The Sun.
London, England, 1846-11-26 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
:SIS,--Any one acquainted with Portugal and the
e)L aracter of the Portuguese, must read with surprise the
unfounded and exaggerated reports that are published of
the affairs of that interesting but unhappy country ; and
as your columns are ever open to the appeals of truth
and justice, I venture to address to you a few suggestions
which a knowledge of the country and recent information
supply.
Since the loss of her vast colonies Portugal has vainly
struggled to maintain a system inconsistent with her re-
quirements and beyond her means to support.
The great and romantic struggle which destroyed the
heartless despotism of Dom Miguel, and established the
authority of the Queen and the charter, was succeeded
by a boundless enthusiasm, during which the victorious
party naturally sought to indemnify themselves for their
many sacrifices.
At the same time the sympathies of England were en-
listed in favour of the constitutional regime, and loans
were granted to an amount exceeding the credit and
weans of an exhausted country to repay ; and the Go-
vernment, elated by a success beyond all expectation,
lavished honours and pecuniary rewards on the brave
but craving instruments of its triumph.
The premature death of the great and patriotic Dom
Pedro developed the ambition of rival parties, and Por-
tugal became again the prey of cupidity and intrigue.
Each successive Administration had to contend with in-
creased difficulties from the exhaustion and forestalment
of every resource, until the expedients of Agiotism failed
to afford the scanty supplies of even a temporary budget,
and there was no longer any choice between a national
bankruptcy and a vigorous taxation. A talented but
unbending Minister attempted the latter, and presented a
system of finance whereby the exigencies of the State,
including the charge of the foreign debt, appeared, at
least on paper, to be amply provided for. But Portugal,
the former mistress of the resources of Brazil, had
never felt the pressure of direct taxation, and it was
soon found that the new system could be enforced only
in the towns under a well-organized authority, whilst
the rural districts opposed, as by common consent, the
measures of Costa Cabral, whose downfal was as sudden
as it was destructive of the prospects of the Govern-
ment.

The Ministry of the Duke de Palmella was rendered
an impossibility by the total absence of money or
credit, and it became an urgent and unavoidable ne-
cessity that another change should be effected. Thus
it is altogether vain to ascribe the recent events at
Lisbon either to French intrigue or to any want of
faith on the part of the Queen, who has been unjustly
charged with the having betrayed her engagements to
the people, because she hesitated to satisfy the sense-
less demands of rebellion. But when Palmella totally
failed to obtain the resources necessary to carry on the
Government, no alternative was left to her Faithful
Majesty but to call other respectable men to her
counsels, and her present advisers, with the best
general in Portugal at their head, possess strong claims
to the confidence of the country.
It was the fate of Donna Maria to inherit a crown
encircled with therns, the chief value of which con-
sisted in the proud recollections of a dazzling renown,
so gloriously won by the discoveries and conquests of
the Portuguese, who have never incurred any forfeiture
of their title to our admiration. They betrayed no
degeneracy when they baffled the pride and threw off
the yoke of Spain ; nor, still more recently, when they
emulated the high bearing of the British army, and
their courage and devotion were re-echoed by the
Aripeles and the Pyrenees.
Descending, however, from the proud titles of national
glory, it may be safely asserted that the Portuguese
have the strongest social claims to our respect and sym-
pathy, as in no country of the world have British resi-
dents been treated with more consideration and confi-
dence than in Portugal. We may lament the apparent
harshness of some temporary measures imposed upon the
Queen by a stern necessity, usually attendant on civil
war, and still despise the hypocrisy of those who affect
to whine over the pretended subversion of Portuguese
liberty, whilst they themselves seek by intimidation to
swell the ranks of insurrection with the victims of
anarchy. How do they shew their respect for constitu-
tional guarantees when they surround, and even forcibly
enter, the consular residences at Oporto, in search of
" suspected persons," as they call the respectable men
attached to the Queen and the charter. And when our
own venerable countryman, Mr. Noble, so well-known
for his benevolence and integrity, during a residence of a
length of years at Oporto, was lately savagely wounded
to the extent of endangering his life, they allowed the
assassin to escape on the pretext that he mistook the
sufferer for somebody else.
And this is the party we are now called upon to
espouse in opposition to those who in other and more
difficult times established the strongest claims to our
lasting gratitude. Are there no living testimonies of the
assistance and protection given to the English on the
disastrous occasion of the invasion of Portugal by the
French, in 1807 ?—no grateful witnesses of the cordial
aid afforded by Sobastiao Correa, Conde de Terena, when
he not only protected the persons of the English, but in
disregard of his own safety and of all existing regula-
tions, he allowed and facilitated the removal of their pro-
perty, to save it from French rapacity.
How are these facts to be reconciled with the syste-
matic abuse of the Portuguese, and how are we to ac-
count for the supineness of those who, having expe-
rieuced the friendship, have neglected to vindicate the
character of our faithful allies. The Portuguese have
struggled to keep faith with the English bondholders by
the payment of such amount of dividend as they could
raise, and which could only have been raised by the in-
definite postponement of the more ancient, and, by innu-
merable hypothecations, the more sacred claims of their
domL stic creditors, as the total abeyance of the paper
money of Portugal may testify. The revolutions of
time may have done much to diminish the political im-
portance of our alliance with Portugal ; but even now
4e cannot be indifferent to her fate without disregarding
the claims of her con,tant good faith.

Nor can our interests fail to be deeply affected if we
abandon the Douro and the Tagus, and thus lose a con-
siderable commerce, which is still carried on with Por-
tugal upon terms of facility and advantage denied to us
by other countries of Europe, which are now engaged
in the spread of combinations, with the view to curtail
and ultimately to destroy the trade in our products and
manufactures. If due attention were given to these
really important considerations, the misinformed or un-
reflecting public would be less prone to view with indif •
ference the misfortunes of a people possessing so many
titles to our esteem.
London, Nov. 23, 1846
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