this appoins Cecil, according to his own account From the Monthly Review. NARRATIVE OF THE IMPRISONMENT AND TRIAL OF WILLIAM YOUNG, Esq. H. P. British Service, late State Prisoner in Portugal; written by himself: and comprising a View of the present State of that Country under Don Miguel; accompanied by Official Documents. 8vo. pp. 352. London: Colburn. 1828. tified with him in his wickedness. In the con stitutional armies many traitors were found, but would it be rational on that account to reprobate them in the mass as adverse to the charter? Neither should we conclude in all cases so positively as Mr. Young infers, that the heads of lay or of religious corporations, truly speak the sentiments of all the individuals whom they represent. When a government is unsettled, the more daring and the We have already had occasion to show that more profligate are always seen taking the we are not among the apologists or friends of lead in public affairs; the mass of the people Don Miguel's usurpation in Portugal. It is remain for a long time indifferent to the destiny even painful to us to observe that one of the that awaits them; unarmed and without conmost perfidious tyrants whom the world has cert, they are as feeble as children, and unless ever seen, has found advocates in any country, they take an active part therefore in sanctioning but above all in England, where every inan is, the crimes of their rulers, it is the height of inor ought to be, by nature, a steadfast, and an justice to pronounce against them a sweeping incorruptible defender of the principles of sentence of condemnation; so also it is with liberty. It has been said, that if the minister the clergy. That there may be amongst them of darkness himself had applied for a loan on men who have disgraced their profession by the Stock Exchange two or three years ago, gross misconduct, it would be ridiculous to he would have succeeded in obtaining it. We deny. No church whatever can be exempt do not go the length of saying that John Bull from the imperfections which belong to hu is altogether so credulous as this libel upon man nature, as long as its ordinances are to his love of gain supposes; but with the pre- be administered by human agents. But for a sent state of the newspaper press before our foreigner, who has been living eighteen or eyes, remembering the unmanly and infamous twenty years in a retired country town of Porattacks which have been made on the inno- tugal, following, as it would appear, no relicent young Queen of Portugal, and the indus-gion at all, and having very little intercourse try which has been exerted in order to veil the atrocities of the monster who has robbed her of her throne, we should easily believe that if the mysterious ruler already alluded to were permitted to establish an empire in our world, he would find more than one daily and weekly journal in London ready to support him, provided they would thereby be likely to augment their circulation. But although we detest the government, if such it ought to be called, of Don Miguel, as much as the author of this narrative could wish us to do, we cannot but condemn the disposition which betrays itself in every one of his pages, of attributing to the whole, or at least to the greater part of the nation, the crimes for which only a few really appear to be responsible. We are willing to make every allowance for the feelings of an Englishman who has been for a season deprived of his liberty, and has undergone the perils and sufferings to which Mr. Young was subjected. We may even concede that it is perhaps not altogether unnatural in a stranger to extend to a whole people the feelings of hatred which the tyranny of their rulers may have engendered in his breast, by acts of unprovoked aggression. But after making every abatement on this point, which ought in fairness to be demanded, we cannot prevail on ourselves to believe with Mr. Young, that all the clergy, nobles, and people of Portugal, a small exception, deserve to be ranked among the most depraved and worthless of mankind-such general censures are never just. Let the men, whether lay or ecclesiastical, who openly assist the tyranny of Miguel, and thus participate in his career of guilt, be branded with all the infamy which they deserve; but it is too much to say that, because the remainder of the population of Portugal do not rise up and hurl the usurper into the Tagus, they are therefore to be iden with those who did; to say that more than three-fourths of the regular and irregular cler gy of that country are capable of conniving at, or practising every vice that disgraces human nature, is of itself sufficient to awaken our suspicions as to the discretion, the impartiality and candour, with which his inquiries on this head have been conducted. Nothing is more easy than to rail against whole classes of society; but if the defamer were required to prove his charges by the evidence, the probability is that he would himself be astonished at the variance which might be found between his accusations and his facts. Men who are fanatically wedded to their own system of belief, are too prone to vilify the tenets of others, as well as the ministers by whom those tenets are inculcated. The same thing happens where men have no religion at all: these deprecate every form of faith, and should they happen to be forced by circumstances into contact with the clergy, they treat them with a degree of acerbity which shows that there may be quite as much intolerance among non-religionists, as ever was charged upon the Inquisition itself. Hence it is that we are not inclined to pay any great respect to those passages in Mr. Young's nar rative, which touch upon this subject. We shall confine ourselves chiefly to the story his imprisonment, in order to sketch from it a view of the monstrous species of government which exists, or at least lately did exist in Portugal. of Mr. Young appears to have served in the army during some portion of the late Peninsular war, and to have retired on