1822.] 
that if the base arts of these vile calum- 
niators were retorted upon administration, 
no government could withstand them. If 
they were calculated, then, to batter down 
a government, what stand could isolated 
individuals be expected to make against 
them? The process of terrifying and 
frightening a man from his duty was easy 
according to this project; for were he a 
father, it was only tosend him an anony- 
mous threat, that if he attempted to do 
such an act, he should read the following 
Sunday such or such a story of his wife, 
his son, or his daughter. On the subject 
of the grievances which now weighed 
down the country, he fully concurred in 
the opinion, that their immediate cause 
was excessive taxation. The goverament 
had long tried to divide and distract the 
public attention, to set off the agriculturist 
against the manufacturer, and, vice versa— 
to concede this point, aud form that com- 
mittee, until they had at length made such 
a juggle of all the interests of society, that 
none could extricate themselves from the 
mass of confusion which alike perplexed 
all. This was exactly what the miuisters 
aimed at, and from it the country had no 
chance of disengaging itself, but by a long 
pull, astrong pull, and a pull altogether. 
As to the remedy, the first step was natu- 
rally to remove the cause of that taxation 
which was the immediate-evil. He was 
perfectly convinced, and he spoke it with- 
out pledging himself to specific details, or 
shutting out particular qualifications, that 
a rational reform in Parliament could alone 
saye the country.” 
f FRANCE. . 
In our last we noticed a change in 
the French king’s ministers, by which 
the faction of the ultra-royalists had 
displaced the sort of middle party, 
which had for some time directed the 
French councils. Such men _ were, 
however, not likely to be acceptable to 
the nation, and the measures which 
they have proposed prove that they are 
more likely that their predecessors to 
dispense with the charter to which the 
Bourbons owe their restoration. As 
the Censorship of the press was no lon- 
ger tolerable, these men have proposed 
to place the press out of the protection 
of the law, and to treat its agents as so 
many outlaws. Thus a royal com- 
mission is proposed to be erected to try 
what the ministers consider offences of 
the press, in exclusion of juries and all 
usual forms. The subject is in course 
of debate while this article is written ; 
and it is to be hoped that so audacious 
a project, directed against tie first 
principles of liberty, will be repelled 
Political Affairs in January. 
79 
by a large majority. As far as the de- 
bate had proceeded, according to the 
last mail, more zeal and talent has not 
been exerted since the year 1789; whe- 
ther the results will be similar to those 
of that famous year, time will shew. 
A considerable sensation has been 
produced all over Europe, during the 
month, by an eloquent petition of au 
English gentleman cf the name of 
Loveday, to the Chamber of Deputies, 
complaining of the seduction of two 
daughters, whom he had placed in a 
Paris boarding-school, to the tenets of 
the Catholic religion. Indeed, it ap- 
pears from this document, and from all 
other information, that religions fana- 
tics are at this time as busy in France, 
as they are in England; and that cer- 
tain zealots, who think their power 
greater than that of omnipoteace, are 
thrusting forward their unhallowed 
services, in promoting certain modes of 
faith to which these poor creatures are 
attached. In France, this fanatical 
spirit is more operative, because it has 
but one direction, in favour of Popery ; 
but happily in England it is neutralized 
by the opposite directions in which it 
acts, and by the varied modes of faith 
which our zealots inculcate, 
PORTUGAL. 
The Cortes of Portugal are proving 
themselves one of the most enlightened 
bodies of legislators in Europe. They 
listen to the voice of philosophy, as 
will be seen by the following docu- 
ments :— 
Translation of a Minute from the Jour- 
nals of the Portugueze Cortes. 
Read by Secretary Freire a Letter, 
presented by Senhor Sepulveda, to whom 
it had been addressed by Senhor Carvatho, 
Member of the Regency of the Kingdom,* 
along with the works of Jeremy Bentham, 
offered by their venerable author to the 
Portugueze nation ; in which letter of Sen- 
hor Carvalho it was said, that the writer 
could not give a more authentic testimony 
of the value he set upon so flattering au 
offering than by accompanying it with a 
wish, that, in their practice, the Cortes 
may take for their guidance the liberal 
doctrines of the principal and earliest 
constitutionalist of Europe. 
Penetrated with those sentiments of 
esteem that are so justly due to the illus- 
trious Bentham—to that sage by whose 
* This body is composed of four mem- 
bers: the Conde de Sampaio, President, 
and Messrs. Carvalho, de Sao Lecis, and 
Soto Maior, 
luminous 
