CHEAP 11 EROISIVI. •
THE Daily Papers give a Mr. Young's account of his apprehension in Portugal, for certain Constitutional indications, under the head of " IMPRISONMENT AND EXAMINATION OF A BRITISH SUBJECT; a description obviously intended to be extremely strikieg, and to cause a harrowing national sensation. If British subjects think it right to take airy part in the civil strife of foreigners, we cannot see any thing at all strange or irregular in the circumstance of such British subjects being subjected to imprisonment by the hos- tile government. Our countrymen are far too fond of meddling in other people's affairs, and this they do apparently under an im- pression that a complete impunity belongs of right to their inter- ference. With an odd inconsistency, they claim all the merit of heroism for daring dangers, and when it conies to the pinch, argue that no penalties attach to their conduct. Thus, in the memorable instance of the deliverance of Lavalette from his prison in Paris, Sir Robert Wilson, Mr. Bruce, and another gentleman, with the most humane purpose, outrageously violated the laws of France. They took all credit for the heroism of their action, which would have had'no heroism in it had impunity been presumed ; and when the punishment, moderate as it really was, fell upon them, they complained of it as an unworthy vengeance. Men should know what they are about If they would claim the honour of daring, they must be prepared, without repining, to suffer the possible penalties. They must take the consequences into the calculation, and instead of treating them as wonderful wrongs, found their glory in having advisedly encountered them.
Mr. Youne-has, we make no doubt, been a good and prudent Constitutionalist ; but why should he, or our newspapers in his be- half, affect to consider as strange and monstrous the proceedings which the Miguelites think proper in respect of his suspected hos- tility. He has indeed been harshly treated, as the partisans of the other party would have been harshly treated had they been worsted in the struggle. We wish, from the bottom of our hearts, that the order of success and failure were reversed ' - but even though the
unworthy have the triumph, we must regret clap-trap expedient of attempting to produce a sensation by dwelling on the British character of one of the sufferers, a circumstance which is not of the slightest real weight.
We make these remarks the more freely because we are assured that the policy of Miguel necessarily prescribes even an ostentation of clemency ; and under this persuasion, we can allow ourselves to indulge in a smile at some of the facts alleged or elicited in the ex- amination of Mr. Young. For example, it is asked, " Did you not, in the year 1820, ride in a triumphal car through the streets of Leira, playing on a violin ?"—" Yes, I did, in company with gen- tlemen who are now persecuting the Constitutionalists "
" Did you give a dinner in 1820, and when you drank certain toasts, did you not let off sky-rockets ?"—" I have often given dinners, and often let off sky-rockets."
In the two letters which it is supposed emanate from the principal persons of Belfast steam-packet notoriety, the success of Don Miguel is chiefly grounded in a cause which strikes us as remark- ably characteristic of a people in the state of enlightenment of the Portuguese—and we may add, their neighbours, the Spaniards. The great boobies must have a king of their own—all their own— a royal gewgaw that will always stay at home, for them to worship or to play with, as it may happen—a piece of gilding for the the- atre, and an ornament for the palace or the cathedral.
The steam-packet historiette signed " S." and which was pub- lished by the Times, thus speaks to the Portuguese passion for the real presence in royalty.
" There doubtless exists throughout the whole kingdom, and particu- larly at Lisbon and Oporto, among all the more respectable classes, a de- cided feeling of attachment to the legitimate Sovereign, and of gratitude for the Charter which he has bestowed. It is also certain, that the gross usurpation, effected in the face of the world, in violation of so many pro- mises, and in disregard of all the Governments of Europe, excites still more in Portugal than anywhere else hatred and disgust against him who seems to hold out to the country the mere exercise of his tyranny as a sufficient inducement to acquiese in his treason. But these sentiments, natural as they are among the respectable and educated classes, are far from being generally diffused through the population, and, in the pro- vinces especially, have made little progress. For the great mass, which is composed of the most numerous, though certainly not of the most worthy, part of the Portuguese nation, all the considerationsof legitimacy, of superior title, of liberty, and even of interest, become almost null, and appear effaced, by the simple fact of the presence in Portugal of a Prince invested with all the fascinations of royalty, and to whom there is no- thing to oppose but the acknowledged and legitimate rights of other Princes, who, being absent, do not present to the idolatrous tendency of the people any visible and material object."
"A total list of all the killed and wounded in the different actions be- tween the Portuguese Constitutionalists and the Chaves Rebels, two years ago, and latterly between the Miguelites and the Constitutionalists, would form a droll contrast with the slashing returns' of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. Five or six killed, and one or twohundred wounded, would probably prove the Portuguese sum total. One hardly knows which to admire most in this new species of warfare—the prudence of the van- quished or the humanity of the victors. Instead of leaving things to chance and valour, as others are accustomed to do, the Portuguese seem to arrange every thing beforehand, and to agree—whether for value re- ceived or not, we cannot say—which party is to have the honour of the day. A few guns tired, a rash and valiant Caqadore killed, and a few stragglers wounded, are sufficient for a brilliant despatch ; and thus the pangs of defeat are not heightened, or the joys of triumph lowered, by the tears of the widowed and the cries of the fatherless. The conqueriss2-, General, however, always contrives to issue a good bulletin, and to snake the affair appear brilliant. We remember that about two years ago the Ga:ette contained a long despatch from one of the Constitutional Generals, who, after describing a terrible affair which lasted several hours, and in which the enemy lost two killed and at least twenty wounded, broke off suddenly in his despatch by stating that he was about to shave himself, but that he would send the remainder of his report by the next courier."—Globe.
It is extremely ridiculous in the Portuguese not to cut throats as liberally as the French, English, and the rest of the Christian and civilized world ; but this kind of parsimony is not original in Portugal, and where we have examples of it we hardly account them ludicrous, so much are we the creatures of names. For instance, we read Thucydides without being, shocked by the per- ception of the much-ado-about-nothing. The wane of the Spartan power is, however, to be dated from the loss of three hundred men ; and the historian, in describing the hardships of their retreat before the Athenians, speaks of their perspiration and the dust, in aEgravation of the horrors of war. But we need not travel back to Grecian history. We remember a bulletin from India, in which an officer described his having dispersed a body of rebellious natives, and chased the leader, a certain Surajah Dowlah, across a field, banging him during the race, about the head and shoulders with a bamboo cane. This was narrated with all the pomp and circumstance of glorious victory.
The affairs in Portugal, narrated by an accomplished Thucydides, would make a very brilliant history for the people of two thousand years hence. Xenophon describes an army thrown into extreme consternation by the braying of an ass ; and Taipa's vocal performances before Oporto, may make as creditable a figure in the pages of a future Anabasis.
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