The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-14 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

CIRCULAR LETTER OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF POR-
TUGAL TO THE CIVIL GOVERNORS OF THE KINGDOM,
ON THE APPROACHING GENERAL ELECTION OF THE
CORTES.

(Translation.)
Mop Excellent Senhor,—A general election of Depu-
ties is going to take place under very extraordinary and
difficult circumstances. The duties of Government are
also difficult, and it is mine to recommend to your Ex-
cellency and all those who exercise authority in the
Queen's name, an especial and faithful observance of all
those duties.

The representative system, the only one capable of
realising and securing liberty, is yet new to us, and we
are but little experienced in it. Factions, both in and
out of power, have exerted themselves to vitiate and
change it, [chiefly by preventing the right of Election
from being exercised in full liberty, with that indepen-
dence and intelligence so necessary, and without which
the constitutional system becomes absurd or deceptive.
Faithful to these principles, and to the mission which
her Majesty has pleased to confide to them, the Ministers
have endeavoured to remedy these evils by submitting
to the Queen the decree of the 27th of July last, which
now supplies the want of electoral laws; and in order
that it may produce the salutary effect which her
Majesty desires, it is requisite that all public authorities,
in their respective spheres, should engage, by a strict
and severe maintenance of impartiality, to cause a rigid
observance of the rules prescribed in that decree, and
by abstaining from all interference i❑ the choice of in-
dividuals. This is always the duty of Government; but
now perhaps more so than ever, for that harmless in-
fluence which with beneficent intentions it is lawful to
use in ordinary causes- may now become suspected,
whilst the remembrance is so recent of abuses and vio-
lences which other influences exercised. The Govern-
ment abstains, therefore, from the use of its own means—
it does not solicit, much less require, of any subordinate
authority to promote any individual candidate whatever,
but considers as its candidate every upright, faithful,
and intelligent man in the country, who is firm in his
principles to the freedom of the monarchy, and who has
supported them in every crisis without exaggerated
exaltation. Those men of sense who do not proclaim
one doctrine to-day, and support another to-morrow—
who do not excite party passions in order to repress
them afterwards, or to see succumb the cause they pre-
tend to maintain, by the very excess of their advocacy—
these are the men whom the Government wishes to ob-

fain the suffrages of the nation ; these will be its true
representatives in love, in loyalty to the institutions of
the charter, to the august dynasty which gave and re-
stored it to us, and to the Queen, in whose name it was
given us, to regain it before all Europe by conquering,
not only by the sword, but by the triumph of those
principles with which we still desire to combat the in-
ternal and external enemies of our liberty and inde-
pendence.
The Government, however, is not exclusive ; it de-
sires not, nor can it be so. Her Majesty the Queen
Donna Maria 11. is Queen of all Portuguese, and all
opinions have a right to be represented in the Cortes.
But Government also has the right, and not only the
right but the duty, to maintain those which it considers
most favourable to the liberty and prosperity of the
nation, to the maintenance of public order, and for the
interest and glory of her Majesty's throne.
It is incumbent on your Excellency, as chief of the
administrative authority of your district—an authority
entirely paternal, beneficent, and protective, to enlighten
and instruct the minds of the electors ; to do all in your
power that they may not be misled; to direct them, in
tine, without interfering to govern them.
It is her Majesty's pleasure, and I direct your :excel-
lency in her august name, to follow scrupulously these
rules, and have them observed by those under your
orders ; likewise that you will spare no pains nor en-
deavours to make the people know the true state of the
country, and the nature of the trust to be confided to
those who are to choose their representatives.
That the indifference or condescension of some, the
factious spirit of others, contemptible personal opposi-
tions, the hatred of factions, do nut blind the eyes
of the electors to the true and sole object—the
salvation and honour of the country, and to the
credit of this great national movement, in which all
parties united, and which hitherto has not been
disgraced, it is proper to bear in mind that the
whole social, political, and financial machine has
been shaken by this effort. The Ministry have
solicitously prepared and facilitated the mission of
the Cortes ; they have already incurred great,. re-
sponsibility in the reforms and reductions they have
made, and they are aware that much yet remains to be
done; but the Cortes alone can fix on firm and solid
bases the establishment of a system of justice and true
order, and put an end to the constant reactions which
for so many years have distressed us, consumed the re-
sources of the nation, and destroyed the elements of
prosperity which a few years of tranquillity and peace in
the observance of truly constitutional principles cannot
fail to elicit.

