from the perusal of them pained, and be-ed narrowly each other's gains, and were wildered in our opinions with respect to evidently connected politically for one obthe advantages of constitutional govern- ject only-the promotion of their private ment or at least of constitutional govern-interests. In the desperate disorder of the ment as administered in Spain and Portu- finances, the young sovereign found it diffigal of late years. We inquire after the cult to get his wants supplied. When he condition of the people, their material inte- called on Fouquet, the Intendant of Firests, the state of religion, of commerce, nance, for money, the latter was wont to and of agriculture, of letters and of arts; reply, Sire, the exchequer is exhausted, and we do not find that any of those things but perhaps his eminence the cardinal will have been bettered by the changes that lend you what you want.' The riches of have taken place in the form of govern- Fouquet, however, were then daily augmenting, and he could well afford to ac ment. quently did, without troubling the cardinal, while the national resources were becoming daily more exhausted. Are we to infer then, that absolute gov-commodate his sovereign, which he freernment is better than representative? Before we come to that conclusion, it would be well to ascertain the nature of the governments called representative, which have existed in the Peninsula since 1820; and it may be, we shall find that representation in all of them was 'a mockery, a delusion, and a snare,' a privilege, monopolized by one class, and that the worst class of all, namely, the employés (empleados, empregados publicos.) The history of the late administration in Portugal affords a striking example of the burla which scheming politicians make of constitutional liberty, and, what is well worthy of observation, the facilities for prevarication and malversation in office which the system, miscalled representative, affords to men of unclean hands and of loose principles in official situations. Western Europe has offered no parallel in recent times for the barefaced effrontery with which official peculation and venality have been practised during the last four years in Portugal, where it was not one individual alone of a ministry, but the majority of its members, who made either stock-jobbing, or contract selling, or patronage vending, the great business of their public lives; and notwithstanding the notoriety of such practices, carried on year after year, they enjoyed the favor of the court up to the latest moment, to an extent unequalled by any former administration. In like manner in Portugal, the credit of the late minister of finance stood so much higher than that of the government, that he has often had occasion to endorse bills of the treasury for the public service, which without his personal security would have been worthless. He had a large stake in the funds, and was interested in the maintenance of public credit. But men who accumulate wealth suddenly are often smitten with an infatuation fatal to its preservation. The very means that were taken to uphold public credit, while malversation existed in every department of the state over which the Cabrals had any control, were ruinous to the treasury, and tended to bring about a state of things, when it would require a legislature made up of government employés to impose, and an army in every province to collect, the amount of taxes rendered necessary by the vices of the administration. Fouquet, at the time we have referred to, was investing largely his governmental gains in lands and houses. The account then given of his doings would serve, with slight modifications, for those of the Cabrals. Fouquet, in 1661, had fitted up, at a cost of eighteen millions of francs, a sumptuous chateau, in which he entertained the whole French court, at a magnifiIn the minority of Louis XV. there was cent fête, the splendor of which was the a state of things in France, which some- admiration of his royal and noble guests, what resembled that lately existing in Por- well acquainted though they were with the tugal. The revenues of the state were late humble circumstances of the intendant. eaten up by speculating scheming minis- But here the parallel ceases. The palace ters and subordinate officials. Immense building, castle buying, wealth amassing, fortunes were suddenly acquired, and com- court banqueting of the Cabrals, all tended mensurate injuries inflicted on the public to the consolidation of their power. service. The peculating ministers pulled the other hand, the young sovereign of admirably together, never differing about France, though he had not much gratitude,public measures; but in private they watch- as a guest, had some understanding of his On position as a sovereign, of his dignity, and a well-wisher of the cause of the young of his duty to the state. In the course of queen. a fortnight after the banquet, the intendant He had sent in a similar memorial to the was not only in disgrace, but in a prison. judicial Miguelite authorities of Oporto, He was arrested the 5th of September fol- when Dom Miguel seized on the crown in lowing, and the only cause assigned for the 1828, setting forth his absolute principles. royal displeasure was the extravagance and This official document, formally attested by ostentation, unsuited to the legitimate re-the judicial authorities of Oporto, with its sources of a servant of the crown, which accompanying depositions bearing witness had been displayed at the entertainments to the anti-constitutional principles of Dom referred to. He was sent to the Bastille, Joze, exists to this day, and is of undisputtried and found guilty of peculation and ed authority. The memorial, dated 18 malversation