The Sun.
London, England, 1829-06-02 00:00:00

madegin defence of the Government of Don Miguel.
It is known as a fact to all Europe that the Queen
Mother was prepared to fly to Spain, and it is
universally thought by the best informed and most
intelligent persons in Lisbon, that if the insurgents
had at that moment advanced not a blow would
have been struck. In consequence of these unfor-
tunate proceedings, the great body of royalists and
royal troops was compelled to leave the territory of
Portugal: they had the double honour of being
treated—severely and ignominiously in Spain, and
liberally and generously in France. Some landed
in England, and were fixed at Plymouth ; and
after the calumnies that have issued from some
quarters, it is but fair to mention that the
whole of the respectable inhabitants of that
town, at a public meeting, passed a vote in
favour of the conduct of the troops, and presented a
petition to the King that they might not be re-
moved. I now approach a transaction to which I
cannot allude without considerable pain; but before
I come to that I must shortly allude to some nego-
ciations v%hich took place between the Portuguese
and Brazilian Ministers and the King's Government,
between the months of February and November.
We may be said to have been then in a very extra,
ordiHary state in some respects. 'I here were three
Ministers in this country representing the House of
Braganza. First, the Marquis of Barbacena, sent
by Don Pedro with his Royal daughter, in a confi-
dential capacity; next, the Marquis Palmella, Am-
bassador from the kingdom of Portugal ; and lastly,
the Viscount Itabayana, Ambassador from the Go-
vernment of Brazil. Now, as to the Marquis Pal-
mella, the Government he had come to represent
was at an end, and his occupation was therefore
gone : as Brazil was separated from and quite inde-
pendent of Portugal, the Viscount Itabayana could
have no connection with the affairs of the latter,
while the Marquis de Barbacena had been only
deputed by the head of the House of Braganza, as
the guardian and protector of the Royal daughter of
that family. For this reason they were none of
them recognised and treated with officially, and this,
by what used to be called in my time in Courts of
Law, rather sharp practice—a sort of international
special pleading. This is a case, I will venture to
say, without parallel; I find nothing like it in the
history of' international law. The daughter is
recognised as Queen, but our Ministers will not
acknowledge her father as her natural guardian,
nor will they recognise any Ministers to act
on her behalf. What sort of recognition is this ?
It is putting only a barren sceptre in her hand.
No similar case having occurred, the dictate of
common sense was to consider that nature and nee
cessity had given to Don Pedro the guardianship of
the young Queen, and that any Minister she might
employ ought to have been treated with on the
affairs of Portugal. In a memorable instance a So-
vereign of England,jealous of authority, especially
on the subject I am about to mention, did not behave
with such extreme civility of punctilio. With all
our admiration for the genius of Elizabeth, we must
admit that mildness was not one of her character-
istics. An. Ambassador was sent to this country
from the deposed Queen of Scots : strictly, as the
agent of a deposed Prince, lie was not entitled to
the privileges of an official Envoy, but Elizabeth
waved that ceremony ; and it was not until he was
engaged in a plot of assassination against her, or at
least of rebellion, that, after consultation with her
Ministers, he was imprisoned for a time, and subse-
quently set at large. The head of the House of
Braganca was the national guardian of the young
Queen of Portugal, and in that light he should have
been treated. The subject of negociation, official
and unofficial, which afterwards took place, was a
claim, on the ground of alliance, for the guarantee
of the Constitution—it was a call for assistance. I
will not enlarge on the nature of the correspond-
ence : arid, looking at the whole of the Treaties,
perhaps, I am disposed to admit that such a gua-
rantee is not within the limits of them—that there is
nothing amounting to a guarantee—nothing which
imposes the necessity of supporting the Constitution
by a military force. At the same time, I must
allow that it required but little self or national par-
tiality in the Portuguese Minister to draw the very
opposite inference. The number 'of treaties is so
great—the difficulties are so considerable, and some
passages in them are so strong, that it is not unna-
tural to think that, on the whole, they amount to a
guarantee. As to the aid given to these ancient
treaties by the Protocols at Vienna, I have already
expressed my opinion. I have stated what I think,
and what I shall continue to think until my notion
shall be changed by argument—via. that the agree-
ment of the Ministers at Vienna, and the acts done,
amounted to a promise to Don Pedro to cause his
Lieutenancy to be carried into effect according to
the provisions he prescribed for its execution. It
implied a duty on the part of the Powers who were
deceived into a permission to permit Don Miguel to
go to Portugal, to take measures to prevent him
from accomplishing the purposes lie denied before
he went, and avowed when he arrived. But I do
not argue the matter so high ; I only ask whether
these treaties bordering upon guarantee—ap-
proaching nearer that frontier than any series of si-
milar documents in history—treaties which have
endured for 4.50 years, from the reign of Ed-
ward 111. to that of Geo. IV., accompanied as
they were by promises from Vienna, were at lest
an encouragement of the strongest kind to the
friends of the Constitution in Portugal, to lead
them to exeect the support and aid of Great Bri-
tain. No treaty can be made with a people; they_
have no character separate from the state of which
they are members, and you can only treat with the
state. The encouragement here was both by words
and by acts—acts amounting to promises, and pro-
mises producing excitement, and the expectation of
positive aid to carry into effect the only engagement
that can be contracted with a people. The nego-
ciation respecting the Portuguese troops began in
November, and an unofficial correspondence on the
subject was entered into with my friend the Mar-
quis Palmella, one of the representatives of the
House of Braganza in this country. It was unoffi-
cial, because it was said that the Minister was un-
authorised. When speaking of the Marquis Pal-
mella, I may say of him that he has been engaged
in the most important political transactions of Eu-
rope for the last sixteen years, and that he distin-
guished himself early at the Congress of Vienna.
I believe there is not a man in Europe who is more
incapable of practising any approach, even the most
remote, towards deception. One object of the cor-
respondence was to disperse the Portuguese troops
at Plymouth over the West of England, and to
separate them from their officers. Nobody could
for a moment imagine or pretend that that force en-
dangered the tranquillity of this country or threatened
a descent upon Portugal ; but the proposal of the
Marquis Palmella was, that rather than annihilate
the last remai'ts of the faithful troops of Donna
Maria, he would send them to Brazil. I beg the
House to observe when this occurred : it was on
the 20th November. From the 20th November to
the 23d December, the Marquis Palmella persisted
in framing his request ill such a manner that Brazil
might be the destination of the troops. Why then
did he change? On account of events in Terceira, the
principal island of the Azores. Terceira, which for a
moment only had been occupied by the partisans of Don
Miguel in the month of June, had proclaimed Don
Pedro, and had regularly acceded to the Constitu-
tion. An insurrection was excited by some Priests
in December, but order was soon restored, and the
legal authorities of the island proclaimed Donna
Maria 11. on the 4th December. On the 23d Des
cember, or a day or two before, the Marquis Pal-
mella received ail account that the. authority of the
Queen had been completely re-established, and uni-
versally acknowledged. From that moment he
changed the nature of his application, and desired
leave to send the troops to Terceira. In a letter
dated
of advises
the 23d l)e cfermo e r
t, he e
Azores,st ated thatlie
wishedit conse-
quence
ro
change the destination of the troops. I mention the
dates with great anxiety, because exactness is ne-
cessary to the vindication of the Marquis Palmella.
Ile stated to the Duke of Wellington his reasons