Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-12-29
po1Nrs ON PORTUGAL.

PUlNIb UN TUhl u0hL.
The Morning Herald still disposed to intimate,
II no longer prepared to prove that Virtue is the
child Of Ignorance, casts indignant glance
over the description Of Portuguese moiHls given
by q letter from Lisbon, published in Lippin-
COTS Magazine for January, and recently sum-
marized in these columns. AS the letter does
not bear out the theory that illiterste nations
are the most virtuous, it could not fail to excite
the anger of the Morning Herald, and to call ont
demonstration that that remarkable reservoir
of literary skimmings knows very much more
about Portugal than the Portuguese do. When
next the Lisbon gentleman describes his country |
he will be expected, of course, to repair to Ship
ley street for his data, which will be furnished |
him in chunks, gathered up from the encyclope- |
dias and other hand-books, at the shortest |
notice.
Now our own authority ia not involved IN this |
discussion Of Portugal. We printed what the |
Lisbon gentleman, who is considered of suifi- |
cent Importance to be accorded prominent
position in one Of the most carefully and intelli
gently conducted Of our magazines, said Of his
own country. The numerous sneers in the Her.
AIDS article of yesterday at the COMMERCIALS
asserted want of accuracy and knowledge on the
hlo luploiOlo outiloiy ihnPPhodpio w uer
even il they were deserved by the Lisbon letter,
or If they formed any proper part OF decent dis
cussion of the subject. But putting the Lisbon
letter under inspection, it will be seen that the
Herald, assuming to point out the errors OF it's
writer, does nothing Of the sort, but, in its own
fashion, simply yapors and hourishes around
Let us briefly anayse its criticisms. 1t attacks
first, the statement that there has been no ma
terial increase of the population Of Portugal
since 1798-or, indeed, for about one century.
Now what facts does it bring? Why not what
Ia manifestly needed, statement of the populs-
tion in 1893 Or 1775, to be compared with that Of
the present time, but estimates Of what it WIS in
l822-S0. This is not to the point, at all, though
the figures quoted do confirm, as far as they go.
the Lisbon letters statement that there has been
no time since 1898 when the population
greater than au that date and now-yiz., about
four millions.
Then, as to the birih-rate OF Portugal The
Lisbon writer estimated it at $50 900 per annum,
and, as there has been no perceptlble growth in
the total population in spite Of this great annual
addition OF infants, he went on to show by what
methods they persisted. The Herald, however,
declares him ignoramus, by the wonderful
process Of demonstration that. as such birth.
rate, applied to Wilmington, would give us 2, 500
babies year, it is nonsense to talk OF any such
an increase in Portugal! We suppose that this
sort of argument may be expected to convince a
Philadelphia quarter er-sessions jury, though we
should hope for better things even there. As a
matter of fact, the Portuguese writer distinctly
states that he assumes the birth-rate Of Portugal
TO be equal to that OF portions of Mexico, where
- -. ,,oI -,
and this assumption, as Mexico, in climate, the
character and habits OF its people, &c., closely
resembles Portugal is certainly not unfair,
though, even il the BIRTH rate be reduced, say
to five per cent, giving 200 900 infants per an
mum born in Portugal without increasing the to-
tai population appreciaby, we have yet picture
of infanticide frightfnl enough. careful anal
yss of the census returns shows the birth-rate
Of the United States to be nearly four per cent.
per annum and.makng due allowance for the
difference in climate, and the difference between
moral and immoral community, there remains
little doubt that the estimate OF 6.2l per GEM.
in Portugal is very nearly correct-in spite OF
what the Morning Herald thinks it knows about
the births OF Wilmington.
The Lisbon letter commits the further atroci
W of saying explicitly that in Portugal ''ilegiti
macy is more common than in any other country
OF Europe The Norman Hrah had intend
Cd to fasten this designation on Sweden, in or
der to discredlt the general education Of th'
Swedish people, and 80 to discourage people
from taking too much stock in schools, but il
this Portuguese gentleman, who says his state
Inent can be fuy proved By the records ant
statistics of his country, and who quotes some il
relation to the founding hospital population
which certainly amply support 1t, is to be heart
snd credited on the subject, instead Of the Her
aid, why Sweden, with her public schools ALT
Lutheran churches, must be released sfrom thei
Shipley Street limbo, aud that 'ro4tti be bad, in
decd. 1t is true, however, that abundant au
thority prepares III to believe just what tn,
Lisbon letter says. McCulloch in his descrr
ton of Portugal declares that "the morals 0
both sexes are lax in the extreme = and Malte
Brun had lamented that ''their songs are licen
sioua," and that "tha national dance ID so laec
yious that every stranger who sees it must de
plore the corruption Of the people,
One word as to education The Herald, wit
very great over. estimate, certainly, Of the pul
lie patience with its superficial scraps OF info
nation. seriously undertakes to convey the in
preston that the Portuguese are a well-educa
VI peOplo. Ius bChICeiN noeus ueuld
Chambers Encyclopedia concsely says til
" Portugal stands below the. other countries
Europe in education, and Appieton's, while sta
ing the nominal provision of schools by la
adds that the law requiring primary educate
g is rarely enforced simple comparison
figures, however, is most conclusive In 1877
there were in Portugal, out Of about four m
lions of people, only $4,000 children in tt
schools, or / in 30 while in the United State
including even the Southern section, there Al
out of say forty-millions, 7379,656 pupils in t
public schools alone, or nearly / in 5, sor
Of the Northern States having l in
and even more than that. Ii, therefore, y
will imagine country where education lis abo
oas-sirh general az in the average OF ii
country, you can see exactly how we'll school
the people of Portugal are. 1t is, in fact
ideal country for those statesmen who belle
that in the end general education will be fou
injudicions and injurious, and we wonder II
any of them remain this side Of the Atlantic