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would treat its rights with much respect, or that its own rebellious subjects should not draw encourage ment from the fact' t that the work of insurrection was the work of Spain. But Spain, with an infatuation for which it would be difficult to account, were it necessary to account for any measure of a government in which brutal, uncalculating bigotry occupies the place of foresight, prudence, and honesty, was determined to persist in her career, till she should put it most thoroughly out of the power of any sensible man in Europe to say a single word in her behalf. Even now she might have retraced her steps without much humiliation; she would only have been the last to acknowledge a government, whose principles she thought dangerous to herself, and her hatred to whose institutions she did not think it necessary to conceal'; the inroads made upon Portugal in October might have afforded her as favorable an opportunity as she could now expect, to come off without open disgrace, as if that unblushing and regular invasion had for the first time forced upon her the unwilling belief that her good-nature had been abused. She might still have yielded without appearing to yield to force; England had not yet laid her hand upon the sword; France had not yet treated her with contempt; Russia had not yet read to her a lecture of grave disapprobation; the semblance of good faith now would have covered all the faults and follies of the past. But Spain, besides being deprived of the exercise of sound reason, seemed to have lost every feeling of national pride and regard for national character, and to reckon it nothing that she failed in her object, unless she could contrive

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ded Spanish lancers and guerillas; Spanish arms were distributed among the ranks, and sent across the frontier to be distributed among the peasantry; and a park of artillery was ready at Badajoz to accompany the division which was to enter the province of Alentejo. Longa and St. Juan, the captains general of Valladolid and Estremadura, who again and again had been pointed out to the government by name, as the deliberate and obstinate violators of neutrality, and who, probably for that very reason, had been studiously continued in their commands, allowed and encouraged all this bustle of preparation under their own eyes, where the lowest whisper of discontent could not have escaped the snares and spies of the police. On the 23rd of November the rebels entered Portugal, penetrated from the north across the Douro, as far as Viseu, threw Oporto into consternation, pillaged town and country, proclaimed Don Miguel king, established juntas of regency in his name, and, for six weeks, kept the fate of Portugal turning almost upon a point. The whole of this was the work of Spain; she seemed about to derive from her obstinacy and deceit the advantage of a momentary triumph; and, but for one cabinet, she might have been successful. So soon as the invasion was known, the Spanish minister at Lisbon was

308] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1826.

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to di boog lavdrorong but Justa suspended from his functions; at Madridjo Jothe Portuguese envoy instantly demanded his passports, and departed the British minister, hastened off the intelligence to England, and absented himself from court. England had patiently watched the progress of Spain, anxious not to interfere fill the conduct of that power should justify interference to all the world. Her advice and authority had often restrained Portugal, when provocation might have led Portugal to measures of justifiable retaliation. But, if Portugal had thus done -violence to her sense of insult for dai while, in order that her ally night stand before Europe on immoveable ground, so much the more was that ally now bound to laet in her defence with promptistude and vigour. Within five days after the intelligence of the invaAsion reached London, in the be-ginning of December, the troops es of Britain were on their march dtothe assistance of her oldest Jifriend, and, before the end of the month, they were again landed on the scene of their earlier glories.

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This energy and rapidity of decision came upon Spain like a thunder-bolt like her own Sancho, when the imperious physician of Barataria snatched the favourite viands from his lips, she stood staring in stupid amazement. On an actual war with Britain she had never counted: for any thing else she might have been prepared. The recal of the French ambassador who had encouraged her in her policy, in opposition to the sentiments of his government; the departure of the Swiss guards of France from Madrid which immediately followed; and the disapprobation which the autocrat of Russia now formally bestowed upon her

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conduct were all, more or I less, expressions of censure, but none of them presented any impediment to Ferdinand prosecuting his own schemes, in his own way, and with his own means they gave him no aid, but they opposed to him no positive resistance. A British army, however, was an obstacle of a very different kind; Portugal was now beyond the reach of attack; the very rumour of the arrival of the British troops had struck dismay into the rebels, and blasted all their hopes; retreat and defeat followed fast upon each other, and within a few days they were swept, with their Spanish a allies, from every corner of the kingdom, seeking mercy in submission. Spain might arm the fugitives Cadugitives again she dared, but they themselves would never choose again to cros the frontiers with arms in their hands. Like a! recreant bully, Ferdinand found it necessary to disavow his pretensions, when he had most surely reckoned on ing them good. He consented to receive a minister from the Portuguese regency, a virtual recognition of the government, on his own minister at Lisbon being reinstated in his diplomatic functions. General Longa, and the governor of Ciudad Rodrigo, who had again permitted a few miserable fugitives, from the last defeat of the rebels, to re-enter Portugal, probably because new instructions had not yet reached them, were suspended from their commands, and ordered to be tried by a military tribunal. Instead of all the points, at which it was known that the rebels were to leave Spain, being stripped of troops, the garrisons on the frontiers were increased, and supported, by an army of eight thousand men, along the

