_State of Portugal._--In this country, three parties were apparent. That of the _people_ ready to peril body and goods for independence. That of the _fidalgos_, who thought to profit from the nation’s energy without any diminution of ancient abuses. That of the _disaffected_, who desired the success of the French; some as thinking that an ameliorated government must follow, some from mere baseness of nature. This party, looked to have Alorna, Pamplona, and Gomez Freire, as chiefs if the enemy triumphed; for those noblemen, in common with many others, had entered the French service in Junot’s time, under the authority of the prince regent’s edict to that effect. Freire more honourable than his companions, refused to bear arms against his country, but the two others had no scruples, and Pamplona even sketched a plan of invasion, which is at this day in the military archives at Paris. The great body of the people, despising both their civil governors and military chiefs, relied on the British general and army; but the fidalgos, or cast of nobles, working in unison with, and supported by the regency, were a powerful body, and their political proceedings after the departure of sir John Cradock, demand notice. The patriarch, formerly bishop of Oporto, the Monteiro Mor, and the marquess of Das Minas, composed the regency, and they and every other member of the government were jealous of each other, exceedingly afraid of their superiors in the Brazils, and, with the exception of the secretary, Miguel Forjas, unanimous in support of abuses; and as the military organization carried on by Beresford, was only a restoration of the ancient institutions of the country, it was necessarily hateful to the regency, and to the fidalgos, who profited by its degeneracy. This, together with the unavoidable difficulties in finance, and other matters, retarded the progress of the regular army towards efficiency during 1809, and rendered the efforts to organize the militia, and ordenança, nearly nugatory. Nevertheless, the energy of lord Wellington and of Beresford, and the comparatively zealous proceedings of Forjas, proved so disagreeable to Das Minas, who was in bad health, that he resigned, and immediately became a centre, round which all discontented persons, and they were neither few, nor inactive, gathered. The times, obliged the government, to permit an unusual freedom of discussion in Lisbon; it naturally followed that the opinions of designing persons were most obtruded, and those opinions being repeated in the British parliament, were printed in the English newspapers, and re-echoed in Lisbon. Thus a picture of affairs was painted in the most glaring colours of misrepresentation, at the moment when the safety of the country depended upon the devoted submission of the people.