In Vida do Marquês de Sá da Bandeira (1887-1888), Soriano pays homage to the man by whose hand he entered and advanced in his career as a state functionary. Belonging to the liberal elite, Sá da Bandeira was the only one to reject the “bunk” that Palmela had reserved for him on the Belfast, opting instead to accompany the troops to Galicia. This gesture revealed a humanity in Sá Nogueira that the others did not have, thereby winning Soriano’s admiration and loyalty.

The História do Reinado de El-rei D. José… he wrote was also commissioned by the state. Pombal appears as the great saviour of a nation that was in a “deplorable” state, a state that had become drastically worse as a result of the 1755 earthquake. The historian condemns the despotic regime at the same time as making a very positive judgement of Pombal’s governance, which was responsible for bringing the country out of the “state of ignorance and barbarity in which it had lain until then” (p.192). This fascination with Pombal, not very common in liberal historiography (although Pinheiro Chagas is another of Pombal’s admirers), would be taken up again some years later by republican historiography with José de Arriaga and Teófilo Braga.

In Utopias Desmascaradas… and Revelações da Minha Vida… Soriano reveals and justifies his true feelings. In the first work, it is the liberal doctrine that is submitted to the writer’s evaluation. He shows, somewhat vehemently, his disillusionment with liberal politics in Portugal and with the liberal doctrine itself. In the second work, he presents the reader with the most important moments of his life intercalated by chapters of a very different nature (the history of Coimbra and its university, a geographical description of the archipelago of the Azores). In the Revelações…, Soriano complains that publication of the Utopias… merited him the accusation of “liberticide” (Revelações…,1860, p.533). He refuted the accusation saying that he had on the contrary fallen into the “most extraordinary scepticism” in relation to politicians – whether they be “chartists” or, and above all, “demagogues or progressives” (Op. Cit., p. 545). For him, thirty years of representative government constituted a “strong denial” of the “garden of delights” promised by the liberal revolution. What triumphed was not “merit” nor “virtue” nor “patriotism” nor “zeal for the public cause”, but instead a battle of interests, “a bitter and fratricidal struggle between the two big parties” (Utopias…, p. 12).

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