BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DOM PEDRO II. 195 



The liberal party desired election by one degree, that is, direct elec- 

 tion ; but the constitution positively required election by two degrees, 

 that is, indirect. This was an insurmountable obstacle to the Emperor, 

 for he knew that too frequent alteration of the organic laws of a country 

 ends in political disorganization. He therefore confined his attention 

 to such changes in the old system as would render parliament more 

 independent of the government. Among the improvements of the new 

 law was the decree that the holding of the office of representative was 

 incompatible with the tenure of any other charge remunerated by the 

 state, and that the government could not nominate any deputy or sena- 

 tor to an office six months before or after the elections. Should this 

 loyal attempt at reform by the Emperor be unsuccessful, we are con- 

 vinced he would propose to the people to change the constitution, rather 

 than have the national vote continually misconstrued. 



XIII. 



Almost immediately after the return of Dom Pedro to Brazil, toward 

 the end of the year 1872, occurred an event known under the name of 

 the religious question, of which we must give a brief account, for, although 

 much to be regretted, it gave proof of the moderation of the Brazilian 

 monarch, and his respect for the national institutions. 



The bishop of Pernambuco, (Mgr, Vital de Oliveira,) who had received 

 his religious education at Rome, where he had been nominated to office 

 at the age of 28, forgetting the maxim of Talleyrand, " above all, no zeal? 

 came to Brazil with the predetermination, it would seem, to suppress 

 Free Masonry in his diocese, which had not been attempted by the ten 

 preceding bishops nor by the primate of Brazil ; for they knew that, 

 under the form in which it existed in the empire, it was not hostile to the 

 Catholic religion. The conduct of the young bishop, whom the Pope at 

 the time called too hot-headed, is so extraordinary that we transcribe liter- 

 ally that document, the cause of the disturbance which followed, in order 

 that the reader may judge of it for himself. 



On the 28th of December, 1872, Mgr. Vital de Oliveira sent to the 

 vicar of the parish of Saint Antoiue (at Pernambuco) an order conceived 

 as follows: "It has come to our knowledge that Doctor Costa Bibeiro, 

 well known as a Free Mason, is a member of the fraternity of the Tres 

 Saint Sacrement of this parish 5 and as the initiated of the order of 

 Masonry are under the ban of high excommunication imposed upon 

 them by several of the Popes, we order you, without delay, to see the 

 judge qf the fraternity, and command him in our name to exhort, kindly 

 but instantly, the Brother Costa Bibeiro to abjure this sect condemned 

 by the church. If, unhappily, he refuse to retract, let him be immedi- 

 ately expelled from the fraternity, inasmuch as excommunicants are 

 excluded from it by ecclesiastical institutions. Let the same course be 

 pursued with regard to any other Free Mason icho may be a member not 

 only of this, but of any other fraternity in the parish." 



(Signed, etc.) 



