LETTER VIII. Such is the patriot's boast, where'er we roam, Porto, 1827. THE quarters of the city usually frequented by those who delight in the evening promenade, when the violence of the sun has abated, are the Praça Nova das Hortas, which has within these few years received the name of the Place of the Constitution;—the Campo da Cordaria, whose triple avenue of fine trees affords a refreshing shade for pedestrians;-the Campo dos Ferradores ;-the Campo de San Ovidio, and San Lazaro ;-the Terreiro de San Domingo;-the Praça de San Bento, and da Ribeira;-the Largo de Miragaya; and the Campo da Batalha. Besides the Sé, or cathedral, and the church dos Clerigos, whose steeple is the loftiest in Portugal after that of Mafra, we have visited Nossa Senhora da Lapa, which is situated be hind the place of Santo Ovidio; the churches also of the Bentos, Congregados, San Joao Novo, the Grilos, San Domingo, the Franciscanos, and the Carmelitas Descalços, or barefooted Carmelites. The original cathedral of Porto was situated on the other side of the Douro in the earliest ages of Christianity, and the remains of this building may still be seen on the Gaia hill, whither the canons of the present Sé were accustomed to go annually in solemn procession upon the day of the invocation of St. Mark, in commemoration of the site. A bull of the Pope, obtained about three years since, has released them from this obligation; and at present, therefore, the procession advances no farther than the convent of San Joao Novo, situated at the bottom of the street, which looks across the river to the precise spot where the former building stood. Porto is divided into ten parishes,-the Sé, or cathedral, San Nicolaò, and Victoria, entre muros, forming the quarters of the Sé and Victoria ;-those of San Idelfonso and Campanham, which form the municipal division of San Idelfonso;—the three parishes of San Pedro, Boa Viagem, and Cedo-feita, which are included in the ward of Miragaya;-and Santa Marinha, and San Christovao de Mafamede, which are comprised within the Bairro of Villa Nova. Among the public buildings of the town most worthy of a traveller's attention, we have found the Senado da Relação, or court-house of appeal, to which the prisons are attached ;-the Senado da Camera, or municipal residence; the Royal Hospital, of which scarcely a fourth part is completed; the Episcopal Palace, where we have already remarked the unfinished state of the building, and have now to add the filthy condition of a noble staircase which leads up to the principal apartments; the large storehouses, in which the wines of the Royal company of the culture of the vine in the Upper Douro (Real Companhia da Cultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro) are deposited; the English Factory House already described; the Casa pia; and the theatre of San Joad, the second establishment of the kind in Portugal, which was built towards the end of the last century, after the model of that in Lisbon, but on smaller proportions, by Mazoneschi. Representations of the best Portuguese and Italian pieces are given alternately here. Female performers resumed, it may be remarked, their appearance on this stage long before the royal concession of the same favour was obtained for them at Lisbon. It is a fine handsome building, with five tiers of boxes, the royal box occupying, as at Lisbon, the centre of the house. A few evenings since we attended the representation of Il Barbiere di Seviglia; but it was wretchedly performed, and the Prima Donna was a fat vulgar woman of forty, without any pretensions to voice. In fact, this favourite opera was completely burlesqued, and as the Portuguese never dress for dramatic performances, the assemblage of people had a slovenly appearance. There were twenty-five instrumental performers in the orchestra, and upon the whole the music was passably good; and in the ballet, which was remarkable in no other respect, eight horses were introduced, whose evolutions we found sufficiently amusing. What would our Berkeley-square fashionables say to the taste of the day at Porto, where gentlemen's carriages are frequently dragged up the steep and almost precipitous streets by a yoke of oxen to the opera-house! The custom is said to have originated in necessity, when the French laid military requisition upon all the fidalgos' and wealthy persons' horses, and thus reduced them to the employment of this Smithfield rather than Newmarket team. The oxen at Porto are smaller than those at Lisbon, which are remarkably fine; but it is surprising to see what heavy loads of timber and other things these little neat animals draw up the steep streets of the town. Whilst upon the subject of Il Barbiere, it may be important to observe that the old barber's basin, whose form so well adorned the military brows of Don Quixote, is in universal use throughout Portugal; and that the lather of soap is rubbed on the face by the hand of the artificer, who, to judge from the instances which we have witnessed, seldom concludes the rough operation without eliciting the copious tears of his unfortunate victim, thus compelled to make an hebdomadal sacrifice to personal appearance. The home-manufactured razors are no better than rusty pieces of hoop iron; nothing can exceed the clumsiness of carpenters', upholsterers', and locksmiths' tools; and indeed the same may be asserted of the productions of all their respective crafts, whose finish has decidedly no claims whatever to perfection. The industry of the Porto artisans is quite remarkable. Scarcely an idle person is seen in the streets. Persons who follow similar trades, generally inhabit the same district of the town; and thus while the booksellers and the shoemakers are pursuing the noiseless tenor of their way in their own exclusive streets, the brasiers, the ironmongers, and block-tin manufacturers separately enjoy the harmony of their respective trades. On the quays are seen fine blocks of granite, already converted into form, having their edges cased with wood, ready to be shipped off for buildings in Brasil, where it appears that no good stone, or, at least, so durable as this, can be procured; -pipe-staves from Memel,-flax and iron,—and occasionally coals from the north of England. There are generally at anchor in the river, between Villa Nova and Porto, Russian, Brasilian, English, American, Dutch, Danish, and some French vessels; but many of the latter nation are not to be found in the Portuguese ports. Two-thirds of the shipping to be seen in the Douro, are British, Brasilian, or Portuguese. The trade between Porto and Brasil, before that colony was advanced to the rank of an united kingdom with the mother-country, which took place shortly after the court emigrated, through the persuasion of Lord Strangford and Sir Syd ney Smith, from Lisbon to South America, was very considerable; for until that period Porto had continued to receive a large portion of the produce of the colony, and in fact became a general entrepôt for the deposit of South American sugars, coffee, rice, and cotton, where purchases of these articles were made for the consumption of other nations. When, however, unrestricted communication was permitted to take place directly between the ports of Brasil and those of other countries, the extent of this trade, so valuable to Portugal, underwent a ruinous diminution, the native shipping fell into disuse, and was at length in a great degree annihilated. In fact, the trade between Porto and Brasil is now almost extinguished, foreign vessels, whose charges for freight and general expenses are much less than those of the Portuguese, having possessed themselves of nearly the whole of the carrying trade from Europe to that country. With the exception of what Porto requires to import for its own consumption, and for that of part of the northern provinces, such as drugs, hardware, German glass and earthenware, cotton, colonial produce, and salt fish, for which goods of wrought iron, linen cloth, coarse shawls, shoes, articles of domestic furniture, wines, salt, and some other things, are given in exchange, -scarcely any business is transacted here at present, as a general mart for the purchase of assorted articles. The general trade of the country is fast hastening to decay, and nothing can arrest its progressive decline but the cultivation of all those resources at home which are within the reach of industry and skill; the establishment of those manufactories for which the country is qualified; the final abolition of the privileged companies; a free and open competition in commerce; and, above all, a liberal and enlightened government. The trade with the East Indies is the exclusive privilege of the merchants established in Lisbon; but during the last session of the Cortes, the propriety of extending it to other |