the young queen was not to leave her father's court until not only the ceremony of her betrothal to her uncle should have taken place, but until the promised constitution should have been sworn to in Lisbon. Although the independence of Brazil had been formally recognized in 1825, Portugal had hitherto looked upon that country, so long as it was under one sovereign with herself, as forming not merely a part of the same monarchy, but as still having the character of a colonial adjunct, which many accidents might bring back to a state of colonial subjection. The separation was now final and complete; it was no longer an act of a revolutionary government, whose pretensions might be disregarded as rebellious; the supreme and legitimate authority had dissolved the connection for ever. This dissolution equally offended two parties in Portugal, totally opposed to each other in their ultimate views. The apostolical party, as it was called, whose creed consisted in the most extravagant notions of prerogative, stretched to their most chimerical extent, and who held the right of supremacy in the mother country over the colonies to be no less divine and indefeasible than the right of supremacy in the sovereign over the mother country, considered it to be, in principle, a formal approbation of insurrection, and, in practice, a direct encouragement to future treasons, the destruction of all social order, and a degradation of the power and dignity of the Portuguese crown. The liberals, again, who languished for the extermination of despotism, regretted the choice of Don Pedro, because they could not expect that a temporary regency would venture upon any change in the forms of government, and because the destined husband of the queen had already shewn himself to be decidedly hostile to every degree of political innovation. Both parties united in ascribing the emperor's determination to the influence of Great Britain, who followed, they said, only her own interest, in dismembering and weakening the Portuguese monarchy, in making Portugal dependent upon her in Europe, and monopolizing to herself the advantages of commercial intercourse in America. All these ideas were overturned by the course of events. It was just as chimerical for Portugal to hope that she could reduce Brazil by force, as it would have been impossible to prevail upon the latter to return under the supremacy of the mother country. What had happened in the Spanish colonies was most convincing proof, that the recogni tion of Brazilian independence was the only step which could preserve some sort of connection between that country and Portugal. Brazil was still governed by a member of the family of Portugal; but the policy of the apostolics would have produced their banishment from its shores, and insured the creation of a republic as a bulwark against their ever returning. The new constitution which Don Pedro had promised to Portugal immediately followed, and was the last act of his authority over that kingdom. The haste, with which it was concocted, did not augur well for the sagacity of its arrangements. The constitution which had been given to Brazil in December 1825 was at hand; and the charter which was now given to Portugal was, in point of fact, little else than a transcript of the former, with the difference that the upper chamber of the Brazilian legislative assembly was formed of elective senators, while the upper chamber of the Portuguese Cortes consisted of hereditary peers. Now, no plan could be more crude and hasty, no measure could promise of itself to be so little successful, as to transfer to Portugal both the general forms and the details of institutions which had been framed for Brazil, a country where the organization of society, the progress of civil life, the habits, the sentiments, and the prejudices of the people, differed so widely from those of ancient European states. If they were suitable and expedient institutions at Rio Janeiro, the probability was, that they would be found misplaced and embarrassing on the banks of the Tagus, except in so far as they proclaimed those abstract and general propositions which belong equally to all forms of good government, and yet are practically useless in the framing of any. This constitutional charter, in 145 articles, arranged under eight titles, attempted to draw the line between the executive and legislative power, and to define specifically the rights of the people. To the king were reserved the prerogatives of making peace and war, with the exception that any treaty which might exchange or cede any part of the territory or possessions of the crown should be ratified by the Cortes; to bestow honours and grant pensions, the latter, when given at the public charge, being dependent on the approbation of the Cortes; to nominate to all ecclesiastical dignities, and to all civil and military offices; to convoke the Cortes, either at the stated time of assembling, or, if circumstances should require it, in an extraordinary meeting; to prorogue and dissolve them when he should think proper; and to give the force of laws to their decrees, by adhibiting his consent. In imitation of the constitution given to the jealous Brazilians, this charter provided that, if the king should quit the kingdom without the consent of the Cortes, he should be held to have abdicated the crown. To the Cortes, as the legislative body, was declared to belong the right to appoint, in case of the minority of the heir, a regency, and define its powers, and