472 The King's Speech— [Nov. 



less of being ever able to marry her own uncle, — and the royal claims of 

 Don Pedro himself, whose experience in the ways of being turned out 

 of one throne, must operate as an irresistible qualification for liis ruling 

 another. 



Again, we say, what have we to do with these coxcombs ? Is there a 

 hair's breadth between the rights, the merits, or the mediocrity of both. 

 Should we possess the honour of the ex-emperor of Rio Janeiro's friend- 

 ship an hour longer than we should that of the ex-king's, if we turned 

 him out to-morrow? Let Don Pedro then go to dejeunes and dinners in 

 such a display of royal moustaches as never were exhibited on the human 

 visage before, nor on any animal visage, except the Duke of Cumber- 

 land's, or a white bear's. Let hira levee princesses, and attend duchesses 

 to routs ; or let him exhibit himself round Europe in his most glittering 

 uniform, the very hero of melodrame, and the envy of Monsieur Ducrow. 

 But let not this raiabling Portuguese think that England will fire a shot 

 to place hira on any better throne than the cushions at Grillon's hotel. 

 We are sick of spending our money, or throwing away our blood, upon 

 the quarrels of those pampered children, who arrive at manhood foolish 

 as ever, adding nothing but age to puerility, and who must be taught 

 by stern experience that the hearts and heads of men are not made for 

 [ their idle pleasure. 



The breaking up of the Oporto monopoly has, we must confess, our 

 strongest approbation. Monopolies of all kinds are only a cover for ex- 

 tortion ; and the foolery which would tell us that a treaty is beneficial 

 which compels us to pay to strangers ten times the value of a commodity, 

 merely on the ground that those strangers purchase a certain quantity of 

 our manufactures (which are essential to them, and for which they must 

 pay double in any other quarter), ought to have been exploded long 

 since. We shall soon have the best wines of Portugal at the lowest 

 price, and the Portuguese wearer of oiir cloths will have in return just 

 as much of our manufactures as he wants. It is absurd to say that he 

 ever would have had more. The policy of supporting Portugal against 

 French or Spanish invasion will not be altered by our drinking port 

 wine of a better quality and at a cheaper rate. The Portuguese farmer 

 will not soften his inveterate hatred to the Spaniard, by the diminution 

 of sixpence a bottle in his wine ; nor feel himself more disposed to be 

 robbed by French dragoons, or torn by French grape-shot, from the cir- 

 cumstance that he sells his vintage direct, and puts into his own pocket 

 the tax which he was once forced to pay to the chartered monopolists of 

 Oporto. We may fairly leave matters of this kind to the course of 

 human things. 



The King's speech pronounces that no nation gives evidence of hostile 

 intentions towards his Majesty's realm. Hostile intentions are not usually 

 declared till they are on the verge of action. But whether England is 

 to be entangled in war, or to escape, the whole continent holds itself yet 

 in the most manifest preparation for war. All is recruiting, drilling, 

 marching, and countermarching ; autumn encampments in one province, 

 sanitary cordons in another, and corps of observation in a third. Prussia 

 boasts of having at tliis moment 300,000 men under arms, Austria half 

 a million, Russia a million. France from time to time issues a half-ma- 

 nifesto, and flashes in the world's eyes her five hundred thousand braves, 

 backed by her two millions of national guards, and those again backed 

 by a population of two-and-thirty millions ! every one of whom, she 



