over-rule the will, and defeat the wishes of an entire people-too weak to contend against it. The English fleet perpetuated the domination of an usurper, who stretched her despotic powers to such a tension, that they at last broke down in an anarchy, at once as ludicrous as it was discreditable; for then was seen a rebel-Generala field-Marshal-raising the standard of revolt, and the moment he had done so-becoming an exile: then too was seen a commander in chief of an army marching against the rebel general, and in his march deserted by those whose duty it was to follow him-and then came that marvellous incident-persons sent out to discover the hiding place of a Conqueror ! On the one side a successful insurgent recalled to victory by a special messenger; and next a Commander-in-Chief with nobody to obey him! Here an army running away from king Coburg, and there an army running after the fugitive Saldanha! Can we be surprised to learn that the first use which such a conqueror made of his victory was to employ the powers confided to him, to rid himself of the mockery-for so in fact it wasof a representative chamber; and that even whilst we write, the plot should be followed by a counter-plot, and that those who had been untrue to their God, their king, and their country, should be false, deceitful, and treacherous to each other ?* Who that knows all the misdeeds of the "liberals" in Portugal, can be surprised to read the following lines, which we copy from a private letter, not intended for publication, and the author of which, we may observe, an Englishman, had at one time been deluded by the professions of the liberals. "I have, within the last year, travelled (not express,) but by slow journies, from the banks of the Minho, to the confines of the Southern frontiers of Spain; and I feel a pleasure in being able to state, fearless of all mercenary contradictions, that the nineteen-twentieths of the Provinces of the Portuguese Peninsula are the true and warm friends of His Majesty; for they acknowledge in no other that usurped appellation."+ * See Times Newspaper, May 26th, June 2nd, June 5th, 1851. MS. Letter, dated Lisbon, May 14th, 1851. For a comparison between D. Miguel, and the liberals who superseded him, see O Portugal Newspaper, 28th May, 1851. CHAPTER IV. THE recital of the various events that we have given must serve to show that neither in France, in Spain, nor in Portugal, has "liberty" been secured by the triumph of "Liberalism." It shews that "poverty" and "Church plunder" have, at least, kept pace with each other; and that no newly-invented Constitution has imparted to the humbler classes peace, contentment, security, or happiness. And yet, in all these revolutions-revolutions effected by violence, and stained with blood-" the Liberal party" in England have openly sympathised, or directly co-operated. There was no inconsistency in "the Liberal party" so acting; for it also has been a tyrant, a persecutor, and a hypocrite. We are not to judge of that Liberal party by its words, but by its acts. The name of "libe ral" is as fine as it is false, and its deeds are foul. * The Liberal party in England divides itself into two classes-a nobility, and a middle class-a wealthy middle class, that completely corresponds with Louis Blanc's definition of the bourgeoisie. The first have plundered the poor: the second oppress the poor; and they alike demonstrate their hatred of the poor by their persecution of the Catholic Church on the Continent, as in the British dominions. Their sympathies are with petty tyrants, and illegitimate despots; because they are themselves tyrants who cling to a close monopoly, and conceal its despotic working under the high-sounding title of "a glorious constitution in Church and State." A brief glance at the history of the Liberal party in these islands, will demonstrate the truth of our assertions. The English "Liberal party," like many of its imitators abroad, has been pre-eminently successful. Its nobility consist of those who have possessed themselves of Church property-men who are enriched by the spoliation of monasteries; whose palaces were once "Abbeys," their * See History of in Ten Years, Vol. ii., p. 648. villas "Priories," and their preserves for game at one time the corn-producing lands of those needy persons who are now despised as parish paupers. * To preserve the plunder of the Church by the Liberal party at the Reformation, many crimes were committed; and, among the rest, one king was butchered, a second was banished. The direct succession to the throne was broken; and worse, perhaps, than all, for the effects still remain, the military character of the people was emascu The Rev. Mr. Bennett, the Protestant Rector of Knightsbridge, published a pamphlet a short time previous to Lord John Russell's "Durbam letter," and to which pamphlet may, perchance, be partly ascribed the idea of that extraordinary production; for the pamphlet called attention to the plunder of the English Church by the English nobility. Mr. Bennett's statements and calculations, it will be seen by the following extract, must have been very offensive to the feelings of the lay-holders of the property of the Catholic Church: At the dissolution of the religious houses in the reign of Henry VIII., the yearly income thence accruing amounted to £141,000. In a hundred years this would amount to £14,100,000. We ought also to consider the compound interest of the sum as it went on, but, for the sake of being under the mark, let us consider the bare sum without the interest. Then, in the time of Edward VI., 90 colleges, and 110 hospitals, 2,374 chantries and free chapels were dissolved; the amount of this must, therefore, be added, with the value of the furniture, shrines, precious jewels, vestments, painted glass, and the like-all of which has perished. But, again, for the sake of being under the mark, let us take no account of the latter, but consider only the actual income and value of the buildings. It would stand thus: Income of religious houses in the first century after the dissolution (Henry VIII.) ... Ditto of colleges, hospitals, &c. (Edward VI.) ... £14,100,000 2,000,000 1,187,000 1,410,000 Materials of the destroyed abbeys, &c., which were left to rot and perish £18,697,000 But, then, it is said, on the other side, that much of