to acknow ledge the prince royal to be heir of the throne in the first session which should be held after his birth-a provision which seemed superfluous, if hereditary succession was to be a fundamental principle of the constitution, and implied a power in the Cortes of changing the dynasty, or at least, the order of the dynasty, at every new accession. To them, likewise, it belonged, on the death of the king, or in the event of the throne being vacant, to establish a Council of Administration ;-to inquire into and reform abuses which might have been introduced;-to make laws, and to interpret, suspend, or revoke them ;-to watch over the constitution, and provide for the general good of the nation; -to fix annually the public expenses, and apportion the direct taxes;-to grant or refuse entrance to foreign forces, by land or by sea, into the interior of the kingdom, or into its ports;-to fix annually and according to the report of government, the land and sea forces, ordinary and extraordinary ;-to authorize the government to contract loans;-to establish proper resources for the payment of the public debt;-to regulate the administration of the national do mains, and decree their alienation; -to create or suppress public offices, and to fix their emoluments ;-to determine the weight, value, inscription, and denomination of monies, as well as the standard of weights and measures. The Cortes, by whom these powers were to be exercised, was to consist of two chambers, a chamber of Peers, and a chamber of Deputies, the approbation of both being necessary to the making of laws. The peers were deprived of their right of exemption from taxation, and were declared to be the only judges in impeachments of public servants. The number of representatives to be elected to the chamber of Deputies, and the mode of their election, were not provided for by the charter, but it laid down the general qualifications to be required in a voter, and provided, after the example of America, and the revolutionary Cortes of Spain, and of Portugal in 1822, that the deputies should be re-imbursed for their expenses in travelling to and from Lisbon, and receive a daily sun for their attendance. In the judicial department, trial by jury was introduced; it was declared that the judges should not be removeable at the will of the crown; and torture, the use of the lash, and branding with hot iron, were formally abolished. The Roman Catholic religion was declared to be the religion of the state; the exercise of all others was indeed allowed, but only on the condition of not being performed in any building distinguishable as a church. The general rights and liberties of the people were embodied in declarations that all were equal in the eye of the law, bound equally to defend the state by military service, and to contri bute to its revenue; that every man's house was inviolable; that no citizen should be obliged to do, or be hindered from doing, any thing whatever, unless by virtue of a law; that no law should have a retrospective effect; that every one might communicate his thoughts, whether verbally or by writing, and publish them in print, being responsible for any abuses which he might commit in the exercise of this right, according to the forms determined by the law; that no person should be persecuted for the sake of religion, as long as he respected that of the state, and did not offend public morality; that every man might remain in the kingdom, or depart from it, and carry with him all his property, conforming, nevertheless, to police regulations. If nothing more were required to make a constitution suited to the wants, and conformable to the habits and opinions of a people, than to frame it upon dogmas of most theoretical liberality, and enunciate, as its foundation, general propositions most unquestionably true, the charter, which was thus granted to Portugal, ought to have insured her happiness. But the efficacy of all such institutions depends upon the details by which general rules are to be reduced to practice, and still more upon the spirit which is to animate the execution of these details. Thus, to know whether any real good will follow from a charter which declares that every subject may do every thing which is not prohibited by an express law, it is necessary to know what is the nature and constitution, what the feelings and modes of thinking of the power by which these laws are to be made, and above all what are the rules which govern, and the spirit which pervades, the tribunals by which these laws are to be administered. But, at all events, the granting of this charter was a fair and voluntary attempt of Don Pedro to introduce a representative government, and it was more than a fulfilment of his father's promise to restore at least the ancient Cortes of Lamego. It had not been wrested from him either by force, or even by prayers and remonstrances; and therefore could not with any good grace be resisted even by the cabinets which held that all political changes must proceed as a gift from the In itself, it still left to the king enough of splendor and prerogative to place it beyond the reach of any objection from the lovers of absolute power, except the simple objection that it was not unadulterated despotism. crown. When this Constitution arrived at Lisbon, the regent and her counsellors delayed its promulgation, not from any design of suppressing it, or impeding its execution, but to be prepared for opposition-an opposition which the political