512 Affairs in General. ‘[Nov. 
blockade by this time exists neither in fact nor intention ; and no neces- 
sity or expediency happily can yet be made out for going to war. 
Turn we now to another quarter, of which it will be quite impossible 
to make a grave matter—we mean Portugal. Now that Mr. Canning is 
gone, and all his oratory with him, we are of course not going‘ to war in 
this direction—either against Miguel, or for Don Pedro, or Donna 
Maria—no, nor even for the exclusive possession of the produce of all her 
vineyards. But to make out the right or the wrong of the policy which 
the government are pursuing, is beyond all common sagacity—there is 
no understanding it. If one act tells one way, the next tells another. So, 
for the present, we leave the matter. But the arrival of the new queen’s 
little majesty has puzzled the papersa good deal. The Morning Post 
informed us one day the visit was wholly unexpected ; and the next, that 
a house was to be taken for her in the country, to prosecute her educa- 
tion under English teachers. One day we learned she was to be honoured 
-with all sorts of distinctions; and the next, on the best authority, that 
the two royal carriages would be withdrawn in a few days, and even the 
two rattle-trap sentry-boxes at Grillon’s, propped up, very Lusitanicé, 
with broken bricks, removed. But the said sentry-boxes have béen since 
replaced with two nearly sound ones, standing, still with the aid of a 
stone or two, quite perpendicular; and the minister himself, in full 
feather and “ order,” has made his bow, and entered, it séems, into a 
political discussion with her on her very delicate position ; after which 
her majesty complimented him very prettily, by telling him she knew 
he had been her “august” grandfather’s preserver, ard hoped he 
would be her’s; and at the same time, according to the caricatures— 
which are sometimes excellent authorities—taking certain freedoms with 
his grace’s nose. The only bit of common-sense which breaks through 
the ceremony with which she has been so absurdly treated, was intro- 
ducing to her Punch and Judy—with which she naturally was highly 
delighted, and testified that delight by insisting on giving the exhibitor 
a couple of six-and-thirties. The Falmouth people—they are at the 
Land’s End—must be for ever memorable: the mayor and aldermen, 
accompanied by a file of “honorary police,” each adorned with a rosette, 
and armed with a pike, actually read the young lady an address of wel- 
come and self-gratulation on their felicity in receiving her majesty on 
their happy shore. At Bath—the seat and centre of frivolity for a cen- 
tury past—the same farce was more naturally performed. No notice; we 
have been assured, has yet been given for a Common Hall, in the city, 
to take up a dutiful address. Lord Lucan’s house, at Laleham, was, 
‘according to the papers, a few days ago given up, as lying low, and too 
near the river, and likely to be injurious to her health ;—and low, indeed, 
we remember it does lie—for, whenever the river floods, the grounds, 
like Chertsey, are all under water. But she goes, it seems, notwith- 
standing—and notwithstanding, also, we suppose, Dr. Maculloch’s pro- 
test against the malaria. 
And apropos of Dr. Maculloch—this reminds us of the Quarterly _ 
Journal of Science, upon which, on view and inquest of several numbers, 
if it were not redeemed, occasionally, by a little chemistry, we should _ 
be disposed to inflict none of the most flattering epithets. And even 
their communications on chemistry, the learned professors of Albe- 
marle Street, in common indeed with other professors, are daily -wrap- 
