This request is
accompanied by a suggestion that unless some such reciprocity is
established the benefits of the decree of April, 1834, will be withdrawn
so far as respects this country. Application is also made for a return
of the discriminating duties which have been collected since the
promulgation of the said decree from the vessels of Portugal arriving
in the United States from any of the ports embraced by that decree.
In reference to this point it is proper to state that it does not appear
that the force or operation of the decree referred to of the 18th April,
1834, was extended by any official act of the Portuguese Government to
the islands of Madeira or the Azores until February or April, 1835.
It is also to be observed that, notwithstanding the abolition by that
decree of discriminating duties upon the importation of goods into
Portugal from foreign countries, an exemption existed until the 1st of
February instant, according to information received from our charge
d'affaires at Lisbon, in favor of various articles when imported from
Great Britain, from an excise duty which was exacted upon the same
articles when imported from other foreign countries or produced or
manufactured at home.
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