symptoms of revolt displayed themselves; and it was said, that it had been ascertained from the papers of a monk, who had acted as treasurer to the faction, that the chapters of all the metropolitan churches of Spain, and many rich convents of the orders of Carthusians, and of St. Bernard, St. Jerome, St. Augustin and St. Basil, had taxed themselves to raise 14,000,000 of reals for the support of the conspiracy. Though the open progress of revolt was checked, it can scarcely be said, that order was restored. In every province disturbances either occurred or were apprehended; and no man's person or property was safe, either from the fanatical zeal of the people, or from the suspicions of the king. The royalist volunteers of Salamanca voted an address to Ferdinand, soliciting from him the reestablishment of the holy office, as the surest method of securing the public tranquillity. In September various plots for placing the crown on the head of don Carlos, were formed and detected in Valencia, Grenada, and divers other places. In these plots, as well as in the previous commotions, the name of don Carlos was used, it was believed, without any approbation or concurrence on the part of that prince.

To cure the miseries of Spain, Ferdinand and his advisers could devise no better expedient, than to create a Consultative Junta of government, who were to aid the council of ministers. This new body was formally installed on the 26th of September. Among other arduous duties imposed on them, they were to discover "What were the means calculated for conciliating the colonies, and bringing them back to their former obedience to

the mother country? and what means should be adopted to facilitate the negotiation of a loan, and to render its conditions less onerous?" The Junta promised to do their utmost for their suffering country. "Our integrity," said they, in the address presented by them to his majesty on the day of their installation, "shall not be dismayed by the dread of the enmity or persecution which usually attends truth; we will endure its shafts with undaunted constancy. The glory of your majesty; the splendor and perpetuity of your throne; the integrity of your hereditary dominions; the decorum of your august family; the indissoluble union of the empire and priesthood; the re-establishment of the fame the Spanish state once enjoyed among other powers; the encouragement of individual riches, endeavouring to bind them to those of the state and government; the replacing the many deficiencies, and losses we have experienced; the adaptation of the contributions to possibility, and no more; the consolidation of a credit, to supply the place when contributions fail; the saving of every thing that may not be indispensably necessary; the suspension of all allowances not arising out of just demands; retrenchments, which do not bring with them indigence; reforms and modifications, which may re-animate the nation without depressing the subjects-such will be the objects for the guidance of the Junta; and the will of your majesty, and the directions of your council of ministers, shall be their only rule of action."

In spite of their good intentions, however, they were unable to do their country any service; and even the advice, which they presumed to

give, was not followed. They recommended the publication of an amnesty, and the cessation of political prosecutions, as one means of restoring order; but the council of Castile opposed this recommendation, and the ministry joined the fanatical party. In this spirit, one of the ministers, having adopted or pretended to adopt the notion that Freemasons were the great cause of national anarchy and public misery, demanded a more severe set of enactments against masonic aprons and symbols. A body of persons, calling themselves "defenders of the faith and of the king," had been lately detected at Grenada in possession of secret symbols: for this offence, they were ordered to be tried and executed as Freemasons. Sufficient evidence was sent to Madrid to prove that the place where they met was not a lodge, that the badges which they wore were not masonic, and that the objects which they had in view had nothing in common with the subjects generally discussed in the conclaves of the craft; but the order was peremptory, and the "defenders of the faith" suffered as masons. Zea being himself suspected of liberalism, could not venture to put down the rebellion of fanatics, without at the same time proving that he was ready to support the faction, whose furious excesses had alarmed

the fears, and endangered the throne of his master.

But even these sacrifices to the bigotry and alarms of his master, and to the fanaticism of the courtiers and of the people, were insufficient to secure his

power. In October, Zea and the whole cabinet, of which he was the head, suddenly received their dismissal; and the ecclesiastical and fanatical faction came into full possession of power. The duke del'Infantado, who was high in credit with that party, and was supposed to be on bad terms with the French cabinet, now became the chief of a new ministry. Notwithstanding the bigotry of his character, the general opinion was, that his administration would be more steady than that of his predecessor: for, though he might be willing, in general, to be the prompt instrument of the priesthood, and might thus longer oppose salutary reforms; yet as the church could place reliance on his zeal, they would more readily listen to his counsels, and he would possess more power to execute moderate measures, if so inclined, than a man like Zea. If ever the time was to come when any portion of the property of the church would be mortgaged for the relief of the nation, the proposition was more likely to be heard with favour from him than from any other minister.

N the beginning of the year it was generally believed that sir William A'Court, the English ambassador at the court of Lisbon, was exerting all the influence of Great Britain to bring about such a change in the Portuguese ministry, as might pave the way for the recognition of the independence of the Brazils. Strong representations were made to the king on the subject; while M. Hyde de Neuville threw his weight into the opposite scale. Though the topic could not be very palatable to his majesty, he was too sensible of his complete dependence upon the power of England for protection against the intrigues of the queen's faction, not to give way ultimately. Accordingly, on the 14th of January, a change of ministry took place; and immediately afterwards decrees were issued appointing Jose Joaquim de Almeida de Aranjo Correa de Lacerda, minister of the interior; Fernando Luiz Perreira de Sousa Barradas, minister of justice and ecclesiastical affairs; the count de Barbacena, minister of war; senhor Silvestre Pinheiro Ferreira, minister for foreign affairs; don Miguel Antonio de

Mello, minister of finance, and president of the royal Exchequer ; and admiral J. J. Monteiro Torres, secretary of state of the marine and colonies. Pinheiro, it was understood, was nominated pro tempore merely, to the department of foreign affairs, and was to retain that office only until the count of Villa Real, then ambassador in London, could resign his functions there and return to Lisbon.

