Star.
London, England, 1827-08-16 00:00:00

HAMBURGH PAPERS.

ST. PETERSBURG% JULY ss.
The Committee for the re-organization of the fleet
hat been ordered by the Emperor to resume its labours.
His Majesty has appointed Prince Menzikow and the
lotendant•General Golownin, members of the Com-
mittee.

The St. Petersburgh Gazette of to• day reports (after
foreign, we believe French Papers) from Odessa, under
the date of June 24, U.S. that, according to an account
which is not )et to be affirmed as certain, peace with
Persia was on the point of being concluded, and that
the Schah is to cede all the country as far as the Araxes,
including the fortress of Erivan, a tract which is stated
to produce in silk alone to the amount of 50,000,000
of francs. (Query ?) When we consider the last ac-
counts from the army in Georgia, this does not seem
very likely.

The Vastovoy frigate, of 44 guns, belonging to the
fleet that sailed from Cronstadt, was wrecked upon a
rock in sight of the harbour of Revel; the crew and
effects were saved. The Emperor had assigned it to
Count Kotschubey and his fam ly, to convey them to
Revel; the stormy ss eather had luckily induced them
to leave the ship before the accident, and to continue
their journey by 14nd

HANOVER, Aoa. 4.
Thrir Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge set out on the 2d to Rumpelheim, on a •isit
to the L4ndgrave Frederick of Hesse, accompanied by
their children, Prince George and P.incess Augusta.

STOCKHOLM, Jinx 31.
The Gazette of yesterday contains A very long address
from the Scot thing of Norway to his Majesty, declining
to grant the sum of '2BO 000 d ,Ilars for continuing
during the next three years the building of the Royal
Palace; alleging a chief reason for their refusal, the
declining prosperity of the kingdom. While the Storth-
ing wt hes th,t every thing should be done for the ac-
commodation of his Majesty, it thinks the plan proposed
t.,0 expensive and costiy, and begs his M jesty to sub-
mit to the next Storthing a more precise plan for the
completion of the works, which may show accurately
what the total expense lik ly to he.

•
Hi! Maje,ty in his reply says, he finds a great con-
tradiction between this aodres, and the view of the state
of the kingd -int which was given at the opening cf the
Scorching, and he desires the Norweean Government
to compare the two documents, it being his earnest wish
to know the real state of the c3untry, to draw. the at•

