PROSPECTS OF PORTUGAL. 183 



of the provinces, notwithstanding that the two in our rear were now 

 almost wholly disencumbered from the enemy's presence." Had 

 Don Pedro, or his advisers have possessed one grain of common sense, 

 it would have taught them that no party really existed in the country 

 in their favour ; or if there did, it was but a mere fraction of the popu- 

 lation, whose co-operation could not be calculated upon as an element 

 of success. To have insured this, they should have been pre- 

 pared to have treated the business ab initio, as purely a military 

 question. Until now they have maintained their position at Oporto 

 by a miracle ; and the history of the pigmy war is contained in a 

 single distich of Boileau 



" Et la mauvaise conduite du compagnon de Paul Emile, 

 Fit toute la gloire cTHannibal." 



To the blind fatuity of the Miguelite chiefs, rather than to his own 

 power, Don Pedro may thank his stars for not having been driven 

 with his army into the sea, three days after his landing. 



The absolute indifference shewn by the people of Portugal to the 

 success of the constitutional cause will be regarded as an evil omen 

 to the future progress of the human race ; but it would be unfair to 

 measure this people by the standards of those nations which at present 

 occupy the culminating point of civilization. The Portuguese are 

 remarkable for their attachment, their reverential respect towards the 

 customs of their ancestors : debased by ages of misrule and supersti- 

 tion, their very indolence even renders them hostile to innovation, 

 and those who attempt it never fail to bring down on their heads the 

 obloquy of the nation. But it is not to the operations of these 

 feelings alone that we must attribute the lukewarmness of the Portu- 

 guese in the cause of liberty ; they entertain an inveterate antipathy 

 to Don Pedro himself, at whose door they lay all the evils of their 

 country ; whose ambition inflicted on its political greatness a blow 

 from which it never can recover ; whose own career has been marked 

 by phases as black as even those of his brother Miguel. To the po- 

 litical profligacy of the men by whom he is surrounded, who were 

 formerly the fanatic champions of despotism, until their own sagacity 

 and sordid self interest taught them that there was now more to be 

 gained by playing the liberal than the servile. To the intimate con- 

 viction of the nation that under such men the only constitution they 

 could obtain would be a paper one, accorded to flatter the vanity of 

 the nation, but the liberal provisions of which would be merely in- 

 tended for their perusals in short, that the only change to be effected 

 would be one of men and not of measures or if there were any in 

 the latter, that it would be devoted against their most cherished pre- 

 judices ; to these causes may, in a great degree, be ascribed the 

 cry of " viva el Rey absolute, who has sworn to maintain the statu 

 quo." 



In order to elucidate more clearly our position, it will be necessary 

 to devote a short space to Don Miguel himself, on whose head every 

 term of obloquy and reproach, which this or any other language can 

 convey, has, with justice, been heaped. Still the legitimacy of his 

 claim to the throne of Portugal, according to the ancient statute of 



