"The constituent Cortes, by settling the conditions of the social compact, have fixed the rights of citizenship and the limits of civil freedom. In forming the constitution to which we have sworn, they planned and commenced a magnificent work, the completion of which is by the law and the choice of the nation in trusted to your hands. So much the more difficult, therefore, must it be for you to fulfil the duties which you have taken upon yourselves, if your labours are to correspond with the confidence of your fellow-citizens.

"Yes, Senhores! great intelligence and much firmness are wanting for the completion of the details of those regulating laws, on the wisdom of which depends the triumph of the constitution over the rebellion of a constantly refractory egotism. Fortunately, the Portuguese people in general love the constitution, because they are sensible of the necessity of reform. Pacific and submissive to reason and the law, this heroic people is daily acquiring new titles to the distinguished place which it becomes them to occupy among civilized nations.

"The exact administration of justice engaged the attention of the constituent Cortes, because that is the most sacred object of the laws, and the most important for mankind. This subject also demands your wise deliberation. It is necessary that the great work 'which has been begun should be completed, in order that the government may make known the effects of the salutary reform which the country desires.

"The adjustment of the revenue, and the establishment of public credit, claim your especial atten

tion. The most mild and adequate means for this purpose would be the establishing an equilibrium between the public income and expenditure, by reducing the latter according to the rules of a rigid economy. This reduction, and the reform in the mode of collection and management must depend on the wisdom of your deliberation.

"The paternal love which I devote to the Portuguese has directed my solicitude and particular attention to the important objects of public security, subsistence and education. If the numerical force of individuals, being in strict proportion with the means of subsistence, and the preservation of the public safety; constitutes the basis of the power and greatness of a nation, the firmness and stability of the social edifice depend essentially on the reform of those customs which derive their origin from a religious respect for the laws.

The well-directed liberty of the press, and the distinctions which the constitution confers on virtue and talents, doubtless augment the hope of the moral and political regeneration of the Portuguese people, with the progress of civilization. But the efforts of the government for the encouragement of arts and sciences will be insufficient, without the support of legislative authority-a support which your knowledge and patriotism assure me will not be wanting, as you must be convinced that a people cannot be free without being virtuous and civilized.

"The regulating laws of the municipal and administrative bodies, on which, in a great measure, depend the execution of the constitution, and the vivifying principles of regeneration, are more

than all others necessary for preventing those doubts which frequently arise in consequence of the powers which belong to each of the constituted authorities not being precisely fixed. It was certainly necessary to destroy the ancient institutions, but the necessity for those which are to be advantageously substituted for them is still more urgent.

"I am convinced of the wisdom and the zeal of the legislative body for the improvement of the different branches of the public administration. My co-operative efforts will always be devoted to the welfare of the nation, because I cannot imagine my existence prosperous unaccompanied by the abundance, dignity, virtue, and felicity, which ought to constitute the habitual and permanent state of the Portuguese nation.

"THE KING DON JOHN VI." The President, addressing the ministers, made the following reply:

"Senhores! The paternal and generous sentiments communicated by his majesty to this congress through the medium of his ministers, cannot fail to excite in all our hearts the most ardent love for the sacred person of so great a sovéreign, more particularly when we reflect that these are the sentiments which are considered due to the opening of this session; a memorable epoch, in which the nation and the throne reciprocally lend to each other the firmest support, and in which the rights of the throne are secured and consolidated by the interest which the nation takes in their conversation. "Senhores, there is a kind of glory which is never eclipsed. Conquests are not worth as much as they cost. The fruit of many victories is often lost in a moment.

The greatness of empires is usually not well combined with their duration. Treaties may be abrogated by subsequent treaties; but the love of mankind, and eternal admiration, perpetuate the examples of those kings, who, according to the wishes of the nations entrusted to their administration, found, or re-establish society on the triple basis of religion, laws, and customs. The works of such extraordinary men are of long duration, and their spirit is transmitted with their glory to the most remote posterity. This glory, Senhores, will always belong to our king, Don Joam VI., as his deeds and his words assure us. One year of his reign is more abundant in glorious events, than many ages of other dynasties.

"Little more than a year has passed, since his majesty, daring the waves of the Atlantic, appeared in the cradle of the monarchy; whither he came to be the counsellor of an oppressed people, and the support of a nation which desired to be free.

"A few days ago, his majesty accepted and swore to maintain the fundamental law of the state, which secured to us liberty, and freed us from oppression; and in the solemn act of that oath, his majesty not only united to him all minds by gaining all hearts, but at once laid the eternal foundation of the throne, and consolidated in the firmest manner the basis of public liberty.

"Finally, this day in which the constitution orders this happy and solemn meeting of the hereditary representative, and the elected representatives of the Portuguese nation, if the indisposition of his majesty has deprived us of his respectable presence, we are not, at

least by the discourse which he has addressed to us through the medium of his ministers, left without the knowledge of his ardent wish for national prosperity, and his sincere promises to co-operate efficaciously in whatever this legislature may do for the benefit of the people who have delegated to it their powers. Who, on being assured of this frank and sincere co-operation, can apprehend any thing for the future, after contemplating the past? Let us, Senhores, examine and confront what has been done with what remains

to be done.

