The religion of Portugal is the Roman Catholic, main tained to a degree of rigour and superstition elsewhere un known. Protestants, however, though not tolerated by law, are connived at; liberty of conscience is virtually al lowed ; nor are even the Jews molested, unless they are peculiarly obtrusive and troublesome. The inquisition, which effectually checks a spirit of liberal inquiry and lite rary improvement, was established before the middle of the sixteenth century, and continued in great activity till lately, when by some regulation it was abolished. The number of the clergy is usually great ; the parishes amount ing to 4271, the number of parish priests must be equally great ; while in Scotland, a country of nearly the same ex tent, they are not one-fourth of that number. The Portu guese priests, though not remarkable for vice and immo rality, are ignorant and poor, the wealth of the church be ing appropriated by the prelates and collective establish ments. The number of monasteries is 417, containing 14,000 monks; that of convents 150, containing 10,000 nuns. The secular clergy amount to above 22,000. There are two archbishops and thirteen bishops ; the archbishop of Lisbon is honoured with the title of patriarch, is a car dinal, and chaplain to the king. It may not be improper to state, that in the colonies the Roman Catholic is the esta blished religion, and exhibits the same features as in the mother country. In consequence of the number of monas teries, and the rapacity of the dignified clergy, a large por tion of the best land in the kingdom is in the hands of the church ; and is thus excluded from the enterprising efforts. of private individuals, and the cultivation to which it might otherwise be subjected. The court of Rome participates largely in the ecclesiastical government, reserving to it self the confirmation of the prelates and the regulation of the taxes payable by the church. Some improvements have of late been made. The power of the clergy has been much diminished ; their number considerably lessened ; the inquisition, as just stated, abolished. The collision of the Portuguese with the English during the peninsular war, has inspired them with more enlightened and liberal views, and has rendered them ambitious of rivalling the more re fined nations of Europe in literary attainments, and in civil and religious liberty.
The revenue of Portugal is estimated at about four mil lions sterling ; an amount sufficiently limited, but fortu nately little encumbered by the burdens of the funding sys tem, the public debt not exceeding twelve millions. The sources of this revenue are the customs, the excise, (to which the clergy are subject,) the domains still belonging to the crown, and a monopoly of the trade in tobacco, and formerly of the precious stones of Brazil. The customs are excessively productive; foreign merchandise pays twenty-three per cent. on importation, and fish from New foundland twenty-five. Fish taken in the neighbouring seas and rivers pays twenty-seven per cent ; while the tax upon land and cattle that are sold is ten per cent. The king draws a considerable revenue from the several orders of knighthood, of which he is grand master. He also gets the money arising from indulgences, a small return made him by the pope for the large sums his holiness draws out of his dominions. The king, with whom rests the nomi nation of church dignitaries, reserves to himself a fourth of their income. Some of these sources of royal income are now, in consequence of the Revolution in 1820, either much modified, or are virtually abolished.
With this limited revenue, Portugal cannot be expected to possess a large military force. This force has, for the last fifty or sixty years, been gradually increasing both in number and respectability. "But at the beginning of the war of 1762," we are told by 'Mr. Murphy, " the army was in a most wretched state, scarcely amounting to ten thou sand men ; most of whom were peasants, embodied in haste, without uniforms, without arms, asking charity ; whilst the officers served at the table of their colonels." And the improvements that have since taken place, both in point of discipline and numbers, have resulted chiefly from the management and command having been put into the hands of foreign generals. Before the late invasion of Portugal by France, the land forces amounted to thirty thousand men ; and the marine comprised twenty sail of the line, besides frigates, corvettes, and sloops. During the war, resources were called forth the nation never had imagined it possessed ; and the Portuguese army, during this eventful struggle, recruited by British funds, and dis- ciplined by British officers, became such as to vindicate the former renown of their country. Troops, notorious before for indolence, want of discipline, and filthiness, became cleanly in their persons and dress, skilful and active; and bore no inconsiderable share in routing and expelling the invading armies, when their dearest privileges and their very existence as a nation were threatened. The spirit
and firmness exhibited at Busaco, Fuentes, Albuera, Sala manca, will ever redound to their honour, and show that they want only discipline and experience to equal in cha racter British, French, or German troops. The large standing army which Portugal now possesses, affords proof that she has availed herself of the advantages she enjoyed under skilful commanders during the Peninsular war. But since the court emigrated to Brazil, she has allowed her navy to dwindle, insomuch that she has now few large ships capable of warlike operations. Her naval force in deed is not estimated above fifteen frigates.