ANTIIIAIIIPTiIt CHARTE'f• •
Desiroes of seeing before-I lest Poi t ngal some of the
places which had been the scene of the late rebellion,
and the steam boat to Oporto supplying an easy and
rapid conveyance between Lisbon and that on:thorn
capital, I took a pa:sage in it on Sunday -se'nnight (Me
15 h 'inst.) and on Monday arrived in Oporto. The
toad• with which we sailed from the Tagn• on Sunday
was as numerous and variegated as could well have
been expected. We had on board about /.50 passengers
of all ages and sexes, who were to be transported tr m
this capital to the Douro, without setting their foot on
land, as the Lusitanian steam boat disdained to touch
at any intermediate port. Among them was the
Admiral of the English squadron in the Taros (Lord
A. Beanclerc), who was destined at Oporto to be the
object of applauses, which it was equally difficult to
accept without ridicule, or to decline without incivility.
We reached Oporto only about eight o'clock on Monday
evening, having been 36 hours at sea, though the usual
passage occupies only from 22 to 24.
It/would be ridiculous at this time of day to enter
into a formal description of the northern capital of
Portugal, as if it were that of a newly discOvered
region. Having seen it about 14 years ago, I found it
considerably changed, and every change an improve.
ascot. Buildings are completed which were then only
begun, the streets have been cleaned and are now
lighted, and new streets are adding to the suburbs.
Nothing can be more refreshing, after leaving the filth,
poverty, listlessness, and stagnant industry of Lisbon,
than to witness the animation, improvement, and
wealth, which an active commerce is diffusieo over its
northern rival. Few considerable towns of Europe
have increased faster in population and riches than
Oporto within the last century. By a statistical account
published in 1736, we find that it contained at that
time only 20,000 inhabitants ; it now contains upwards
of 60,000, having more than trebled itself in less than
a century. The finest patts of the city have been built
since that era, and great additions ate still in progress.
All this has been done, and is doing, by the irrepressible
spirit of trade, and the advantages 'of the situation
alone, in spite of the benumbing influence '.l swarms
of monastic drones, of an iniquitous system of judicial
administration, and of the oppressions of an all-
powerful company of monopolists.
The Douro, below Opot to. pours more-water into the
sea than the Tagus at Lisbo.i ; but it will not in other
respects stand a comparison with the majestic stream
which sweeps by the walls of this capita'. The passage
cf the bar is very narrow, and often dangerous, while
there is no shelter for vessels along the coast. Ships of
considerable burden can sail tip the river, and anchor
before the town, half or three quarters of a league ftom
its mouth ; but only boats can ascend above the bridge
which here connects the province of Minho with that of
Beira. The range of high grounds along the coast to
the north and south of the river is well wooded, chiefly
with pine. The beautiful village and castleot St: John
da Foz, to the north of the bar, appears almost like the
commencement of Oporto, which is continued by a
straggling and irregular line of villas, cottages, con-
vents, and churches,—sometimes crowning the heights.
sometimes d scenting to the winding beach,—till you
get in front of the chief part of the city, which, rising
from the river in the form of an amph theatre, extends
back along the platform into which its hi,ther grada-
tions are spread. Thus situated, it extends half a 1, ague
along the river, and about the same distance inwards
along the decli►ity and the heights to the north. This
commanding position joined to the numerous spires,
towers, churches, convents, and other great private and
public buildings, gives it a picturesque and magi.ificent
appearance, as seen from a hundred po.nts of view, but
particularly as surveyed from the convent of Serra.—
When examined in detail, the streets, especially in the
old part of the town, are found to be ext tem& y narrow,
steep, and inconvenient ; the houses constructed on no
regular plan, and exhibiting individually no regular
figure; and the public buildings, though large, and of
good masonry, unworthy of attention or criticism,
either for the greatness of their mass or the taste of
their construction. The Bishop's palace (the roomy
portico of which I found filled with beggars, who had
telt the smell cf the Bishop's kitchen, and had fl cked
thither for his distribution of soup) is only remarkable
for the extent of its walls and its striking situation,
overhanging the Douro. The general hospital, alluded
to by Murphy as being in progress in 1789, but which
is not yet finished, is a spacious edifice, without any
architectural magnificence. The English factory-house,
though large and convenient for its objects, is no orna-
ment to the city. The same thing may be said of the
Town-house and Palace of the Supreme Tribunal, and
the numerous conventual or parish chinches, though
massy without and richly gilded within, display neither
skill nor taste in architecture or the sister arts. In the
city and its suburbs there are upwards of a dozen of
convents, all of their large, and all of them more or
less inhabited, though, in point ct population, they are
all on the wane. "I•he chief female monastic establish-
ment is the nunnery of Ave Maria, belonging to the
order of St. Benedick. It forms a scattered collection
of buildings, like a village, bounded on one side by its
spacious chinch, and enclosed on the other within an
angle of the old city wall, which encircles its sloping gar-
den with its towers and pinnacles. In this garde
is a sheet of water, with a boat, on which the ski

den there
ters some-

.

'I

i

times amuse themselves ilrormiog.tr the no small diver-
sion of the inhabitants of tbo louses which overl^ok
them. The revenue of this convent is very consider•