The effects of the British influence were seen, still more plainly, in the new footing on which the relations between the Brazils and Portugal were placed. On the 13th of May, the king, by his letters patent, created and recognized Brazil as an empire, independent of Portugal, and ceded and transferred the sovereignty of it to his son don Pedro. This preliminary step being taken, the proffered mediation of Great Britain between the two states was accepted; and sir Charles Stuart proceeded from Lisbon to Rio Janeiro as plenipotentiary of the king of Portugal, in order to negociate a treaty between the mother and the new trans-Atlantic empire. He does not seem to have met with many

obstacles; and, on the 29th of August, a treaty of peace and alliance between Brazil and Portugal was concluded. It is a circumstance not unworthy of notice, that this treaty should have been signed on behalf of Portugal by a British subject only; but it is still more remarkable, that, though his most faithful majesty declared in it that he recognized Brazil as an empire independent of, and separate from Portugal, and transferred of his own free will the sovereignty of it to don Pedro and his legitimate successors, there was no stipulation to prevent the two crowns from being united in the same person. One of the articles of it was, that the king of Portugal should, during his own life, retain the title of emperor of Brazil [see Public Documents, p. 104*].

The treaty was officially announced in Lisbon on the 15th of November, and the proper measures were ordered to be taken for carrying into execution its different clauses. Portugal made this year an important alteration in her commercial system. Many of the principal articles of traffic were excluded from her ports by prohibitory laws. With respect to most of these articles, the prohibition was now abolished; and in lieu of it, there was substituted a duty of thirty per cent. The new regulations were extended not only to Lisbon and Oporto, but to the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape Verd islands.

The matter, which, in the beginning of the year, chiefly occupied the attention of the Brazilian authorities, was the punishment of those who had been concerned in the insurrection at Pernambuco. Fre Caneca was executed on the 18th of January at Pernambuco;

and Macario, governor of the Registro, on the 11th of February. On the 17th of March, John William Ratcliff, born in Portugal of English parents, John Metrowich, a Maltese by birth, and Joquinda Silva Loureiro, a European Portuguese, suffered the same fate at Rio de Janeiro. Besides the numbers who perished by the executioner, many were left languishing in prison.

The administration of the emperor was violent and tyrannical: in none of his proceedings did there appear any reverence either for the forms or for the spirit of a free constitution. On the contrary, all his conduct seemed to tend towards the establishment of absolute power, and to the discouragement of a spirit of liberty. A necessary step in this course of proceeding was, to secure the co-operation of the troops, and the support of the existing civil authorities. For this purpose, notwithstanding the financial embarrassments, there issued, on the 10th of January, a decree, fixing a table of increased monthly allowances to the body of police, to the officers of foreign corps, and to those of the other troops. Of foreign troops there were at that time about 4,000 in Brazil, and an addition of 3,000 was to be made as soon as they could be recruited. At the same time, another decree established a juridical college in the capital. As another step towards the abandonment of constitutional forms, loyal addresses were procured from the provinces, disapproving of any restrictions on the power of the emperor, and inviting him to reign with absolute authority. Of this kind was an address transmitted by the cabildo (or municipality) of Monte Video, in return for a portrait of the emperor, with which

he had presented them. "On the 4th of December," say these loyal councillors, "appeared on the waters of our horizon like a true luminary, the precious gift which your imperial majesty had sent us. On the same day, your resplendent august colours ennobled the great hall of head-quarters; and on the 5th, the same most inestimable picture, was conveyed, incognito, to the capitular palace, till a room should be prepared for its solemn inauguration. In this inestimable gift your council think they perceive a solution of the famous problem of the quadrature of the sphere." After telling the emperor that they experienced in his presence "a mixed sensation of pleasure and trembling, as if in the presence of the angel of the Lord," and that Monte Video might say of him, as the church says in the Canticles, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine," they advise him to "govern imperially, and assume absolute power," as the most energetic and the most prompt mode of ruling. An answer was returned to this address on the 7th of January, in which his imperial majesty pretended to rebuke gently the too eager zeal of the people of Monte Video; but he nominated both the Syndic and the other members of the cabildo knights of the order of Christ. A similar address sent from Rio Grande was answered in a similar manner. The abject language of these addresses proves, that the general opinion was, that absolute power was the aim of Pedro's wishes, though he did not think it prudent as yet to avow his purposes.

In a letter of the 5th of May, the governor of the province of St. Paulo stated, that he had been making a tour among the towns

within his jurisdiction, and found the people every where disposed to proclaim his majesty as the absolute sovereign; and he expressed hopes that the capital would declare itself to the same effect, and that his majesty would be restored to the enjoyment of his inalienable rights. Upon the receipt of this communication, his majesty issued a decree, blaming, but in very gentle terms, these proceedings.

"Having been informed," says he, "of the reprehensible conduct of Manoel da Cunha de Azeredo Coutinho Souza e Chicoro, in taking criminal and scandalous steps, contrary to the established system of government, and to the constitution which I have sworn to maintain, I have resolved, with the advice of my council of state, to suspend him from the exercise of his functions, and to order him immediately to come to this capital to answer for such blameable proceedings." These are not the terms, in which treason should be spoken of.

Though there were many who were proud to grovel in the dust before him, others regarded his course of policy with alarm and hatred. In May, two attempts, it was reported, were made upon his life; and several persons were apprehended and thrown into confinement at the Isla de Cobras. But so much pains were taken to prevent the affair from coming to the knowledge of the public, that it remained involved in mystery. The suspicions, that were entertained of the emperor's purposes, were rendered both stronger and more general, by the treaty which he concluded with Portugal. The tenor of that arrangement was such as to lead naturally to the belief, that he intended, after the