The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-21 00:00:00

LONDON, 5,47 URDAY, MAY 21, 1870,

The charming simplicity of Ministerial changes in
Portugal ! An insurrectionary movement in the
streets of Lisbon is simply threatened. The people,
during these last two or three years, never dream of
rising. They look on apathetically at the new poli
tical disturbance. There is a demonstration—no,
that is too coarse a phrase for the scientific defini-
tion of these periodical supervenings, one upon
another, of bouleversement upon bouleversement.
There is a pronanciatniento on the part of one of
the great Chiefs of the Opposition. It is like the
hey ! presto ! of a prestidigitateur. The Government
that is in at the moment tumbles to pieces like a
house of cards. The Sovereign accepts the worsted
Premier's seemingly volunteered, but, in reality, com-
pulsory resignation. His Majesty has an interview
with the Leader who has just stormed his way to
power, and lo! in the twinkling of an eye, there has
been effected as brilliant a transformation as can be
witnessed on the boards of any of our London
theatres upon the arrival of Christmas. Within a
single twelvemonth there may have been, nay there
have been, as many as a good round dozen of these
instantaneous changes of Ailminis!ration. Constitu-
tionally, in one sense, Portugal has for a long while
past come to be in a chronic state of revolution. The
KING is there on the one side and the people on the
other, and both are there as mere spectators. But in
between the two extremes of the State--intermediately
between the one (nominal) ruler and the million
(nominally) governed, there are the political
intriguers, the administrative adventurers, the pre-
tenders to the virtue of patriotic self-sacrifice, the
professional aspirants to place, with power and with 3

all its perquisites, who have been dealing with the good
things of the State; with the moderation of mohawks
and the audacity of highwaymen. As recently as within
these last three months we published the comment of an
earnest and obeservant Portuguese upon the flagrant
character of these unblushing proceedings on the part
of the leaders of the Lisbon Legislature. During
the lapse of the brief interval -which has since then
run out the argument of our Correspondent has
received, one after another, a series of fresh, and
some of them very startling illustrations. Beyond
the one announced by us only yesterday iu a telegram
of a most sensational kind from the capital of the
Portuguese Kingdom, beyond the new revolutionary
achievement thereby announced, it would be difficult
for even a Portuguese statesman to go under almost

any conceivable circumstances. To demonstrate
the astounding character of these proceediogs,it is only
necessary to enumerate the particulars of this last epi-

sode in the history of, Lisbon. Marshal the Duke o:

SALDANHA, having a hankering once more for the Pre-
miership, having an eye to the formation again of a Lew
Government, takes six battalions of the Royal troops
and, with their assistance in carrying out his object,

makes—as a matter of course he makes—a Pronun,

ciamiento ! At one o'clock on Thursday afternoon he
proceeds at the head of the six battalions to the Royal
Palace. He is there confronted by the Guards, an
encounter ensues, seven of the soldiers are killed and
thirty wounded. If anything might constitute an act
of leze majeste, it would surely be this course of pro-

ceeding on th e part of Marshal SALDANHA. As nothing
whatever of the kind is it so regarded at Lisbon. Mar-

shal SALDANHA having taken possession of the Fort of

St. George, at four of the clock, enters the Royal Pa
lace, and hasa long interview with the King, who there

upon requiring the presence of the Prime Minister

o wit, the Marquis de LOULE, and receiving

from the latter, on behalf of himself and his

Ministerial colleagues their collective resigna

tiou—accepts it! Obviously the result is that Mar

shal SALDANHA, instead of being charged with
high treason, and placed in durance as a prisoner of

State guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours,
has entrusted to him the responsibility of
forming a new Cabinet, reserving to him-

self in that Cabinet, the appropriate office and

responsibilities appertaining to and devolving upon
the MINISTER of WAR. Between Poltugal with a
roi fainéant and Spain with no king at all, there is in

point of fact but small room for making any choice.
As things now are, alike at Lisbon and Madrid,
the whole political fabric seems to Le based upon
sand—nay, far' rather, we should say, upon quick-
sand.

TEE weighty testimony from different sources in
favour of the success of the Suez Canal has now
been supplemented by an official report to Parlia-
ment. Captain Richards, R.N., the hydrographer of
the Admiralty, and Lieutenant-Colonel Clarke, R.E.
the director of that department's engineering and
architectural works, were sent out by the Govermnent

a great country look small across an ocean,

More than all, a supply of money is always fora
_ _

coming. The Irishman. who can hardly live in his

own country, finds abundant remuneration in the
great Republic ; and there he is free to indulge in
schemes from which his poverty debars him at home

It is not likely that Fencanism. will soon be extinct,
even if the Irish by any chance become contented.

In the Ilouse of Commons, yesterday, Sir John
Pakington drew attention to the great loss of life
and property at sea, and moved for a Commission to
inquire into the subject, He ascribed the great in-
crease in shipping disasters in the main to the system
of overloading, particularly as regarded steamers. Al r.
Lefevre, however, denied that there was such an in-
crease in wrecks and other casualties as described by the
hon. baronet, and pointed outtbattbebill which he had
introduced would go far to remove many of the evils
connected with the merchant service. The motion
was ultimately withdrawn. Sir Bounden Palmer then
brought under the notice of the Iloute the late
murders in Greece, and asked what steps the Go-
vernount had taken, or intended taking, with
the view of obtaining satisfaction. Sir Henry Bulwer,
in a mcst impassive speech, proposed as amendment.
Tbeconductof the Greek Government was by hot hun-
sparingly criticised—Mr. Gladstone replying that
the Government had demand. d a full investigation,
and at the proper time would demand that condign
punishment should be inflicted on the guilty persot s.
The Premier pointed out that the punishment of
those more immediately guilty should not come too
soon, hinting that if they were the tools of others, 4,
i a sure means of suppressing the truth. Toe
House did not adjourn until three o'clock.

