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intelligent of the empire, Dom Pedro resolved on striking at rebellion there, without delay. Leaving the government of Rio de Janeiro to his friend, Andrada, and ordering troops to march on all sides in the direction of Villa Rica, the capital of the insurgent province, he took the manly resolution of setting out in person, and actually preceding the troops to the centre of insurrection. The daring nature of this action was the source of its success. The insurgent army had marched out to fight the troops whom they expected to meet on the road to their capital. They met only the Prince, and whether astonished, or corrupted, or captivated, they received this solitary opponent with shouts, put themselves under his command, and marched back to Villa Rica. rection hid its head at his approach, or rather was turned into sudden loyalty, for the independents joined the deputation which came forth to welcome the sovereign. Dom Pedro had the good sense to be satisfied with the submission, declared himself, so far from hostile to independence, that he was its warmest advocate, congratulated them on having, like himself, burst asunder all fetters, and gave a huzza for the constitution, religion, honest men, and the men of the Minas. No punishment was inflicted, except the politic suspension of a few of the leaders from public employment. He then turned his horse's head, galloped back to Rio; on his arrival went instantly to the Opera, announced there to the shouting multitude the submission of the province, and thus showily closed a campaign of thirty days, during which he had accomplished a journey of a thousand miles, through forest, mountain, furious river, and trackless wilderness, continually in peril, and accomplished the still more hazardous object of appeasing and reconciling a remarkably daring, turbulent, and headstrong portion of his people.

His popularity was now unbounded, and it was dexterously made a ground for a new advance in power. The 13th of May, the anniversary of his father's birth, was singularly chosen to consummate the usurpation of the son; but it was a holiday,

and that was enough for the Brazilians. On that day, a deputation of the Camera waited on him with the proposal of the title of "Constitutional Prince Regent, and Perpetual Defender of Brazil." The next invitation was, to call a general council to deliberate on the affairs of the kingdom. This was equivalent to a declaration of independence; and the actual declaration was soon to follow.

The Portuguese Cortes, like all the modern makers of European constitutions, were Jacobins, and, of course, at once blunderers, impostors, and tyrants. With the Jacobin, in all countries, personal cupidity is the sole impulse, and the extinction of every man and thing above himself the sole object of his success. Generally flung out of the natural and honest ways of acquiring character, he is poor and characterless; and he knows, or will adopt no better way of balancing his ill luck, than by sinking every honester and better man to his own level. Universally a personal profligate, heartless in his private intercourse with society, without allegiance to God, or fidelity to man, he becomes an advocate for every extravagant claim of popular passion; is a clamourer for the independence of all religions, in all their forms, which all, in alĺ their forms, he equally despises; devotes himself to the cause of license in every land, under the insulted name of liberty; and with every element of scorn for all human rights, interests, and feelings, utterly contemptuous of human nature, and looking on the people but as a toolfraudulent in all his dealings, and false in all his protestations, he proclaims himself the champion of popular rights throughout all nations.

The Portuguese Cortes acted in the full spirit of this character. The slightest claim to equality of privileges was scoffed at. The Brazilians were pronounced rebels, troops were sent to coerce them; and while the rabble of Portugal were giving law to the throne, the halls of the Cortes resounded with the bitterest taunts of the members against the fair claims of Brazil, seconded or dictated by the most furious clamours of the mob, which were suffered to

crowd their avenues and galleries. The few Brazilian deputies vainly attempted to reason; they were put down by uproar. The Brazils, a ter ritory as large as Europe, and hourly rising in wealth, population, and general acquirement-an empire,whose smallest province was larger than the whole of Portugal-were treated as the toy, the slave, or the victim of the rabble legislation of Lisbon; and orders were sent out commanding the Prince's return to Europe within four months; and denouncing all the military who continued to obey him, as traitors to Portugal. But this act of violence was equally an act of folly. The blow was too late. The Prince, on receiving the dispatches, virtually consigning him to a dungeon, decided at once on resistance. After contemplating them seriously for a time, he drew the natural conclusion, that on his decision turned the question of personal sovereignty or chains. He exclaimed, "Independence or Death!" The exclamation was caught like a Roman omen-was repeated on all sides; and from that moment the Brazils were free. The town of Piranga, where this event occurred, is still commemorated as the cradle of Brazilian independence.