half-pay to the city of Leiria in 1814, having been mar ried in 1811 to a Portuguese lady. He speaks of some lands which he held, and of his having been one of the agents to the committee at Lloyd's; but he seems during his residence in that town to have occupied himself chiefly in forwarding its amusements. Among other things he introduced the drama, built a theatre; nay, he did not disdain occasionally to assume the sock or the buskin, for the gratification of the good people of Leiria. The history of Don Pedro's constitution, and of the subversion of it by Don Miguel, is too well known to require any repetition of it here. During the existence of that charter, Mr. Young states that he was no more than three weeks at Leiria, and he appears anxious to have it inferred that he took no active part in supporting it. Had he taken a contrary course, there is no Englishman who would not applaud him; but the prudence which he observed with respect to the constitution, certainly augments the character of the wrongs which he was subsequently compelled to endure. Having witnessed at Lisbon the farcical circumstances which attended the usurpation of Don Miguel, he left that capital on the 24th of May (1827), on his return to Leiria, He went by water six leagues up the Tagus, to Carregado, where he slept the same night, and the next morning he mounted on a mule with a pack-saddle, and without stirrups, not being able to find any better accommodation. On the road he overtook a muleteer, well mounted, going to Coimbra; they were soon after joined by a militia man of Leiria, who having both a horse and mule under his charge, was able to lend Mr. Young a pair of stirrups. The three travellers journeyed on together; when they arrived at Alcoentre, ten leagues from Lisbon, the muleteer politely proposed to change mules with Mr. Young; the offer was accepted. Three leagues further on they met the 22d regiment marching towards Leiria. "Many of the officers and soldiers, from long acquaintance, embraced me (according to the usual form), and during the few minutes they remained, asked me the news of Lisbon, and whether the Royalist troops had marched. I told them the news then current in Lisbon, and that the troops had not marched. "The regiment proceeded on its way, and I on mine. About a hundred yards further on there is an estalagem, where I and my companions stopped to dine-whilst we were at our meal the baggage of the 22d regiment passed by; two soldiers who were in the rear guard (and whom I knew perfectly well, in consequence of their having worked for me), caught my attention, and I asked them if they would have some wine? they drank a pint each, and then went on with the rear guard. "After we had dined we proceeded towards Leiria; the weather being sultry we travelled after dark, and slept at Carvalhos, three leagues from that place. Next morning, about sunrise, we left for Leiria, and I arrived about nine o'clock at my own house."-pp. 60, 61. It was necessary to state the circumstances of this journey with some minuteness, as they afforded a pretext for all the proceedings which were afterwards taken against Mr. Young. He does not tell us the particulars of the conversation which he held with the officers of the 22d regiment, or with the two soldiers to whom he gave wine. Possibly he may have been too explicit as to his opinions and wishes; as he had not been many hours at home when his house was surrounded by a strong party of militia and a mob, and he was made a prisoner. He was hurried away without being even permitted to take leave of his wife; he was pushed down stairs, repeatedly struck with the butt end of a musket, and when he reached the street, he was assailed by the brutal multitude with such a shower of missiles, that he hastened to the prison as the best security for his life. He was there stripped of every thing valuable in his possession, and, shocking to relate, was confined in the common privy of the prison. This is a circumstance of so disgusting a nature, that we should have avoided mentioning it, if it had not formed a peculiar aggravation in Mr. Young's case. The next day the mob discovered the part of the prison in which he was shut up; they threw stones at his window, and some shouted "Morra malhado Ingley do diabo," (Die you spotted English devil): others cried, "bring him out, and cut off his ears!" In this horrid dungeon he was detained for several days. Sometimes he was told that he was to be shot, sometimes that he was to be hanged. Mrs. Young was refused permission to see him, or even to communicate with him. But the solicitude of a faithful wife devised a mode of deceiving his lynx-eyed sentinels, which is worthy of being recorded in the brightest pages of the annals of woman. His provisions were sent to him from home in a small basket, which was strictly searched before it was delivered to him. One day as he was taking his soup, he found a pencil in the liquid. This excited his surprise, but after a minute examination he could find nothing He detained the basket under the pretence that he was not able to eat his dinner at the usual hour. The jailer had no suspicion, and left him. "I immediately set to work," says Mr. Young, "and was about to pull the basket in pieces, when I found my wife's tenderness and ingenuity exemplified. She had rolled up small pieces of paper, like a quill or stick, and then had taken some of the sticks out of the basket, and put the rolls of paper in their places. This process was managed with such dexterity and neatness, that it was very difficult to detect." By means of this happy artifice they communicated afterwards with more. ease. Remonstrance against his imprisonment was vain. The magistrates laughed at his charter privilege, which "forbids any person entering the house of an Englishman, without an order from the Judge Conservator." The exertions of his friends were equally fruitless, and not content with the miseries already inflicted upon him, the magistrates quartered as many soldiers in his