in office, and condemned to August, 1828, is to the following effect: perpetual imprisonment. He died in a fortress on the frontier, after a confinement of eighteen years. His official accomplices were made to disgorge the plundered wealth of the state into the treasury, the amount of which spoil was enormous. Such of them as had bought houses, palaces, or lands, were deprived of their ill-gotten acquisitions. Wherever they were found they were seized and prosecuted. "The advocate bachelor, Joze Bernad o da Silva Cabral, in the court of Relaçao, of Oporto, &c., &c., states, firstly, that the supplicant was always a pure royalist, a friend of the altar and the throne, and so much so, that, in 1823, he was the first, when the Senhor Dom Miguel stood forth, who raised the cry of fidelity, in Nellas, in the council of Senhorim. Secondly, that the supplicant neither intervened, nor could intervene in any way in the revolution of the 16th of May, in the present year (in favor of the queen). "The supplicant entreats to be permitted to justify his statements with the necessary proofs," &c., &c. Then follow the attestations, officially re loyalty to Dom Miguel, his great attachment to the magnanimous monarch Dom Miguel,' in the words of one of them. Peculators in Portugal are more fortunate, they make purses, they maintain power by means of the repute of riches, no matter how acquired, and when they can make no more, or the nation can bear no more oppression, they retain the spoil, and pass for men of energy and ability; or, if the out-gistered, of several persons as to Dom Joze's cry against them is very strong, they have only to go over the bar of Lisbon, and all their accounts with the nation are settled. They go out of office with all the honors of Dom Joze, soon after he had become a a war for wealth, with flying colors, bag liberal, was appointed to a magisterial office and baggage, their titles and titulos, orders in Oporto, and an event happened in the and inscriptions in the fives and fours, and meantime, which caused an unpleasant imthe highest favor of their gracious sover-pression against the new liberal. An old eign. Miguelite canon (Guimaraes), who had reAt the expiration of four years the des-mained in Oporto, and was reputed a very potism of the Cabrals over Portugal broke down. wealthy man, had concealed in his house a very large sum of money, information of This government sprang out of a rebel- which had been communicated to the aulion planned by a disgraced employé, the thorities. The seizure of this old man and elder Cabral (Joze Bernado da Silva Ca- his suspicious property was intrusted to Dom bral) in 1842, and executed by the younger Joze, and it was made by his agents. An brother, Antonio da Costa Cabral (then unaccountable loss, amounting to about Minister of Justice), who set the novel ex-5007., took place between the period of the ample of abandoning his portfolio, to up-seizure of the property and its being deset the government of which he was a member. Joze Bernado Cabral had been a zealous partisan of Dom Miguel's, had proclaimed him at Nellas, and adhered to his fortunes till his fall. Then he passed over to the triumphant side, sent in a written declaration of his loyalty to the queen, and had the ability to persuade Dom Pedro, that all through the reign of Dom Miguel he had been in secret posited in the hands of the authorities. The money found, amounted to twenty contos. Explanations were called for, and none satisfactory were given. Dom Joze was dismissed from the magistracy by Dom Pedro, the 13th of April, 1833. The decree for his dismissal is to this effect: "It is my pleasure, in the name of the Queen, to exonerate the Advocate Joze de Bernado Silva Cabral from the office of ma gistrate, pro tempore (juiz do crime), of the barrier of St. Catherine, to which he was nominated the 13th of February last. Dated 13th of April, 1833. "(Signed), Dom Pedro, Duke of Braganza. (Countersigned), Joze da Silva Carvalho." Chron. Constit. of Oporto, No. 95. In the month of July following, he contrived to obtain an inferior employment, namely, that of corregidor of the barrier of the Rocio in Lisbon. He was not long in office, however, before he was again in trouble, on account of his zeal against suspected priests possessed of property. In October, 1833, legal proceedings were instituted against him on a charge which may be comprehended from the following extracts from two official documents pertaining to the preliminary proceedings in this case, viz., the Relaçao aggravo, or supplication addressed to Dom Pedro, and the accordao, or report of the judges of Relaçao, signed by four of them. The former is to this effect: "Senhor A. J. Oliveira da Silva complains to your majesty against the corregidor of the district of the Roçio, Joze Bernado da Silva Cabral, for the acts committed by him respecting the sequestration and embezzlement of the effects of the beneficed clergyman, Oliveira da Silva Cardoza, on the 28th of September last." Divested of the jargon of the law, it on to state : goes It is only to be added that if the effects described in the inventory attached to the sequester were the only objects which composed the museum of this clergyman, foreigners could have had little to admire in it, and the idea was false that was formed of its riches. The 29th of April, 1834, the Judge Disembargador of the Regent Cardoza pronounced a sentence in favour of the supplicant, against the Corregidor Dom Joze, thereby confirming the allegations of the former, which were as follows: that Dom Joze had come to the house of the deceased clergyman, accompanied by a large posse of his agents, to take cognizance of the various embezzlements effected there during the imprisonment of the