King Louis of Portugal died at 11 a.m. on Saturday,
at the age of fifty-one, after a reign of twenty-eight years. He was• a well-meaning King, not illiberal, who had some ability for choosing competent advisers. His Kingdom advanced under his reign, which was marked by the nominal abolition of' slavery, and by a revival of colonial enterprise in the direction of acquiring African territory. His Government is even now claiming dominion from Mosambique to Benguela, a broad. belt stretching right across Africa, and barring out this country from any trade to the north of the Zambesi. King Louis was succeeded by his eldest son, the Duke of Braganza, under the title of Charles I., who has confirmed his father's Ministers in their posts. His wife is daughter of the Comte de Paris, who will perhaps advise him that to lie across the rails when the engine is at speed is not a safe position. A compromise with Portugal by territorial exchanges should be possible ; but she cannot have, as Lord Salisbury has already told her, the sovereignty of the Zambesi, the northern entrance to our South African dominion. The people of the Dobrudscha might as well claim the sovereignty of the Danube.
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