Portugal—" has had another revolution ?"—Not yet ; but is
undergoing the vast change of witnessing no change for several months. On the contrary, the Liberal Minister strengthens his position and grows more and more despotic every week. lie has not only effected some useful financial and other reforms, but has instituted a system of domiciliary visits, and has decreed his own power to shift the Judges from place to place, in order that he may pack the Bench as well as the Jury, and secure convictions against his opponents. Such is the tale. Some ex-Ministers have protested against his being so "unconstitutional," and th t..re is some popular "excitement"; but such vigorous proceedings promise to overawe opposition better than the strange dalliance with rebel troops at Almeida during the last revolution. Even the political by- stander who wishes well to Liberal institutions can scarcely regret the concentration of power, if it be real. In Portugal there has been a conflict, not of opinions — they do not deserve the name, but of crude notions ; not of powerful "interests," for what we call "interests" have often been powerless, but of adventurers' inte- rests—newspaper interests, guerilla, smuggling, and peculating in- terests. That the people do not know what they think, what they want, or what they fear, is proved by their so frequent revolutions. Perhaps the best thing to bring their experiences and noti:as to a focus — objectively to shape public opinion — v'ouid be the growth of a very strong despotic Governmo..i. It might esta- blish a sort of discipline, organize &Atte elements of order, habi- tuate the people to some regular action ; and, when become into- lerable, it might bring about an effectual reaction. Perhaps that is COSTA CABRAL'S view ; and with immense foresight, and greater devotion than Quintus Curtius, he sacrifices himself to a repute for tyranny, in order to provoke his countrymen to a deliberate re- sistance that may destroy him but save them !