able, as it wan totaled and endowed in the most liberal.
era of superstition, about three centuries ago, out of
ieOts and possessions of four other nunneries. It con-
k. twins a% resent holy fifty-five nuns, though it once ac-
41912modated quadruple that number. They all belong
Ro rospectable families, chiefly those of the provincial
Nobility. The convent of the monks of the same order,
called !Victor ia, is likes ise well endowed, and forms one
of the most striking buildings of the city.
The inhabitants of Oporto consist chiefly of persons
engaged in the wine trade, of those connected with the
general commerce of the port, of the proprietors of the
neighbourhood, of provincial fidalgos, and of the nu-
merous judges and lawyers connected with the tribunal
of ltelacoa and the public boards. Only two or three of
the titled Nobility, and no Peer, are resident at Oporto;
but /a considerable number of ancient families, possessed
of estates in the provinces, usually remain in it. The
number of native merchants is upwards of 200 ; the list
of English houses is about 40, 15 or 16 of which are
engaged in the wine trade of the Upper Douro. The
large monopolizing establishment, called the Company
of the Upper Douro, has likewise its scat, and numerous
host of officers and agents at Oporto. The wine-stores,
lodges, or magazines of all these merchants, as well as
of the Company, are situated on the south side of the
river, and compose no inconsiderable town of them-
selves. In their stores at present the Company pos-
sess upwards of forty thousand pipes of wine, and
from six thousand to ten thousand pipes of brandy.—
I have not seen a corrected list of the exports of last
year, but in 1825 the quantity of vinho seperado (or wine
intended for every other market but that of England),
which was entered for exportation at the Custom-house,
amounted to 10,884 pipes; and the quantity of vinho
de embarque, or wine destined for the English market,
to 49,524 pipes; in all, 51,408 pipes. Of the vinho de
eatharque, 40,277 pipes were shipped for Great Britain
alone, and only 247 to all the rest of the world. The
Wine Company alone, whose primary institution is op-
posed to their engaging in the trade of export to Great
Britain, dispatched to the order of their agents ia Lon-
don 8,848 pipes. With the immense advantages which
this body of monopolists possest in the market, by their
wine Easters—their privilege of pre-emption—their ex-
clusive right to distil brandy, and their unlimited power•
over the farmers and proprietors of vineyards, no pri-
vate individual could compete with them if their affairs
were honestly conducted, and their permission to trade
was unrestricted.

The largest export of any English house did not
amount to 3,000 pipes, as you will see by the list which
I bend you, but which, from a wish to avoid Any invi-
dious comparisons, I shall not further particularize.
Vie only other considerable branch of exports from
Oporto is fruit, and its only considerable branch of in-
dustry is ship building, and the exercise of the trades
subservient to the wine business. In the course of last

year not fewer than 15 vessels were built on the Deopro.
_ .

_
sick being the importance and extent of this city
(which sent forth the men who produced the revolu-
tion of 1820), it becomes a matter of considerable inter

•
rest to ascertain how its inhabitants are ajrected to
, the present order of things. Some pretend to consider
its spirit as satisfactory, and its defence as secure; but
there are obvious appearances, and undeniable facts,
which would warrant a doubt on the correctness of this
flattering representation. In the first place, Oporto is in-
fested with a numerous host of disembergadors and law-
yers, w ho are, with a few honourableexceptions, opposed
to the Charter, and covertly intrigue for its overthrow.
The Court of Relacoa, presided over by these men,
have acquitted and discharged every one of the insur-
gents tried fur their treason in the late rebellion, and
would have acquitted Chaves himself, had he been
brought before them. These disembergadors not only
preside in the civil and criminal tribunals of the Re-
lacoa, but are Councillors of the different Government
Boards of the port and the city. Their influence is,
therefore, very considerable, and is certain to be all
thrown into the scale of the power that promises to
sanctify and perpetuate their abuses. In the second
place, this city is the seat of the Wine Company of the
Upper Douro, whose agents are extremely numerous,
and whose influence is extensively felt. The last Cones
reduced some of the privileges of this body, and threat-
ened its very existence. Its despotism is so great over'
the trade of the port, its usurpations so obvious, and
the impolicy of its institution so easily proved, that it
could scarcely be expected to stand a Session against
the f tee and enlightened discussions of the new Legis-
lative Chambers. Even the light spread by the deli-
berations which took place in the last Cones, and the'
reports published by its commissions, had the effect of
dein is ing it of one of the most gainful parts of its mo-
nopoly, which could not be renewed along with its
other rights restored by the absolute Government—l
mean the exclusive privilege of supplying the whole of
the innkeepers and retail dealers of Oporto and its
neighbourhood with wine. Trey thus lost the profit of
furnishing 30,000 pipes a year on their own terms, and
the fear of popular commotion prevented them from
attempting to restore it. They therefore dread the
Charter and the Chambers as much as the monastic
orders, and would give half the nine in their stores to
overthrow the one and to abolish the other. Little doubt
is entertained among the best informed circles at Oporto,
that the agents of the Company supplied funds to the
rebels last year, and that they would aid the party of
Don Miguel with all their influence, were a simi-
lar chance of success again presented. In the third
place, the Priests, Monks, and provincial Noblesse, %tiro
have such considerable influence in Oporto, are almost
universally hostile to the Charter. I may mention only
one striking fact as corroborative of this opinion—
namely, that on the approach of Chaves towards Oporto
February last, marry of the English families, appre-
hensive of the violence of the rebels, placed themselves
under the protection of ifdalgos, on an understanding of
the influence which they could exercise over the con-
querors, should the city be unhappily takes.
In opposition to this, it deserves to be stated, that a
great portion of the respectable and active citizens, be-
yond the classes wl,ich I have above enumerated, are
friendly to the new institutions, and disposed to make
sacrifices for their support. The commercial body of
volunteers comprises 500 or 600 individuals, all zealous
Constitutionalists. Even the closer observation of those
abuses which induce the partisans of absolute power to
defend their idols, tends but to inflame the zeal (4 the
friends of the Charter. I had a good oprottunity of
seeing the display on the visit of the Admiral of the
British squadron. Having gone up the country on
Wedge day and Thursday to see a part of the interior
of the province of Minho, I found on my return, on
Thursday cutting, that the perio:s of Op:irto had made

