The Succession In Portugal.

Otago Witness, Issue 3029, 3 April 1912, Page 33

The Succession In Portugal.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In your issue of the 2,oth inst. appeared a very interesting account of tlia romantic moetir.g and reconciliation between Manoel, ex-King of Portugal, and his rival, Dom Miguel of Braganza, the latter being the representative of the legitimate dynasty- This meeting, ta mentioned in your article, is very mo'.o-draniatio, and worth of Alexandra Dumas and Stanley Weynran, but that versatile novelist, Mr A. W. Marchmont, ha* already written a novel whereof Dom Miguel is the central figure. The claim of Dom Miguel to the throne of Portugal is an old' story, and dates from 1833, when his fathor, the first King Miguel, was forced to leave Portugal owing to the intervention of Great Britain, who sank King Miguel's fleet off Cape St. Vincent, the British Admiral, Sir Charles Napier, gaining a corr-plete yiotory. Dom Miguel was deprived of his title, and his descendants declared to have forfeited all their rights as Portuguese citizens. That gifted novelist, the lato Mrs Craigie, cynically remarked that during the nineteenth century Great Britain was on the sido of every Continental usurper, and her action in Portugal in 1833 certainly bears out this statement. The expulsion of King Miguel having been accomplished after much bloodshed, his niece, the Princess Maria, was elevated to the throne, and by her marriage to Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg was the great grandmother of King Manoel, who last year was forced to leave Portugal. The ignominious flight of the Saxe-Cobuß» dynasty from Portugal wus due in no small degree to their defective title to the throne, and it is a significant fact that all, or nearly all, usurping Powers moot an untimely end 1 , and collapse amidst universal derision. The same fate befell the Commonwealth in 1660, the French Empire in 1871, and more recently still the usurping Manchu dynasty in China. Although Dom Miguel's family ha-vo been in exilo for nearly 80 years, and the spirit of the ago is hostile to legitimacy, his claims have never been forgotten, and, like the Stuart claim to our throne, have only been in abeyance awaiting a favourable opportunity for their resuscitation. I see by a later cable that owing to th« increasing popularity of Dom Miguel'* family, the ex-King Manoel offered to resign 'in the.ir favour. The restoration of Dom Miguel to Portugal should unite tho Royalist party, rehabilitate his distressful country, and create a desiro for the rodressing of wrongs throughout tn e world.— 1 a,n ' eto - c. C. Baokai*. Kawhia, March 25