The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-05 00:00:00

irrational impatience of the Tories for power.
At present the country is thriving ; and, in the
hope that all the great questions which must be
settled this Session, will be settled satisfactorily,
confidence is striking deep root. Woe to those
who shall wantonly disturb this state of things—
who shall unhinge, without cause, the frame of
English society !—Morning Chronicle.

If the decision of the House of Lords on
the motion of the Duke of Wellington, relative
to the Portuguese question, be an embarrassing
circumstance for Ministers, in addition to their
other embarrassments, they have brought it on
themselves. It is the result of the time-serving
policy which they have adopted on that, as on
most other questions, and which gains them the
respect of neither friends nor enemies; or rather,
in vain attempts to conciliate the one, by sacri-
fices of principle, they lose the confidence of the
other. Our relations with Portugal at the pre-
sent moment are perfectly unintelligible. Our
Government recognise Donna Maria as the
lawful Sovereign, yet refuse to receive an accre-
dited agent from her in whom resides, as they
admit, the Majesty of Portugal. When the
Duke of Wellington's Administration advised
the late King, George IV., to receive Donna
Maria at Court as Queen of Portugal and the
Algarves, she was then barely Queen de jure,
not having possession of a foot of land within
her dominions. She is now not only Queen
de jure, but also Queen de facto, as far as
the Azores and the second city of Portugal
are concerned ; yet our " liberal" Ministers de-
clined to receive openly and honestly an accre-
dited agent from hei, while they coquette with
Palmella and other emissaries of Don Pedro,
and dabble in petty intrigues in the Courts of
Paris and Madrid, which are wholly unworthy of
a great nation. Ministers have undoubtedly
placed themselves in a false position by not taking
a more decided part (we do not mean in arms)
with Donna Maria, or by not observing a com-
plete and rigid neutrality. As to the armaments
which have been equipped and sent out from this
country, they were too notoriously prepared to
be hidden from the knowledge of the Ministry,
or indeed of any person who used his eyes or
ears. So far from any secrecy having been used,
those armaments, while in preparation, were rather
ostentatiously announced. The expedition from
Falmouth, under Captain Napier, was as pub-
licly equipped as any thing could be ; yet Lord
Grey pleads ignorance as to that expedition. He
even admits that his ignorance may have been
culpable : but, if the expedition were lawful, he
need not resort to such a defence ; and if it were
illegal, we presume a plea of ignorance is no tie-
fence of a dereliction of duty on the part of a Mi-
nister of the Crown—at least, in a case where a
party violating the law made no secret of their in-
tention. Was it manly, dignified, or honest, to put
in such a plea under the circumstances ? Why
not, as lawyers say, confess and avoid—that is,
admit the facts, and refute the legal construction
attempted to be put upon them. It is quite
evident that while the Foreign Enlistment Bill
remains on the statute-book, no such expedition
can leave the shores of England either without
the open assent or secret contrivance of Minis-
ters. If such expeditions are no infringement
of the law of neutrality which Ministers profess
to act upon, why not openly approve of diem ?
If they do violate neutrality, why connive at
them ? Why take a course which can only be
redeemed from the charge of moral cowardice by
the imputation of political dishonesty ? With
regard to the quoted opinion of Lord Stowell,
as to the law of neutrality, we shall not, at pre-
sent, argue whether it was right or wrong, but it
was curious enough that Lord Grey attempted,
in one portion of his speech, to reconcile the
conduct of Government with the principles laid
down in that opinion, while the Lord Chancellor
attacked the opinion itself. He broadly hinted
that an opinion which a Learned Judge gave in
his place in Parliament was not entitled to the
same weight which attached to his decision when
delivered from the Bench. But the Noble and
Learned Lord should have recollected that if the
opinion of the greatest master of the law of
nations who has ever filled a judicial situ-
ation in this country be of little or no
weight, because it was given during a
political discussion in Parliament, the same
may be said of his own opinion on the same
subject ; for it was the political opinion of the
Lord Chancellor, given during a warm debate
in fkarliament, and not his judicial decision,
calmly delivered from the Bench. Though the
treaties which bind this country to Portugal form
the links of a very close as well as a very old alli-
ance between the'two countries, we never have
set n any thing in them which would Authorise,
much less compel, an interference by force of
arms in any internal quarrels of the Portuguese.
We are, undoubtedly, bound by those treaties
to protect Portugal from foreign aggression.
Whether the treaties that so bind us are wise or
foolish, we are under the moral necessity of ob-
serving them faithfully as long as they continue
in existence. we must differ from the in-
terpretation pot upon those treaties by the Duke
of Wellington and Lord Aberdeen, when they
argued that they bound us to interfere in the
case of France demanding reparation, and even
enforcing it, for injuries, sustained at the hands
of the de facto Sovereign of Portugal. If
France, indeed, after obtaining that reparation,
had attempted to violate the national rights or
control the independence of Portugal, the cams
fiederis would arise and demand our interfe-
rence. As to the comparative merits of the two
brothers, Pedro and Miguel, we leave the task
of adjusting them to others. The sullen usurper
of time throne of Portugal, and the cash-
iered despot of Brazil, display about equal
talent and equal virtue, The conflict at Oporto
reflects no credit on the capacity of either. It
exhibits all the melancholy ravages, without
any of the science of war. But it serves to
show one thing, and that is, that howeycr b4d,
in moral and political character Miguel is, he is
the choice of the great mass of the Portuguese
nation, If he were not, some powerful and
popular demonstration would have been made
in favour of Donna Maria before this time.
No such demonstration has been made. The
soni of iguel has remained faithful to his
standard, and the people take do advantage
of the legitimate Sovereign being in the field
to act towards Miguel as if they considered
hin a usurper, If the Portuguese are satisfied
with him, why should we endeavour to con-
trol their choice ? BUt we have acknowledged
Donna Maria as Queen de jure. We say, then,
as we did before, that government should either
have received an accredited agent from her,
which would have given great moral influence
to her eausp, or, having refused to do that,
Government should take no part whatever but
what was in strict conformity with the neutra-
lity it proclaimed. Above all, it should avoid
entering into any of the intrigges of Louis
Philip, who is said to look for a royal settle-
ment for his younger son by .an alliance with the