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The resolutions concluded with a declaration, "That the congress, saving the principle of union, would not dispute respecting the concession of whatever might be proper for the better and more prompt administration of the constitution in Brazil."

Though the disobedience of the prince to the mandate of recal, was prudently overlooked, the proceedings of the 16th of Feb., could not be passed unnoticed; and, in condemning them, consistency required, that the Cortes should express its displeasure against those addresses, which led the way to their adoption. The debates on this subject were long and earnest; and were terminated on the 1st of July, by voting seven resolutions. The second of those ordered, that the members of the actual junta of St. Paulo, who signed the representation of the 24th of December, 1821, should be prosecuted and tried; and that a similar proceeding should be instituted against the four persons, who signed the address directed to the prince royal on the 26th of the same month; but that no sentence of condemnation should be executed without the previous decision of the Cortes. The third article declared, that no other persons should be proceeded against for these transactions, and was carried by a majority of only 59 to 58. The fifth resolution was, that the two secretaries of state of Rio de Janeiro should be held responsible for the decree of Feb. 16, and the other acts of their administration; and the seventh, that the stay of the prince royal in Brazil should continue, till the publication of the additional act, and that, in the mean time, his royal highness should govern, in subjection to the

Cortes and to the king, the provinces which he then governed and which obeyed him, his ministers or secretaries of state being named by the king.

The only effect of the promulgation of these resolutions in Brazil, was, to inflame the spirit of independence: andthe purpose thus openly declared of prosecuting the junta of Santa Paulo, had no small share in exciting that province, in the month of September, to take the lead in calling upon the prince to assume the rank of an independent sovereign, and the title of emperor.

The edict of the 3rd of June, which convoked a constituent and legislative assembly, being a direct disavowal of the right of the mother-country to have any share in the sovereignty of the colony, called forth stronger language from the Cortes, and rendered it impossible for them to continue to temporise. On the 20th of Sept., they voted a decree, which declared,

1. That the decree of the 3rd of June, convoking an assembly of constituent Cortes in Brazil, was null. 2. That the secretaries of state at Rio Janeiro were highly responsible for the illegality of so despotic a resolution, and should be impeached. 3. That the government of Rio de Janeiro, disobeying the Cortes, and constituting itself independent, was a government de facto, and not de jure, and that the voluntary obedience of any authority would be criminal. 4. That the delegated authority of the prince should immediately cease, and that the king should appoint a regency to exercise that authority. 5. That the prince royal should return to Portugal, within one month after the decree should be notified to him. 6. That every commander of the land and sea forces should be aecounted a traitor, who should obey the government at Rio de Janeiro, unless compelled by force.

Next to the affairs of Brazil, the completion of the constitution chiefly occupied the Cortes. To frame a theoretical system of government, was much easier than to conciliate or subdue a disobedient colony: and here accordingly, their discussions led to a result much more satisfactory, at least, to themselves, than their deliberations on Brazilian affairs. The constitution was at length finished; and being signed by the deputies, with the exception of some of those who were delegated by Brazilian provinces, it was, on the 25th of September, presented in solemn procession to the king; who, on the first of October, swore in the presence of the Cortes, to observe it faithfully. On the 11th of October, a law was passed, that whoever should refuse to swear to the constitution, on or before the 3rd of December, should quit the kingdom, and renounce the rights of a Portuguese citizen.

The queen having declined to take the oath, the ministers of the interior, of foreign affairs, and of the marine, notified to her on the 22nd of November, that the period of delay allowed by the law, would expire on the 3rd of December, and that it was necessary for her to make known her intentions. She replied,

"That she had caused it to be stated to the king, that she would not take an oath; that she had made a promise never to swear either for good or evil during her whole life'; that she did not adopt this course from haughtiness, or from hatred of the Cortes, but

merely because she had passed her word, for a good person ought never to retract; that she knew the law; that she was aware of the penalty which the law inflicted, and was willing to submit to it."

A ship was immediately made ready, and she was desired to point out the country to which she wished to be conducted. She answered, that she was ready to submit to whatever the king might order by virtue of the law; that her purpose was to go to Cadiz; that her delicate state of health rendered it impossible for her to undertake the voyage in the middle of winter; and that she therefore wished to retire with her daughters to the palace of Ramalhao, till the season permitted her to leave the kingdom. At the same time, ten physicians certified, that her life would be endangered by the severity of the weather, if she should attempt to travel immediately. Accordingly, a decree was issued, permiting her to retire to the palace of Ramalhao, where she was to remain till she was able to quit Portugal, but refusing her request to be allowed to take her daughters along with her, and declaring that she had lost all rights, civil and political, belonging either to her character of Portuguese citizen, or to the dignity of queen. Considerable difference of opinion prevailed, both in the council of state, and in the Cortes, on this delicate subject. Many of the deputies, thought, that the ministers had acted in it with harshness and precipitation; that it belonged only to the Cortes to determine, whether, and how far her majesty was affected by the law of the 11th of October; and that, in dooming her to a species of imprisonment, and depriving her of the company

of her daughters, without any judicial sentence, both the forms and the substance of justice had been violated.

