Diário de Lisboa
- Epilogues
- We have received the following letter
- A telegram from Lourenço Marques to Havas
A critical page juxtaposes constitutional liberty, fiscal secrecy and the practical price of supposedly free schooling. A colonial dispatch adds a complaint about racial selection within a diocese. The enlarged reading separates opinion, a parent’s allegation and a reported petition rather than treating them as official findings.
Selected central-column passages, the complete parent’s letter and the short Havas dispatch. Other local notices, literary reviews and the cartoon are surveyed but not transcribed in full.
Translation
Epilogues
From a column by César Falcón we take the following passage:
“In England no one questions freedom of the press, the inviolability of constitutional guarantees, electoral rights and the inviolability of Parliament, democratic government, ministers’ submission to parliamentary scrutiny, freedom of worship, speech and assembly, or trial by jury. No one questions these things because no one believes it possible to dispense with these essential rules of collective life.”
It is said, rightly, that in England law resides in custom rather than legislation. The individual and the state, authority and liberty, are reconciled without effort—through the spontaneous action of wills serving centuries-old institutions.
[…]
Even today, no one knows in precise, indisputable figures how large the budget deficit is.
One certainty, however, remains unshaken: the deficit exists.
Governments pass it from hand to hand.
[…]
Secrecy remained absolute. The budget proposal, submitted to the Chambers on the constitutionally prescribed date, closed the public accounts with a surplus. Everyone smiled incredulously, since the deficit was an open secret.
[…]
Our colleague O Rebate, which had been suspended by order of the Censorship Commission, has reappeared. We send it our greetings.
We have received the following letter
Sir: At every turn I hear praise for public education, encouraged and free in Portugal. No doubt about it! But would you like to see what it costs to obtain this free education?
A boy attending a private school must, owing to special circumstances irrelevant here, transfer to the lycée for the fifth year.
They require him to take the fourth-year examination in October. Would you like to know the stamp duty demanded on his application? 350 escudos. This is so that he may attend, free of charge, a state establishment for which the taxpayer pays enormously precisely in order to have free education. Paying a mere 350 escudos to sit an examination for admission to free lessons is truly the cheapest and most edifying way to justify the publicity for Portuguese education. Is this what they call preventing illiteracy?—An ignorant father without escudos.
A telegram from Lourenço Marques to Havas
A telegram from Lourenço Marques to Havas states:
“Bearing hundreds of signatures from Catholics native to the colonies and from Europeans, a protest against the Bishop of Augusta is to be sent to the Pope through the nuncio in Lisbon. The disagreement arises above all from the bishop’s stance on racial selection established in the diocese, contrary to every Christian principle.”
Context
Why English constitutional habits sharpen the criticism of Portugal
Portugal’s military coup of May 28, 1926 closed Parliament and established military dictatorship. Against that setting, the column’s picture of English liberties as unquestioned habits makes constitutional life seem something a society must practise, not merely proclaim. Its remarks about hidden deficits and a newspaper suspended by censorship bring the comparison home: public accountability depends on information and the freedom to discuss it, as well as on formal budget procedures.
How an entry charge can undermine free education
The father’s complaint distinguishes free lessons from affordable access to them. A required examination and the stamp on its application stand between the child and the state school, so a cost at the entrance can frustrate the promise of tuition-free teaching. His reference to taxes adds a second grievance: the public already pays to maintain the institution. The sarcastic signature turns a bureaucratic payment into a challenge to the government’s claims about educational opportunity.
Why the protesters appeal through the nuncio to the Pope
The telegram describes Catholics challenging their bishop within the Church’s own hierarchy. By combining colonial-born and European signatures and invoking Christian principles, the petition seeks a shared religious standard against racial division in the diocese. Sending it through the papal representative in Lisbon carries a local grievance toward an authority above the bishop. The chosen route is therefore part of the protest’s strategy, not merely a postal detail.
Original
Epilogos
Duma cronica de Cesar Falcon recortamos o seguinte trecho:
—“Em Inglaterra ninguem discute a liberdade da Imprensa, a inviolabilidade das garantias constitucionais, o direito eleitoral e a intangibilidade do Parlamento, a organisação democratica do governo, a sugeição dos ministros á fiscalisação parlamentar, a liberdade de cultos, de palavra e de reunião, o juri. Ninguem discute isto, porque ninguem crê na possibilidade de dispensar estas normas essenciais da vida colectiva.”
Diz-se, e com razão, que o direito na Inglaterra reside nos costumes e não nas leis. O individuo e o Estado, a autoridade e a liberdade conciliam-se sem esforço—pela acção espontanea das vontades ao serviço das instituições seculares.
[...]
Ainda hoje se não sabe, por numeros rigorosos, insofismaveis, a quanto monta o deficit orçamental.
Uma certeza, porém, persiste inabalavel—a existencia do deficit.
Os governos transferem-no de mão em mão.
[...]
O sigilo mantinha-se absoluto. A proposta de orçamento, apresentada ás Camaras na data constitucional, fechava com saldo as contas publicas. Toda a gente sorria incredula, visto que o deficit era o segredo do Polichinelo.
[...]
Reapareceu o nosso colega o Rebate, a quem cumprimentamos, e que esteve suspenso ás ordens da Comissão de Censura.
Recebemos a seguinte carta
Sr. director: Oiço proclamar a cada passo, elogiosamente, a instrucção publica, fomentada e gratuita em Portugal. Não ha duvida! Quere, porém, vêr o que se gasta para obter essa instrução gratuita?
Um pequeno que frequentava um colegio, tem, em virtude de circunstancias especiais, que não vem para o caso, de ir para o liceu, para o 5.º ano.
Exigiram-lhe exame do 4.º ano, que ele tem de fazer em outubro. Quere saber qual o sêlo que lhe exigem no requerimento? 350 escudos. Isto por ir frequentar gratuitamente um estabelecimento do Estado, para o qual o contribuinte paga enormemente, a fim de haver instrução gratuita. Pagar só 350 escudos, a fim de fazer um exame para admissão de lições gratuitas é realmente o modo mais barato e edificante de justificar a propaganda da instrução portuguesa. Chama-se a isto evitar o analfabetismo?—Um pai ignorante e sem escudos.
Telegrafam de Lourenço Marques, á Havas
Telegrafam de Lourenço Marques, á Havas:
“Coberto por centenas de assinaturas de catolicos naturais das colonias e europeus, vai ser enviado ao Papa, por intermedio do Nuncio em Lisboa, um protesto contra o Bispo de Augusta. A incompatibilidade provém, sobretudo, da atitude do Bispo na selecção das raças, estabelecida na Diocese, contraria a todos os principios cristãos.”