Owing to the revolution of 1820, to the counter-revo lution which has lately (1823) taken place, and to the con sequent unsettled state of the kingdom, it is impossible to say what the present constitution is, or what may be the result of the circumstances in which she is placed. In giv ing the history of the kingdom in a subsequent part of this article, we shall briefly give an account of these revolutions; and, under the present head, shall confine ourselves to an expose of the constitution and government, as they existed previously to the year 1820, when the ancient regime was abolished, and a democracy endeavoured to be established in its stead. The former constitution was a hereditary monarchy of the most absolute and despotical kind. The people had no share in the direction of government, in enacting of laws, or in the regulation of agriculture and commerce. Every man was obliged to pay blind and prompt obedience to whatever decrees and laws were pro mulgated by his sovereign, without even daring to give a hint about the oppression under which he groaned. The great boards or councils themselves, which carried on the administration, had no check or even voice in the measures that were adopted, but implicitly obeyed the orders of the king. Portugal had formerly indeed its cortes or repre sentative body as in Spain ; but till 1820, they had not been assembled since 1697, and the legislative, as well as the executive power was N est ed solely in the monarch. So emphatically indeed was this the case, that the preamble of every new law was in these words " I, the king, in virtue of my own certain knowledge, of my royal will and pleasure, and of my full, supreme, and arbitrary power, which I hold only of God, and for which I am accountable to no man on earth, do in consequence order and command," &c. The crown of Portugal was hereditary ; but " by the fundamental laws," says the writer last quoted, " it is or dained that in case of the king's demise, without male issue, he shall be succeeded by his next brother ; but the male issue of this brother shall not ascend the throne with out being previously elected king by the states. By the same law, it is ordained that the succession in default of male issue shall devolve on the female line, on condition that the princess marry a Portuguese nobleman. The husband in this case must not assume the title of king till he shall have a male child by the queen. When in her company he shall always take his place at her left hand ; and he must never wear the crown." The administration was vested in four ministers and secretaries of state ; one was president of the treasury, or at the head of the finance de partment ; another minister of the interior ; another of war and foreign affairs ; the fourth of the marine and the colo nies. .There were five royal councils which judged with out appeal ; two for Europe, at Lisbon and Oporto; two for Brazil, at Bahia and Rio Janeiro ; and one for Asia at Goa. Each province in Portugal has its separate governor ; each city had its own magistrates. The Portuguese laws have been by various writers alternately praised and condemned ; but all authors agree that they have always been miserably and partially administered. The salaries of the judges were so small, their love of money so strong, and the pro bability of escaping detection so certain, that bribery was carried on here to a degree unknown elsewhere ; and any crime, however vicious, might, with the help of a little money, be committed with perfect impunity. This cha racter was applicable (and we fear is still applicable) both to the superior and inferior judges, and the laws, therefore, were and arc uniformly administered in a way rather to promote the purposes of oppression or judicial aggran disement than those of substantial justice. During the levy of 1809, thousands, who ought to have entered the army, were exempted by means of money ; while others, lame and infirm, were obliged, from want of that powerful medium, to take up arms which they could not wield. On the removal of the royal family to Brazil, the councils of state attended him thither ; and the king was represented by a regency ; the councils by committees.—The prisons of the kingdom are in general in an uncomfortable state. In Lisbon, for example, a number of the cells admit the water of the Tagus, and at high water are regularly in undated to the depth of ten or twelve inches.