PORTUGAL-ITS CHURCH AND POLITICS. No. II. 5, Gloucester-place, Bath.

Dear Sir, THE FAVOURABLE reception you have given my last letter, encourages me to proceed, notwithstanding the manner in which you amend some of the proper names of my father's land as Englishmen generally do. My chief object is to call your attention to the church in the colonies.

IT is not generally known in England, that when by the marriage contract of King Charles II. with Catharine of Bragança, the territory of Bombay was assigned to the crown of England, a proviso was added that the right of ecclesiastical patronage (in the Romish Church) should be retained by His Most Faithful Majesty his heirs and successors. By virtue of this treaty, the jurisdiction over the Romish Church in British India, has till within the last two years been in the hands of the Archbishop of Goa.

BUT THE Pope of Rome, ever anxious to aggrandise his own church at the expense of her neighbours, has been continually making aggressions on the Portuguese Church at home and abroad; and vigorously has he been resisted at home by the writings of a Tiqueredo and the statesmanship of a Pombal who in a single night, did that which in broad day would probably have cost him his life and King Joseph his throne: namely, seized and sent abroad the whole body of the jesuits, at the moment when they expected to enslave the monarchy.

ABROAD a noble resistance has been made to Papal aggression during three centuries by the prelates of Goa, who however ultramontane they might appear when in Portugal, the moment they were sent out resisted the encroachments of Rome. I have been assured by an English chaplain from the northern part of the diocese of Bombay, that he always met on he part of the Portuguese priests and laity with the respect due to his office; that they acknowledged the English Church as being a Catholic Church, and treated him with cordiality

"But," he added, "when an Italian priest came, I could tell the difference before I was up in the morning, by the manner of my servants," (two of whom were Portuguese Romanists). He told me that the English government, for the sake of European politics (I suppose in the vain hope of getting Pius IX. to preach them up in Ireland,) wished to see the power of the Archbishop of Goa transferred to his brother of Rome. So far have we fallen!! In this I regret to add they have succeeded. A secret treaty, it is now acknowledged, has assigned this power from Portugal to Rome. The Archbishop of Goa has been promised compensation, though none is offered to the archbishopric; and I believe that prelate has not betrayed his see; for I learn that Count Thomar just before his expul sion from office,* had offended the Pope by calling the former to the House of Peers; and the jurisdiction, retained for 300 years, is now safely lodged with the Mother of Harlots and an Irishman is ruling the Romish Church at Bombay. Whether England will find herself a gainer by seeing her oldest allies thrust out by her disaffected subjects remains to be proved; but I fear she is playing the same game at Malta and elsewhere.

In Madeira and the Azores the church is probably more agitated than in Portugal. Dr. Kally (the presbyterian physician) made some years since a desperate effort to convert the former island. He was driven out and ill treated, as were many of his converts, but presbyterianism is not eradicated from the island, nor do I suppose it could be even by the fires of the Inquisition. Bibles (popish ones excepted) have been checked arbitrarily in their circulation both in that island and I think in St. Michael's; and I imagine Lord Palmerston is amply justified in demanding £1200 compensation for the doctor whose house has been gutted, and whose valuable property was destroyed by Romish fanatics. Much good is likely to be effected by the efforts of Mr. Capels, a merchant of Oporto who is devoting himself, under the Bishop of Gibraltar, to the circulation of the English prayer book in the Portuguese

This took place I am happy to say, a week ago.

tongue; and he has constantly taken all constitutional means of enlightening the Portuguese church. Still to attempt to bring to the English Church any who are not subjects of Queen Victoria would evidently be a schismatical proceeding, even worse than Sir W. Dunbar's conduct in Scotland; and with deference to Her Majesty and the spiritual rulers of our Church, it appears to me that to work effectual good, an Epistle should be written by the Defender of the Faith, in convocation, to the Queen of Portugal, the archbishops, and bishops, with the priests and deacons, and saints, which are therein, in the style of those written by Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Pantenus, and others, urging reform, on the principles of Evangelical Truth and Apostolic Order, and forwarded through the legation at Lisbon. England, by the above named treaty has long acknowledged herself bound to protect Portugal against invasion; and the invaders of Rome are a far worse kind than those of Spain.

