cure of all the authority at which he could aim without the guilt of unnatural rebellion and very daring usurpation. Even the hatred of liberal institutions, in which he had been brought up, and the desire to blast the growth of those of Portugal, which he had already exhibited, could have followed after their object as securely and efficiently when he used, for the purpose of furthering them, the regular power with which he was legitimately invested, as if he were to excite a vigilant jealousy against all his measures by setting out with open treason against his brother and his queen. The constitutionalists of Portugal had, to be sure, abundant reason to distrust him. They knew that all his wishes leaned towards arbitrary power; they could scarcely expect that any vows would bind the man, who, in his hatred of liberty, had drawn the sword against his own father, and encouraged rebellion against his brother and sister; but they trusted that he would feel himself restrained by being only the representative of another; that he would be constrained to follow, in the general cast, at least, of his policy, the principles of the Court of Rio Janeiro, and that the liberality of Don Pedro would mitigate the ultraism of Don Miguel, through whom it was to act. Above all, they longed for an executive, to which at length all parties would submit, though for very different reasons, instead of the weak and wavering government, which, during two years, had been as often rebeiled against as obeyed. They thought themselves entitled to assume, that Don Miguel would at least observe the prescribed forms of the constitution, which he was called to administer as regent for

his brother; and while the forms remained, it lay with themselves to infuse into them a living and protecting spirit.-The enemies of the constitution, again, hailed the return of the prince as an occurrence which sealed the fate of the new institutions. They knew that he was their own in heart; they doubted not that he would soon unite with them in destroying the object of their common hatred and alarm.

All the communications that had been received from Don Miguel since his nomination to the regency, had been favourable to the lovers of liberty and good order. He had accepted the office, and had thereby acknowledged the rights of the monarch who bestowed it, and pledged himself to use it for the purposes for which it bore to have been granted—the maintenance of the charter-the gradual advancement of constitutional freedom. He had written to his sister from Vienna, that he was "determined to maintain inviolate the laws of the kingdom, and the institutions legally granted by our august brother, and cause them to be observed, and by them to govern the kingdom." He had made this declaration for the very purpose of quieting the public mind; and, with all other ranks in Portugal, he was already bound, by the solemnity of an oath, to observe the constitution which he was now appointed to administer.† The more sanguine drew hopes • See vol. LXIX. p. [280.

It was said, that, before leaving this country, he had voluntarily written a letter to the most eminent person in this realm, saying "that, if he overthrew the constitution, he should be a wretch, a breaker of his oath, and an usurper of his brother's throne." He did overturn it.

even from the circumstance that, on his return to Portugal, he did not proceed directly from France to Lisbon, but repaired to London, and spent nearly two months among the princes and ministers of the country to which his own was most closely tied, amongst whom he would receive no impressions but what were favourable to the conduct which his duty required of him. He arrived in England in the end of December. The Portuguese subjects resident in London, all of them lovers of liberty, because they enjoyed the blessing of living under its protection, assembled, so soon as he reached London, and waited upon him with an address, in which they congratulated him on his present destination "to secure the felicity of Portugal by supporting the laws of the kingdom, and the institutions granted by our Great King and Lord, Don Pedro, and to realize the hopes which your generous sentiments, already announced to your august sister, have deeply engraved in the hearts of all Portuguese." His royal highness thanked them, in general terms, for their attention. He dropped no syllable from which it could be inferred what he thought of their hopes, or what he meant to do with the Portuguese institutions. He remained in London, enjoying the pleasures of the capital, till the middle of February, when he sailed for Portugal; and on the 22nd of that month he arrived in the Tagus. In the mean time, the Princess Regent had assembled the Cortes on the 2nd of January. She addressed to them the following speech-the dying speech of her regency." For the third time you meet in this place to continue the useful labours which the charter

of the Portuguese monarchy has confided in you. Your zeal is always the same. Every day new lights, the effect of calm experience, assure an honourable result to your exertions in the service of the country.

"You are not ignorant that much is still wanting completely to found and consolidate our political edifice. I do not doubt that you will now exert the most prudent diligence to accelerate the great work: the time is not long, but prudence and zeal can effect much, and you have given sufficient proofs that you possess both.

"The King, my august brother, who was inspired by a desire for our happiness to give us in the constitutional charter an indisputable proof of his wisdom and magnanimity, trusts to you to realize this great enterprise, which was pictured in his mind the noble title of his glory, and the invaluable pledge of the happiness of Portugal; and all the world now know how you deserve this confidence.

"My beloved brother, the Infant Don Miguel, is charged by the laws and the orders of his Majesty with the regency of this kingdom. His intentions, conformable to those of the king, our august brother, have been manifested by him; and this event, agreeing with the political views of great nations, added to the measures of the government, has disarmed the parties, and calmed the agitations in the country, which was a necessary consequence of extraordinary circumstances. The government of a neighbouring nation, convinced of the true bonds which unite the reciprocal interests of the Peninsula, sincerely opposes the attempts, which madly ambitious and restless spirits have not ceased to make,

"The picture of our finances is not unfavourable to the public credit of the state, yet an unexpected and unforeseen event has affected the interests of the nation, and especially the inhabitants of this capital. The government, however, trusts, that, by the assistance which it has afforded, and by the measures which have been and will be adopted, the credit of the bank will be shortly restored.

"We enjoy profound peace with foreign Powers-a peace founded on alliances and on the general interests. The government will neglect no means to ensure the duration of friendship with our allies, and the tranquillity of the whole nation. Pursue, then, the glorious career upon which you have entered. Portugal looks upon you as the instruments which a great king employs to make it happy and flourishing; the king takes pleasure in the punctuality with which you answer his wise thoughts. Be assured that his majesty will be more and more confirmed in his opinion of your zeal and prudence, and that the whole nation will always look upon you as true friends of the country. I know well that you ask no other reward for the inconveniences to which you subject yourselves, and the exertions which you make to serve it. I acknowledge it, and do not hesitate to de. clare it; but it is certain that, for such generous minds, for true Portuguese, the highest reward is the entire approbation of the monarch, and the grateful praise of their fellow-citizens."

The passage of this speech which gave the greatest satisfaction was the renewed assurance of the good dispositions of her expected successor. When the princess told the Chambers, that "much was still

wanting to consolidate the political edifice," she ought to have told them, that, hitherto, nothing had been done, and that the political edifice, from their own inactivity and neglect, was ready to fall upon their heads. Every department of the administration was in confusion; every department was feeble and useless except the police. The police was the government, and it was a government of terror and oppression. Bastos and his minions were the ruling powers, supported by the apostolics who governed the regent, and uncontrolled by ministers, who either belonged to the same faction, and had therefore been raised to office, or were willing, from want of principle, to favour any faction which would retain them in office.

The same sort of persons were gradually returning to the army, from which they had been dismissed by Saldanha; and the whole march of the administration betrayed a spirit and an influence decidedly hostile to the new institutions. Notwithstanding, too, the assurancess put in the mouth of the regent, that "the state of the finances was not unfavourable," they were in utter confusion. The credit of the Bank was gone; the loan of the preced-ing year had disappeared, and nothing had been effected by it; the ordinary revenues had been swallowed up by anticipation; the treasury was empty; a deficiency in the accounts of the year, equal to a large proportion of the usual income, was already foreseen; instead of economy being practised, old offices were re-established, and new ones were created, to furnish the means of retaining and rewarding ready instruments of servility. To this state matters