As the antagonist parties in Portugal seem absolutely unable to
fight it out, the Governments of England and Spain, it is said, mean to interpose ; and, according to report, British marines and ships have actually been sent to the Portuguese coast for bellige- rent purposes. This country, then,. is on the eve of taking part in a Continental war I On what right Lord Palmerston inter- feres without the concurrence of France, on what specific ground, in what mode, with what object, and at the risk of what Conse- quences, no one knows. It is not customary to state these We shall be duly informed, perhaps, after the war. When ass ss over, we shall have materials for judging whether the war was justifiable in equity, policy, or practicability. It is the custom of diplomacy, still tolerated by this country, to keep such matters secret until it is too late. If Lord Palmerston must go to war, perhaps Portugal is a corpus as vile as any available for the purpose ; but still it will be remembered, that besides equity and policy and so forth, there are such things as British commercial interests at :stake. British merchants do not at all relish the "fortune of war," which is fertile in such repudiations as the Bode claims or the Danish claims : there is no wish to establish a new set of Portuguese claims. Lord Palmerston may not care for such a vulgar liquor as port-wine; but his noble colleague Lord Clarendon will tell him that it really has a commercial value. Other friends, if candidly consulted, might tell Lord Palmerston, that, however valuable his services may be to the nation, there will be some difficulty in getting the people to re- cognize the absolute necessity of war as a condition of his being in office. Indeed, if it really is an inevitable necessity—if peace and Palmerston are positively incompatible—we doubt much whether the public would not rather give up the blessing of Pal- merston administration than the blessing of peace. At all events, the time is past when this country ought to be kept in the dark about any step which may commit it to a course so momentous as war.