The next and natural step was the formation of a legislature. By the advice of the Council, a general assembly of Deputies from all the provinces was called, to assume the functions of a Parliament. And the first act of the nation, thus established in its independence, was to shew its gratitude by proclaiming Dom Pedro its sovereign. On the 22d of October, he was publicly shewn to the soldiery and the people, in the Campo de Santa Anna, as "Constitutional Emperor, with the unanimous acclamation of the people." The tinge of republicanism thrown over this high acknowledgment, was destined to colour the whole future history of this brief sovereignty; but, for the time, all was confidence, triumph, and perhaps sincerity; and whether with the tacit object of marking the popular influence on the occasion, or in the mere captivation of a sounding title, the Saint lost her rights, and the Square was thenceforth named the Campo d'Acclamacáo.

The Portuguese garrison and fleet

at Bahia now became the points of public attention. Dom Pedro displayed his habitual activity on this occasion, collected troops, engineers, and ammunition from all quarters, and made a still more important accession in the person of Lord Cochrane, whom he put at the head of the Imperial fleet, and instantly dispatched to Rio. The enemy's fleet was strong, amounting to thirteen ships, with 398 guns, while the Brazilian amounted only to seven, with 250 guns. But their commander's name was a tower of strength; he found the Portuguese hauled out in order of battle, and instantly attacked them. But his ships were worked by inexperienced Brazilians, and by Portuguese, who could not be relied on. He yet forced the Portuguese line, but he found himself so il seconded, that after some firing he was forced to retire. On returning the next day to the attack, he found that the enemy had been frightened under the guns of their shore batteries; he therefore blockaded them, and urged the blockade with such vigilance, that the garrison were speedily on the verge of famine. But a blockade was not sufficient employment for the stirring spirit of this officer. He determined to enter the harbour, and surprise the fleet. The English commodore in the Bay, well acquainted with the style of the gallant blockader, advised the Portuguese Admiral to take some precautions against a night attack. But the Portuguese thought himself safe, and, like a true son of the south, left the rest to fortune. He was dining on shore with the General, when a fire from the bay at ten at night told him that the Englishman was not mistaken; Lord Cochrane had attacked the fleet at anchor. Under cover of the night, he had hove his ship into the midst of the fleet, and was already alongside of the Admiral's vessel. The wind had brought him thus far, and in a few minutes more his boarders would have been upon the deck of the Portuguese. But by one of the changes common in that climate, the breeze died away at the moment, and the assailant found himself powerless in the midst of the enemy's fleet, and, what was of much more importance, under the guns of their batteries. There

was now no resource but to escape as silently as he could, and this reluctant alternative was carried into execution with admirable presence of mind; knowing that the concussions of a single shot might extinguish the remnant of the breeze, not a shot was fired; he dexterously availed himself of that remnant, and unmolested, made his way back to his station off the harbour. The attack on Bahia on the land side was next attempted; but, after a long conflict, the Brazilians were repulsed. The indefatigable spirit of the Brazilian Admiral was again displayed in the preparations for a second attack. But an accident, by which his ship was set on fire, and in consequence of which many of his crew were drowned, postponed this enterprise. It however soon became unnecessary. The Portuguese General, exhausted with perpetual alarms, and hopeless of succours from home, determined to abandon the place. In 1823, he sailed out of the harbour of Bahia, with a fleet of thirteen ships of war, convoying thirty-two sail of transports freighted with all his troops, stores, and public and private property. Lord Cochrane was instantly on the alert, put to sea, hunted them across the equator, took one half of their transports, totally dispersed the rest, and then returned to capture the few Portuguese who were left behind in the country garrisons. They speedily surrendered, were sent to Europe, and the new empire was finally freed from the stain of a foreign army. All was now calm, and the rites of the civil dignity had time to be solemnized. The 1st of December 1823, the anniversary of the deliverance of Portugal, under the Braganzas, from the yoke of Spain, was chosen to set the seal to the final independence of the empire. On this day, Dom Pedro was crowned.

