That part of the public w...
The Times, 1824-07-31T00:00:00

That part of the public who are not familiar with the actual condition of affairs in Portugal-with the deep stakes, personal as well as political, which havc been played for there-or with the very i;nportant station which Marshal BERESFORD has been wont to occupy at the Court and in the Palace of JOH j VI., will hear, perhaps, with surprise, and even with concern, that he may be hourly expected home, as the 18th instant was, we understand, the day ap- pointed for his Lordship's embarkation. Various rumours, of course, are circulated here andl at Lisbon respectinig the motives which have induced the noble Lord's return, if it be voluntary-or as to the causes of its necessity, if, per- chance, it should turn out te be coinpulsive. It is possible, say his Lordship's friends, that his manly mind may have taken some disgast at the com- plex and profligate intrigues which have been develop- ing themselves for so long a time at Lisbon. It is also barely possible, as has been affirmed by those who are not Lord BSglESFORD'S friends, that the interest with which his Lordship regarded the scene was uot quite that of an indignaint spectator, and that his temper was irritated less by the unseemly violence, or selfish baseness, which charac- terised the proceedings of the facLious, than by the conse- quences in whichl they have resulted. It was fronm the Constitutional Government thet Lord BesasFEoaD's gran- (leur and ascendancy in Portugal received their mortal blow. IVe are not certain whether the name he bears be signalized in its native country for any indiscreet attach- ment to the cause of freed)m. His profession of a sol- dier, undoubtedly, would not bias him against that course of political machinations whose object was to substitute a sharp and overbearing despotism for a state of imperfect li- berty; but wvhether a direct bias in favour of the feinale tyrant and her graceless offspring was really communicated to his Lordship's affections from any less avowed or less pardonable source than that of natural resentment, or pro- fessional habit, it belongs not to us to dec.de. T'le state- rnents which we copy out of a Cornish paper, altliough communicated in letters from Lisbon, dated so far back as the 29th of June, must be looked upon as remnarkable at least. What truth may appertain to them will appear hereafter: if false, or exaggerated, the person whose repu- tation they most deeply afect, must feel some desire to strip them of all undue authority. Certaih weaknesses to which men of even a very rugged an i masculine frame of character are prone have led themr ere now into embarra-:s- meiits of a critical nature. It would be odd and lament- able, though not incredible, far less do we assert it to'be true, that an English Ambassalor sloulId have been in(luced by the representations of any British sub- ject, himself infatuated by the influence of a Portuguese woman, to sign, joirtly with a Frenchl Minister, for instance, an order sanctioning the entrance of French troops into Portugal! We say, that if suclh a case should in future be brought home to any British subjects-no matter how high in rank, how grave in function, or how little worthy of consideration in any other point of view-. the novelty of such a fact is not the only characteristic by which it would excite the wonder oF the people of Bngland. In the mean time it has been mentioned to us, that Sir EDWARD THo N TON is about to be recalled, anid Sir WVi. A'Courr will succeed him at Lisbon. The vacancy at Madrid may be filled from Paris, or by a Mlinister now on his return from a more distant Court. And in the general move, we take it for granted that Lord FAN.-cIs CONYNG- HAIN will not be altogether forgotten.