126 



PORTUGAL. 



Revenue. 



Portugal, taining 14,000 monks; that of convents 150, contain- 

 '**-/"'' ing 10,000 nuns. The secular clergy amount to above 

 22,000. There are two archbishops and thirteen bi- 

 shops ; the archbishop of Lisbon is honoured with the 

 title of patriarch, is a cardinal and chaplain to the king. 

 It may not be improper to state, that in the colonies the 

 Roman Catholic is the established religion, and exhi- 

 bits the same features as in the mother country. In con- 

 sequence of the number of monasteries, and the rapacity 

 of the dignified clergy, a large portion of the best land in 

 the kingdom is in the hands of the church ; and is thus 

 excluded from the enterprising efforts of private indi- 

 viduals, and the cultivation to which it might other- 

 wise be subjected. The court of Rome participates 

 largely in the ecclesiastical government, reserving to 

 itself the confirmation of the prelates and the regula- 

 tion of the taxes payable by the church. Some im- 

 provements have of late been made. The power of the 

 clergy has been much diminished ; their number con- 

 siderably lessened ; the inquisition, as just stated, abo- 

 lished. The collision of the Portuguese with the Eng- 

 lish during the peninsular war, has inspired them with 

 more enlightened and liberal views, and has rendered 

 them ambitious of rivalling the more refined nations of 

 Europe in literary attainments, and in civil and reli- 

 gious liberty. 



The revenue of Portugal is estimated at about four 

 millions sterling; an amount sufficiently limited, but 

 fortunately little encumbered by the burdens of the 

 funding system, the public debt not exceeding twelve 

 millions. The sources of this revenue are the customs, 

 the excise, (to which the clergy are subject,) the domains 

 still belonging to the crown, and a monopoly of the trade 

 in tobacco, and formerly of the precious stones of Brazil. 

 The customs are excessively productive ; foreign mer- 

 chandise pays twenty-three per cent, on importation, 

 and fish from Newfoundland twenty-five. Fish taken 

 in the neighbouring seas and rivers pays twenty-seven 

 per cenl. ; while the tax upon land and cattle that are 

 sold is ten per cent. The king draws a considerable 

 revenue from the several orders of knighthood, of 

 which he is grand master. He also gets the money 

 arising from indulgences, a small return made him by 

 the pope for the large sums his holiness draws out of 

 his dominions. The king, with whom rests the nomi- 

 nation of church dignitaries, reserves to himself a 

 fourth of their income. Some of these sources of 

 royal income are now, in consequence of the Revo- 

 lution in 1820, either much modified, or are virtually 

 abolished. 



With this limited revenue, Portugal cannot be ex- 

 pected to possess a large military force. This force 

 has, for the last fifty or sixty years, been gradually in- 

 creasing, both in number and respectability. '* But 

 at the beginning of the war of 1762," we are told by 

 Mr. Murphy, " the army was in a most wretched state, 

 scarcely amounting to ten thousand men ; most of 

 whom were peasants, embodied in haste, without uni- 

 foi-ms, without arms, 'asking charity ; whilst the offi- 

 cers served at the table of their colonels." And the 

 improvements that have since taken place, both in 

 point of discipline and numbers, have resulted chiefly 

 from the management and command having been put 

 into the hands of foreign generals. Before the late in- 

 vasion of Portugal by France, the land forces amounted 

 to thirty thousand men ; and the marine comprised 

 twenty sail of the line, besides frigates, corvettes, and 

 sloops. During the war, resources were called forth 

 which the nation never had imagined it possessed ; 



5 



Military 

 force. 



and the Portuguese army, during this eventful struggle, Portugal, 

 recruited by British funds, and disciplined by British > ~ v^-" 

 officers, became such as to vindicate the former re- 

 nown of their country. Troops, notorious before for 

 indolence, want of discipline, and filthiness, became 

 cleanly in their persons and dress, skilful and active ; 

 and bore no inconsiderable share in routing and ex- 

 pelling the invading armies when their dearest privi- 

 leges, and their very existence as a nation were threaten- 

 ed. The spirit and firmness exhibited at Busaco, 

 Fuentes, Albuera, Salamanca, will ever redound to their 

 honour, and show that they want only discipline and 

 experience to equal in character British, French, or 

 German troops. The large standing army which Por- 

 tugal now possesses, affords proof that she has availed 

 herself of the advantages she enjoyed under skilful 

 commanders during the Peninsular war. But since the 

 court emigrated to Brazil, she has allowed her navy to 

 dwindle, insomuch that she has now few large ships 

 capable of warlike operations. Her naval force indeed 

 is not estimated above fifteen frigates. 



Owing to the revolution of 1820, to the counter- re- Coimitw- 

 volution which has lately (1823) taken place, and to tietu 

 the consequent unsettled state of the kingdom, it is im- 

 possible to say what the present constitution is, or what 

 may be the result of the circumstances in which she is 

 placed. In giving the history of the kingdom in a 

 subsequent part of this article, we shall briefly give an 

 account of these revolutions; and, under the present 

 head, shall confine ourselves to an expose of the consti- 

 tution and government, as they existed previously to 

 the year 1820, when the ancient regime was abolished, 

 and a democracy endeavoured to be established in its 

 stead. The former constitution was a hereditary mon- 

 archy of the most absolute and despotical kind. The 

 people had no share in the direction of government, in 

 enacting of laws,, or in the regulation of agriculture 

 and commerce. Every man was obliged to pay blind 

 and prompt obedience to whatever decrees and laws 

 were promulgated by his sovereign, without even dar- 

 ing to give a hint about the oppression under which he 

 groaned. The great boards or councils themselves, 

 which carried on the administration, had no check or 

 even voice in the measures that were adopted, but impli- 

 citly obeyed the orders of the king. Portugal had former- 

 ly indeed its cortes or representative body as in Spain; 

 but till 1820, they had not been assembled since 1697, 

 and the legislative, as well as the executive power was 

 vested solely in the monarch. So emphatically indeed 

 was this the case, that the preamble of every new law 

 was in these words : " I, the king, in virtue of my own 

 certain knowledge, of my royal will and pleasure, and 

 of my full, supreme, and arbitrary power, which I hold 

 only of God, and for which I am accountable to no man 

 on earth, do in consequence order and command," 

 &c. The crown of Portugal was hereditary ; but " by 

 the fundamental laws," says the writer last quoted, " it 

 is ordained that in case of the king's demise, without 

 male issue, he shall be succeeded by his next brother ; 

 but the male issue of this brother shall not ascend the 

 throne without being previously elected king by the 

 states. By the same law, it is ordained that the suc- 

 cession in default of male issue shall devolve on the 

 female line, on condition that the princess marry a 

 Portuguese nobleman. The husband in this case must 

 not assume the title of king till he shall have a male 

 child by the queen. When in her company he shall 

 always take his place at her left hand ; and he must 

 never wear the royal crown." The administration was 



