The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-04-05 00:00:00

FRIpAY MORNING, APRIL 5, 1833.

THE war in Portugal is doing roaCh to carry into effect
the benevolent principles. of Mr. Malthus. More British
blood has been shed at Oporto ! The last arrivals furnish
.us with the uetails of a skirmish.. between the troops of
Miguel and Pedro, in which a victory is claimed fur the
latter, and in whiCh almost every-English, Scotch, and
Irish volunteer has had the honour of being shot—some
of them Nost effectually, inasmuch as they will never
again do deeds of valour in so glorious a cause. They are
quietly inurned, and their fame is buried with them TQ
Don Pedro this must be so far gratifying, that he will no
longer be importuned for their arrears of pay.
Tho game is nearly over altogether. By the next
advises it will not surprise us to learn that Oporto is bom-
barded by Pedro's own ships. -Rir some time the fleet of
Admiral Sartorious has beeti pent up in Vigo bay, with
his seamen ilia state of mutiny. For many months
they have been without shoes, stockings, or a supply of
clothes of any kind, and have been compelled to cater for
food in a way which to our apprehension looks very like
theft or piracy. In this condition they have laid down
their handspikes and struck work, after the most approved
plan of the colliers and weavers. In. short, they have
published a manifesto, or what in Ireland would be called
a declaration of grievances, in which they protest against
fighting without pay, and contend that they have a right
to take by force of arms those arrears of wages which are,
logged to the debit of Queen Donna Maria. The admi-
ral himself having justified the conduct of his men was
deemed a traitor to the cause, and summoned to appear
before the ex-emperor, which summons the hero refused

to obey.
In this comical state of affairs the intercession of Sir
John Alilley Doyle was required,.and he adopted a most
characteristic and truly Hibernian method of conciliation.
The courteous reader no doubt recollects the Grave-
digger's
.exposition of the law of suicide; but Sir John
beats the grave-digger hollow. He proceeds to Vigo
bay, carrying with him in his pocket a sort of writ, like
a sheriff's officer, boards the admiral, and politely informs
him that he is to consider himself a prisoner !

" A prisoner !" exclaims the sailor with a loud sea
laugh, and passes the word to his crew, who, before Sir
John'could say " Mrs. Robinson," seize upon the wor-
thy knight and stow him away under hatches as a close
prisoner himself. Such is the fate of war ! The seizer
is seized, and the biter bit I Sir John Milley Doyle
falls into the trap, and Don Pedro's commands and his
anibassador are treated with contempt.
But this is not all. Sartorious, with the representative
Of majesty under hatches, proceeds to sea with his fleet,
determined on his part it would seem, and with a cordial
under Standing on the part of his officers and men, to sail
to Oporto to demand redress, or enforce it at the point of
:his guns. _

Such is the farce, and we are sorry to say it has not
been a bloodless one, which is still being enacted in
Portugal. A beautiful country, and an industrious peo-
ple, are made the victims of this senseless broil, which is
kept alive by the aid of foreign mercenaries, while the
Governments of England and France, which took such a
deep interest in the affairs of Greece, look on and seem
to enjoy the strife, the bloodshed, the plunder, and the
other miseries and calamities of civil war.

THE Tories of Sunderland have gained a glorious
triumph in the return of Mr. Alderman Thompson, cf
London. The election closed on. Wednesday evening,
when the numbers were, for
Thompson .
Barclay

. -
Our Newcastle correspondent says, that " the attempt
of the Eail•of Dinham, and Sir Hedworth Williamson,
combined.,with the Quakers and Earl Grey, to trample
dpon the freedom of election, has been signally defeated
notwithstanding a • wastful expenditure of money, and
the resort to every species of intimidation." We have
every confidence .in the veracity of our correspondent,
but it really sounds rather oddly that the Whigs who
boast the possession of an " unStinned-snow" purity, a
virtue without spot or blemish should be even suspected
of departing from their professions.—Alas ! We live in
strange times! _ _

At the commencement of the adjourned sitting of the
House of Commons on Wednesday, the speaker called
the aYtintibri of the house to the ieSult of the first sitting
.from 12 to 3 o'clock,and said, that ",the practice resorted
to purely as an experiment had totally failed."—Such is
the success of the first experiment of the first reformed
Parliament.

AFTER the explanations which
_have been made in the
upper house by Lords Grey and Brougham on the pas-
sing of the Irish coercion bill, we cannot see bow Lord
Althorp can remain any-longer a.member of the cabinet.
The. spirit .of the bill was extracted by the 'amendments
of the commons, and it returned to the lords so altered,
and so fantastically patched •and powdered, that its very
parot, the prime minister, had some. difficulty in recog-
nising his own offspring, and a strong inclination to dis-
own and discard it .altogether. .
The House of Lords had certainly many reasons for
being dissatisfied with the conduct of the ministers in the
lower house. They had passed a measure which Lout
Grey had, in introducing it, declared to be indispensably
necessary for the peace of Ireland, and the preservation
of the lives and property of the king's. subjects. They
passed it upon the responsiliility of his. Majesty's
ministers, with all the celerity which the forms of Parlia-
ment would permit, and sent it down for the approval of
the commons, in which house they had a right to expect
that it would meet with the same protection from the Jni;-
nisters which it had received. in-the lords. But it received
no such efficient protection. , Lord Althorp was obviously
unfriendly to the measure, and he allowed O'Connell to
Cut and hough it with all the ferocity of an Irish hurler.