house as it would contain, and they pilfered at discretion every thing they could lay hands on. On the ninth day of his confinement, Mr. Young was allowed to see his lady, and on the tenth he was removed from his loathsome cell to a room which was also occupied by Sir John Milley Doyle, and two Portuguese gentlemen, who had been brought to the prison some days before. On the eighteenth day he was sub jected to an examination before a magistrate and two notaries. The character of the proceeding may be gathered from a few of the most grave interrogatories which were put to the prisoners. "Mag. Pray tell me what is your reason for hating Don Miguel the First, and his government? "Pris. I never said I hated either him or his government. Mag. Why did you come up the country armed, mounted on a mule, with bells, terrify-kets, and collect money, meat, vegetables, and ing people with bad news? "Pris. I was not armed, neither did I tell any bad news. "Mag. Did not you meet the twenty-second regiment, and tell them that you would show them the way to glory and likewise tell them that the tenth regiment had run away? "Pris. I met the twenty-second regiment at Rio Maior, and I did tell them that the tenth regiment had run away, which was the fact, but the rest is false. "Mag. Did you not tell them that the officers of the eighth cacadores were made pri soners? "Pris. I thank you, Sir. "Mag. Did you not in 1820, play the violin in a triumphal car through the streets of Leiria? "Pris. Yes, I did, in company with Doctor Saraiva and others. "Mag. We are interrogating you, and we must not implicate others. We wish to know what you have done, and not what others have done. "Pris. Except you put down the names of those who played with me, I will not sign. "Mag. That makes no difference; here are two notaries present. Come, come, it is much more to your advantage to confess all, than to deny: every body knows you are a Freemason and a Republican; but I shall favour you by saying, you are an Englishman, and are noted for libertinism. "Pris. You may put down what you please. "Mag. Did you not give a dinner in 1820, when you drank certain healths? Did you not let off rockets at your house? "Pris. I have often given dinners to my friends, and I have often let off rockets."—pp. 87-89. The day after this examination, the prisoner was ordered to be removed to Lisbon, where he arrived on the 16th of June, and was lodged in the state prison, St. George's Castle. It is unnecessary to our purpose to follow the author in his topographical description of that place, or in his remarks upon the general system on which prisons are managed throughout Portugal. There is, however, one feature in the latter branch of his remarks, which we are unwilling to pass over, as it places the people of that country in a most amiable and exemplary point of view. No gaol allowance, as in England, is made in Portugal; but this defect is amply made up in another way. In all towns in which a prison is found, there is an institution called Caridade (charity), consisting of a confraternity, whose objects are carried into effect by a committee and treasurer. Each member contributes about seven pence annually, which is paid on a certain day of the year, when a charity sermon is preached, and a grand procession takes place. If their funds fall short at any time, they go round the town with baswhatever they can get, which are placed at the disposal of the treasurer and committee.They obtain from 'the gaoler every evening, a list of those prisoners who have no means of their own to subsist upon, and they send every day to the gaol a supply of provisions to be distributed among those who are willing to accept it. This institution we consider as the best answer that can be given to the numberless libels which have recently issued from our presses against the character of the Portuguese people. When describing it, even Mr. Young, who has in other parts of his work been so loud and so unqualified in his denunciations against the Portuguese, admits that they are naturally a very humane and hospitable people; and that no nation can be more charitably disposed. Between the people and their government, with its numerous train of satellites, we of course draw a broad line of distinction; and it is much to be regretted that those Englishmen who have written about Portugal, have, almost without exception, failed to draw a similar line, since it is the height of injustice to visit the crimes of a few upon the mass of the community. It will, we think, be pretty generally found, that instead of searching beyond the surface, and judging of the merits of a foreign people according to the rules of justice, travellers impart to their narratives too much of the hue of the feelings under which they happen to write. A solitary act of inhospitality or unkindness is enough to convince them that the whole nation deserves to be condemned. The reverse too produces a reciprocal effect. The tourist who is well received, and experiences civility even in a few instances-a circumstance that in nine cases out of ten, depends chiefly upon his own conduct-will leave the country under impressions so favourable to it, that he paints every thing in the most fascinating colours. Thus it is in some measure even with Mr. Young. When his attention is fixed upon his imprisonment, and the hardships attending it. he inveighs against the whole of the Portuguese, as if they could be fairly charged with the injustice of which he was the victim.When, on the contrary, he speaks of the caridade, as we have already seen, he lauds the same people as the most charitable and humane people under the sun. Another instance of this facility of temper, and of the effect which it produces in the estimate of character, occurs in a subsequent page. A man of the name of Silva, who had deserted from several regiments, and who was very little affected by any political changes, had op portunities of rendering Mr. Young some trifling services, while he was in prison. Silva |
