The Sun.
London, England, 1827-05-31 00:00:00

PORTVGAL.

Scarcely any country can be at a lower ebb in point of
commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, than Portugal is
at the present moment, and, consequently, many years
must elapse before any material change can be effected.
A very cursory view of the state of the country would
convince any one how much her interests have been ne-
glected, and to what a deplorable state the people are re-
duced. With the eicepticn of the manufacture of hats,
there is not one that can be said to be in a flourishing state.
There is a considerable manufacture of silk at Lisbon, but
it is under the direction of Government, and does not suc-
ceed. The clothing of the soldiers is of home ninntfae-
ture, but that of the officers and indeed of the middling
and higher classes is English. The very night-caps, or
rather day-cape, which the peasantry wear, come from
Basle; the leneos, or muslin head-dresses, worn by the
women, from England tape, ribanda, and many other
articles of female dress, from Prance and the Netherlands.
This is the more surprising, as the females, particularly
those of the higher classes, excel in the manufacture of
some articles of dress. The stockings, both cotton and
thread, which they knit themselves, are most beautifully
wrought. All sorts of cutlery and hardware, that are at all
good, come from England ; and many other articles, which
the people are quite competent t.) produce themselves, are
brought from foreign countries. This cannot arise from
any inaptitude in the inhabitants, for in some trades they
excel all others. The hats made in Portugal, of which a
great quantity are exported to Brazil, excel the English
far in point of durability and colour. The one will retain
its colour unaltered for a year, while the other will be-
come brown in three months. This is probabiy owing to
the nature of the climate, which is so favourable to dyeing;
and there can be no doubt that if the manufacture of cloth,
particularly black, were encouraged, it would have the
same superiority. They excel, too, in some parts of ship-
building—and as stone-masons they are unrivalled. Per-
haps there is not in any part of the world such a flue piece
of workmanship as the exterior of the palace of Ajuda.
In order to be convinced, however, in what a low state
their manufactures are, it is necessary only to look at the
last census of Portugal. Though it contains a population
of 3,013,900, there are only three towns that have above
10,000 inhabitants (Lisbon, Oporto, and Coimbra) ; and
wherever manufactures flourish, large towns are certain
to spring up. England, for instance, which contains but
thrice the population of Portugal, has 37 towns with a po-
pulation of more than 10,000 each ; and Scotland, which
has only two-thirds, has 16 ; while Ireland, with twice the
population, but deficient in manufactures, has about the
same number, in proportion, as Portugal. The following
table is taken from the last census, made by order of the
Government :

KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL.

Population 8,013,900
Troops of the Line 25,000
Monks and Nuns

PROVINCES.

Algarves
Alen tejo
Estremadura
Beira
Minho 750,620
Tras-os-Montes
CHIEF TOWNS.
Tavira (Algarves) ' 8,610
Elves (Alentejo) lO,OOO
Evora (ditto)
Lisbon (Estremadura)
Coimbra (Beira)
Oporto (Minho) 60,000
Villa Real
Braganza
Agriculture is in a still worse state. Portugal, at pre-
sent, cannot raise a sufficient quantity of grain for the sub-
sistence of the inhabitants, and wheat here is only a trifle
lower than it is in London. It is easy to conceive how
heavily this must press on the lower classes, in a country
where money is so scarce. There cannot be the least doubt,
however, that Portugal, even supposing the vineyards to
remain as numerous as they are at present, could raise more
grain than the inhabitants require. The land is ill-culti-
vated—never manured, except partially in the neighbour-
hood of towns—and, consequently, except where the soil is
naturally rich, the crops are extremely defective. Many
fields, too, quite well adapted for agriculture, are allowed to
lie waste, overgrown with brambles, myrtles, furze, and broom
—and can be compared to nothing so aptly as the garden of
the sluggard. The poor peasantry, however, are hardly
to blame for this—for they are wretchedly poor and still
more ignorant, and have neither the means nor the sense to
introduce any improvement. Their agricultural imple-
vacate are of the rudest description, and as there are no
• roads, the transport of manure and grain is most expensive.
There is, in short, hardly any inducement for them to labour
more than merely to procure a bare subsistence. Yet what
a fie country* Portugal might be made ! With the finest
climate in, the world, and a soil equally adapted for raising
wheat, and wine, and oil, it remains comparatively unpro-
ductive, and its inhabitants are sunk in ignorance and supef-
stition. Scarcely any of the peasantry can read, and many
of those that wear good coats, and might, at a distance,
be taken for gentlemen, are equally ignorant and un-
educated. The Nobility and Clergy too may, without
exception, be said to be the moat ignorant in Europe.
Superstition in consequence prevails, with a few ho-
nourable exceptions, ' over the highest and the lowest.—
The scene which took place on the discovery of
" Our Lady of the Cave," could not be exeeeded by the
most superstitious and barbarous nation. The only way
of accounting for this extreme ignorance is to sup-
pose that the clergy find it for their interest to con-
tinue it, and consequently do what they can to check edu-
cation. Will it be believed that Portugal, with all this
ignorance and superstition, is better provided with schools
than England ? Yet such is the fact. Every district has
its parish school; the masters, who i generally belong to
the priesthood, are paid a certain salary by the landholders,
and receive a mall fee from each of the scholars ; but this
amounts to a mere trifle, as the inhabitants rarely send
their children to school. They say, and perhaps this has
been instilled into them—" Of what use is reading or writ-
ing to a man who has to drive a pair of bullocks, or a
mule, or dig in a vineyard, and why should he torment him-
self with acquiring what never can benefit him ?"
The shipping of Portugal, since the revolt of the Brazils,
has been almost annihilated, but the commerce still is con-
siderable, particularly with England. This is owing, in
some measure, to the foolish obstinacy of the Spanish Go-
vernment, in attempting to keep out English manufac-
factures. It is believed that fully one half of the goods
imported into Lisbon find their way by Elves, Almeida,
and other places on the frontier, into the interior of Spain.
Portugal gains 15 per cent. on all articles imported, and
consequently affords every protection to smugglers.— Cor-
respondent of the Morning Herald.

