FOREIGN POLITICS.
The foreign affairs requiring notice, as affecting Great Britain, were principally those in the East. During this year Turkey was obliged to sue to the Russian autocrat for peace; for both the Russian army and navy were successful in all their operations. The terms granted were as follows:—The Pruth was to constitute the European limit as before; but Silistria was to be dismantled. An alteration was to be made in the Asiatic boundaries, so that the whole eastern coast of the Black Sea, from the Kuban to the harbour of St. Nicholas, together with the fortresses of Anapa and Poti, should remain in possession of Russia. The principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were to be confirmed in their rights; but the Hospodars were to be nominated only for life, and no Turks allowed to dwell there. Free trade was to be allowed on the Black Sea, and navigation through the straits for vessels belonging to Russia, as well as all other countries at peace with the Porte. The sultan was to defray the expenses of the war, and to accede to the treaties concluded at London regarding the Greeks. The bases of the intended negociations respecting Greece were finally arranged among the allies, at a conference on the 22nd of March in the present year. The protocol signed by them read as follows:—“1. The continental boundary line of the Greek state is to be drawn from the gulf of Volo to the gulf of Arsa. All countries south of this line to be included in the Greek state, to which the adjacent islands, comprehending Euboea and the Cyclades, are likewise to belong 2. An annual tribute of 1,500,000 Turkish piastres to be paid by this Greek state. Only a third part to be paid during the first year, and to be gradually increased till it reaches the maximum in the fourth. 3. Turkish subjects who may be forced to depart from the Greek territory to be indemnified. 4. Greece is to remain under the suzerainty of the Porte, which form of government is to approach as nearly as possible to & monarchical form, and to be hereditary in the family of a Christian prince, to be chosen for the first time by the three powers, in concert with the Porte. He is not to be a member of the families reigning in the states which are parties to the treaty of July 6th.” Finally, the three powers, however, agreed to restrict the territory of the new state within narrower limits than were assumed in this protocol. The line adopted was further to the south. It commenced on the east at Zeitouni, a little to the northward of Thermopylae, and ran across the country in the direction of Vrachori, till it reached the river Aspropotamos, or the ancient Achelous, whose course it was then to follow as far as the sea. It thus excluded not only Thessaly, but Acarnaniaand the town of Vonizza, which the Greeks had taken early in the year, and an extensive tract of level country lying round the gulf of Calarno. The whole western frontier of northern Greece was left open by it to the attacks of its barbarian foes. And this determination was made without the wishes of the Greeks being consulted, or any communication made to the Greek government. The matter was, in truth, decided at London without the intervention of either Turkish or Greek minister; but the Porte and the Greek government were alike compelled to agree to the articles drawn up by the three powers.
In the Netherlands the session of the States-general, during the present year, was less tranquil and satisfactory than any that had been held since the Restoration. The king himself continued popular; but his government produced general dissatisfaction by some obnoxious measures; especially by dismissing judges who were supposed to be too obstinate; by partiality in official appointments; and by exercising severity against the press when it criticised the policy of administration. When the States-general met, the second chamber was immediately occupied in discussing an immense number of petitions, recommending improvements in the present system of government. Some ameliorations were made; but government resisted the proposal that cases of alleged abuse of the liberty of the press should be tried by a jury, and also the introduction of grand juries, and the extension of jury trials to the provincial courts and other criminal tribunals. On the other hand, a numerous body in the chamber censured every measure of the government, and resisted every project of its ministers; and the session ended with an increase of that excitement and dissatisfaction which for some time had been growing up in the public mind.
