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spontaneous gift of the legitimate power of his Majesty, and matured by his profound and royal wisdom. This charter tends to terminate the contest between two extreme principles which have agitated the universe. It summons all Portuguese to reconciliation, by the same means which have served to reconcile other people; it maintains, in all their vigour, the religion of our fathers, and the rights and dignity of the monarchy; all the orders of the state are respected, and all are alike interested in uniting their efforts to surround and strengthen the throne, to contribute to the common good, and to secure the preservation and amelioration of the country to which they owe their existence, and of the society of which they form a part; the ancient institutionsare adapted and accommodated to our age, as far as the lapse of seven centuries will permit; and finally, this charter has prototypes among other nations who are esteemed among the most civilized and the most happy."

But neither this language, moderate and prudent as it was, nor the general satisfaction with which the constitution was received throughout the kingdom, could check the activity or extinguish the intrigues of a party which was opposed with equal animosity to the liberty of Portugal, and to the independence of Brazil. If deprived of foreign assistance, that party could hope for success only by seducing the military, and, unfortunately, the recent history of the Portuguese army had been any thing but favourable to high sentiments of fidelity and subordination. During late years, they had been taught lessons which soldiers should never learn.

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had first been seduced from its allegiance by the revolutionists in 1822, and made the instrument of introducing their tumultuary constitution. Its influence was afterwards thrown into the opposite scale; and, in 1824, it rose twice against the existing authorities. The first insurrection was partial, and failed; the second was successful, and put an end to the power of the Cortes. In April, 1825, the troops, at the instigation of the faction who affected to look up to the Queen and Don Miguel as their head, were again arrayed against the sovereign, on the ground that he was not sufficiently despotic; and it was only the dread of the British power, and the presence of a British squadron, that restored the authority of the king. It was scarcely to be expected, that troops who had been accustomed to interfere so irregularly with the political arrangements of a country, should be easily satisfied with a system in which their co-operation had neither been needed nor desired. The more disorderly among them were naturally inclined to take advantage of the moment of change to throw off the trammels of subordination; and they were excited to do so by those officers who were too deeply implicated in the intrigues of 1824 and 1825, to be cordially trusted by the new authorities. The same influence, which had led them astray on the latter occasion, was again employed, and for the same purposes; the queen-mother did not conceal her hatred of the constitution, and of the new government; the watch word of her party "An absolute king" was again heard, and Spain was held out as the model which Portugal ought to imitate. Their

intrigues were not altogether unsuccessful, but as yet they produced only desertion. At the end of July, and the beginning of August, part of two regiments stationed at Estremoz and Villa Viciosa, on the frontiers of the Alentejo, revolted and fled into Spain under the command of brigadier-general Magessi; and some of the military in Chaves and Braganza on the northern frontiers of Tras OS Montes, followed their example under brigadier general Montealegre. But their flight excited no disturb ance in the provinces: it was a proof that they could not trust for support either to their comrades, or to the people; and if Spain had not encouraged and organized them, their desertion would scarcely have attracted the serious consideration of the government. The only step it took was to declare the regiments. suppressed, and to erase their names from the army list.

The first labour of the Regen cy, after the oath to the constitution had been taken, was to prepare for the convoking of the Cortes, by framing a code of regulations for the election of the members of the Chamber of depu ties. This code, which was promulgated on the 10th of August, proceeded on the principle of indirect election. The kingdom with the islands in the Atlantic, and its African and Asiatic dependencies, was divided into electoral provinces, or districts; the electors of each parish in a district were to choose a certain number of delegates; and these assembled delegates, under the name of provincial electors, were to elect the deputies. The qualification of a parochial elector was fixed at an income of between 247. and 251. per annum, arising from the pub VOL. LXVIII.

