1 There in the presence of the two Chambers and of the Court. was something strange about the ceremony, which excited the suspicions of the bystanders. The Prince was ill at ease, hurried, and confused; and he spoke too low to be heard by those nearest to him. The Archbishop of Lisbon, who administered the oath, stood directly in front of the Prince, with his priestly garments spread wide, so that the Regent was little better seen than heard. He is declared not to have touched the book of the Gospels, and to have said, when the show was over, "Well, I have gone through the ceremony of swearing to the charter; but I have sworn nothing." One significant circumstance is, that there was no register, or legal record of any kind, of the event. The next day the new Ministry was announced; and the announcement spread dismay among the constitutionalists. The funds fell; the bank, which was to have set off on a new score that day, feared a run, and postponed its payments indefinitely: all business was at a stand in Lisbon. The mob assembled under the windows of the Queen-mother, shouting for absolutism; and the Prime Minister distributed money among them. During the month of March, the proceedings of the Regent were so open and shameless, in insulting and displacing liberals, and favoring the absolutists, that many hundreds of the best families in Lisbon left the capital. Just at this time, the British troops sent by Mr. Canning were embarking for their return; and a large amount of money loan from M. Rothschild to the Prince — was arriving. The new British Ambassador at Lisbon, Sir Frederick Lamb, decided, on his own responsibility, to detain the troops, and send the money back to London; that the usurper- for it was now no secret that the Prince was about to assume the title of King-might be awed by the presence of British troops, and unaided in his treasonable purposes by British gold. This was in the middle of March; and it was the beginning of April before the British Ambassador could receive instructions how to proceed. a On the 14th of March, the Prince dissolved the Chambers, to evade the passing of a vote of thanks to the British commandOn the ers, and some troublesome inquiries into State abuses. 2d of April, the British troops were embarked for home, in pursuance of orders received by the ambassador. Before this, the Prince had been declared in several provincial towns to be absolute King, Don Miguel I. When the British troops were gone, and with them all the respectable Liberals who could get away, there was no further impediment to the proclamation taking place in the capital; and the thing was done on the birthday of the Queen-mother, on the 25th of April. The scene was opened by the commandant of police with his guard, before the Hall of the 1 Annuaire Historique, 1828, p. 525. Municipality, between eight and nine in the morning. Baring their heads, and drawing their sabres, they cried aloud, "Long live Don Miguel the First! Long live the Empress-mother!" Thereupon the national flag was slung up on the roof of the hall, and the municipal authorities appeared in the balcony, to proclaim the new King. The proclamation was repeated at noon. through the city; and all citizens were invited to sign a memorial, imploring Don Miguel to assume the function of King. This memorial was presented in the evening; but the paucity and doubtful character of the signatures — according to some authorities annoyed and alarmed the Prince. According to others, the signatures were wonderfully numerous; but the Prince dared not proceed to extremities at once, because all the foreign ambassadors had notified, that they should leave Lisbon immediately on his assumption of the title of King. He desired the memoralists to wait, and see what he would do. 2 1 A note was sent round the next morning from the foreign Minister to these representatives, regretting the popular manifestation of the preceding day, and assuring them that every thing possible had been done by government to keep the people quiet. The foreign ambassadors met to confer upon their reply; and they agreed upon a notification to the Minister, that they suspended all official intercourse with the government, till they should receive fresh instructions from their respective courts. All disguise was soon thrown off. On the 3d of May, Don Miguel issued a summons to the ancient three estates of the kingdom, who had not been assembled for upwards of a hundred and thirty years. They were to meet to "recognize the application of grave points of Portuguese right," since the importunate demand of various bodies in the State, that the Prince would assume empire, had become very perplexing to him. The difficulty was how to sign this document. The awkwardness of signing in Don Pedro's name an invitation to declare that Don Pedro had no rights in Portugal, was so great, that the Prince actually signed it as Don Miguel I. As King, he summoned the estates who were to meet to invite him to become King. The estates met on the 26th of June, and immediately declared Don Miguel to be lawfully King of Portugal. On the 28th, the new sovereign assumed his full name and title. He had not been left in peace and quiet in the interval. Oporto and other towns had risen against him; and many of the Portuguese refugees in England had returned to conduct the war. But they were delayed on the voyage; affairs had been mismanaged; and there was nothing left for them to do but to make the best retreat they could through Spain. 1 Annual Register, 1828, p. 193. 