THE PORTUGUESE STRUGGLE. 329 



the following stanza, which during the time of the first constitution 

 resounded along the quays and in the streets of Lisbon. 



" Fecheu-se o Rocio. 

 Abolio-se o Inquisi^ao. 

 Perdeo-se o Brazil. 

 M a para o constituigao." * 



It is among the commercial classes and the law that men of the most 

 liberal ideas are to be found. The latter are., however, for the most 

 part educated in a dangerous school, that of the French Encyclopedistes 

 and philosophical writers of the eighteenth century, whose visionary 

 schemes they dream of one day seeing realised in their own country. 



The conduct pursued by our ministry in this affair has been based on the 

 broad principle of non-intervention as regards the government ' de facto.' 

 For whatever may be our prepossessions in favour of legitimacy, it must 

 not be concealed that it has in this instance acted wisely. Miguelf 

 certainly deserves every term of obloquy that this or any other language 

 can convey, still he is the head of the government " de facto," and is 

 retained there by the Portuguese themselves. For upwards of four 

 years he has maintained his ground against disaffection at home and 

 foreign aggression. We find him at all hours riding almost unattended 

 through the dense population of Lisbon and its environs ; and yet during 

 that period, unpopular as he is said to be, not a single attempt has been 

 made upon his life by a people constitutionally irascible, proverbially 

 vindictive. His unpopularity must be measured then by some other 

 standard than the duration of his government. The fact is that this 

 prince is but a mere automaton in the hands of the ruling party. He 

 marches with them, and hence the secret of the duration of his authority 

 it is the system he supports, that in its turn supports him ; for we 

 readily believe that the better informed Portuguese most cordially de- 

 spise such a compendium of ignorance, imbecility, cruelty, and tyranny. 

 The darkest feature in this question is the withering conviction that in 

 whatever way it may terminate, it will entail ruin on the country. 

 Civil war may be arrested in its devastating course ; but it is the work 

 of time to cicatrise the wounds it inflicts. The ruling party in Portugal 

 and their adherents fight with a knife at their throats. It is in vain that 

 Don Pedro promises a general amnesty. The Emperor would, we are 

 sure, gladly draw a veil over the past, but he will no more be able to 

 arrest the course of private vengeance, than to stop with his hand the 

 descending waters of Niagara. This fatal truth the Miguelites have 

 constantly before their eyes. If defeated to-morrow, they have but the 

 stern alternatives of death, or the misery and exile of a foreign land. 



* " Closed is the Rocio. 



Abolished is the Inquisition. 



Lost is Brazil. 



To hell with the constitution." 



f Miguel, surnamed " El Rey Vacqueiro," or the king of the cow-drivers, in allu- 

 sion to the nature of his sports, was one day found firing from the windows of the 

 palace, at Rio de Janeiro, which was situated close to the waters edge, at some 

 Negroes in the tops and rigging of some of the small coasting craft that were 

 anchored about fifty yards from the shore. Being a good shot, he severely wounded 

 some of these unfortunate creatures ; and on being remonstrated with by a cham- 

 berlain of the court on the cruel nature of his amusement, he coolly said, " I am 

 only firing at black birds." 



M. M. No. 81. Z 



