38 GOVERNMENT OF BRAZIL. 
from the provinces, called together expressly to 
form a Constitutional Assembly, and by the 
expression of the Emperor, that he required 
unconditional submission, even if he should 
choose, like Charles the Twelfth, to send his 
boot to them as his representative. It is pos- 
sible that the Emperor has been in some mea- 
sure forced to these violent proceedings by the 
contentions of the various parties, each of which 
seeks its own interest without concerning itself 
about the general welfare. His personal cha- 
racter is much praised. 
A captain of one of the Russian-American 
Company’s ships, who had been in Rio Janeiro, 
related to me the following anecdote of his be- 
nevolence. Two sailors belonging to his crew 
had been ashore, and having got drunk, were 
found lying senseless on the road to Corcovado. 
The Emperor and Empress happening to ride 
that way, attended only by a few servants, saw 
them, and supposed them to be sick. The Em- 
peror immediately dismounted, rubbed their 
temples with his own hand, and endeavoured 
to restore them to their senses, but in vain. 
He then sent for his own surgeon, and dispatched 
