The Morning herald., 1875-12-28
THE HERALD.
WILMINGTON DECEMBER q, 1875.
,RRlCKIKG A Bubble

WILMINGTON DECEMBER q, 1875.
lBRlCKIHG 4 BUBBLE
The Coms,se;al having read . letter
of "A Portuguese gentleman upon Portu-
gal, proceeds to discuss the condition OF
that country. This is very like that jonr-
nal. It would be difficult matter to de-
termine whether the Commercial or the
"porsuxuess gentleman" is the more igno-
rant upon the subject they both write
about The first statement Of the Com
mereiid, taken, We suppose, from the Port
ugue.e gentlenan"-
"That during the last hundred years,
with an average Of ESQ, 900 births per an
mum. the population of Portugal has not
increased this fact being attributable to
the death-rate Of infants"
We xil not follow the credulousness OF
the CSm~rcai, nor the ignorance OF an
intelligent gentleman, but go to ssatis-
tic.- The "EncycloPeeia Americana"
volume <, states that according to
Balbi the population of Portugal, in
1922 vas s,l7a,9oo. In 1926, s,2l4oo.
Malse Brun, the greatest Of modern writers
on geography, details the population by
provinces, and reaches the same conclusion
as Balbi. yiscount Villeneuve in bis
Justly celebrated book Christian Political
Economy, gives her population in 1880 OF
8 500, 900, which he uses in his tables upon
1t there appears that Portu-
gal has one mendicant to every twenty-five
inhabitants. Exactly the same ratio OF
Is Sweden, Denmark, and
Austria, see Vol. II. page go.
The American Annual Cyclopedia for
1873, gives the population Of Portugal in
1871. as 1890, $40, or an increase Of twen-
ty six per cent, in half century! Who
is responsible for this Justification of sta
Listics. The Commercial or the "Portu-
guese gentleman ?"
The shocking ignorance ofvital statistics
which leads writer to speak Of an annua!
birth rate of $50, 900, in a population Of, say
3, SOC, 900, or one to every fourteen persons
That would give us birth rate of $500 in
Wilmington! One reasonably we'll vered
upsn the subject would not be caught max
ing such statement, even without exami-
nation.
The averment of 'llegitimacy being
more common than in any other country in
Europe" is about as true as the foregoing.
Mr.. Leckey, author of the History Of Eu-
ropean Morals says, Vol. II, page Isl:
Sweden ranks lowest in the moral scale, |
if measured by the number of illesitinate
births" Of course the eminent historian,
who spent life time studying up his sub
iect, is of less authority than the CONNER
cid.
The historical knowledge Of the Com
mereial is on pal with its statistical, when
it compares the influence of Sweden upon
the world with that Of Portugal, it must
cause its we'll read readers to smile at such
a statement.
A century is but little, in the life Of
Christendom. When Europe was bursting
the bonds, OF feudalism born of the con-
quest of the Roman World:-when Com
merce the civilizer was opening the gates
Of India to Europe, Portugal was foremost
her navigators disdaining the fears Of all
former Mariners, doubled the Cape Of
Good Hope, and for the first time dropped
anchors in the Red Sea, Arabian Gulfand
he harbors of Corumandel, which had
weighed out Of the waters Of the Atlantic.
We commend the following passage from
he General History Of Commerce, by the
famous German writer H. Scherer, Leip-
sic, 1851, vol. l, page 156.
"Thus amply endowed with all intel
|ectual and material resources, the Portu-
guese gloriously consumated the work
they had commenced. In the year 1915,
they passed the line, and Diego Cam, in
1885, penetrated 10 the river Zaire, in the
kingdom Of Congo, and as far as the pre-
Of St. Austin, ten degrees Of
southern latitude. Two years later
Alfonso Aveiro advanced as far as Benin,
sixteen degrees Of southern latitude.
Thus did the Portuguese approach ever
nearer and nearer to the southernmsst
point of Africa. The real discovery of
that point, if it is not ascribed to the
Arabs, who perhaps rerched it from the
East, was achieved by Bartolemeo Diaz.
He had unwittingly even sailed by it ; and
it was only on his return, forced by a
mutinous crew, he discovered it in 1487.
He landed in Table Bay, and there planted
the standard Of San Filippo. But the real
circumnavigation Of Africa, and the
IL r.