In the wrath of the Portuguese at this assumption of power, some of Dom Pedro's letters to his father during the Regency were shewn, and severally commented upon, as involving treachery and even perjury. I supplicate your Majesty," says one of these letters, "by all that is sacred in the world, to dispense with the painful functions which you have assigned to me, which will

end by killing me. Frightful pictures surround me constantly; I have them always before me. I conjure your Majesty to let me as soon as possible go to kiss your royal hand, and sit on the steps of your throne. I seek only to procure a happy tranquillity." Another letter is thus expressed. They wish, and they say they wish, to proclaim me Emperor. I protest to your Majesty, I will never be perjured; I will never be false to you. If they ever commit this folly, it shall not be till after they have cut me into pieces, me and all the Portuguese; a solemn oath, which I have written here with my blood, in the following words: 'I swear to be always faithful to your Majesty and the Portuguese nation and constitution.'"

But before we charge any man with so heavy a crime as perjury, we should consider the circumstances. These letters were written in September 1821. The coronation did not take place until December 1823. During this period, the authority of the Cortes had continued to grow more imperious, until the throne was absolutely a cypher, and the old King little better than a prisoner. Two years of this progress might justly make a very serious difference in any man's contemplations: during all this time, too, the fury of the Portuguese mob, who were the actual masters of both King and Cortes, was boundless against the people and government of the Brazils. The latter dispatches of the Cortes were equivalent to an actual sentence of exile, or the dungeon, which would have been not far from an equivalent to death at any time in Portugal. A prince and father might well have weighed probabilities before he threw himself and his children into the hands of a rabble of furious zealots or brutal assassins. In the alternative of security in Brazil, or insult and possible death in Portugal, there could be no doubt in the mind of any rational man. No pledges could bind him to deliver himself, much more his family, to popular ferocity; and if the breach of faith existed at all, it must be laid to the charge of those who rendered compliance with its conditions totally impossible.

The death of the Empress, in the

next year, was a source of great public sorrow. She died in child-birth, after having been the mother of six children, two sons and four daughters, the eldest of whom, a son, died at an early age, and the youngest, Dom Pedro d'Alcantara, born December 2, 1825, is the heir. Donna Maria da Gloria, of whom we have heard so much as the intended Queen of Portugal, was born April 4, 1819.

The habits of the late Empress were unfortunately but ill adapted to secure the affections of a royal husband, peculiarly among the loose and capricious moralities of a southern race. When she first appeared, she attracted general admiration by her fairness of complexion, and her blonde hair, which were novelties in the eyes of the sallow Brazilians. But after a short period, whether from natural indolence, displeasure at her husband's coldness, or possibly through some growing fantasy of mind, she began utterly to neglect her appearance. In a country where every woman spends half her income on the decoration of her feet and legs, which are remarkably delicate, this honest daughter of Austria always appeared in clumsy boots; where half the day is spent in curling and braiding the hair, she appeared with her locks hanging loose down her shoulders; instead of the basquinas and mantillas, the most graceful of all dresses, and without which a Portuguese lady would as soon appear as without her head, the Empress was wrapped up in a man's great-coat; and to complete the whole absurdity, she rode astride, a custom common among the peasantry in the provinces, and for that reason the more abhorred in the capital. And all those gross and repulsive habits were displayed in association with Dom Pedro, a man proverbially and punctiliously attentive to appearances, delicate in his tastes, and refined and shewy in every thing that related to costume. The unfortunate result was, that the Emperor soon found others more attentive to their equipment and his tastes, and the Empress was left alone. But her general kindness of heart, her affability, and her charity, made her popular; and though she

must have been the most repellent of all spouses, she perhaps answered all the general purposes of a Queen.

Her illness excited all the resources of Brazilian piety, such as piety is in the lands of Popery. Masses, processions of images, and visitations of shrines, were adopted without number. But among the rest was one honour, conspicuous above every thing of human homage. The unfortunate Empress was visited, as was announced in the public document, " by the wonder-working and all-glorious image of the Virgin, Nossa Senhora da Gloria." As the Empress had paid particular attentions to the saint, the saint rightly judged that this was the true time to shew her sense of those attentions. The image accordingly came to her bedside. "The people," says the historian of this event, "could not see, without the strongest emotions of piety, her image, which had never condescended to issue from the temple before, on this occasion, for the first time, and even under a heavy shower of rain, visiting the Princess, who had never failed on Sundays to be found at the foot of her altar."