DAH VA IKKA 1208

line of the Tagus, to guard the Spanish territory from violation by either party, and prevent the importation of the constitutional contagion measures, the honest adoption of which, two months sooner,

stant and proverbial good faith of the noble and elevated Spanish character." Not a word of all this was liable to any doubt; and every syllable of it had been pressed upon the Spanish government for

from would have saved Spain months, with exemplary forbear

ance; but it was extremely doubtful how far these sentiments proceeded from sincere conviction, or would be acted on longer than the necessity continued. The ministers who had so misguided Spain still re

from all the contumely to which she was now exposed. The c captains-general of the provinces, and the inspector of the royalist volun'teers, were now informed by the minister of war, that "his Majesty has the most lively desire to maintained their places, and their influtain the relations of amity which unite him with his august allies, and insure their inviolability by means calculated to secure reciprocal confidence that of all these means, none is more indispensable than that of observing neutrality, by abstaining from interfering by any hostile acts or co-operation against Portugal, so as not to compromise himself either with that country or with its ally, England; that to any hostile force to remain assembled in arms, on the Spanish territory, would be acting in a manner contrary to these principles, and, consequently, hazarding the dignity, and the con

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ence; except that M. Calomarde suffered a temporary disgrace, for having, by some piece of bad management, allowed a great number of the original orders, which had been sent to the captainsgeneral of the provinces on othe frontiers of Portugal, and memoranda of the rest of them, to fall into the hands of Mr. Lamb, the British ambassador, furnishing documentary evidence upon which, if need were, to pronounce a verdict of guilty against Spain, as having brought upon herself much humiliation by want of sense, want of prudence, and want of principle.

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CHAP. XII,

PORTUGAL Death of John VI.-Don Pedro's Resignation of the Throne in favour of his Daughter-Establishment of a RegencyNew Constitution of Portugal-Promulgation of the ConstitutionState of Public Opinion-Discontent of the Ultra-Royalists, and Desertions from the Army-Election of the Deputies to the Cortes— Intrigues of Spain and the Marquis of Chaves-Spain refuses to disarm the Deserters--Conspiracy discovered in Lisbon-Decree against Emigrants-Demands of the Portuguese Envoy-Revolts in Algarves and Tras os Montes-Meeting of the Cortes-Don Miguel takes the Oath to the Constitution-Renewed Remonstrances of the Portuguese Envoy at Madrid-Preparations of the Rebels-They invade Portugal-Spanish Minister at Lisbon suspended-Assurances given by Spain-Progress of the Rebels in Tras os Montes-Revolt in Lamego Insurrection in Beira-Progress of the Rebels under Magessi in the Alentejo Magessi is driven back into Spain-He re-enters Portugal in the Province of Beira-Revolt in AlmeidaMilitary Movements of the Rebel Commanders and of the Constitutional Troops-Arrival of British Troops at Lisbon-The Rebels defeated at Coruches-They retreat into Spain.

JOHN VI. king of Portugal,

OHN VL. king of Portugal, and titular emperor of Brazil, died at Lisbon on the 10th of March, 1826, at the age of fiftynine, after a reign of thirty-four years. During twenty-five of these years, from 1792, he had exercised the sovereign power as regent for his mother, who labour ed under mental alienation. He succeeded her upon her death in 1817, and was crowned at Rio Janeiro, to which he had retired with the court on the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon, His character was marked neither by eminent virtues, nor debasing vices; and, though he had passed, during his reign, through many vicissitudes of fortune, he did not display in them any sagacity of design, or much steadiness of purpose. To leave Portugal when Napoleon

had declared that the House of
Braganza had ceased to reign, and
to prefer ruling over
an inde
pendent empire in America, to
wearing the crown of a vassal in
Europe, was a singular step, and,
perhaps, a wise one; but it
was the result of foreign policy
and urgency, not of his own
voluntary deliberation. While he
held his court at Rio Janeiro, and,
in Portugal, after his return to
Europe, he still was guided in his
course by the circumstances which
sprung up around him, seldom at-
tempting, and still more seldom
attempting successfully, to foresee,
to direct, or to control them. The
revolution of 1822 carried him
before it, until it sunk beneath the
weight of its own vices s and ab-
surdities, and left him, for the re-
mainder of his reign, the old,

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king, willing to who were its recal, and every risk to effect even venture upon the impossible task of bringing Brazil back by force to a due obedience to the mother country. They were supported by the influence of the queen dowager, and the emperor's younger brother Don Miguel, both of whom had shewn, in the preceding year, how little they regarded the affection and the respect due to a husband and father, when it stood in the way of their own wild and ambitious designs. This party itself, again, was in a great measure merely the creature of some foreign courts which held the same general creed of political obedience, and more especially of the court of Madrid, which was wedded to such principles of policy by a community of interest. It was the wish of this party to induce Don Pedro to temporize as long as possible before making his choice between the crowns, and to prevent all representations to him which might hasten that choice, in the hope that, by evading and procras tinating, expedients might be found to restore the supremacy of Por tugal, and enable him to wield both sceptres. The regency had the good faith, and the good sense to follow better advice; and when they informed Don Pedro of the death of his father, they pressed upon him earnestly the necessity and expediency of a speedy deter mination. Delay would have been dangerous to his authority in both countries, for in both his authority would have been uncertain; and in fact, every act of government exercised by the regency of Por tugal in the name of Don Pedro, after he should have learned his title to the crown, would have

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