The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-23 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—For many reasons it seems time enough that
an appeal should be made to public opinion in Eag-
land, and to the attention of the British Government,
regarding the present state of political and finan-
cial affaits in Portugal. In fact, it is not only the
economical interests and the commercial relations
of Great Britain with that country that render it
necessary. A great moral responsibility weighs
altogether, both on England and on the English
press, binding them not to neglect Portuguese in-
dependence and prosperity. To the intervention of
England that country is indebted for its new sys-
tem of Parliamentary Government, and to the in-
fluence of the English press, it also, as do most of the
countries of modern Europe, owes the encourage-
ment of many principles and theories which have
proved fatal to their welfare, and have largely con-
tributed to public distress and social anarchy. S,lll
it is not our purpose to enter now into the apprecia-
tion of such international ties and moral duties,
whatever may be the claims of the Portuguese on
their oldest, if not always their mostdieinterested and
sincere, ally. It will be quite enough for the benefit
of Portugal if Great Britain only chooses to look
at once after her legitimate interests in protecting
the rights of her own subjects. A considerable
amount of English property is, indeed, connected
with the financial and economical prospects of Por-
tugal. And supposing, for one moment, that a
total and sudden bankruptcy was to burst at
last out of the threatening chaos in which
the finances of that country have been long
since plunged, bow much would English capital
suffer from it? And things are but too fast com-
ing to such a pass! Nay, even to more than fivan-
eial disasters ! Only God knows the depths of the
abyss over which that misled but noble•country is
standing at this very moment. When its commerce
is paralys,ql by the political and social vicissitudes
of daily anarchy and permanent revolution in all
the branches of public administration ; when its
agriculture and industry, under the heavy and ca-
pricious policy of rapidly succeeding Ministries and
Parliaments, have no longer the means of prosper-
ing—it is not only English commerce and English
industry that suffer, but the Portuguese public in-
come, consequently decreasing every day, and the
Portuguese deficit and public debt enormously in-
creasing at every hour, will soon drag along on the
ruins of that nation the fortunes of many and
many English subjects, who perhaps to the pie-
sent moment have confidently relied on the
favourable reports falsely spread by mercenary
city articles whenever bourse speculations or nego-
ciated loans aim at private capital. Without any
further reflections upon the results which must
follow if the present state of Spain is to spread all
over the Peninsula, as seems now almost inevit-
able, we will merely offer to public consideration •
the following facts, taken from the history of
the last two years, as illustrative of the financial
and political transactions of the liberal representa-
tive. Government of Portugal since 1862.. In
Jan.,1868, the Cabinet, presided over by D'Agniar,
not, being allowed (by the Crown) to enforce and
put into execution the administrative and financial
laws, legally passed and voted by an immense majo-
rity in Parliament, was dismissed in the presence
of popular riots. A new Cabinet, presided over by
Count d'Avila, was called ; they dissolved Parlia-
ment, and assumed the dictatorship for a
short time, in order to establish order and
quiet throughout the country, which had riien
Agaiust the lavishness of the late Administrations,
and against the vexatious taxes thereby cast on the
people. Promising the most strict retrenchments

upon the public expenditure, this Ministry could
scarcely get through the difficulties of the financial
crisis, having as Minister of that department a young
barrister, a clever professor of law at the Univer-
sity of Coimbra (M. Dias Ferreira), who had lately
begun his political career, and had taken part
in the recent tumults. Still though he had never
been heard of before as anything like a finan-
cier, he succeeded in raising a large loan ! This
Ministerial situation, assailed every day by revolu-
tionary opposition, was soon upset, and was fol-
lowed by an Administration, presided over by the
Marquis of Sa. The new Minister of Finance in this
Cabinet (M. Carlos Bents) went himself to Paris,
seeking to raise there a large loan ; but being un-
successful in this errand he resigned his post, and
one of his colleagues, a military engineer (M.
Calheiros) took for a couple of months charge of
the Portfolio of Finances, and succeededin raising a
loan. This was soon replaced by a new Financial
Minister, who had never been known in his country
as a man of economical abilities—Count de Samo•
daens. This Administration, unable to carry the
most violent reforms and taxes, tendered also their
resignation, " and the Duke de Saldanha was sent
for from Rome to form a new Cabinet. After a
prolonged crisis, the demissionary Ministry was re-
called and resumed office. The Duke de Saldauha
was countermanded, when already at Bordeaux, on
his way to Portugal, and the Cortes was dissolved once
more. Fearing the result of the coming elections,
the Ministers dictatorially enforced laws which had
not obtained Parliamentary approbation, and, setting
aside the existing " electoral law," made another
themselves—a new circumscription of the electoral
districts throughout the country, greatly reducing at
the same time the number of its representatives.
From this new-(angled, so called "Parliament," they
soon got the approval of their dictatorial measures,
and, as their colleague of the Finances could not
succeed in raising a further loan, he was soon sent to
the right about, and the engineer, M. Calheiros, was
placed once more over that important department,
till a new colleague was chosen, a very young man
(M. Saraiva de Carvalho), who had entered the
Chamber but the year before, and who was chiefly
remarkable, amidst his friends, as an amateur des
belles lettres. Unable now to resist any longer the
attacks of the Opposition, this Ministry again re-
signed, and the Duke de Louie was called in. He
formed the present Cabinet, raised a large loan,
and, after restoring most of the expenditure which
had been retrenched, and against which the country
had so energetically protested in January, 1868, he
has just dissolved Parliament once more, afraid of
meeting the Upper House, now headed by the Duke
de Saldanha, and this notwithstanding an alleged
favourable majority in the Lower House. In con-
clusion, we may see that from the beginning of
January, 1868, to the end of January, 1870,
there have been in Portugal,. as regards its poli-
tical life, five different Administrations, five long
Ministerial crises, three Dictatorships, five Parlia-
ments, eight Ministers of Finance, and not less
than three large loans ! Let public opinion, public
men, and English holders of Portuguese bonds,
duly appreciate the consequences of all this. As
regards the financial transactions of the same two
last years, and their present state, I will, with your
permission, comment upon those in a subsequent
communication.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Any letters for ships of the Channel Squadron
can be sent by her Majesty's ship Bristol, which
will leave Devonport for Lisbon after the arrival of
the post there on Thursday, the 24th inst.
Colonel Knox's petition as to the Mallow elec-
tion will be lodged to-day.

A meeting of the members of the Cabinet will
take place on Saturday next, at the First Lord of the
Tieasury's.official residence in Dowhing-street.
The wife of the Russian Minister, Madame Cata-
cazy, rage in Washington. To judge of the effect
on zr-episc therte rsand correspondents, we would suppose that
the lady had always a sweet smil© for them. Here is a
description by one : —"Madame de Catacazy swept toward
115,, and we were electrified by her beauty. All the reports
we had heard of her failed to give us any idea of her mag-
nificence. She was dressed in the richest of black velvets,
made with a train, and the loose Turkish vacque she wore,
of the same material, was heavily embroidered in gold.
But this rich trimming was scarcely more dazzling in
effect than her wealth of golden hair. This hair, which
all admit is natural in quantity as well as in hue, is of that
miraculous colour about which painters rave, and in look-

ing at it any degree of rapture seems admissible. And, in
addition, this superb woman possesses a complexion of re-
markable clearness, and a perfect form. Then, too, the
atmosphere of courts is about her, and she mazes one un-
derstand what innate majesty is possible to beauty."