THE LATE KING OF PORTUGAL TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1908, Page 3

THE LATE KING OF PORTUGAL TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — You say in yonr sub-leader this evening that "the regicidal act" (in plain English, the execution of tho King of Portugal), "has the open approval of a largo section of the community," and that "the prospect is intensely discouraging." You go on to say that ''when a community has such primitive ideas aa to hold its constitutional head per-, conallj and criminally liable for deopseated social evils, it will meet the •most necessary reforms with forcible opposition, and confirm the impression that increased liberty would be a doubtful boon." Surely all this is begging the question. I maintain that the late King of Portugal, by abrogating the constitution, had ipco facto cea&ed to be a constitutional sovereign. Fact number 2:, the assassination was duo to political, not to social evils, as anybody can see 1 by -reading the cables. "A\ constitutional, difficulty had arisen, ir^ -which it is now evident {(dde to-day's cables) that bpUi Conservatives or. ifonarchists and Republicans, foreseeing the- end of free government and the imposition of Star Chamber "government, made, a so,rt of unofficial war upon King Garlos and his Dictator, 'in which the ' King and' the 1 heir apparent were kijled. We may doubt the' wisdeim of their action, rememba'ring \ (». J. Holyoake's . caution against tyrannicide as being a policy .favoured on.lv , by thoso .whoso judgments are. so rash as to be usually untrustworthy ; but surely th© 'Portuguese people know their own business best, and it is more than possible, tnat the action nf ths regicide? has prevented r'ivil v, l ar. Popular government is not 60 fir,mly es'tablirlied in thr. Peninsula as -it is in such countries as Great Britain, and hence any attempt, real or supposed, to upset it, is -likely to- urouso 0- desperate opposition. I cannot, therefore, sco any need for heroic horror a*, "the action of the executioners or regicides, which ever you' wish '-to call' tjaovi. ... England .owes- her liijerty jn some degree to surh stout-hearted .regicidiep as lreton, Bradshaw, and Cromwell. When the restoration, of Charles 11. occurred, the Monarchy was. but tho ,ghost-of its former self. No more Counts of Star Chamber and High' 'Commission, with their torture arid mutilation of thoso who refused to bow tho knee to Khigship. Ths fear of such a tysiam may well harden a people to resistance, arid it is well, perhaps, -that suclv a terrible lessor should be delivered; -to all wouldbe tyrants. There was apparently do economic, issue at stake ; tno "professional accident" (to use (he words of » French deputy) which befell the King of Portugal, was -apparently due to mid-dle-class hatred,, and net to <my anarchist plot or working claps disrontent with socia' or economic ovi!s. I?epubl'>anifm is totally apart from surh idear,. It is perfectly consistent with economic conservatism, ns we tee in France and America to-day, where it scarcely differs from Constitutional Unnnrchy. Trusting that you will publish tho above in the interests of fair play to the people of Portugal, who arc not unfriendly towards the people of Great BiHain. — I am. etc., 1 HF.AR BOTH SIDL.S. Wellington, 14th Feb., 1903.