deceased, and while the property was under charge of his depository; and that instead of taking the necessary steps, his inquiries of the supplicant were, if his relative was not of an unsound mind, which supplicant denied there were any grounds for supposing to be the case, whereas he believed that the object of the corregidor was only to nullify the accusation made to him. Another later judical document, the evidence of the servant of the deceased, taken 23rd of May, 1834, details a number of facts, on which he grounds his profound conviction that the imprisonment of the deceased priest had been concerted in order to admit of those robberies being made which were abetted by the corregidor. That a certain lame bachelor of law was the assistant of the corregidor in all the proceedings "That the clergyman Da Silva was a peace-against his master, the chief agent in able man, much over seventy years of age, breaking open all the locks of his cabinet, who, on account of infirmities, was unable to &c. That his old master was a very retired quit his house. He was reputed a man possess-man, treating only of the matters of his ed of much ready money, precious stones, and house, and never meddling in politics. rarities, and had formed a museum of the latThat a compadre of deceased, of the name of Cabral, was the person that concocted the scheme against his master, and had made the denunciation against him and his property. ter, which was well known to be visited by all strangers who arrived in Portugal. The repute of these riches and precious objects caused his misfortune, for it was supposed that they might even exceed in value those of the Canon Guimaraens of the city of Oporto. On the 7th It appears by another document, that, of September, without any regard for his ad-on the 17th of September, the Corregidor vanced age and heavy infirmities, he was drag- of the Rocio consented to his prisoner's reged from his house, and with his servants thrown into a dungeon of the Limoeiro gaol; moval to his own house on bail, having a and this was done without any legal forms, for sentinel posted in sight of his house, and the subsequent process showed that there had at his expense. been no depositions against him till the 19th The indulgence was of little worth, for and 20th of September, twelve or thirteen days the fear occasioned by these proceedings, after his arrest, and the seizure of all his pro-and the sufferings of his confinement, so perty. The effects were first illegally placed in deposit with an officer of justice, Manuel da affected this old infirm man that he died Passos Machado, called a proprietor of land, on the 21st of September, fourteen days one of the officers who conducted the clergy-after his unjust arrest by Senhor Joze Caman to gaol!!!” bral. A decree was then issued that the sequester should subsist nothwithstanding | da Costa Cabral, was born at Algodres in Beira Alta in 1803. His father, though in the death of the culprit. The Accordao of the four judges declares humble circumstances, contrived to eduthat the plaintiff was wronged by the Corre- cate his sons at the university of Coimbra. gidor of the Rocio on both the grounds stated Antonio and his brother Joze were brought by the former; for it was manifest the defen- up to the legal profession; both possessed dant had acted without legal process with talents, great energy and activity, ambirespect to the sequester, and on a charge of tion, and an utter want of principle. Andisaffection attempted to be supported tonio was appointed to a magisterial situagainst the deceased, which never could be ation in Penella in the time of the Regency considered as bringing him within the de-of Dom Pedro, after having emigrated and scription of persons specified in the decree resided during Dom Miguel's reign in Belof the 30th of the preceding August. gium. On his return he enrolled himself For these and other reasons the judges in the battalion of students, and attached gave their decision in favor of the plaintiff himself to the Minister of Dom Pedro, on the 14th of October, 1833. 'It was Silva Carvalho, whose servant he became clear the process in itself was faulty, the in all servile obsequiousness. He obtained sequester untenable, and consequently the from him the appointment of Judge of the proceeding a wrong.' Relaçao of the Azores. There he was elected a deputy for St. Michaels, and in 1836, he commenced his political career in Portugal, as a furious democratic member of a revolutionary club called the Camilla Club, composed of men of known violent opinions. He contributed largely to effect the revolution of 1836, which set aside the charter of Dom Pedro of 1826, and rose to office on the tumultuous waves of that revolution. This scandalous act of malversation and oppression, the imprisonment of an old sickly man of seventy years of age, on a trumped up charge of disaffection to the state, the plunder of his property, and the terrifying to death of the old man who was the victim of this atrocious conspiracy, went unpunished. Nay, in a few years its commission was no impediment to the perpetrators filling the highest offices of the state. For perfidy to all parties, there appears This dismissed officer was subsequently to be nothing like his conduct to be met appointed by the Queen to the high post with in the career of any living politician. of Civil Governor of Lisbon, and one of He was not long in the Cortes before he the Lords of the Treasury; in February, declared himself against his patron, Silva 1846, he was made a Councillor of State, Carvalho, whom eight years later he turned and Minister of Justice and Religion, by out of his place of president of the Suher present majesty, or rather her majesty preme Tribunal of Justice. The