The Sun.
London, England, 1828-06-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THI PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The public is ax:quainled with the circumstance
that a civil wax exists in Portugal, in consequence of
the assumi2;aOn of regal powers by the Regent. The
beadlVlArters of the party opposed to the usurpa-
tion are at Oporto ; and a blockade of that harbour
has been declared by the chief of the other party.
T..tie event is thus announced to the British public
by the aut*rities of our country :
" BLOCKADE OF OPORTO.
" Foreign-Office, June 24, 1828.
" 814.—1 am directed by the Earl of Aberdeen to ac-
"o44' volt, for the information of the Committee of
that intelligence has been received at this office
I •
Lad en effective blockade of the bar of the city of Oral to
has been declared by his Royal Highness the Prince Regent
of Portugal.—l am, Sir, your's, &c. Er.c.
(Signed) " DUNGLAS.

" To the Secretary of Lloyds."
We do not exactly know wh3t is meant by this
announcement. It is very proper, no doubt, to call
the blockade effective; for no blockade that is not
effective—no blockade which does not possess ade-
quate means for enforcing its own execution—is in
any degree to be regarded. But if our Govern-
meat means to have it inferred that because this
blockade is effective it is therefore legal, we think
they are in error. Of two independent king-
doms, acknowledged by the voice of Europe
to be such, one has a right, if it has the
means, to declare a port of the other in a
state of blockade, and thereby to exclude neutrals;
but this rule teas never applied to two parties exist-
ing in one rea and engaged in civil conflict with
each other. The law of blockade has reference to
an international,-and not an internal war,—to a war
of States, end not to a conflict of parties. We are
of opinion, therefore, that the blockade of the bar
of Oporto is illegal, if it be' meant to affect aliens;
and should be disregarded by independent Powers,
as it ought to have -been disregarded by the Mini-
sters of Great Britain, except in so far as every Go-
vernment is in duty bound to warn its seafaring sub-
jects of foreign dangers suddenly discovered, as of
rocks not before laid down, or of pirates. The Ame-
Ticans will regard this blockade of Oporto very much,
no doubt, if it should continue t But then the Ame-
rican Secretary of State does not understand these
matters so well as Lord Aberdeen t But, further,
how has this blockade been announced to us? Or
by what legal and official organ has it been made'
known ? Has Lord Aberdeen—being a social and
affable man, we suppose—become acquainted with
the fact by hearsay ? Mr. Peel d.clared in the House
of Commons on Tuesday night, in reply to a ques-
tion froM Lord John Russell, " that in con- I
sequence of the British Government's entire
disapproval of the individual' (mark that word)
to whoM allusion had been made (Don Miguel),
the diplomatic functions of his Majesty's Am-
bassador at the Court of Lisbon were sus-
pended :" and it is clear that that indivi-
dual neither has, nor ran have, any accredited
Ambassador at this Court. Upon what principle,
then, can the acts of such an individual be recog-
nized by us as the acts of a legally-constituted au-
thority Or by what organ, acknowledged among
civilized nations, can they even be officially made
known ? Don Miguel is not to be Regent to us,
and to make war upon his fellow-subjects in order
to substantiate his title to be King. We are in-
clined, therefore, to think, that our Government,
finding itself in error through ignorance, will attempt
to " shuffle off" upon the word " effective," saying
it meant to declare the fact, but not-to acknowledge
the legality of the blockade. But this, unhappily,
is rot an affidr of mere paper argument. What
will become of the English families in Oporto; when
the Constitutional Portuguese find, themselves be-
trayed by Great Britain, and the blockade of the
ut'..urper acknowledged by her as legal ? What will
become of the Marquis Palmella and his associates—
whom we have almost forced out of this country to
take up arms against Don Miguel--when they.shall
find themselves met.upon the Portuguese'coast by
a blockade.which Lord Aberdeen in their rear has
intimated to be legal ? They are entrapped, and
We fear sacrificed. We really dread to think of the
consequence of this ill-advised act.—Tietes.

