328 THE I'ORTUGuE&E STRUGGLE. 



the recollection of the terrible reaction which followed that event was 

 still green on their memory. When too late, Don Pedro will discover 

 that he has been deceived. He will open his eyes to the conviction of a 

 truth, that a moment's reflection should long ago have taught him, that 

 neither the charter or himself are popular in Portugal. He left it, it 

 must be recollected, a mere boy, when the house of Braganza fled before 

 the victorious arms of Napoleon. His political career has since been 

 marked by phases certainly not calculated to impress the Portuguese 

 people in his favour. Independently of which, he is associated with an 

 event which in the mind of every Portuguese, to whatever party or 

 colour he may belong, stamps him as the ruin of their country. This 

 event was the loss of her immense transatlantic possessions, from which 

 alone Portugal derived her political importance. In the army of Miguel 

 we recognise many of the corps that composed the divisions of Monte 

 Video, Rio de Janeiro, and Bahia. The recollections of the indignities 

 they suffered, of their defeats and disgrace in the field, and their suf- 

 ferings in captivity, still rankle in their bosoms ; and from the men who 

 for months gave as their daily toast, et Morra o Imperador dos Macacos," 

 " Death to the Emperor of Monkeys," as they contemptuously styled 

 the Brazilians, Don Pedro must expect stern and uncompromising re- 

 sistance. Again, there are at this moment in Portugal thousands whom 

 the fierce crusade against every thing European that followed the de- 

 claration of the independence of Brazil hunted through the streets of 

 her cities like beasts of prey, reduced from splendid affluence to the 

 most abject penury one and all of these men lay their ruin at the door 

 of Don Pedro. They, in themselves, form a powerful and fierce mass of 

 resistance, and who, from the recollection of his past career, so fertile in 

 perjury and falsehood, may with justice question the honesty of his ul- 

 terior views. When to these we further add, that he returns with a load 

 of debt on his shoulders, and that he carries back with him the hated 

 constitution, and that too at the point of foreign bayonets. Acquainted 

 as we are with the feelings and prejudices of the Portuguese people, in 

 spite of all that has been so recently advanced, we never santicipated a 

 rising in his favour. We said the hated constitution for if we measure 

 the Portuguese by their own standard, and not by those of England and 

 of France, nations that have obtained the highest point in the scale of 

 civilization, the result will bear out our assertion. Debased by centuries 

 of despotism and superstition, every virtue civil as well as military, 

 have been long extinguished in a nation once so celebrated, the currents 

 of their thoughts directed into channels that lead not to constitutional 

 freedom, and religiously attached to their ancient customs, they appear 

 steeled against improvement. This is no exaggerated picture of Portu- 

 guese life. If we pass in review the different orders of society in that 

 country, we shall find the church and the Fedalguia, with a few solitary 

 exceptions, unanimous in their execration of the constitution. The 

 army, demoralized by so many successive revolutions, may be influenced 

 by a momentary impulse, or by views of promotion and pay ; while the 

 well-moulded mass of the population take what direction their rulers 

 impress on them, and shout " Viva ou morra a constituicao," at the com- 

 mand of their priests. The mass of the people are then an absolute 

 nullity in the question at issue; but if such a degraded portion of 

 humanity are capable of forming an opinion, it may be gathered from 



