Britain bad great
reputation for power ; and they did hare great power,
and great wisdom in their counsels and great energy,
but they had been resting to much and too long on their
reputation. It was necessary to show sometimes that
they could accompany their opinion with power to make
it good. On the application, then, of the Queen of Por-
tugal, this country had at length thought proper to
interfere for the support of the Queen, and he hoped that
they would take care to makeproper arrangements for the
good government of the country as far as was possible
within the limited powers of the mediation. Anxious
as he was for the independence of Portugal, and although
Britain was the natural mediator on the affairs of that
country, he yet was glad that that mediation had been
taken up, and established by three independent coun-
tries. It was not in this instance the influence of France
alone, or of Spain alone, or of England, but of all those
conjointly. He. therefore, thought the British Govern-
tnent was justified in interfering, at the request of the
Queen of Portugal, in the affairs of that country. The
Noble Duke, who spoke from the cross benches, with
his back to the gallery, was very indistinct in his enun-
ciation, and was very imperfectly heard.
Lord WINCHILSEA said their Lordships were not
called upon to say whether the intention of her Majesty's
Government was good, but whether the procedure which
they had adopted was right? He thought that the in-
terference which had taken place was most unjustifiable,
and therefore he felt it to be his duty to give the most
cordial support to the motion.
Earl St. GERMANS said that in the first instance he
was very much opposed to the interference of the Go-
vernment in the affairs of Portugal, as being likely to
involve a most complicated question with reference to the
affairs of other countries ; but, upon a careful perusal
of all the documents connected with the case, he bad
come to the conclusion that the course adopted by the
Government was the one least likely to lead to trouble
and inconvenience in the end, and most calculated to
meet the justice of the case. He thought that the rela-
tion which had always existed between Portugal and
England was a full justification of these measures which
had been adopted by her Majesty's Government under
the existing circumstances, and therefore he should not
feel it his duty to support the motion of the Noble Lord.
—(The Noble Earl was during the whole of his speech
nearly inaudible in the gallery.)
Lord BEAUMONT said that the great question of
neutrality was involved in the question which was then
before the House, and their decision would in future re-
gulate how far that passive conduct which one nation
should preserve with regard to the internal af-
fairs of another was to be departed from. He
thought that if this motion were negatived,
so as to affirm the principle of her Majesty's
Government, that that principle might be in future car-
ried out by other countries to the detriment of this
nation, whilst from a feeling of consistency they would
be compelled to look on without any effort to take any
part in that which might possibly very much concern
them. What could have been said to induce the Govern-
ment to suppose that France or Spain was about to in-
terfere, but even supposing either country had contem-
plated an interference, it was evidently not for the pur-
pose of an invasion; and he, therefore, attached no im-
portance to that plea, that had her Majesty', Government
not have interfered France or Spain would. From all
the proceedings of Spain and France, it was quite clear
that if they ever did entertain the expediency of inter-
fering, it was only in conjunction with England. He
thought instead of interfering in this instance, the
Government ought to have left it to be settled
by the quadruple alliance.. The Government, however,
seemed to contend that the quadruple alliance performed
all its functions in relation to Portugal, when it placed
the present Queen upon the throne. Had the move-
ments of either the Queen's party or that of the people
been calculated to injure British interests there might have
been some reason for their directly interfering in the
decided manner they had done, but so far from that
being the case the two parties had, throughout the
whole of the insurrection, scrupulously respected the
rights and liberties, and interests of the British mer-
chants and residents of Portugal. He regretted the
present interference the more because it imposed upon
this country the performance of a difficult task, and might
probably induce the world to imagine that it was a party
to the civil and unconstitutional proceedings which had
been adopted in the name of the Queen of Portugal.
But if this interference was justified, as he understood
Government contended that it was, upon the grounds of
humanity, why was it delayed so long, and why did it
not take place before so much blood had been spilt in
the Peninsula?—(Hear, hear.) Again, it was exceed-
ingly difficult to decide which party had violated the
constitution, so complicated were the charters, but in
his opinion both parties had been guilty of infringement
of the constitution. No doubt, however, could
be entertained as to the impolicy, not to
say injustice and tyranny of the measures pur-
sued by Costa Cabral. Up to the night of the
6th of October even that party did nothing which could
be considered a violation of the constitution. It was
said that they were obliged to interfere because it was
supposed that some intrigue had been going on at
Madrid to induce Spain to interfere separately. Why
was the petty intrigue of a foreign nation, however pow-
erful she might be, to induce England to depart from
the long-established principles of equity and justice?—
(Hear, bear.) There was but one topic more upon
which he wished to touch. It had been
said by the Noble Marquis that there was
some degree of partiality displayed towards
the Queen in the terms and conditions offered
to the Junta of Oporto. To some extent he agreed
with the Noble Marquis, and he regretted that such
should have been the case, because there was every
reason to suppose that it bad led to many of the diffi-
culties and disturbances which had subsequently arisen.
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thought anet ovfercyonhfiedectace
in a Government in-
tention,
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with
and therefore he felt it to be his duty to vote
against it.
Lord GRANVILLE said that it appeared to him that
that the
which motion
ad showed
the question before the House was not so much as to the
manner of the armed intervention of the Government as
whether the Government could have adopted any other
course less open to objection. That intervention was, in
his opinion, the only line which the Government could
have, adopted, considering the course which had been
taken by the Government of Portugal and the Govern-
ments of other countries which were also interested in
the question. The measures which had been adopted
were of a humane nature, as they were calculated to