2 Annuaire Historique, 1828, p. 534. Of course, the ambassadors all took their departure at the end of June. At first, the usurper did not conceal his rage and mortification; but presently he gave out declarations, that they had all been recalled by his express desire, in order to be succeeded by others less addicted to freemasonry, his word, and that of other despots, for liberalism.1 From this time the course of the usurper became altogether disgusting; his practices could only be where it was possible denied by his flatterers; nobody vindicated them. He filled the prisons; set aside the laws, in order to procure the sacrifice of his enemies; confiscated all the property he could lay hands on; and spread such ruin, that, with all his devices, he could not raise money enough for his purposes. He actually asked for a loyal subscription; and the names of the donors, advertised in the Lisbon " Gazette," looked grand in regard to rank and title; but the sum produced was only 40007. Don Pedro, meantime, had heard of his brother's dutiful acceptance of the charge of the regency, and of his being in London, where the Brazilian Emperor hoped he would learn some good lessons. Believing that the time was now come for his final surrender of all authority in Portugal, the Emperor prepared his concluding act of abdication on the 3d of March. He little dreamed what his unworthy brother was doing, or he would not have yielded up his powers at such a time; and much less would he have sent his young daughter to Europe. As for the manifesto of abdication, the Brazilian Ministers at Vienna and London assumed the responsibility of keeping it back, and preventing its being officially communicated to any of the European powers. When the bad news from Portugal reached the Emperor, he issued a decree, on the 25th of July, reprobating the acts of the usurping government, but treating his brother with a leniency which appeared strange; but which may be perhaps accounted for on the supposition that he had fears for his daughter, and might be uncertain about her probable fate. He spoke of Don Miguel as doubtless a captive, and a victim in the hands of a party who compelled him to acts abhorrent to his nature. government newspapers at Lisbon retorted by assuring the world, that Don Pedro could not have prepared such a decree, except under the influence of "the horrid sect of Freemasons, who are the enemies of the throne and the altar." The The little Queen, Donna Maria, now nine years old, arrived at Gibraltar on the 2d of September, on her way to Queen of Genoa, where she was to land, and proceed to Vienna, Portugal. on a visit to her grandfather, the Emperor of Austria. The news which her conductors heard at Gibraltar, however, put them also upon considering their responsibilities; and they decided 1 Annual Register, 1828, p. 201. Arrives in as so many had before done, to the high honor of our country - that England was the safest retreat for a sufferer under a political adversity. One of the frigates was immediately sent back to Brazil with the latest news of what had occurred; and the other brought Donna Maria to England. She arrived England. off Falmouth on the 24th of September. She was received with royal honors; and there was something very affecting in the sight of the eagerness with which the noble Portuguese refugees rushed on board, to devote themselves to her and the vindication of her rights. If she was too young to be duly touched with a sense of her situation, others felt it for her. He who had sworn to govern for her with fidelity, during her tender years, had usurped her throne; he who was to have been her husband had repelled her from the shores of her own kingdom, and cast her upon the mercy of the world. No wonder the refugees rushed to her feet; for every heart in England bled for her. When the frigate arrived at Falmouth, the Queen and her conductors were uncertain whether she would be received as Duchess of Oporto, or as a sovereign.2 Every thing hung now on a few moments. But all was well. The royal salute came thundering over the waters from the forts and the ships, and up went the flags on every hand. Then up went the royal standard of Portugal, and the young girl and her retinue knew that she was acknowledged Queen by Great Britain. On her way to London, she was greeted with addresses by the corporations of all the principal towns she passed through, and the people everywhere received her with cheers. In London, almost before the Portuguese residents could pay their duty to their sovereign, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary arrived to welcome Her Majesty to our metropolis. They came in their state carriages, in military uniform, and covered with orders. The King sent messages. He was at his cottage at Windsor, living in almost utter seclusion, and, as his people now began to be aware, in feeble and declining health. On the 12th of October, the birthday of Don Pedro, an affecting ceremony took place at the residence of the Marquis Palmella. The whole of the Portuguese and Brazilian Legations being present, and the Brazilian and Portuguese Ministers at the courts of Vienna and the Netherlands, the Marquis Palmella told the whole story of Don Pedro's conduct and the young Queen's position, read the decrees and the Emperor's despatches, and, in short, put his hearers in possession of the entire case, in a discourse of three-quarters of an hour. The marquis then, as the intended Prime Minister of the Queen, first took the oath of fealty to her; and his example was followed by all present,— 1 Annuaire Historique, 1828, p. 568. ambassadors, generals, peers of her realm, members of the Cortes, in all and military and political officers of various ranks, above two hundred.1 She had thus a little court about her while she remained in England; which was till the next year, when her father recalled her to Brazil. By that time it was explained, that, while Great Britain acknowledged her sovereignty, discountenanced her usurping uncle, and desired to extend all Our due hospitality towards her, it was not possible to do more. treaties of alliance with Portugal, it was declared, bound us to aid her against foreign aggression, but not to interfere in her domestic struggles. We had sent troops to Portugal when Spain was invading her liberties; but we could not impose or depose her rulers. Towards the close of the year, on the 15th of December, the funeral train at last left the door of Lord Liver- Death of Lord pool's abode at Wimbledon.2 Of those who had hourly Liverpool. looked for his death, nearly two years before, and who had held the affairs of the country suspended in expectation of it, some had long been in their graves. He was now released at last: and his funeral train was a long one; for his private life had won for him a gratitude and warm regard, which made him now more thought of as the kindly hearted man, than as the respectable Minister who had ostensibly governed the country for fifteen years. 1 Annual Register, 1828, Chron. p. 138. 2 Annual Register, 1828, Chron. p. 178. |