cause of was compelled by her Minister of the In- this hostility was a fraternal one: Carvalho terior, the brother of Dom Joze, to appoint would not reappoint his dismissed brother him, nay, even two months ago, to delegate Joze to the magistracy. He next attached to him powers of a regal kind, with author- himself to an influential public man, Vieira ity over all officers in the kingdom, civil de Castro, by whose aid he got returned and military. This energetic gentleman for a continental place, which was then a gained an entire ascendency over those very important matter to him. Not long high and influential persons at the palace afterwards he became the persecutor to the who take upon themselves the gravest res-death of this same Vieira Castro. ponsibilities of the state, with very weak judgments for guidance or control in any serious emergencies. The new court favorite was cried up by all the organs and agents of government as a man of extraordinary energy and talent; but though endowed with good abilities he was totally destitute of prudence, full of ungovernable violence, ever eagerly bent on gain, and singularly heedless of public opinion with respect to the means of acquiring it. The younger brother, Antonio Bernado It was after he had entered the Cortes a second time that he became the favorite demagogue of a revolutionary party, and was the idol of that club whose frenzy extended even to plans of assassination, nay of regicide; plans deliberately laid before it by Senhor Antonio Cabral. The Marat of Lisbon, however, was destined to be converted into something between a Richelieu and a Law of South Sea celebrity. He was brought into the ministry by Bomfim, and was the bitter enemy of the Catistas, (especially of the Marshals Terceira and Saldanha, in their rebellion of 1837,) intrigued against Bomfim, by whom he had been brought into the ministry, heated the public mind against the government, and eventually, when the people proceeded to violence, had them mowed down by the military. A considerable number of his former democratic associates of the arsenal faction were slaughtered in the Roçiosquare, in Lisbon. Ministry after ministry was formed and broke down. Senhor Antonio Cabral had the art to embroil his colleagues, and was especially active and successful in his intrigues against every public man by whom he had been brought into notice, or in any wise benefited. It is needless to say that his enemies were numerous; but in proportion as he grew unpopular with his friends and the public, he became a favorite at court. even had the air of measures of revenge. In Having as usual betrayed his latest benefactor, Bomfim, on the 7th of March, 1838, These things were looked upon at the and caused his fall (just as he had ousted court, and by the majority of the Cortes, as his friend Soares Caldeira from his office acts of energy not quite formal, indeed, but in the police, and placed himself in his expedient; the acts of a strong ministry stead), his political ascendency was no lon- that had the army at its back-that susger a matter of doubt. Thus far success- tained order and public credit. The enful, he turned altogether against his old ergy beyond the law brought law and order, democratic associates, and showed no mer- however, into disrepute; a revolt took cy to them when they attempted to carry place in 1843, and the strong government out even the least reprehensible of his own had great difficulty in putting it down. doctrines. Some of his lessons were in- The finances from the day this minister deed of a very atrocious kind, if the ac- came into power, became more and more counts, not of two or three, but of several embarrassed. The stocks, however, were of his confidential friends err not. On one supported for the time being but by ruinous occasion he is said to have counselled the means-by an organized system of loan members of the Camilla Club to make making, anticipation of revenue, and stockaway with three public men, the Count jobbing operations carried on with monopoBomfim, Julio Sanches, and the Baron list companies of capitalists created exRibeira Saborosa. It would be easy,' he pressly for dealings with government, and said, 'to make an entrance into the house contracts with it of an exclusive kind-for of the first-named of these persons by the which in several instances enormous sums, window from a neighboring wall; the in what is called empenhas, were paid to house of the second could be got into by two individuals of the government (the the roof, which was low and easily reached; Cabrals). Venality had reached such a and that of the third was to be entered by pitch, that the prices of contracts became buying the tenant of the first story, and familiar topics. The tobacco, the soap, the from the window of it passing to the sec-powder, and the road contracts were reguond.' This ingenious device however was larly bought and sold in this manner; and too atrocious for his associates, and was not put into practice. The only motive for planning it was, that those liberals did not go far enough in their liberalism, for the fervid patriotism of this red-hot demagogue of 1836. In his parliamentary and ministerial career, he mingled too much of his passions with his public proceedings, petty animosities guided his politics, his acts of justice sums were paid for them varying in amount from twenty to fifty contos, that is, from 4500l. to 12,2501. sterling each. Nay, in one instance 100 contos were offered for a contract, and refused as too small a sum. The terrible evil of this great public immorality was that officials in subordinate situations took advantage of the notoriety of this fact to obtain money of applicants for places. The disposal of offices in the pro |