S5B PORTUGAL. 



and a correspondence with Goa, their chief settlement in the East 

 Indies. , and their other -possessions there, as Diu, Daman, Macao, 6cc 



Constitution, government, and laws... .The crown of Portugal 

 is absolute ; but the nation still prest! vcs an appearance of itb ancient 

 free constitution, in the meeting of the cortes, or staus, consistingj 

 of clergy, nobility, and commons. Tney pretend to a right of being 

 consulted upon the imposition of new taxes; but the only real power 

 they have, is, that their assent is necessary in every new regulation. 

 with regard to the succession. In this they are indulged, to prevent 

 all future disputes on that account. 



This government was, not long since, the most despotic in Europe. 

 The established law was generally a dead letter, excepting where its 

 decrees were carried into execution by the supplementary mandates 

 of the sovereign, which were generally employed in defeating the 

 purposes ot safety and protection, wnich law is calculated to extend 

 equally over all the subjects. 



The people had no more share in the direction of government, in 

 enacting of laws, and in the regulating of agriculture and commerce, 

 than they have in the government of Russia, or China The far 

 greater part knew nothing of what was done in that respect- Every- 

 man had no other alternative but to yield a blind and ready obedience, 

 in whatever concerned himself, to the decrees and laws of the king, 

 as promulgated from time to time by his secretaries of state. The 

 preamble of every new law published run thus : " /, 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, I do, incon- 

 sequence, order and command," C7c. &c. 



The absence of the royal family, in Brasil, and the intercourse 

 ■which has been so closely maintained with the English, for several 

 years past, has given the Portuguese a taste for political liberty, of 

 which it will be difficult again to deprive them. 



All great preferments, both spiritual and temporal, are disposed of 

 in the council of state, which is composed of an equal number of 

 the clergy and nobility, with the secretary of state. A council of war 

 regulates all military affairs, as the treasury courts do the finances. 

 The council of the palace is the highest tribunal that can receive 

 appeals, but the Casa da Supplicacao is a tribunal from which no 

 appeal can be brought. The laws of Portugal are contained in three 

 duodecimo volumes, and have the civil law for their foundation. 



Revenues... .The revenues of the crown amount to about 16,000,000 

 of dollars annually. The customs and duties on goods exported and 

 imported are excessive, and farmed out. Foreign merchandise pays 

 twenty-three per cent, on importation, and fish from Newfoundland 

 twenty-five per cent. Fish taken in the neighbouring seas and rivers 

 pays twenty-seven per cent, and the tax upon lands, and cattle that 

 are sold, is ten per cent. The king derives a considerable revenue 

 from the several orders of knighthood of which be is grand-master. 

 The pope, in consideration of the large sums he draws out of Portugal, 

 gives the king the money arising from indulgences, and licences to 

 eat flesh at times prohibited, See. The national debt is upwards of 

 20,000,000 of dollars. 



Army, navy.. ..In the late reign, though they received the most 

 effectual assistance from England, when invaded by the French and 

 Spaniards, his most faithful majesty judged it expedient to raise a 