The condescension was unhappily useless, for after a short illness, borne with great fortitude, the poor Empress died, December the 11th, at the age of 29.

The return of Dom John the Sixth to his native throne was hailed with national exultation; and for a month he felt himself entitled to rejoice in the royal spirit of enterprise which had led him to cross the seas. But with the month the self-congratulation approached its end. He found that he had left only one shape of disturbance for another; " that riot in Portugal was as turbulent as riot in the remotest shore of the Atlantic; and that wherever he turned his steps, he must prepare to face the Panew philosophy of revolution. triotism is a high name. But true patriotism is not to be learned but in the school of honesty, honour, and the domestic virtues. The larger portion of foreign patriotism has been trained in another institute. taire has been the legislator, infidelity the religion, and the deepest

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personal corruption the morality. Jacobinism, like the plague in Turkey, never dies. It shifts its quarters, it may shift its disguise; it may at one time flourish under the grand pretence of national rights, at another it may be the petitioner against national injuries, it may be the reclaimer of ancient privileges, or the ostentatious creator of new freedom, but in all the robes of the masquerade the masquer is the same. Its motto is subversion. Its success is overthrow. Its principle is a hatred of all the existing forms, properties, and classifications, of men and things. It not merely refuses the aid of experience, it disclaims experience; its province is the untried, the hazardous, and the desperate-projects endeared by their mere extravagance, and triumphs the more congenial for their being deeper dyed in plunder, profligacy, and blood. inveterate activity of this pernicious agent was let loose on the Peninsula. The copies of Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot, and the whole host of the guilty literature of France, poured into Spain and Portugal, amounted to hundreds of thousands. The general fretfulness of the popular mind in every state of the Continent infected the multitude, and under the symbols and name of Freemasonry, every town of the Peninsula had its Jacobin club. From the Pyrenees to the Straits of Gibraltar, all was ramified with conspiracy against the throne, the property of the higher orders, and the ancient government of the nation.

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At last the insurrection broke out in Spain. The King, relying on his army alone, was deserted by his army, and made prisoner. The government was broken down. The insurgents were masters of the kingdom. Never was a conquest more easily achieved, or more wretchedly sustained. The new dynasty of Jacobinism was instantly found in competent to the simplest duties of sovereignty. Their power w was in harangues; their wisdom in exposing the nation, to domestic feud aud foreign hostility; their policy in stripping the throne, until they raised first the suspicion, and next the scorn, of every throne of Europe against their feeble presumption. The friendly Powers remonstrated,

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advised, implored in vain. Moderation was an offence to the dignity of this mountebank government. They refused all compromise, defied Europe, invoked the tutelar genius of Revolution throughout the world →and fled at the first shot; swore to bury themselves under the ruins of their constitution, and at the first wave of a French banner, scattered themselves, with a contemptible love of life, through every hidingplace of the globe.

Jacobinism had been not less active in Portugal, but its chief force had been exerted in Spain. The grand experiment of the new order of overthrow was to be made there; and Portugal was thus saved from the direct convulsion. But if it was not within the actual crater of the volcano, it was fully within the range of its clouds and ashes. Masonic clubs were established every where in Portugal. The populace were every where stimulated to suspect the King, insult the authorities, and depreciate the ancient forms of government. The King was intimidated into a change of ministry, and his new ministers were dictated to him by the masonic lodges; extravagant innovation was running the round of the kingdom, and the kingdom must have soon sunk into anarchy or a republic. The danger was excessive, and its excess roused the higher ranks from the habitual indolence of the foreign nobility. A strong party was formed, with the Queen at its head, for the protection of the throne and constitution; but the innovators were already in possession of the whole power of the state, the King, and the kingdom.

It is a characteristic of the hasty revolutions of the Peninsula, that they have been exclusively the work of the army, Disbanded troops are bad legislators, and ill-paid armies are worse. The war had impoverished the finances of the Peninsula; the soldiery took the law into their own bands; and the Spanish army in the Isle of Leon hoisted the standard of revolt in 1820. A regiment in Oporto followed its example in August of the same year, They demanded a Cortes. They were seconded by the sudden outcry of Jacobinism throughout the Peninsula and Europe. The populace were told to expect release

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