is considerably less extensive than that of the Praça do Commercio, just described. It is entirely surrounded by shops and coffee-houses; but the latter so little resembled those of Paris in comfort, splendour, and cleanliness, that our visits to them were not frequently repeated. The favourite evening promenade seems to be in this square, to judge from the invariable assemblage of Portuguese of all classes there towards sunset. The large building of the Inquisition occupies nearly the whole of its northern line, and faces the streets which lead into the Commercial Square. It is now happily devoted to other purposes than to the fell tyranny of those agents of Satan, who, during so long a period, held in its dungeons their Moloch reign of blood; and thus, at all events, it may be said in favour of the Constitution, that it has purged in its torrent this Augæan stable of its moral filth, offences, and iniquities, and has nobly served the cause of Christianity and of suffering humanity in breaking open the doors of this accursed prison-house, and in terminating for ever the usurped authority of its hateful tribunal. The two Chambers occupy one part of this building, and the remainder is given up to several public offices.

In the Praça da Alegria the public execution of criminals used to take place; whence we are to presume, upon the principle of "lucus a non lucendo," that the appellation was taken; and near it, on every Tuesday, as has been described in the foregoing letter, a fair is held of second-hand wares, exhibited on a long wall at the back of the gardens of Salitre.

In the Praça da Figueira fruits and vegetables are sold, as in our Covent Garden, where, sixty years since, there was scarcely an esculent herb to be seen; and likewise in the Place San Paulo, where game and fowls are sold, as well as in the space situated between the Terreiro Publico, or cornmarket, and the Black-horse, or Commercial Square.

To the west of this Praça do Commercio is the fish-market

erected on the banks of the Tagus, which exceeds the morning exhibitions of our Billingsgate as much in the beauty and variety of its fish, as it probably does in the choice and elegance of the terms peculiar to the piscatory profession.

Near this place is the Cais Sodré, a smaller square, at the bottom of the steep street of the second hill, and towards the river, flanked by the quay, off which the steam-vessels moor, and almost fronting the large street Alecrim, which is partly built on arches, and which runs along the open spaces of Quintella and Loreto.

In the arsenal, where our troops landed a few months since, there is nothing remarkable, nor in the cannon foundry, to merit a distinct detail.

The dockyard is scarcely as extensive as many of the largest of our private ship-builders on the banks of the Thames and the Avon. In the naval school we found an old battered seaman, with a couple of epaulets on his shoulders, giving a party of young midshipmen a very useful lecture upon ropes' ends.

In the square, of which the front of the arsenal forms the southern line, separating it from the Tagus, there is an elevated column, surmounted by a double-headed axe, under which it is said that the public decapitation of traitorous fidalghos used to be conducted. The backs of some of the houses in the Rua San Francisco, situated upon the height to the north, immediately overlook this square to the front gates, and indeed down the whole of the façade of the arsenal. The principal street, which may be traced through all its windings and inequalities along the banks of the Tagus, from Belem to the most eastern point of Lisbon, runs under the arsenal, at the bottom of this square, from west to east. On the eastern side of the square is that deciduous establishment the national bank, as it is called.

In walking about the streets of Lisbon, it might be supposed, Port.

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considering the oppressive heat of the climate, that it would be advisable to wear light or thin clothing; but a stranger to the place would soon discover that, while it is exposed to the beams of an ardent sun, it is equally obnoxious to cold currents of air from the north, and that the greatest caution is required in providing against the variations in the everchangeable state of the atmosphere. During the greater part of the year, those streets which open to the north are constantly liable to the chilling influence of almost hyperborean blasts, which are of sufficient force to annihilate an invalid by suddenly checking the insensible perspiration, inducing consequent fever, and terminating at last in producing confirmed pulmonary disease. That it should have been so long the fashion in England to send delicate subjects to seek an improvement of health under such a climate as this, is a matter of astonishment to those who have learned from experience all its inconveniences and dangers, and who know, above all, the very few comforts afforded in the generality of Portuguese houses which it would be essential for an invalid to enjoy.

The principal disorders of the body to which a residence in Lisbon, or in its neighbourhood, subjects the constitution, are apoplexy, paralysis, derangement of the digestive system, malignant catarrhal affections, liver complaints, acute rheumatism, colds, and constipaçòes, or inflammations in the bowels.

The native inhabitants of Lisbon, male and female, are generally seen in loose cloaks, made of cloth, as a preservative against the influence of the eddies of cold air which are met at the corners of the streets, intersecting those that run down from the high grounds, and terminate in the direction of the Tagus. The women of the middling class, when they walk out, have generally a square muslin kerchief, half doubled, upon the head, as a security from the effects of heat and cold, whose snowy whiteness contrasts prettily with their

sombre dress and dark complexions; while the vivacity of their expressive eyes, and their beautiful ringlets of black hair, tell how much nature has done for them in the way of ornament. The females of condition are generally attired in the French or English fashions, and consequently their mode of dress has no peculiar and distinctive character to be noticed.

Crowds of the second class of women are generally to be found attending the celebration of mass in the different churches, whose deportment however, during the consecration of the holy sacrament, and when retiring from the house of prayer, would not induce a Protestant to believe that very deeply-rooted religious feelings could induce the assemblage of people together in a place for which they manifest so little outward respect. In fact, such are the indecencies and improprieties committed by the lower classes in the churches during divine service, that respectable families are compelled to withdraw altogether from the contamination of the crowd, and purchase the Pope's dispensation to have the mass celebrated daily in the private oratories of their own houses.

It has been publicly asserted, but with what degree of truth I cannot state, that such is the poverty and disregard of decorum on the part of the Portuguese government, that when a person dies without leaving behind sufficient to defray the expenses of his funeral, the dead body is laid on the pavement of the most public street, with a box upon the breast, into which passers-by drop copper or silver coin, until sufficient has been thus obtained to defray the expense of interment; and that a soldier stands at the head of the body to see that no money is abstracted, for in Portugal even the sacred purpose for which it is intended would not secure it without this protection. Such an instance not having fallen under our own personal observation, it is impossible to affirm the truth of this assertion. But it may be remarked that armed soldiers are always stationed during the day in the churches close to

the favourite shrines, where the wealthy offerings of devotees are most abundant, as a preventive against the commission of sacrilegious thefts, numerous cases of which occurred during the period of our residence in the country.

It is the custom of a good Portuguese to bestow, each day, some little portion of his substance in charity upon the numerous claimants who present themselves in every form, and in every degree of filth and wretchedness, at the corner of each street; and the little donation is made, as I have frequently observed, with that kindness of look and manner which bespeaks the heaven-descended principle that prompts the compassionate act.

What may be the amount of the population of Lisbon, it would perhaps be difficult to state accurately, and conjecture is hardly to be admitted on such a subject. Still, as every house is numbered, an exact census might be easily taken, were not frauds practised to interfere with the accomplishment of the truth, as in many other instances, which might be cited, of the mismanagement and dishonesty of the government officers. The Portuguese themselves say that the population of Lisbon, and of the market-towns included within the limits of the Comarca, may be estimated at not much more than 600,000 souls.

One does not, however, meet at the tables in Portugal, excepting those of the higher class of intelligent merchants, with that degree of ready information which would be forthcoming from Englishmen of a much lower rank, upon all subjects connected in any way with a knowledge of their country. In fact, correct reports of political events, of the roads, and of the internal state of the country, can only be procured from the mercantile illuminati, who appear to have their eyes and ears everywhere on the alert.

The Portuguese generally are not great travellers in their own country, and hence the wretched accommodations afforded