changes of Portugal during the last four years rendered not improbable. This caution, how ever, was, in some respects, mischievous. For, although the people in general received with favour the boon which was thus granted to them, there were many who, from pure love of despotism, hated it for its own sake; there were many, who disliked it, because they regarded it as a proof of the preponderance of British influence in the counsels of Portugal; and there were some foreign potentates will ing to plot against it, because they dreaded every acknowledgment of popular rights as dangerous to the stability of their own thrones. All these drew hope and confidencefrom the delay in the publication of the constitution, which they imputed to lukewarmness or ap prehension in the government; while those again who regarded the constitution with affection vere agitated by undefined fears that the benefits which the king had resolved to bestow upon his subjects were to be intercepted by domestic treason, or by the unwarrantable interference of foreign powers. The consequence of this feeling was indignation and distrust, which threatened the public tranquillity. General Saldanha, who was governor of Oporto, and immediately afterwards was named minister of war, stated in a report to the regent, that the first intelligence of the granting of a constitution had been received in that city not only with the greatest joy, but with a firm resolution to exact the full enjoyment of the benefits conferred by the sovereign; that this resolution had gained strength in proportion as its necessity was apparently increased by the silence of the government; and that the joy which at first had animated the people and the troops of the garrison, gave way to distrust. The peaceable character of the inhabitants, and the discipline which he had enforced among his soldiers, had enabled him to keep them within the bounds of duty and moderation, and they had contented themselves with manifesting their enthusiasm in the theatres. "But," added the general, " I must frankly tell your highness, that, if this state of uncertainty and distrust be suffered to continue, and if the first post does not bring positive orders for taking the oath to the constitutional charter, it is impossible to preserve tranquillity, or to calculate the fatal consequences of such a state of things." The opponents of the constitution were as restless as its friends; their mutual animosities daily augmented; plots were forming among the military not only to oppose the introduction of the representative form of government, but to exclude the descendants of Don Pedro from the throne, and elevate his younger brother, Don Miguel, in his stead. These antipathies and machinations broke out at last in acts of open violence, which, however, were immediately checked by the vigour and firmness with which Saldanha acted. The disaffected party in Oporto where, after Lisbon, public opinion is of most importance, was crushed, and did not again show itself even during the revolutionary movements which soon followed in other parts of the kingdom. On the 13th of July, the adoption of the constitution had been proclaimed; and the 31st of that month was appointed as the day on which, in accordance with the provisions of the charter, the oath to it should be taken by all the members and servants of government, the dignified clergy, the municipal magistrates, and public functionaries, throughout the monarchy. At Lisbon the ceremony was performed with much pomp and popular shew the mourning for the late king was suspended; the city was illuminated, and for three days presented one continued scene of festivity and public rejoicing. The troops shared in the enthusiasm of the people; the new system seemed to be firmly fixed in the affections and opinion of the capital; the council of regency was at an end; the Infanta became sole sove : reign; and a new ministry was formed, consisting entirely of men who were known to be the friends of liberal institutions, though not of military revolution. Throughout the provinces, likewise, the ceremony passed off, in general, without any manifestations of disaffection to the charter on the part of the people. The ministers of foreign powers maintained the usual diplomatic relations with the government of the regent, and either virtually or expressly recognized its legitimacy, with the exception of Spain, whose policy, however, it did not suit publicly to withdraw her ambassador. Britain not only expressly recognized, but, by her influence, was the bulwark of the constitution; nay, the enemies of the charter laboured to excite popular discontent against it, by representing it as an engine framed by Britain as a means of perpetuating her influence over Portugal, and securing the insignificance of the monarchy by confirming for ever the separation of the colonies from the mother country. But the only influence which England possessed in Portugal, independent of that arising from commercial relations, was the influence of great power, always used with good faith, to confer great benefits. In the proclamation in which the charter was promulgated, the regency, in order to conciliate those who thought change synonymous with anarchy, from whatever source it might be derived, had pointed out how much it differed in character from that which had been forced upon the nation by military usurpation, in 1822. "The charter," said they, in that proclamation, "is not a forced concession; it is a voluntary and |