To-day the last mournful debt was paid to the mortal
remains of that accomplished orator and great States-
man, the late Mr. CANNING ; and though the ceremony
was intended to be strictly private, yet the vast multi-
tude that assembled on the occasion, out of motives of
sympathy and respect, gave it the air of a public fu-
neral. The highly-gifted individual who was the object
of a people's regret—the most independent too upon
earth—was certainly worthy of it ; and, had he lived a
few years longer, his claims on tfie gratitude of his
countrymen would, in all probability, have increased in
extent. As it is, he obtained a high and well merited
place in their confidence: he restored to the Government
its ancient and proper tone, and to the people their for-
mer habitual reverence for the throne, as well as for the
other two branches of the Legislature. These alone would
be transcendent services; but they were not sufficient to
meet the lofty aspirations of Mr. CANNING; and he la-
boured unceasingly, and at last successfully, to raise
England to that commanding and at the same time
tutelary rank amongst natioi:s, which it had been the
object of the greatest of his predecessors to secure to
her. Never too did she exercise a greattr influence on the

affairs of the wot Id,than at the moment that Mr.CA NNING
sank under the weight of his labours, and what is more
extraordinary, it was unaccompanied by either ens y or
jealousy. Some prejudices were shocked by the direc-
tion he had given to our foreign policy, but they were
confessedly vicious; some usurpations t o had been
undermined by it, but the process was noiseless and
innoxious, whereas, if they had been left to wort their
®M n fall, the while world n‘ight have been convulsed by
the shock. Mr. CANNING was a reformer, in the best
sense of the word ; but he was a prudent and beneficial
reformer, and, to his imperishable honour, his reforms
were as advantageous to the governing as to the go-
verned ; and perhaps it will be a problem to the future

historian, whether his eg..rts, during the latter period
of his life, had a grea'er tendency to improve the ton
dition and secure the just tights of Princes, or of• the
people. In the mean time, it is already evident, that
he consolidated thrones, by making justice their bail!r
and public opinion their chief supporter ; and the change
lie effected in this respect, is visible in every part of
Europe; and there is not a spot of it, not even excepting
Spain, where power has not made some concessions to
the wants and wishes of the r topic, under the influence
which England has of late years wielded over its con-
terns. But it is Ireland, changed as she is in her tem-
per, feelings, and prospects, whish is the finrst illustra-
tion of the goodness and soundness of his views ; and
if the Administration of Mr. CANNING had produced
only this single result, it ought to hold the first place
in the gratitude and admiration of his countrymen.
Soon after one o'clock the funeral began to set out
from Downing-street, arranged nearly in the follow-
ing order :

The HEARSE, drawn by ix hones; followed by

Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of CLAacaca and Susan,

in one of the Royal Coaches, drawn by six horses.
In another coach, which immediately followed, were the Chief
blourners, namely, Mr. Charles Canning, son oft he deceased
and the Marquis of Clanricarde, his son in•law.

