The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-07 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

Llsnox, Nov. 29.—The re• assembling of the
Cortes has, by a Royal Decree of the 21st instant, been
put cif to the 28th December. The reason assigned
by the official journal for this step is, that the Go-
vernment will not be able before that time to have in
pethet readiness certain very important financial
measures w hich it has to submit to the deliberation of
the Cortes.

The Government has been victorious in all the pro-
vincial elections, and the three Ministers of the
Crown who were unprovided with seats iu the Cham-
ber of Deputies have now consequently been returned.
So far, therefore, everything goo (,n swimmingly for
Costa Cr.bral.

Five months have nearly elapsed since the date of
the treaty, in which it was agreed that a convention
fur the mutual reduction of import duties, between
Great Britain and Portugal, should be concluded
within three months, and yet we are as far as ever
from the settlement of that point. By evading the
obligation of entering into the arrangement proposed
by England, the Government certainly benefit the
few and paltry manuflicturing establishments, upon
tile importance of which they lay so much stress ; but
they at the same time withhold from the far more
extensive wine- growing, and other agricultpral in-
terests of their country, the immense advantages held
out to them by us.
oNNrifulaieilllelside,tsshnr bpeed:ritilaflatneivcd totilli.on
and other produce,of the duties on our manufactures,
to an ad valorem rate varying from 20 to 25 per cent.
is
ly
es,
cor
untry
afforded
sntlish coorit.eet
oht lnonsums
andNoft‘oo. for
would
Portuguese
dothertheorgt
usi goods,
while
wines,
an
immense impulse to its agricultural industry,
and consequently to its general advancement in
wealth. A merchant of this city very recently sent a
sample of Portuguese brandy to England, where its
quality having been tested, it was declared to be su-
perior to Spanish, and but little inferior to Cognac.,
Of this one article alone a very considerable expor-
tation might be made to the British dominions, and
in its preparation a vent would be found for the
worst qualities of wines, with which, hitherto, the
grower has never known what to do ; so much so,
that in abundant vintages they are often thrown
away, as not being worth the expense of new casks to
hold them. Notwithstanding these considerations, of
the force of which the Portuguese themselves seem
perfectly sensible, the proposal lately sent to Lord
Aberdeen by this Government, as its ultimatum, was
of a nature, if not to. put an end to all further nego-
tiation, at least to show that it would be of very
little use to continue it. A pretty sort of reciprocity
indeed, it would be for us to admit, at greatly reduced
duties, all that the Portuguese can send us, while they
exclude many of our principal articles of commerce,
suAl as silks, coarse woollens, and other goods too
numerous to specify.

On the 25th indent her Majesty's steam-vessel Dee,
having on board two companies of artillerymen, under.
the command of Captain Griffin, R.A., bound for Bar-
badoes, was forced by stress of weather to put into
this OA. The weather. has been tromendous on this
coast, a furious gale from S.IV. having been blowing
almost without intermission for the last week till yes-
terday, when it abated considerably. The Royal Tar
packet steamer, with the mail from Falmouth, only
came in yesterday morning; and the Montrose, by
which I am now writing, did not arrive till the after-
noon ; so that the mail for England, which ought to
have gone yesterday, can only go to-day.
There exists, at the present moment, a most serious
misunderstanding betwixt the Government and the
Nuncio, Signor Cappacini, the Pope having positively
refused to confirm the appointment of certain Bishops
who, it appears, have fallen without the pale of the
good graces of his Holiness. it is expected that Sig-
nor Cappacini will shortly take his departure from
this, which will be the precut: or of a rupture of the
good feeling which Las hitherto subsisted between
the two Powers.
Several meetings have lately been held here of some
of the mast wealthy of the nobility, landowners,
farmers, and merchants, for the purpose of forming an
association for the promotion of the culture of. the
grape and exportation of the wines of the provinces
of Estramadura. The different opinions, projects,
&c., of this association, are to be discussed by a com-
mittee composed of seven members, and a petition for
the grant of a new company is to be laid before the
Chambers immediately they open.
The first subscription of the British residents in
Madeira for the victims of the late inundation
amounted to 1,200 milreis (about 3001.) The "Na-
tional subscription," as might have been anticipated,
Is going on very slowly ; and the Funchal papers are
as full of complaints of the indifference of their coun-
trymen as of gratitude towards the subjects of that
kingdom, which, according to the honest and high-
minded Naciona/, seeks to rob Portugal through the
tariff convention. The lower classes in Madeira as-
sert, that on the 28th of October a legion of little
devils entered the sea around the island.