"Senhores, the rights and the duties of man are declared; the sovereignty of the nation is recognised, its exercise is delegated, but with restrictions; abuses are guarded against; the liberty of opinion is made an established principle; the right of petition is one of the first laws of the state; we have consequently established all the bases of public order. What is wanting, Senhores, is, to apply to society the regular impulse of the just and the useful; because the just and the useful will henceforth be the only means of securing public opinion and esteem, which will always reprobate those acts which have not this solid foundation. What is wanted is, to conduct, by the assistance of good laws, the vessel of the state, and to give the government sufficient power and energy, for procuring the rigid execution of, and the most unlimited obedience to, the laws. In this manner, the two first public authorities, the legislative and the executive powers, will always be united for one object, and respecting each other, in order that they may each be respected; and, recognizing each other as separate,

but not as enemies, they will hold out an example to inferior authorities, and to all citizens in general. Thus we all hope, and thus there is reason to hope: for the success which has hitherto crowned the labours of the constituent Cortes and the government is a presage that the same result will attend what yet remains to be done. The road is indeed long, and the difficulties many; but what obstacles can daunt the hearts of Portuguese when the object they have in view is public felicity? Many of the representatives who now surround the throne, have witnessed the effects which the new system has produced in the provinces, and will therefore be able to suggest the means best calculated to give to the administrative system that force, activity, and life, without which there can be no go

vernment.

"Convinced, most of all, of the necessity of equalizing the incomes and outgoings of the public treasury, we shall make reforms and economical reductions without prejudice to the subsistence of those who depend upon that department. Arrangements for a just repartition and punctual collection of the taxes shall be made. Regulations shall be introduced into all the branches of administration in order to enable us to extinguish the public debt, and to pay all persons in public employment with punctuality.

"It will be our next endeavour to bring all the laws, civil and criminal, into accordance with the constitution. We have to simplify the forms of process by rendering the means of obtaining justice more expeditious. It is necessary to exterminate the hydra of forensic chicanery by establishing with

prudence and wisdom the division between judges of fact and judges of law.

"We have to animate commerce and manufactures, which so powerfully influence the prosperity of agriculture and the wealth of nations. It ought to be our object to take care that the trade of Portugal be not limited to the productions of its own soil and industry, but to make it embrace the productions of the whole globe. This object merits our most particular attention.

"It is necessary to render the responsibility of the ministers and other inferior agents of public authority effectual.

"It is indispensable that public spirit should be formed by the means of a national education; and it is most urgent to succour indigence, and to give employment to the poor, that mendicity may be prevented.

"The army and the navy require better regulations; and it is necessary to provide for the decent subsistence of that part of the clergy who labour most in administering spiritual aliment.

"This is, Senhores, in substance, the outline of the regulating laws,

which the constitution points out, and to which you will have to direct your attention.

"We have nothing to fear for external security; for the nations of Europe, already wearied by destructive discords, and emancipated from the delusion of false ideas of grandeur, appear to be sensible of the necessity of union, and of meeting each other with a fraternal embrace. Ah! unhappy is that nation which founds its prosperity on the ruin of others!

"Such are the happy auspices under which the labours of our first legislative assembly commence. Let us renew our vows, and devote our united efforts to support political liberty-to defend religion and the constitution to which we have sworn, and to maintain the king and his illustrious de scendants on the throne which the same constitution has secured to them. Impressed with these sentiments, let us still hope that the hand which hath hitherto conducted us from miracle to miracle will not abandon us, and that the precious life of his majesty, which is so necessary to us, will be preserved."

The sovereigns and the plenipotentiaries assembled at Verona, in the firm intention of consolidating more and more the peace which Europe enjoys, and to prevent whatever might tend to compromise that state of general tranquillity, were led, from the first moment of their assembling, to di

rect their anxious and serious attention towards an ancient monarchy, which had been agitated with internal commotions during two years, and which could not but excite, in an equal degree, the solicitude, the interest, and the apprehension of other powers.

When, in the month of March,

1820, some perjured soldiers turned their arms against their sovereign and their country, to impose upon Spain laws which the public reason of Europe enlightened by the experience of all ages, stamped with its highest disapprobation, the allied cabinets, and particularly that of St. Petersburgh, hastened to point out the calamities that would follow in the train of institutions which consecrated military revolt, by the very mode of their establishment.

These fears were but too soon and too thoroughly justified. They are no longer theories nor principles which are now to be examined and approved. Facts speak aloud; and what feeling must they not inspire in every Spaniard who yet cherishes a love for his king and country? What regret must be experienced at the ascendancy of the men who have brought about the Spanish revolution?

At the moment when a deplorable success crowned their enterprise, the integrity of the Spanish monarchy was the object of the Spanish government. The whole nation participated in the wishes of his Catholic majesty; all Europe had offered him an amicable intervention to restore for him, on solid bases, the authority of the mother country over distant regions which formerly constituted her wealth and her strength. Encouraged, by a fatal example, to persevere in rebellion, the provinces where it had already broken out, found in the events of the month of March the best apology for disobedience; and those which had yet remained faithful immediately separated from the mother country, justly afraid of the despotism which was about to oppress its unfortu

nate sovereign, and a people whom rash innovations condemned to traverse the whole range of revolutionary disasters.

To the disorders of America were soon added the evils that are inseparable from a state of things where the conservative principle of social order had been forgotten.

Anarchy appeared in the train of revolution; disorder in the train of anarchy. Long years of tranquil possession soon ceased to be a sufficient title to property; the most sacred rights were soon disputed; ruinous loans, and contributions unceasingly renewed, soon attacked both public wealth and the fortunes of private individuals. As was the case at that epoch, the bare recollection of which makes Europe shudder, religion was despoiled of her patrimony; the throne, of popular respect; the royal dignity was outraged: and authority was transferred to assemblies where the blind passions of the multitude seized upon the reins of government. Lastly, and to complete the parallel with those days of calamity so unhappily reproduced in Spain, on the 7th of July blood was seen to flow in the palace of the king, and a civil war raged throughout the Peninsula.

During nearly three years, the allied powers continued to flatter themselves that the Spanish character, that character so constant and so generous when the safety of the country was in question, and lately so heroic when it struggled against a power produced by revolution, would show itself at last, even in the men who had had the misfortune to betray the noble recollections which Spain might proudly recall to every nation in