lic funds, from the employment of capital in industry or commerce, from the pursuits of a profession, or even from a public pension; but all persons hired for wages were excluded, except clerks or cashiers in mercantile houses, and such members of the royal household as did not wear livery. In estimating the income, that of the wife was to be added to that of the husband, and the incomes of minor sons to the income of the father. All Portuguese subjects who were actually citizens of Brazil, who should be naturalized in foreign countries, or accept of foreign service and honours without the permission of government, were declared to be disqualified from voting. The most important disability was that which attached to the clergy. All clergymen and monks living in confraternities were disqualified, with the exception of the non-cloistered brethren of the three military orders, who formed no part of the conventual communities. To be chosen a provincial elector, and thus have a direct voice in choosing the deputies, it was necessary to have an income equal to 50l. sterling, double of that required in a parochial elector: and to be eligible as a deputy, the candidate was required to have an income double that of a provincial elector, viz. an income of about 100l. sterling. A candidate moreover could be elected deputy only for the district in which he had been born, or that in which his residence was legally fixed at the time. The number of deputies was fixed at the proportion of one for every twenty-five thousand souls, which gave in all one hundred and thirty-eight members, viz. one hundred and twenty for Por tugal and Algarve; eleven for th [Y]

islands of which the Azores form ed one province or district, and Madeira and Porto Santo another; and seven for the colonial establish ments in Asia and Africa, The elections by the parishes were limited to three days, commencing on the 17th and ending on the 19th of September. The whole proceedings were to be conducted by day-light. So s soon as candles became necessary, the business was to be adjourned till next day. The election of the deputies by the district or provincial electors was to commence on the 1st of October and terminate on the 8th.

The principal defect in this system of regulations was the adops tion of the principle of indirect elec tion; a machinery which, separating the elected from the great mass of the electors, always impairs the strength and virtue of a representative go vernment. The case in which there is most ground for having recourse to it, is, where the quali fications of votes are extremely low, and voters extremely numerous; but that reason did not apply to Portugal, where the num bers were small, and even the parochial electors were to have a yearly income of five-and-twenty pounds. Another error was, the almost total exclusion of the ecclesiastical orders from the elective franchise. There is no good reason why the members of the established religion of a country should be deprived of the political privileges enjoyed by other subjects; and there is little consistency in excluding them from one branch of the legislature, while their dignitaries are admitted to seats in the other. It may be true, that their influence was to be dreaded, and, that it would not have facilitated the working of the new insti

tutions; but it would have been much less dangerous, acting openly under the known forms of the constitution, than when operating by concealed intrigues and machinations. The more that ecclesiastics are separated by the peculiarities of their profession from some of the ties of social life, the more desirable is it that they should be linked to it by other connections. Priests will be the better by participating in political privileges; and a system will be the more secure for not exciting their hostility.

In the mean time, from the moment that the constitution had been promulgated, and the oath of fidelity to it taken, secret intrigues had been carrying on to effect its overthrow, and place Don Miguel upon the throne. The disaffection began with the party who were hostile to the introduction of any thing like popular elements into the government, and who, in 1825, had made a daring attempt against the late king, because he was not extirpating, by bloodshed and proscription, the seeds of the popular commotion of 1822, so mercilessly as to their bigotry seemed good. They had always been anxious to support the title of Don Miguel, in the event of Don Pedro abdi cating the Portuguese crown, because he was a man after their own mind, prepared, like them, to assert an imaginary supremacy over Brazil, and set at defiance every expression of public opinion, or of the public desires at home. The es, tablishment of a representative constitution roused their political enthusiasm, like the commission of some atrocious crime; and the moment when the new government was still unsettled seemed to furnish an opportunity for crushing

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publie liberty in its birth, They were encouraged and assisted by the queen dowager, who, although removed from the court, and kept under strict surveillance at Queluz, never ceased to labour for the restoration of unmitigated despotism, and was secretly preparing the way for insurrection by largesses bestowed on the officers and soldiers of her guard. At the head of the party were the marquis of Chaves, a nobleman of immense possessions, and extensive influence in the northern part of the kingdom, his uncle Silveira, and the viscount Canellas, who, in 1820, had been president of the insurgent junta of Oporto, and now laboured in the cause of absolute poweras willingly as he had then ranted in favour of radical revolutions. Along with them were combined Montealegre, and general Magessi, a man who was held to possess some military talent. They did not seek their instruments among the great body of the people: their influence lay principally with the military; they reckoned on being able again to seduce an army which had already been more than once debauched, and taught to make and unmake governments; they counted on the wealth of Chaves, on the contributions and hearty catoperation of the priesthood, who hated the constitution both as excluding them from power, and being fatal to the despotism through which, by ruling one, they tyrannize over all; and they could gild their attempt by the countenance of the queen, and shield it under the name of a prince of the blood royal. If they could succeed in establishing themselves in the kingdom at the head of a military force, they had little to dread from the great body of the people, who, unaccustomed

to political thinking, took little interest in political changes; and would either remain quiet, or he drawn to favour and enterprise which was proclaimed to be in defence of religion, and for the restoration of the grandeur of the Portuguese monarchy.

