England a main instrument for the mightier task which England had then to perform. We brought hither councils, arms, and British discipline and British valor. We found here willing hearts and active hands-a confiding government -a people brave and enduring, docile in instruction, faithful in following, patient under privations not to be subdued by disaster, and not to be intoxicated by success. The arm of England was the lever that wrenched the power of Buonaparte from its basis; Portugal was the fulcrum on which that lever moved. England fanned and fed that sacred fire; but Portugal had already reared the altar on which that fire was kindled, and from which it mounted, brightening and widening, until the world was illuminated with the blaze."

And, my Lord, do we owe no debt of gratitude for all this? Are these services so soon forgotten? Or are those, by whom they were rendered, to be condemned again to endure the scourge of lawless power and oppression? Are men who so lately could do such deeds as these for the freedom of their country, now to be considered as undeserving of our regard; or shall we pronounce them unfit to enjoy the benefits of institutions, which a beneficent monarch has legitimately bestowed on them? The whole of our long alliance with Portugal has been a continued series of acts of friendship and protection, performed by great sacrifices and great efforts in favor of her freedom and independence. Yet shall the best and most valued proof of our interest and sincerity now be withheld? Portugal can never become happy, independent, and secure, unless her inhabitants are raised from the degra dation in which they have been so long sunk. This, their late monarch himself avowed. He even dared to point out the means by which so desirable an object might be obtained. Unhappily, he was thwarted in his good wishes by that very same class of intrigues and machinations now preparing to entrap the future Regent, and the consequences are still before our eyes. By a timely effort, on our part, we may yet place the Portuguese in a situation no longer to dread the intrigues of a Pamplona, or the Lettres-de-cachet of a Randuffe. One half of the pains taken, one half of the energies employed, and one half of the strong and threatening advice used to put down the Pamplona ministry, and induce the acknowlegement of the Independence and Separation of Brazil, would shield the Charter from the insidious plots of its enemies, and render the benign intentions of its illustrious foun-. der permanently triumphant. We have only to will it, and the work is done. And in performing this act of friendship

and justice, whose anger is it we have to fear? Is it that of མ་ Spain?

Our policy, with regard to King Ferdinand's government, seemed to be made up, when our late Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed to the Spanish envoy in London his memorable answer of the 25th of March, 1825. From that moment, we were prepared to expect no other than acts of insincerity and contrarieties from the ruler of Spain. In this, I am led to think, we were not mistaken. In upholding the Portuguese Charter, we cannot, however, fear the resentment of France, since, after the public and repeated declarations she has put forth, she cannot now step forward as the champion of the Spanish Apostolicals; nor dare she undertake an open war against institutions, as legitimate as her own. She would never take so awful a responsibility on her shoulders. When England, in 1824, interposed her trident between America and Europe; when she boldly avowed her new policy, and silenced the cries of those who would still gladly have deluged the New World with blood and desolation, in order to restore the dominion of Spain, war was not the result. On the contrary, Europe was reconciled to the measure, and most of the powers soon followed our example. Ill-will was, no doubt, felt somewhere; yet no one, except Spain, ventured to contest our right, and she did not dare to resent the measure in any other way than remonstrance. The parties, then offended, are the very same who now endeavor to put down the Portuguese Charter, partly out of hostility to us. Yet, is it their anger we are afraid again to brave?

The dawn of freedom in Portugal is, my Lord, most auspicious; and it would be a singular circumstance, if such an event were not interesting to that nation, in which alone the spirit of real liberty is supposed to dwell. When the friend of humanity, in whose heart education has engraved the horror of injustice and a solicitude for the happiness of mankind, casts his eyes over the crimsoned pages of that portion of Spanish history, which comprehends Ferdinand's reign of terror, from the year 1814, with only a short interval, up to the present time, he must shudder at the idea of the Apostolicals gaining an ascendancy in Portugal. They are now, however, again marshalling all their strength, and preparing to act, nay, even before the future Regent returns to Lisbon. All possible plots and machinations will be resorted to; yet we have only to second the benevolent wishes of King Peter IV., and in a firm and manly way throw the weight of our influence and good offices into the opposite scale, and the

triumph is secure. One single act of enlightened policy will place the Charter beyond danger, when Portugal will be at peace and prosper. She will then, and then only, recover from her past misfortunes. Under a wise administration, she still possesses all the elements necessary to constitute an efficient and powerful kingdom. She has still dependencies enough proportioned to her size. The Azores and other Islands, as well as her Eastern Colonies, properly administered, offer inexhaustible resources to her commerce and navigation. These, and many other dormant ones which she possesses within herself, would be gradually developed, if she has only the aid of liberal institutions. All, my Lord, will be lost if the Charter is overthrown: nay, I will venture to add, if vengeance and monachism triumph in the Peninsula ; if the Imperial power is shook in Brazil; or, if Bolivar is lost to Colombia, the destinies of those three interesting portions of the globe will stand still for the next twenty years.

BRIEF REFLECTIONS

AND

SUGGESTIONS

REGARDING SEVERAL SUBJECTS INTIMATELY CONNECTED WITH

THE POWER AND PROSPERITY

OF THE

BRITISH EMPIRE.

Great vinta

IN TWO PARTS.-PART II.

[Concluded from No. LV.]

LONDON:-1827.

CHAP. VI.

Colonies-Policy of endowing them with governments in an infant state which will be suitable to them in adult independence-Exemplified in the relative conditions of the North American and West India coloniesExpensive and impolitic mode of governing the latter-Changes suggested - Benefits arising from a gradual equalisation of rights among the popu lation there-Justice and policy of admitting colonies to elect generally their own civil officers-Improper description of individuals frequently sent out to fill these situations-Hatred engendered against the mother-country in consequence-Necessity of furnishing codes of instructions to governors -Advantages resulting from exposés of the annual improvements and finances of respective colonies, and of having the salaries of governors paid from the colonial revenue-Benefits of encouraging European colonisation in India-Instruction and christianising of the natives, and qualifying them for offices there equally with Europeans.

IN

the settling of colonies, their governments ought to be modelled after the shape such will naturally assume when the respective countries to which they are adapted arrive at a state of maturity, because the period ought always to be looked forward o when colonies will as naturally throw off the control of the nother country, as a child will that of its parent; and therefore nstitutions ought to be adapted to it, in its state of infancy, VOL. XXVIII.

Pam.

NO. LVI.

Y