THE CONVICTS.-Amongst the capital con-
victs included in the Recorder's late report, and
to whom the Royal mercy was extended, was
Elizabeth Frankland, convicted of a robbery
under circumstances so out of the ordinary
course, that some particular notice of her case
may not prove unacceptable to the reader. She
is of a respectable family, and had received an
education which enabled her to become the in-
structress of young ladies ; and for some years
she conducted a boarding establishment in the
vicinity of London : but, owing, it is said, to an
happy marriage, and other untoward circum-
stances, she was compelled to relinquish her
establishment, and has since supported herself
by dress-making. But it appears that her prin-
ciples had been undermined, and the robbery of
which she was convicted was planned and exe-
cuted with so much artful contrivance, as renders
it difficult to believe that this could have been
the first she perpetrated. She lodged in the
house of an honest, hard-working couple named
Allaway, who keep a chandler's-shop and coal-
shed, at Ball's-pond, and the object of her plun-
der was a purse, containing all their stock of
money, which Mrs. Allaway usually carried in
her pocket, and at night deposited, as in a place
of security, beneath her pillow. Mrs. Frank-
laud succeeded to her expectation in possessing
herself of the pocket at one or two o'clock on a
Sunday morning, when Allaway and his wife
were buried in profound sleep; and then pro-
ceeded to the completion of her arrangements to
divert suspicion from the real thief, and make it
appear that the house had been broken open and
robbed. To that end she packed into a bundle
a quantity of wearing-apparel belonging to Mrs.
Allaway, but left in her room, and proceeding
down stairs dropped it in the lower part of the
house, threw open the shutters of the back par-
lour window, and threw Mrs. Allaway's pocket
to the extremity of the garden, with a trifling
portl9n o the ;rlvney jt cptailied.

FOREIGN INTtLtiotNcr.

.._

~~

FRENCH PAPERS.
(From the Etoile of Monday, May 29.)
ROME, MAY 16.—M. Angelo Mai has just disco,-
vered some fragments of the 24th and 25th Books
of Pliny's Natural History, which, on account or_
their supposed great antiquity, may furetish some
important various readings, and solve the doubts of •
a great number of learned Commentators. •

OrFICIAL NOTICE.
ODES;A, MAY 3.—The Government of New
Russia, conformably to the repeated applications
made td it by the Department of Foreign Affairg,,
invites Russian subjects settled in the Governmeo
of New Russia and :Bessarabia, who have any
to make, either on the exchequer or on private sub-',
jecta of the Porte, to present, as soon as possible,'
the titles on which they found their claims, in order
that within the term of 18 mouths, stipulated by the'
Treaty of Akermann, the said claims may be sub--
jected to the examination of the Commission'
appointed by the Imperial Ministry, and then trans-
mitted to the Commissioners, who will be appointed,'
at Constantinople by the two Governments to effect"
the liquidation of the claims of their respective'
subjects.
ST. PETERSBURGH, MAY 11.—As the works oe-
cessary for the opening of the port of Kertch, and
establishment of a market for the exchange of goodo
at the Bougasse will soon be terminated, his IVle-
jesty the Emperor has been pleased to order—
Art. 1. The port of Kertch shall be open from
and after the Ist August, 1827.
2. All goods, not prohibited by the tariff, may be,
brought thither on payment of the duties, and ob.-
servarice of the sanitary regulations prescribed by;
the laws of the empire.
3. Goods coming from Circassia and Abasia,
well as goods exported from the empire to those
two countries, shall be exempt from all duties both
at Kertch and Bougasse for ten years, from Auk
1, 1827.
PARIS, MAY 28.—Letters from the lonian Islands'
quoted in a Roman Journal, say, that Ibrahim Pah°
left Modon on the 20th April, to make an exeure
against the villages of. the Mores, opposite the "el
of Zante. The number of inhabitants killed in tyr-
days amounted to 2,000. Egyptian ships of %/
sailed along the coast, while the troops drove the
fugitives towards the beach, where they.were kille
or taken prisoners. Some boats from the Islands:
however, saved a pretty considerable number of
them, who were conveyed to Zante, and thence
Calamos.