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But neither their own resources, nor the indifference of the people, nor the wavering fidelity of the army, would have afforded the conspirators any hopes of success, if they had not been supported and encouraged by Spain. The order of succession established by Don Pedro, and the constitutional charter which he had granted, had both been recognized by foreign powers, as proceeding from a legi timate authority, Great Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Aus tria, all united in acknowledging the regency, and in maintaining diplomatic relations with it:nor was it easily conceivable that any court, distinguished by attach ment to prerogative, should be so absurdly inconsistent as to ques tion the right of a sovereign prince to give his subjects such institu tions as he might choose. Spain alone,poor, and weak, and wretch, ed as she was, refused to acknowledge either the government or the constitution, and determineduto preach up a crusade against kings in defence of monarchy, She had been displeased at the recognition of the independence of Brazil by John VI., because it was an ex ample which, in regard to her own colonies, she was determined not to follow the offence had been heightened by the subsequent sanc tion given to this separation by Don Pedro, when he resigned the sceptre of Bortugal to retain that of Brazil; and now, the establishment of a representative government on

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her very frontiers, and with so many facilities for communication, excited at once the fears and the hatred of Ferdinand and the knot of priests and fanatics who formed his counsellors. To extinguish every wish of seeing a better government substituted for the blind and ignorant despotism which they had re-established, had been the object of their incessant labours from the moment of the restoration of Ferdinand by the arms of France; proscription and banishment, the dungeon and the scaffold, had been mercilessly employed to root out every symptom of the disease; and they now looked with horror and loathing on a neighbour who was all over infection, and was bringing contagion into their very presence. Ferdinand and his Camarilla did not believe that their system was safe for a moment, so long as a representative government existed in Portugal; their system involved, to their eyes, the rights of God, and kings, and the duties of subjects; and, therefore, by open force, or by secret intrigue, the constitution of Pedro was to be overthrown, and the palpable darkness, which brooded over the Escurial, was to be extended to the mouth of the Douro, and the banks of the Tagus. If the treason of Chaves and his coadjutors was, of all treasons, the most mean-spirited, because, instead of springing from a generous love of liberty, or a sense of strong at tachment to an unfortunate prince, it was founded upon an abstract love of slavery, and directed against the legal and native monarch of the country, the conduct of Spain, setting aside her fears, was no less absurd and unprincipled. Spain, more than any other cabinet, was the apostle of the divine and illi mitable rights of kings; her policy

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was a daily commentary on the text, that every desire for alterations which are not the free gift of the sovereign, is rebellion; and that the holiest political duty of man is to defend every act of kingly power, and more especially to defend it against subjects. But when she refused to recognize the government of Portugal, and resolved to aid the conspirators against it, she was curtailing the extent of kingly prerogative, and uniting herself with rebellious subjects against the lawful acts of a crowned head. The constitution was a gift, not a concession; it was a free-will offering, not an extorted benefit; it had no taint of rebellion, and bore upon it every character of legitimate supremacy. Its opponents were plotting to resist royal authority, and elevate by force the wishes of subjects above the holy rights of kings: yet Spain, took part with the rebellious, subjects, and determined to risk her own tranquillity in support of the right of the people to constrain and com pel the will of the monarch; while the wickedness of a people attempt ing to compel or constrain that will was the very foundation of her government, and the sole maxim of her policy. In fact, Spain opposed royal authority, because that authority was employed to introduce popular institutions among its subjects; and thus she enjoyed the solitary and degrading honour of publishing to Europe, that neither monarch nor people could cherish civil liberty without guilt and damnation, and that unmixed, hopeless despotism was the single form of government which heaven had designed for man, and the only one which virtue, religion, or expediency, could suffer to exist. In the frenzy of her

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