to estimate the value of M. de Lesseps's great work.
Their inquiry was most minute. Every source of
information was placed at their disposal, and every
pfactical test has been applied to the working of the
canal. The result is highly reassuring. In all
respects, save one, their conclusions are favourable;

' and even their one adverse decision is not matter of
certainty. They are of opinion that the success of
the undertaking would have been more unqualified,
if the opening had been delayed a little; but even
as it is the results are good. The canal is a safe
and convenient passage from the Mediterranean to
the Red Sea. The depth is mostly sufficient for all
ordinary vessels, and is rapidly improv-
ing. When the work was opened one or
two places of insufficient depth presented
theinselves; but these defects, which were owing. to
the hardness of the ground, have given way to per-
severing labour; and the rocky portions of the canal
are becoming as safe as those which run through the
softest soil. The report concludes that when certain
improvements are completed—a little more deepening
in one or two places, and the extending of the passing
stations—the water-way will be available for all the
vessels engaged in the Eastern Seas, except very
exceptionally heavy ones. The shareholders will be
glad to learn, too, that the cost of maintaining the
canal in working order will not exceed the estimate
first made many years ago. Here is another
striking proof of the sagacity and foresight
of M. de Lesseps. With respect to the
use of the canal 'for the passage of Government
transports the two commissioners aro somewhat
dubious, but the question has since been well-nigh
settled. Whilst they were discussing the possibility
of a transport getting through, one very large vessel
of the class, the Jumna, has safely tried the
experiment, and passed from sea to sea with-
out injury. This practical test goes far to
set aside the theoretical conclusion put forth.
with official caution in the report. The inquiry
seems to have been somewhat tardy ; but, at
any rate, it has been effectual. The English Govern-
ment has from the first treated this great work with
the most sublime indifference; but its advantages,
and, above all, its advantages to England, have
asserted themselves at last.

THE present year, if we may believe the " Red "
section of the community, is to see the final success
of the great work which was so bunglingly attempted
in 1789, and so artistically begun and nearly com-
pleted in 1848. A general strike, a general
rising, a universal downfall of thrones, and
a universal uplifting of the Republic,
are amongst the blessings confidently promised us.
Socialism, it is undeniable, was never so powerful
as at the present moment. There is no doubt that
the doctrines of general equality, primitive institu-
tions, and universal peace—to the consummation of
which a deadly revolutionary contest must be a pre-
liminary—have been widely diffused, and met with
very general acceptance from the lower orders of
Europe. Englishmen are somewhat behindhancl, it
would seem, in advanced ideas, and moreover Eng-
land is very useful as a basis- for Republican plots.
Therefore there is to be no attempt at present
to proclaim the Republic here ; but the troublesome
island adjoining the " melancholy- ocean" is a fine
field for operations. There, we are told, a revolu-
tion will be effected before Christmas, and the Fenian
supremacy • will be assured. Nor are the
symptoms restricted only to vain threats. The
Fenian leaders are attempting a more or less
serious revival. The brotherhood are active both in
Birmingham and London. In the greater city the
police have discovered traces of an organisation
which has called for great vigilance and precaution.
Rendezvous have been explored. Men of Fenian
sympathies, who were found supplied with
arms and money, are now under arrest.
This activity is as nothing, however, compared with
the doings on the other side of the Atlantic. In
Canada troops were recently raised in hot haste, and
the Habeas Corpus Act was 'suspended, in anticipa-
tion of an immediate raid across the frontier. A
Congress is sitting here, gatherings are held there,
and the House of Representatives itself, as usual, is
not backward in displaying its hostility.
Past experience will induce us to be ever on the
watch against hostility from this quarter. The Fenian
movement never proved dangerous, but it contrived
to inflict lamentable injury on many innocent inhabi-
tants of this country. We had little apprehension
of such a deed when the Clerkenwell outrage took
place. The murder of Serjeant Brett was an act of
astonishing daring. The one peculiar feature of
The Fenian organisation is the reckless courage
which is every 'now and then displayed by
some of its members. Here and there men risk their
liberties and lives in a design, of which the danger is
altogether disproportionate to the prospect of success.
It is true that the ranks of revolutionary bodies fre-
quently contain men to whom the risk of life seems
very little. But they do not usually act without
some prospect of encouragement. When the fearless
Gustave Flourens proclaimed a revolution in Paris a
few weeks ago, he was in the midst of a crowd of demo•
crats in the must exciteable city in Europe. Wha•
hope, however, could the Manchester and Clerken

well Fenians have of effecting their object with
safety to themselves ? As the result proved, the
Manchester Fenians gained their immediate end, but

were themselves captured. The Clerkenwell Fenians
escaped, but their design failed. This disposition on
the part of a few men to venture upon desperate
deeds in the midst of a hostile population must al-

rt

a

ways be guarded against as far as possible. Various
hypotheses have been formed to account for it. The
truth seems to be that America is a magazine from
which a fresh store of Fenian spirit is being constantly
sent forth. Left to itself, Irish Fenianism would die
out' from want of nourishment, but American
animosity to England keeps alive the fire, and
the dangers of a few score men invading

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1870

'tau).

Tie Princess of Wales drove out yesterday moin-
ing, attended by the Hon. Mrs. Grey.
The Prince and Princess of Wales drove out in the
afternoon.