During this year, also, the government of France was embarrassed with difficulties. A new ministry had been formed under the presidency of Prince Polignac, all the members of which belonged to that section which advocated irresponsible power in politics, and essential domination in religion. Nothing could exceed the unpopularity of these appointments. The press teemed with denouncements both of the men and their measures; and prosecutions for its bold sentiments became the order of the day. Prosecutions increased, from the fact that associations were formed to resist the payment of taxes, in case ministers should attempt to rule without a chamber. Finally, the cabinet itself became divided. One great cause of its unpopularity was, that it contained Labourdonnaye, who had signalized himself by recommending a terrific system of proscription, and had, after the manner of Marius and Sylla at Rome, classified those descriptions of people on whom he demanded vengeance. Labourdonnaye retired towards the close of the year; but public opinion continued against the administration as strong and unanimous as ever. At one time, the organs of the cabinet threatened a dissolution of the chambers, and at another, the ultra-journals preached the doctrine of ruling without the chambers. The more accredited organs of the cabinet, indeed, did not openly repeat such sentiments, but they were connected in the minds of the people with that set of opinions which the cabinet represented. If the one party, indeed, were led astray by assuming evil designs not in existence, ministers were equally blind as to the character of their antagonists. The year finally closed in mutual recriminations; ministers keeping their places until the convocation of the legislature should determine, whether the chambers were to decide the fate of the cabinet, or the cabinet that of the chambers. One fact, however, was favourable to the interests of France: namely, that its foreign relations remained peaceful and unaltered.
In Portugal, Don Miguel this year unfolded to the world his true character. Early in this year an unsuccessful attempt was made in Oporto at insurrection in favour of Donna Maria, and the usurper made use of this occurrence to multiply arrests in the capital. Every individual whom any creature of government disliked, or any private enemy thought proper to denounce by an anonymous accusation, was forthwith consigned to the dungeons of the Limveiro, or of St. Julian. The actual conspirators at Oporto were tried by commission, and several of them were exiled, and the rest acquitted as persons against whom nothing was proved. Miguel, however, was shocked at the lenity of the sentence, and refused to ratify it; ordering at the same time a new sentence to be framed, by which five prisoners condemned to perpetual exile were directed to be hanged, and two who were to have been transported for ten years, to transportation for life. In comparison with death, the condition of the prisoners, with whom the jails and fortresses were crowded to suffocation, was scarcely to be envied. Though all were uncondemned, and most of them innocent, the whole were delivered over to the merciless authority of apostolic miscreants, who seemed to find no gratification but in the invention of new modes of inflicting misery.
Among the incarcerated were many persons in affluent circumstances, who charitably contributed to support the poorer prisoners, whom their tyrants were willing should perish by starvation. To deprive them of all assistance, indeed, government ordered their benefactors to be removed from the dungeons in the city, to those of St. Julian, Belem, and Bugio. Here, without being brought to trial, the prisoners were cut off from all communication, even with the members of their own families. Many of them died of want and confinement, and the usurper was suspected of poisoning others. No rank, sex, or character was respected; a child of five years of age was kept in solitary confinement five days, and subjected to the tortures of a prison to extort evidence against its father and mother. A refugee Spanish bishop, who had been a member of the Cortes of 1812, and had since lived in security at Lisbon, was thrown into a dungeon, and died in four days, in consequence of maltreatment, and his body was thrown into a hole in the esplanade of the castle without burial. The most sanguinary scenes took place both at Oporto and Lisbon. The rage of the tyrant was backed by the priests, who in their sermons and publications applauded the work of death and devastation as an acceptable offering to the Divine Majesty. One Jose Agostino, a monk and court preacher, published a pamphlet called “The Beast Flayed,” urging the necessity of multiplying sacrifices, and recommending that the constitutionalists should be hanged up by the feet, and the people joyfully treated with fresh meat from the gallows. These sentiments only added fuel to the flames of Don Miguel’s vengeance, and the kingdom was laid at the mercy of a set of men to whose vengeance, brutality, and avarice there were no bounds. One step downward in the path of moral turpitude ever leads to another. From the moment of his return, Don Miguel had hated his sister Bonna Maria, because she had been her brother’s regent, and had been faithful to the constitution. Miguel learned that a footman formerly in the service of his sister had set out for England, and he fancied that he had been sent by Donna Maria with her money and jewels, in order to secure them from his rapacity. It is probable, also, that he imagined the servant had been sent to England for the purpose of making known the dreadful state of the country; and enraged thereby, he rushed into her chamber with