LIES OF THE DAY.
The Quotidienne.—ln the reception of M. de Oa.'
briac, a difference in the form of the ceremony .
observed, which seemed to prove a predilection in
favour of England, to the prejudice of France.
The Journal du Commerce.—French ships pay 10
Brazil 24 per cent. instead of 15 per cent.
The Debats.—M. de Moustier has had his sale/
in the Foreign Department restored to him,
sequence of the retrenchment of the pension a
de Neuville.

(From the Journal des Debats.)
PARIS, MAY 27.—We had no wish to repeat the'
rumours in circulation for several days, with respect:
to the destination of the appointment taker. frunT
M. Hyde de Neuville. We are now but too vfirel'
instructed how to talk to our readers about it.
refused to believe even in the distribution of 14':
spoils, and this day we announce the heir of then'
—that heir is M. de Moustier ! M. Hyde de Neu,
ville has been struck from the list of the disposable
oflieiaries, for having addressed to an ex-ambassador
a question which was not answered. M. de 1110;
tier has been again placed upon that list for Of
having answered. The distributive justice of oMinisters can go no farther. They punish the one/
for talking—they recompense the ether for holdit
his tongue. What a loyal combination Eccelle
suddenly from Madrid, M. de Moustier, at
return, solicited the appointments of disposibilitY°
The list was full, the roll made up. What was to be'
done ? A somewhat more moderate appointment
offered him ; but he was paid from the secret service
money, and every one knows, that that fund POI
agents who are not exactly diplomatic. The name u";
N. de Neuville rubbed our, leaves 16,000 francs a'
the disposal of M. de llamas. M. de Dames has ail;
posed of them. There is something in all this which
recalls the confiscations that have been erased from
our codes ! We revert, in spite of ourselves, to those
a
times of civil war, when one man was ruined 001 i ti,,
enrich another. The property of M. Hyde de Nei e
ville was confiscated by Buonaparte also; but sc.,
never heard, that at that time they were either offer/
to any one, or accepted when offered. We make
a point never to blame what is gone by. So On'
plans have been acted on within the last thirty yeictaTt
that, without forgetting, we could never agree. vitt
is not this a case that compels us to indulge in pai: hi,
recollections ? What, not to he content with pulligd,
ing five-and-twenty years of almost romantic devetete
ness, must the colours of M. Hyde de Neuville
tarnished by using his disgrace as an occasion of °to
stowing recompences on him who has succeeds
so many others ?
-a de
Since the services and the misfortunes of M. A--Y„
de Neuville have not rendered him inviolable in t-to
eyes of our Ministers, it was at least enough
punish his fidelity. It is only in conquered COu::
tries that the habit prevails of indemnifying the CO--
queror at the expence of the vanquished.

A CONVENIENT CONSCIENCE.--A slit"
time since a chain of 370 convicts arrived bete;
they were drawn up on the strand of Castenean,
a little distance from the town. Amongst t!'
most remarkable was Count Trevous Tourvill
formerly in the Gardes du Corps. He 11
►
made his escape some time back from the 13ag.,e;
and was condemned for life; also Gronatt;
lawyer, who had committed about a hundred 'l°,4
genes. He is the author of a work en to
" Analytical Treatise upon the principal
of Law and Morality ;"a copy of which, acc°,-;
paniedbyaatToulon,letter, a few
he had
days
addressed to the fat' '''s
of the Bar
arrival as a convict ; and lastly, the
the man of escapes (Phomme aux evasions)' st
he is called. This lively individual was the in,c'it
loquacious of the gang. I heard him say' ,e
is true I am passionately fond of liberty ; I basj
frequently escaped, and I shall do so againi;ei
have no will to those who watch me ; 6er
follow their trade, and I mine ; I am morve
the best-behaved man in the Bagne ; 11'',,y
never been punished there, for I never do RU}'
farnboelfiosrepeltllo.lt;
thing to deserve it (this is literally true), got j ears
escape—that is quite natural ; when forty Als of
of age, I was condemned to various perl°"ore;
bard labour, amounting to forty years 1;11- so
this was the same as condemning me for lite ; off
I thought the best thing I could do was to bre 00
with myself. On quitting the Bagne, hasi,tittot
other resource, I was forced to rob a tax-coliv-tbe
of 25,000 francs, who had himself robbed a
Government of 500,000 francs." Petit I'3 e
severe bruise on his nose ; being asked the c3stl,sA
of it, he said, " I am a good fellow ;
rascal amongst these men (pointing to his 'c the
convicts)—for rascals will sometimes get intosteal
best of conTany—who was endeavouring to
be
his comrade a purse ; I prevented hint, 30a lie
struck me with his chain on the nose ; as
will, if he can, be the death of me." relit:ldler
perfectly free and easy, and seemed to e°ll_, arcl
himself quite at home. He politely salute" of
claimed acquaintance with the Commissattlaje
the Bagne, who could not help slain& 3,3,ice•
unembarrassed gaiety of his old acqualn'_oo
Amongst the crowd present on this ocea
bweelio• en,
gso the
iitirga,n gi et
it so tsr au3e,,, a
totrie ni
lo
people. iwnenrb
classfe
sw