Mr. Harvey to Mr. Seward.
Sir:The regular and final session of the present Cortes draws near to its close after repeated prorogations. Most of the legislation has been of a local character, relating in the main to improvements which have grown out of the progress which Portugal is beginning to feel sensibly and beneficially.
The law of all others which excited most attention and controversy, because it affected the largest interests, was that abolishing what is popularly known by the name of the “tobacco monopoly.” For many years past the government [Page 314] farmed out the large revenue derived from that source by contract for a round sum, giving the contractors the exclusive management of the business, with only a nominal supervision.
A formidable organization, which grew to be indifferent to, if not quite independent of, the government, was the result of a pernicious policy which, while it temporarily relieved the financial necessities of the ministry in power for the time being, was eating up the substance and revenue of the country, and enriching selfish contractors at the expense of the State.
Public opinion at last demanded a radical change, and after the 1st of January next tobacco will enter the ports like other merchandise, subject to nearly the same scale of duties as has been lately adopted in England.
A movement was recently made in the Chamber of Deputies for the abolition of the hereditary feature of the peerage, which lies over for consideration at the next Cortes. The subject will, however, enter to some extent into the approaching elections, and sooner or later the proposition will be adopted, for the march of ideas is altogether in that direction.
When the majorat was abolished a year ago the foundation of the old structure was sapped, and peers who originated that reform in their personal interests did not seem to foresee that the house would fall when its corner-stone was torn away by their own hands.
The tendency of this people is towards liberal institutions, and even now, notwithstanding the boasted pretensions of others, there is no country in Europe where liberty of speech and freedom of the press are more conspicuous than here. Old traditions and forms still hamper the administration of government and encumber the statute-book with musty relics of the past, but they are doomed to give place to vigorous and healthy reforms more congenial with the spirit of the age, since the axe has been laid at the root of the whole system.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.