a pistol in his hand, and demanded an account of the flight of her servant. Donna Maria stood for a while trembling in silence, but as Miguel was about to strike her with the pistol which was armed with a bayonet, she threw herself upon him, and overturned him. Her chamberlain now flew to her rescue. Miguel sprang up, and when on the point of again attacking her, Count Camarido threw himself before him. The tyrant disabled him by stabbing him in the arm, and fired at the princess; and though the ball missed her, it killed a servant by her side. Other domestics now interfered, and the life of Donna Maria was saved. She was hurried away from his brutal fury. While scenes of outrage and wrong were being committed daily throughout the whole of Portugal, the necessities of the government increased, notwithstanding a forced issue of paper money was made. Recourse was had to an expedition to reduce Terceira, one of the Azores, the only spot in the dominions of Portugal which remained true to its rightful monarch. This expedition set sail about the middle of June, and the troops succeeded in effecting a landing; but they were totally defeated by the islanders, under Villa Flor, who had made his escape with the Marquis Palmella and nineteen other general officers from the rage of Miguel. In the meantime the tyrant’s interest was supported at Madrid by the great influence of his mother over the family of Ferdinand, who, in fact, regarded Miguel with peculiar complacency, because he had destroyed a constitutional government. The other sovereigns of Europe however, still kept aloof from any communication with the usurper. It was contended by the Portuguese refugees, and the ministers of Don Pedro, that they ought to drive Miguel from his throne by positive interference. These applications were especially made to the British ministry; but though Lord Aberdeen admitted to their fullest extent the obligations created by the treaties existing between Britain and Portugal, he maintained that they gave no countenance to any demand made for interference in an internal revolution. He remarked: “It is assumed that the usurpation of the throne of Portugal by the infant Don Miguel has given to her most faithful majesty the right of demanding from this country effectual succours for the recovery of her crown and kingdom. But in the whole series of treaties there is no express stipulation which can warrant this pretension, neither is such an obligation implied by their general tenor and spirit. It is either for the purpose of resisting successful rebellion, or of deciding by force a doubtful question of succession that Great Britain is now called upon to act. But it is impossible to imagine that any independent state could ever intend thus to commit the control and direction of its internal affairs to the hands of another power. For, doubtless, if his Britannic majesty be under the necessity of furnishing effectual succours in the event of any internal revolt or dissension in Portugal, it would become a duty, and, indeed, it would be essential to take care that no such case should exist if it could be prevented. Hence a constant and minute interference in the affairs of Portugal would be indispensable; for his majesty could never consent to hold his fleets and armies at the disposal of a king of Portugal, without exercising those due precautions and that superintendence which would assure him that his forces would not be employed in averting the effects of misgovernment, folly, or caprice. Is this a condition in which any state professing to be independent could endure to exist? The truth is, that the whole spirit of the treaties, as well as their history, shows that the principle of the guarantee given by England is the protection of Portugal from foreign interference.” The British government, therefore, refused to interfere in this domestic quarrel; and it also considered itself bound to observe a strict neutrality in regard to all military operations. A considerable number of Portuguese exiles, resident on our southern coast, appeared to have some design of fitting out an expedition against Don Miguel; and the British government, holding such views as above unfolded, informed the Brazilian minister that it would not allow such designs to be carried on in British harbours, and that the refugees must remove further from the coast. The Brazilian minister replied, that these troops were about to be conveyed to Brazil; and accordingly four vessels, having on board six hundred and fifty-two officers, with Count Saldanha at their head, sailed from Plymouth. The British government, however, suspected that the true design was to land those troops at Terceira; and notice was given to them before they sailed that any such attempt would be resisted. A small force, under the command of Captain Walpole, was despatched to enforce the prohibition; his instructions being to cruise off the island; to inform the Portuguese that he had authority to prevent their landing; and if they made any effort to effect a landing, to resist such an attempt by force, and to drive them away from that neighbourhood. The suspicions of the government were in this instance justified. The expedition of Count Saldanha appeared off Terceira on the 16th of January; and was discovered by Captain Walpole standing right in for Port Praya. Two shots were fired for the purpose of bringing them to; but without effect. The vessels then lay-to; and to a note from Captain Walpole, inquiring what was their object in coming thither, Saldanha answered, that his object in appearing there was to fulfil the orders of her majesty the Queen of Portugal, which directed him to conduct, unarmed, without any hostile appearance, to the isle