THE missionary spirit is not yet quite extinct. Portuguese bishops and priests penetrate into the heart of China with a zeal worthy of a purer faith. They have a mission in Angola, which does a little good; though I fear that most of the converts are as ignorant as heathens, and the inhabitants out of Loanda walk about much in the same state as our first parents. It is to be hoped, however, that as the government seems earnestly suppressing the slave trade, that the state of that colony will improve with time.

Macao has such a flourishing ecclesiastical staff and college, that it may be considered the head quarters of the Romish Propoganda in China, and puts us to shame at Hong Kong.

The state of the church of Brazil too, which Portugal thoroughly established long before its independence, affords a striking contrast to the United States. When will England learn that it is the duty of the parent to teach the children? I do not mean to deny that the English Colony is in a far better state even with its revolutionary institutions; but Portugal could only give the light she possessed. Had Don Pedro IV., the late Empeior of Brazil, retained his power in that country

it seems probable that he would have half reformed the church. Had he lived he might, I believe would, have done as much for Portugal. His death, and that of the Duke of Palmella, have been dreadful blows to that country. Indeed Iknow of no statesman who would now consent to real Church Reform, or indeed, except my father (the Count de Bomfim) and I suppose Count Serviadio, any statesman who has really the good of the country at heart. Saldanha, Viscount sa da Bandeira, and others, are men of honour; but a statesman should be something more.

Hoping that I may be the means of inducing you and your readers, (for as the English Review has well observed, every one may do so in this land), to advance the welfare of the church of my baptism, I remain

Yours truly,

PEDRO TRAVASSOS VALDEZ.

.we

If we are induced to believe the professions of Rome, and make advances towards her as a sister or a mother, shall find too late that we are in the arms of a pitiless and unnatural relation, who will but triumph in the arts which have inveigled us within her reach. No, dismissing the dreams which the romance of early church history, and the high theory of catholicism will raise in the guileless and inexperienced mind, let us be sure she is onr enemy and will do us a mischief when she can. In saying and acting on this conviction, we need not depart from Christian charity towards her. We must deal with her as we would towards a friend who is visited by derangement, and in great affliction, with all affectionate tender thoughts &c. For in truth she is a church beside herself; (like the prodigal son) abounding in noble gifts and rightful titles, but unable to use them religiously; crafty, obstinate, wilful, malicious, cruel, unnatural, as madmen are or rather, she may be said to resemble a demoniac; possesed with principles, thoughts, and tendencies not her own, in outward form and inward powers which God made her, but ruled within by an execrable Spirit, who is sovereign in his management over her, and most subtle and most succesful in the use of her gifts. Thus she is her real self, only in name and title. Until God vouchsafe to restore her, we must treat her as if she were that EVIL ONE which GOVERNS her.-Newman.

THE SHIPWRECK.

A TALE FOUNDED ON AN ANCIENT LEGEND.

[Concluded from page 174.]

CHAPTER VII. THE EXCURSION.

THE morning of the succeeding day was fair and bright-the sea was as smooth as glass, and the sky was not sullied by a single cloud.

THE Bishop's answer could not be received for many days, and everything was ready at the Church, so the Prior proposed that they should avail themselves of the opportunity and visit S. Anthony on Roseland Point, and the burying place of King Gerennius. Maurice and Dobson were invited to go; so after matins, when they had regaled themselves, they all set off. They walked to the spot where the good S. Mawe used to dwell, where they saw his well and chair; and then embarked in a skiff, and were soon landed on the opposite shore. But we have been travelling very fast, and must return to Manaccan. When they reached the top of the hill by the spot where S. Mawnan's church now stands, they all stood still, involuntarily as it were, to admire the delightful expanse of view which was stretched out below them. There was the vast Bay, with its numerous beaches and headlands, and towering beyond them all the noble promontory on which Pendennis Castle now stands. This they were not long reaching, when the view again changed; on one side was the bay, on the other that beautiful pool, now called Falmouth Harbour then there were no houses along its shore, now there is a busy town. From hence they pushed across to the other side in a fisherman's boat which lay on the shore, and soon reached the Church of S. Melorius. Having inspected this, for it had not long been built, and having partaken of some refreshment at the house of the clergyman, they again crossed the water, and found themselves in Roseland, hard-by the spot where S

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