this property has been restored, and that colleges and schools, since the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, have received the benefit of some of the money. Now, the amount of the money so restored was computed by Dr. Willet, in a book called 'Synopsis Papismi,' published in 1634, to be £778,000. There is every reason to think this amount overstated; but assuming that it is right, and therefore deducting it from the sum above-mentioned, what do we find? Money abstracted from God and the Church in the first century after the dissolution Money restored subsequently ... . £18,697,000 778,000 £17,919,000 Total money abstracted from the church But let us consider the value of the money at the present time. If we take the total revenue of the religious houses at £150,000 per annum-if we suppose, with the greater part of modern historians, lated; a naturally brave, bold, and determined population has been converted into a mere mob, a race of slaves like to the dovλor of Athens, who are unskilled in the use of arms, and who, placed in the presence of soldiers, are as helpless and as incapable of resistance as the infuriated and fierce animal that rushes upon its tormentors to be slain by the sword of the accomplished toreador. The monastery has been pulled down, or appropriated to private uses; but in its place have arisen two strange buildings previously unknown in the land-the workhouse on one side, the barrack on the other; the one in which the destitute poor are treated as slaves; the other in which a small portion of the population is abstracted from the rest of the community, kept apart from it, instituted a dominant race, fed and nurtured, and taught the use of arms, in order that it may control the great body of the people, to whom the knowledge and practice of arms have been for ever forbidden; and who, if they attempt to have themselves taught how to make use of them, are liable to be punished as felons. The "barrack system" of England, which has superseded the ancient customs and practice of the country, is the most cunning device of a selfish tyranny; and if it could have been but enforced on the Continent," the Liberals" might have perpetuated their that land has increased tenfold in value since the dissolution-if we double this, on account of the improved state of cultivation, and the easy rents at which the church lands were then let, and this is almost ludicrously below the truth, we shall find that (again leaving interest out of the question,) in the last century, the church has been defrauded of 300,000,000!! Thus: Annual income abstracted, so valued at the time... Value ten times increased since that time ... Double this on account of the improvements in cultivation ... £150,000 £300,000,000 When you consider that this money has been, in many instances, squandered upon vice and infamy, horse-racing, gambling, and selfish luxury, and in many cases in civil wars, violence, and bloodshedwhen you consider who they are that have spent it, and for what; and who they were, and the objects for which it was piously and holily offered and intended, then you will get a notion of the extent of sacrilege of which this country has been guilty. Of the 570 peers who at this moment compose the aristocracy, about 470 are more or less implicated in sacrilege.' domination in security, and the Magyars might tranquilly have rivetted their chains on the limbs of the Croatians. Fools and fanatics, in this country, have been taught to look with dislike upon monasteries and convents, because within their walls are to be found "persons who live apart from the rest of the community;" but what say those fools and fanatics to "the Barracks," where "persons live apart from the rest of the community;" where "obedience to the commanding officer" is the only virtue recognised? In the Monastery the people had persons to pray for them in their sorrows, and to relieve them in their distress; and in the Barrack they only behold persons who, at the word of command, are ready and willing to fight against them; for care is taken that there shall be no sympathy between the armed recluses and the non-combatants; that is, the great bulk of the population to whom the use of arms is forbidden. To the nobility of the Liberal party-to those who have profited by the plunder of monasteries, England is indebted for the "barrack-enlistment system," by which as great a distinction prevails between two portions of the same population, as ever was maintained in former times between the armed freeman and the unarmed slave.* * The value of this policy, in perpetuating the domination of a class, and the enslavement of the poor, did not escape the Magyars of Hungary in their construction of a new Constitution; for by article 22 of that Constitution, "the qualification of a National Guard is higher than that for an Elector."-Correspondence relative to the Affairs of Hungary, 1847-1849, p. 69. (Par. paper.) This is the conduct of " Liberal" in his fear and hatred of the poor; whilst the much-abused Austrian Government willingly places a rifle in the hand of every peasant of the Tyrol. "In referring to this subject, we are particularly desirous of not being misunderstood. We would not, for one moment, have it supposed, that we join the vain outcry against standing armies. Our conviction is that in the present state of society they are, if not the best, at least the surest safeguard for the preservation of peace, and the maintenance of order. We know, too, that for a man to become a skilful general, he must, from his youth upwards, have been a soldier: that he must have studied well and sedulously every branch of his profession: that he must be not merely a good tactician; but also a profound mathematician: and hence to have an efficient army, its officers, commissioned and even non-commissioned-must have embraced it as a profession for life. Such is, we believe the practice on the Continent, as far at least as the commissioned officers are concerned; and if the English army resembled them merely in this respect, we should not object to its constitution; but the Anglo-barrack system goes much further; it isolates from the population the entire army; it makes the army a thing apart from the nation-it does so from the Commander-in-Chief, to the common sentry that stands at his door; |