Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-11-21
THE Portuguese Nation, and What 1t
Has Acquired and Held On To
in the World.
Probably There Is No Country or
People About Which SO Little
i, Known by the General
Public.

N ! :
,-appdes Ms at every turn. says the
I' ''1., Spectator. but there is something
l.,., 5bout 1t too II shows what "a
"l.0 force there Is IN the conservatism
,rl..f d, history proves, IS natural to the
,,... If mankind The Duke OF Brganza
finn. and receives his throne, and with il
r. leading influence IN Portugal on one
,faa alone that he Is the nearest repre-
.n,5+;ye of the Burgundian Prince, a cadet
a. rra CarIoyingian House who in 1895,
tgirtt. wears after the Norman conquest of
Er,I.nd. made of Portugal q separate
.,gfs For almost 500 years, 300 years
...r, than the duration Of the Roman En-
lire I'm The West. the people of Portugal,
tron,h evil report and good report have
.Jharsd to the Burgundian House which
rg. ORIGINALLY chosen to rule them almost
III, am accident The King of CASTLE
,c,uted soldier to keep order ON the Ia
.-r. where he had made cOnquests NE
1onII not retain and chose the strongest
imam be- could find who was of high de-
..srt The House has been extinct
onrs and has ended in women twice,
sD5 once lost its throne for two
gansr1tions; but the Portuguese have
7syar sweryed in their decision that
+aay intended this line to be for
ever at the head of their State When
legitimate heirs failed, they rose in favor
Of a partly illegltimate one-partly lie
.,i+rr3fa. we saw. because though the Bra
CANA, derived their title from an illegit-
innate son. his son married the legitimate
hare,s-and went on TRANQUILITY, and so
"a, th. dynasty was concerned, apparently
content. The family was not a very great
one though it produced a hero or two; and
fine Portuguese one would think have every
reason to merge themselves in Spain.
Their geographical position is wholly in
favor of that course. They are LatiuS.
like the Spaniards and hardly more
separated from them in language than the
Scotch of 1900 were from the English
They believed not only in the same creed.
b1t The same shade ofthe same creed and
they had for enemies the same hereditary
lu.,uiman foes Their river is the
-re.t river of Spain, their capital is the
natural capital of the whole peninsula, and
there never was a time when unity with
Spain would not have made them richer
and more prosperous people. They were
threatened for centuries and they
are threatened now; once they were act
ua.y merged in Spain for sixty years; and
once they received the offer made to Scot
land and accepted by her, to seat their
own dmd,tyOn the common throne. 1T all
made mo- difference. Threats did not shake
them. OF ambition tempt them, or conquest
after their feeling They chose to remain
a- they away. had been-a tile people
but eperlte, with their sepratt dynasty.
which had never forced its way into the
general European system but remained
always distmctiyely Portuguese; and they
had their WILL Portugal is as separate to-
day o., She was in 1885, when her national
hero King Alfonso, died Hardly in any
country i'm Europe has there been such a
continuity of national life as in the one
80 which. a priori continuity a national
life would have seemed most difficult or
impossible.
y the Portuguese. were merely a stohd
people devoted to the past, and content,
% the world passed them, to decay in Dig
nHej isolation by themselves. this con
tuWty would not be so remarkable, but
they have been for 300 years an ambitious
and even graSplng people, selling at
every opportunity more than their share
OF tHa world, and holding on to all they
have seized with a terrier-like tena-
city. They tried to conquer Bengal once.
ml were only defeated by positive want of
physical force They did conquer much
VI ,Na coast of Western India, and hold a
colony Ina it now They have been per-
I"nI'y making bites at Africa, and pos
s 900 that continent even now territories
sixteen Tunes as great as their own. with
.dWs which. if acknowledged as now,
.A the progress Of events. they can never
Poe would make them lords, from the At
.an'.. Sea TO the Indian Ocean, Of belt
~ '01 miles They did conquer the most
splendid bitof South America, and they
N.'' 1t now, and may keep it, so far as
appears for the next 500 years. Brazil is
-U"aaent, but it is Portuguese, aud it
! Ta.ad by the same family as the parent
H." The house of Brananza is the soli-
one IN Europe which has succeeded
.'dHiihg transmarlne monarchy which
ANA relgns and is fairly successful in
"." chimes, and under conditions new in
respect but one, that its
people with an answering at
Hfnt lost everywhere else in
,h"la' still support its throne. The
..1.lln monarchy is still strongest of
.'.t. anomalies and its continuance
success testify to the existence in the
-3ese people and in their ruling
Of some capacities for which the
Ter OF Europe scarcely gives them
. alit. They must have courage in
" legree extreme tenaClty, and
drgeness of view besides. shown
.F repeated and sometimes successful
.. al colonial empire. They have
produced very great men, They
newer had the physical force to carry
..rI1 own conceptions They have al
'e-n embarrassed by want of cash.
~ enmlty Of great powers, and by a
".2ns want Of proportion between
'.4eets and their power Of securing
force. Still they must be pro-
successful people, more success
..r example than the Dutch or the
and much Of their success has
rue 20 their spirit of conservatism !
i.El5 which wastes no force on change |
liles always what there is and In /
anything once accomplished is !
ward part of the regular order Of
and is not to be given up. They
pleasant people politically. they
'aLs revealed taint Of cruelty in I
.aad y and they talk with a pride
SCENE +r Fhnt,