There is, perhaps, no country in the world in
whieli the science of pillaging under fair pretences is
so well understood as in England. Go where you
will, you find lovers of their fellow-creatures profes-
sing an anxiety to promote moral and religious im-
provement ; and, under the mask of these fine words
endeavouring to get access to the pockets of their
neighbours. The foulest jobs in Parliament will
always be found associated with the words Religion
and Church ; and people of any experience in the
world know so well the connection between the use
of these words and schemes for raising the wind,
that the moment they hear the words mentioned
they are prepared for some encroachment. On
Monday night Sir Robert Wilson presented a Peti-
tion from the parish of St. George, Camberwell,
complaining of the provisions of the Additional
Churches' Bill. We were induced, from the notice
then taken of the Bill, to look into it ; and we must
say, that a more objectionable measure never was at-
tempted to be smuggled through Parliament. Our
readers are aware that the erection of additional
Churches has, in many parts of England, been con-
verted into a means of oppressing the Dissenters for
the fithherance of jobs, for the benefit of influen-
t ial persons. The Dissenters might have overlooked
the erection of new Churches at the expence of
he nation, however objectionable, had the evil
ended with the expenditure of the public money;
!hat they soon found that this was only the com-
mencement of the evil ; and that the support of the
new Churches- would entail a permanent burden on
them. A large and increasing revenue is set apart
-for the Clergy of the Establishment; and the Dis-
t;entera do not demand too nuteh when they insist
that the spiritual wants of their church-going bre-
thren should be provided for exclusively, either out
of that revenue by a better and more judicious dis-
tribution suited to the changes in the state of the
population, or from the contributions of those who
benefit by the additional Churches. Accordingly
the Dissenters opposed the attempt to raise rates for
the support of the Churches, and in many cases with
auccess. But this Bill introduced towards the end
of the Session enacts, " That it shall be lawful for
the Church or Chapelwardens of any District Church '
Chapel, and they are hereby required to pay all
such expences as may have been incurrid in relation
to the performance of Divine Service in any such
Church or Chapel, after the consecration thereof,
out of any rates which may be hereafter made in re-
lation to such Church or Chapel; and in case any
such rate shall not be sufficient for the payment of
such expences, it shall be lawful for such Church or
Chapel Wardens, and they are. hereby required to
make provision in any subsequent rate for the pay-
ment thereof, and to pay the same out of such subse-
quent rates ; or, in case it should be necessary, to make
a rate for that purpose ;• anything in any Act or Acts,
or Law or Laws, to the contrary notwithstanding.
And whereas it is expedient -to provide for the
repairs, and odicr expences necessary for the
maintenance and proper performance of divine set-
vice in the Churches turd Chapels built under the au-
thority of the said Commissioners, when the pa-
ishioners of the parish or place wherein the saute
are situate, or persons exercising the power of vestry
therein, may have omitted to make any rate, or. a
rate sufficient for the defraying such necessary ex-
pences; and therefore be it enacted, that in all such
cases it shall and may be lawful for the church or.
e
chapelwardens of such parish or place, or for th
churchwardens of any such church or chapel therein,
as the cage may be, oftheir own authority, and they
are hereby required to lay a rate sqffiezent for tht•
c!,fraying,suchnecessary expenses; and the said rate
t.o made shall be to all intents and purposes legal and
valid, and may be collected, and payment of the cant
enforced by all ways and means by which any legal
church rate may have been demanded, collected, and
enforced." This is a power to tax with a ven-
geance ! If the whole expense of the performance cr,
Divine Service, as well as the repairs of the build-
ing may be thrown on the Dissenters, where is the

limit to imposition ? When a Dissenting ChapeTl is
erected, care will always be taken to obta►n a popular
Preacher, to insure the payment of all the expenccs
connected with it. But in these new Churches,
the only security against abuse of patronage, by the
appointment of persons not acceptable to the con-
gregation, is removed by throwing all deficiences on
the Dissenters. lit many parishes Churches have
-been built in Dissenting neighbourhoods, on the
of drawing over Dissenters; and these
Discerners, in addition to the support of their re-
spective Chapels, will thus have to pay an additional
expenditure, the heavier the less it is wanted. We
trust this vile job will not be allowed to pass without
a strenuous opposition. About this period of the
Session all sorts of tricks are attempted in Bills ;
and the most vigilant Member can hardly succeed
in detecting the various manoeuvres resorted to by
those who, like the framers of this Bill, are on the
constant watch to prey on the public.—lllorning
Chronicle.

It will be seen that the Alehouse Licensing Bill
went through a Committee last night in the House
of Commons, and that its main clause—we mean
the power of appeal to the Quarter Sessions—was
allowed to pass. Public-houses also, if the Bill
passes into a law, will in future be allowed to afford
refrcshment to travellers during the hours of Divine
Service on Sunday ; and as there is no clause in it to
compel the Licensed Victuallers to turn visitors out
of their houses on such occasions,the accommodation
to the public will be considerable. The Bill, how-
ever, would certainly have afforded more satisfaction
had it enabled the Licensed Victuallers to keertheir
houses open for the convenience of the public during
the whole of the Sunday afternoon. No attempt
was made to define the word " tippling," of which
we lately gave a very learned account from a cor-
respondent.—Morning Advertiser.
We are delighted with the knock-down blow
which Mr. Peel, in the debate on Tuesday night,
gave to that part of Mr. Wilmot Horton's Emigra-
tion Scheme, which proposed that money should be
borrowed by parishes to carry it into effect, charged
upon the poor-rates. With great good sense Mr.
Peel spurned this idea as preposterous; and well he
might. No—the country at large has had enough
of borrowing, and to entail its evils upon particular
districts, would be an act of political insanity, too
preposterous, we trust, to be ever for a moment
seriously entertained, either by Government or Par-
liament. Emigration must be voluntary, and its ex-
pense volur tary too ; or else, what is it but to treat
the surplus population, as it is called, as criminals,
and to transport them, like the latter, at the public
charge ?-11forning Herald.