After having continued their legislative labours for one and twenty months, the extraordinary and constituent Cortes was dissolved on the 4th of November. The speech of the king, and the reply of the president on this occasion breathed outwardly a spirit of mutual confidence. The most remarkable feature in them was the strong hope which they expressed, that Brazil might yet be re-united to the parent kingdom.

The session of the new ordinary Cortes was opened on the 1st of December. Illness prevented the king from attending in per

son.

The Portuguese constitutionalists were still harassed by apprehensions of attempts to overturn the new system. In the end of April, the minister of justice made a representation to the Cortes, in which he stated, "that there were, in the capital principally, and in some other parts of the kingdom, individuals dangerous to the state, whose characters and notorious designs rendered it advisable to separate them from each other, though no legal proofs had

been obtained of their actual crimes." This communication was referred to the committee on the constitution, which advised "that the government should be authorized, for the space of one month, to proceed against such individuals, whether private persons or public officers, by removing them from one part of the kingdom to an other, as it might judge fit."

Under this authority, several persons were deprived of their liberty, without any charge, except, that they were known to be hostile to the existing order of things.*

A short time after these arrests had taken place, a conspiracy was said to be detected at Lisbon, the objects of which were, to dissolve the extraordinary Cortes and convoke the old with some modifications, such as that of creating a second chamber to consist of hereditary noble and dignified ecclesiastics; to depose the king; to appoint a regency with the infant Don Michael at its head; and to put instantly to death such of the ministry and of the Cortes, as had distinguished themselves most in behalf of the constitutional system. The chief of this plot was M. Januario das Neves, formerly under secretary to lord Beresford.

* The following are the names of a few of the individuals, who were arrested

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on this occasion.

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The first aim of the conspirators was to gain the army; for this purpose it was necessary to find some officer of rank to head them, and they fixed on general Luiz do Rego Barello as likely to join them. Januario accordingly applied to him; but he declined giving a decisive answer, and desired him to return at a certain hour on the following day. The minister of justice was in the meantime made acquainted with the circumstance, and Januario developed the plot before concealed witnesses. He was immediately taken up. On the night between the 1st and the 2nd of June, a merchant, a servant, and a printer's apprentice were also seized. These surely were not the kind of persons, who could dream of subverting the government of a kingdom. No light was thrown upon this affair by any judicial proceedings; and we may, therefore, reasonably infer, that, if any plot existed, its nature and

objects were very much misrepre sented or exaggerated.

On

More undoubted symptoms of conspiracy manifested themselves in the garrison of Lisbon. the 2nd of July, a part of one or more regiments of the line mutinied in the castle, crying out "the king for ever;" but the non-commissioned officers remaining firm, the mutineers were seized, and sent on board a man of war without resistance. Eleven of the soldiers, who were arrested, desired to be interrogated without delay, as they had to make soine disclosures. What these disclosures were, the world was never informed; but suspicions were entertained by members of the Cortes, that this infant insurrection had not been prepared, without the connivance of certain individuals among those who had left Brazil in the train of his majesty, and who had been removed to a specified distance from Lisbon.

CHAP. XIV.

ITALY-NAPLES-SARDINIA-IONIAN ISLANDS TURKEY-Death of Ali Pacha-Greek Constitution-Blockade declared by the Greek Congress-Military Operations in Albania and the Morea-Naval Operations-Devastation of Scio, and murder of the HostagesDisaster of the Turkish Fleet, and death of the Capitan Pacha Turkish Cruelties in Cyprus - Negotiations with Russia-The Turkish troops withdrawn from Wallachia and MoldaviaInsurrections of the Janissaries-Dismissal and Death of Haleb Effendi and his party-Origin and progress of the Persian WarMorocco.

I

TALY

reposed, during the

whole of the year, in tranquil slumber under the Austrian dominion; for, from the Alps to the southern extremity of Sicily, the will of prince Metternich, enforced every where by the presence of Austrian troops, was a law supreme. The sovereigns of Sardinia and Naples employed the little remnant of precarious power which they retained, in punishing the authors of the late revolts, and in taking precautions, by suppressing secret societies, and regulating the education of youth, against the recurrence of similar events. At Naples thirty persons were condemned to death, and thirteen to twenty-five years imprisonment, for their participation in the revolution of 1820. Of the thirty, only two, Silvati and Morilli, were executed; the other twenty-eight had their punishment commuted into imprisonment and hard labour for thirty years! Death was denounced against all Neapolitans, who held any correspondence with Neapolitan refugees in foreign countries.

On the 15th of March, a decree was issued, addressed by the minister of the interior to the cardinal archbishop of Naples, in which the king, being informed of the backwardness of schoolmasters and individuals to compel their pupils and children to frequent the congregations di Spirito established in the different communes of the kingdom, and likewise of their neglecting to send them to church on religious festivals, orders all schoolmasters, public or private, to second the views of the bishops, in so far as regards the frequenting of these congregations; and to ensure their obedience, requires a certificate to be produced every week, testifying that the decree has been complied with. As a penalty in case of disobedience, the schoolmasters in public institutions are to be deprived of their pay, and private instructors are to have their schools shut up. Parents, who shall neglect to send their children to the congregations di Spirito, are declared unworthy of holding any public employment; and the chil

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