1829. ] Popery in Portugal. 49 
performing their devotions in the adjoining chapel, heard a dreadful scream- 
ing from a female voice, but they were afraid to interfere by seeking the cause 
of the distress; when the young creature, having loosened herself from the 
grasp of this pious ruffian, ran into the chapel, calling on the people for 
protection, at the same time explaining the treatment she had experienced. 
“ Soon afterwards, the father of the girl arrived, expecting her to be absolved 
from her sins. When he heard the statement of his child, which was corrobo- 
rated by the spectators in the chapel, he immediately took her away, and 
proceeded to the house of the Bishop of Leiria, and related to him the whole 
transaction. 
** The pious bishop, like a true Jesuit, advised the farmer to ‘ go home, 
and let the affair remain quite quiet, and he would punish the friar for his 
misconduct!’ 
“ The farmer did as he was recommended. But the inhabitants of Leiria 
made the affair a town-talk for a few days, after which nothing more was 
heard of the matter. The ruffian friar was merely removed to a convent near 
Lisbon, as the only punishment for his atrocious conduct! 
“On this occasion, I expressed my surprise to a friend—a worthy sort of 
a man, though a priest—that the bishop should allow such a wretch as. this 
friar to go unpunished. My friend replied, ‘ that it would afford a bad 
example to punish him publicly ; that the bishop had written to the provin- 
cial, or head of the Franciscan monks, to take from this pious friar the power 
of confessing for a certain period, as an atonement for his crime ; and,’ said 
he, ‘ I have no doubt they will carry the sentence into effect.’ 
“J could fill a volume with the most scandalous and revolting transactions 
practised in the convents, and also in private houses throughout Portugal, by 
these reptiles of the creation under the garb of religion, and the sanction of 
the Inquisition; but 1 must defer it to a future occasion.” 
But enough of these villanies, as described by this sworn Roman 
Catholic. Can any thing be so abominable as the picture here exhibited ? 
Surely Don Miguel is a king good enough for the people whom such a 
herd of miscreants govern with sway so absolute. 
We pass by the coarse and unfounded attacks on Lord Beresford, 
whose services to Portugal deserved a treatment totally different. It is, 
however, only comical to hear his Lordship’s manners satirized by such 
a competent judge of high life as a provincial Portuguese ; his Lordship 
can afford to bear with such censure. Had Portugal been governed in 
the spirit which he created during the war, we should not have heard 
of the abuses which make the staple of Mr. Young’s publication. 
We should be most unjust, and most ungallant, if we closed this 
article without saying that the conduct of Mrs. Young, in the distressing 
circumstances in which she was placed, was deserving of the highest 
praise. Her devotion to her husband—her exertions, and her ingenuity, 
confer the greatest honour on her heart and her talents. 
M.M. New Series.—-Vow. VII. No. 37. H 
