Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 70, No. 431, September 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
impossible lightly to pass in an impartial review of the condition
and prospects of Portugal.
[8] The principal Miguelite papers, _A Nação_ (Lisbon,) and _O
Portugal_ (Oporto,) both of them highly respectable journals,
conducted with much ability and moderation, unceasingly reiterate,
whilst exposing the vices and corruption of the present system,
their aversion to despotism, and their desire for a truly liberal
and constitutional government.
We have already declared our determination here to attach importance
to the persons of none of the four princes and princesses who claim
or occupy the thrones of Spain and Portugal, except in so far as
they may respectively unite the greatest amount of the national
suffrage and adhesion. As regards Don Miguel, we are far from
exaggerating his personal claims--the question of legitimacy being
here waived. His prestige _out_ of Portugal is of the smallest, and
certainly he has never given proofs of great talents, although he is
not altogether without kingly qualities, nor wanting in resolution
and energy; whilst his friends assert, and it is fair to admit as
probable, that he has long since repented and abjured the follies
and errors of his youth. But we cannot be blind to the fact of the
strong sympathy and regard entertained for him by a very large
number of Portuguese. His presence in London during some weeks of
the present summer was the signal for a pilgrimage of Portuguese
noblemen and gentlemen of the best and most influential families in
the country, many of whom openly declared the sole object of their
journey to be to pay their respects to their exiled sovereign;
whilst others, the chief motive of whose visit was the attraction
of the Industrial Exhibition, gladly seized the opportunity to
reiterate the assurances of their fidelity and allegiance. Strangely
enough, the person who opened the procession was a nephew of Marshal
Saldanha, Don Antonio C. de Seabra, a staunch and intelligent
royalist, whose visit to London coincided, as nearly as might be,
with his uncle's flight into Galicia, and with his triumphant
return to Oporto after the victory gained for him as he was
decamping. Senhor Seabra was followed by two of the Freires, nephew
and grand-nephew of the Freire who was minister-plenipotentiary
in London some thirty years ago; by the Marquis and Marchioness
of Vianna, and the Countess of Lapa--all of the first nobility
of Portugal; by the Marquis of Abrantes, a relative of the royal
family of Portugal; by a host of gentlemen of the first families in
the provinces of Beira, Minho, Tras-os-Montes, &c.--Albuquerques,
Mellos, Taveiras, Pachecos, Albergarias, Cunhas, Correa-de-Sas,
Beduidos, San Martinhos, Pereiras, and scores of other names, which
persons acquainted with Portugal will recognise as comprehending
much of the best blood and highest intelligence in the country. Such
demonstrations are not to be overlooked, or regarded as trivial
and unimportant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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