From the manner in which the future Cortes fulfil
their duties depends, thereforo, .11 the credit of the
national movempnr iti46, which Europe and all pos-
terity will designate as glorious or absurd, as loyal or
factious, according to the term and conclusion it may
have. _ _ _ _

The national voice, which called for the reform of

some existing laws, and especially fur checking the
abuse of laws, was heard and attended to by the guar-
dian benevolence of her Majesty the Queen, but that
voice did not encourage subversive or extravagant prin-
ciples. The plan of the Government is the same, and
it is this which the Cortes are called to unfold and con-
solidate.

To revise the charter, so that its precepts may become
more evident, and free from absurd and false interpreta-
tion, will be a new tribute to the revered memory of its
august author, and the fulfilment of a wish and desire he
often manifested.
To reform the tributary laws so that the contributors
may pay with the greatest equity and the least sacrifice
possible.
To make a strict revision of the number of persons in
all public establishments, to fix it unalterably, and thus
secure a progressive and safe increase of economy.
To found the national credit on these bases, and to
proscribe the system of fanciful credit—the ruin of
public income and private fortunes.
To give real protection to commerce and agriculture,
by the construction of roads and ways of communication.
To diffuse instruction amongst all classes, so that
science may be spread by its practical application to the
arts.

To attend, above all, to the moral education of the
people, by providing for this purposo the means of
education and instruction of the clergy.
To organise the public force, and simplify the admi-
nistrative and fiscal system.
To regulate the qualifications for admission to public
employments.
Finally, to render effective the responsibility of all.
These are the measures which the Ministry under-
stands the nation to desire ; these are what it undertakes,
and the electors should keep them in view when choosing
their representatives. The only support which the
Ministry desires and solicits is that of deputies who
sincerely profess, and apply their doctrines with intelli-
gence and gravity. Such men it desires for judges of
what has been done, and for councillors and arbitrators
of what is still to do.

I trust your Excellency will be fully convinced of
these truths, and make the right and loyal use of them
which her Majesty desires, as this is the service which
her Majesty will most highly appreciate. Be watchful
that the access to the electoral urn may be free, easy, and
safe for all electors without distinction, and that neither
public force nor any private force do violence to their
liberty.
In the solemn meetings which the law directs to be
held and authorises, do not allow the intervention as
such of civil or judicial magistrates, much less of any
military authority ; taking care, however, to preserve
order and the laws, which you are bound to guard.
Be careful likewise that the ecclesiastical authority
interfere only to guide the minds (conscience) of the
people. The law only calls the priests to the act of
election as magistrates of the civil registry ; but by no
means in their quality or religious office, which must ab-
stain from all interference in political strife.
Finally, I request your Excellency to make known,
through all yoar district the contents of this circular, and
of the electoral law, which I sent you some time ago,
accompanying them with your instructions to your de-
legates and subordinates, so that the action of the Go-
vernment may be unanimous and simultaneous in pro-
tecting the freedom of voting, in guaranteeing and
illustrating it.
May God preserve your Excellency.
Palace of Belem, Sept. 19, 1846.
(Signed) Puke DE PALMELLA.
To his Excellency the Civil Governor of

EXTORTION BY A TOLL COLLECTOR.—At Mary-
lebone Police-court, yesterday, William Butt, the col-
lector at the Pine Apple Gate, Edgware-road, was
summoned for having exacted Gd. toll for a small four-
wheel chaise attached to the back of a cart load of furni-
ture. The toll-collector stood upon the law, which
enacts that additional toll shall be paid for any "coach,
chaise, or chair " fixed or tied to another vehicle. The
magistrate said that the law indeed bore him out in ex-
acting toll for the child's carriage, and that the sum-
mons must be dismissed, though it was a Shylock
kind of triumph of which the collector bad no reason
to bast,