Then came tcn Mourning Coaches, filled with the relatives and
friends of the deceased; after which was the Carriage of his
Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, drawn by six horses,
followed by twenty-six other carriages, amongst which we noticed
those of

The Marquis of Clanrlcards.
The Duke of Portland.
The Duke of Devonshire.
The Lord Chancellor.
The Marquis of Lansdown.
The Marquis of Conyngham.
The Marquis of Anglesey.
The Earl of Carlisle.
Lord Viscount Goderish.
Lord Viscount Dudley and Ward.
Lord Viscount Palmerston.
Lord Be:ley.
Lord Holland.
Lord Garvah.
The Right Hon. C. W: Wynn.
The Right Hon. George Tierney.
Joseph Plana, Esq. M.P.
Sir William Knighton, Bart.
&c. &c. &c.

In the mourning coaches we noticed—.
The Duke of Portland, Lord Goderieb, Lord Bexley, Mr. Plants'
Mr. Deckhouse, and Mr. Stapleton ;
but the most affecting part of the ceremony was the
spontaneous manifestations of grief displayed by the vast
crowd assembled on the melancholy occasion.
The Procession entered the Abbey precisely at half.
past one; and after the beautiful Church Service had
been read over the dead, the coffin was deposited in the
place allotted to it, close to the grave of him whom
he admired most when living, and whom he always re-
garded as the unerring guide of his public life —Mr.Pirr.

The Paris Papers, which arrived last night, are chiefly
occupied with the affairs of Spain. The Gazette de
France of Tuesday, in reply to an article in the Courier
Francais, stating that the Spanish Army of Observation
was again adiancing towards the Portuguese frontiers,
disposes of the statement as incorrect, and laughs at the
same time at the idea of the tranquillity of the Penin-
sula being in danger of being disturbed. This danger,
we confess, appears to us equally ridiculous; but we
do not, like the Gazette de France, derive our sense of
security, tither from the character of the Spanish or
even the French Government, but from the energies of
our own Cabinet. It is an incontestable fact, that the
existing order of things in Portugal is a never-ceasing 11
subject of annoyance and anxiety to the Court of
Madrid ; and it is equally certain, we believe, that
the latter would have long since have given prac-
tical vent to these feelings, but for its fear of England.
We-also strongly suspect that the Court of the Thuil-
leries looks at the Portuguese Constitution with almost
as evil an eye, and that we have also the same guarantee
for its forbearanceas for that of the Court of Madrid.
However, the guarantee is fully equal to the emergency,
and as long as a truly English spirit presides in our
Councils, no foreign Power will dare to interpose in the
domestic concerns of our ancient ally. On this subject
our mind is perfectly tranquil, and our confidence em-
braces the future as well as the present. English
influence, because it is based upon the spirit sal the
age, and because it sympathises, at the same time
with the best wishes and, interests of the nation,
cannot possibly retrograde, but must on the con-
trary advance; whilst the policy of those Powers,
which are supposed to be most hostile to the continuance
of constitutional rule, being opposed to the wants and
wishes of their own subjects, as well as to the
aspirations of mankind generally, threatens every in-
stant to plunge its authors into endless troubles. We
do not feel the slightest alarm therefore with respect to
Portugal, but we experience the most anxious presenti-
ments relative to the tranquillity of the other section of
the Peninsula; and our anxiety increases in proportion
to the efforts of its Government to toot out the seeds of
danger. These efforts are as injudicious as they are
violent, and by impoverishing the nation, and placing
arms in its hands, they must produce sooner or later a
frigh•ful re-action. Its the mean time, if any credit
be due to a letter in the Echo du Midi, from Bouno
Madame, cf the sth instant, it would seem that
our apprehensions were but too well founded. It
represents the whole northern part of Spain as in a
state of the greatest excitement, and overrun by armed
hands. The writer of the letter says, that he met at
nne place a band of 400 insurgents, commanded by
OLor ; and he then goes on to state thtt at Berga there
was another band, ufici r the orders of Beata, cu:l-ist•
ing of 600 men. .1