July 3, spite of the promising conditions under which the newly assembled Cortes set to work, it is but too evident, both from the telegram which we published on Wednesday and from other circumstances, that Portuguese pol ticians are yet by no means in a good temper for efficient work. It is true that the Monarchists owed at least a part of their enormous majority in Parliament to secret manipulation of the elections, But Portugal is accustomed to auch methods, and on this account they seem to have provoked less animosity than might have been expected. If the Republicans were weak inside Parliament, they are strong outside it; and for this reason, especially considering recent events, the Government would not dare, even if it had the wish, to ride roughshod them. Exception was taken a few Republican newspapers to the absence from the King's speech, in opening Parliament, of the traditional reference to the liberty of the Constitution. But on the whole, the speech deservedly good impression: und when it came to be discussed in the Cortes, Senhor Affonso Costa, the Republican leader, made a notable declaration when he said that his party demanded no more of the Government than that "it should rule patriotically, economically and in a liberal spirit. ancient source of all grievances, the Civil List, evoked the first signs of discontent. The amount asked for in hard cash, £81,000, was not excessive. Objection rested chiefly upon the further provision that, while the royal palaces of Belem, Queluz and Caxias: were to become national, the State was asked to pay for the repairs of King Manuel's remaining residences, for his journeys and for the entertainment of foreign princes visiting Portugal. It is probable, however, that the Civil List would
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.