of Terceira, the men that were on board the four vessels in sight, which island has never ceased to acknowledge Donna Maria II. as its legitimate sovereign. He added:—“As a faithful subject and soldier, I think it unnecessary to assure you that I am determined to fulfil my duty at all peril.” Captain Walpole replied, that he had instructions to obey, and an imperious duty to perform; that both of them prevented him from allowing the count, or any part of his force, to land either at Terceira, or on any part of the western islands of the Azores, or even to continue in that neighbourhood. To this communication Saldanha replied, that he considered himself and his men, in such circumstances, Captain Walpole’s prisoners; that they would follow his vessels where-ever he chose to take them; but must have a written order to that effect, and be supplied with water and provisions; if he had not this written order, he said, he would pursue his course, and endeavour at all risks to fulfil his instructions. Captain Walpole’s reply still was, “Go where you choose, but don’t stay here; if you persist in hovering about these islands, it is my duty and firm determination to carry those measures you are already in possession of into full effect.” After this angry correspondence the Portuguese finally sailed away; and the British commander having watched them until they arrived within five hundred miles of Sicily, returned to his station at Terceira. Count Saldanha and his squadron instead of returning to England, proceeded to Brest. This occurrence excited much notice in Europe, and it was brought under discussion in the British parliament. It was represented by the opposition as a direct act of hostility in favour of the usurper, against the acknowledged Queen of Portugal, then residing in England; and as an armed interference in favour of Miguel at the very moment when it was pretended that the duties of neutrality did not admit of interference. It was asked, if not bound by treaties to assist the queen in recovering her crown, whence arose our right to prevent her, by means of her own subjects, from making the attempt? Why, when recognizing her right, refusing to admit the title of Miguel, and pretending to maintain a strict neutrality, had we interfered by force against a lawful sovereign? And what could excuse the barbarous injustice of telling the lawful monarch that, in so far as we were concerned, she must work out her own restoration by her own strength; and then, when she puts forth her strength; telling her that we would not allow it to be employed? To all this it was replied that the armament attacked had been fitted out in a British port, an answer which decided the merits of the question; for whether the observance of neutrality between two competitors for the crown of Portugal was right or wrong, appeared in this case a matter of indifference; as it had been decided on, no other course could justly have been taken: and if Miguel’s armament had been fitted out in a British port, it would have met with a similar interruption. If ministers were to be attacked, indeed, the only vulnerable point was the maintenance of a strict neutrality towards a tyrant who had voluntarily sworn to our government that he would obey the laws and preserve the constitution of their country. In the meantime negociations had been going on between Don Pedro and the ministers of England and Austria to effect some arrangement of affairs; and a deputation had been sent by the Portuguese constitutionalists to point out how these affairs stood, and to urge the necessity of adopting active measures. Don Pedro, however, refused to accept propositions from foreign negociation which involved any sacrifice of his daughter’s claims, while he assured the Portuguese that he would maintain the rights of their queen without entering into any compromise with the usurper of her throne. But Pedro did not strengthen the hopes of his friends at this time by the resolution which he admitted of recalling his daughter from England to Brazil; and the British government itself remonstrated with him on the impolicy of that step. Donna Maria’s return to Rio de Janeiro seemed to convey the idea, indeed, that she had abandoned all pretensions to the crown of Portugal, and had left Don Miguel undisputed master of the field. But such was not in reality the case. Don Pedro had ulterior objects in view by the recall of his daughter; and the Brazilian minister made a public declaration, to the effect that Donna Maria’s departure from Europe neither involved an abdication of the crown on the part of her majesty, nor an indifference on the part of Don Pedro to his daughter’s rights.
The history of Spain furnishes but few events of importance during the present year. In the early part of it, Ferdinand lost his queen, and towards the close he contracted a third marriage with a princess of Naples. The marriage was celebrated at Madrid, to the great dissatisfaction of the adherents of Ferdinand’s brother, Don Carlos. During the year, conspiracies transpired in Catalonia. They were supposed to have been excited by the Count d’Espagne for the sake of private advantage, and they were followed by cruel executions. The rest of the country remained tranquil; but its finances were in so dreadful a state of exhaustion from a long continuance of misgovernment and exclusion, that Cadiz was declared a free port, in the hope of restoring foreign commerce to its ancient condition. At this time, however, the Spanish government, which had been driven from the English money-market by its faithless conduct respecting the Cortes’ bonds, ran the risk of losing its credit with all the European states, by a discovery of its fraud in a French loan.
