1831.] Don Pedro, and the Brazilian Revolution. 137 



first acts of his reign were distinguished by wonderful activity and energy 

 of character. The royahsts were, after a short struggle, driven from 

 the country, and the last Unk of the chain, which for three centuries had 

 bound America to Europe, was severed. Three months after his elevation 

 to the throne, he convoked the legislative assembly. On this occasion, 

 he expressed his confident hope that the constitution which that legisla- 

 tive body would frame for the country, would be equally remote from 

 every extreme of despotism, whether monarchical, aristocratic, or demo- 

 cratic — a constitution, in fact, which should render Brazil at once the 

 " admiration and terror of the world." How far these legislators realized 

 the hopes of the emperor and the nation, and how nearly their wild, 

 democratic spirit precipitated the country into a civil war, from which it 

 was only saved by the admirable presence of mind and stern decision of 

 Don Pedro, are events with which the English public are perfectly 

 familiar — and events, too, which sufficiently demonstrate that the 

 throne of the emperor was undermined from the first moment of its 

 erection. 



The promulgation of a new constitution, more adapted to the infant 

 political education of the Brazilian people — the suppression of the revo- 

 lutionary spirit in the northern provinces of the empire — and, above all, 

 the recognition of the independence of Brazil by Great Britain and Por- 

 tugal, appeared to have consolidated the authority of the emperor, and 

 to have consummated the profound policy which aimed at the preserva- 

 tion of the immense empire of Brazil to the house of Braganza. But 

 even at this period, when the star of Don Pedro was at its zenith, the 

 great tide of revolution was rolling on, and gaining ground with every 

 breaker. 



We will now endeavour to develop the causes which produced the 

 late events at Rio de Janeiro ; but previously it will be necessary to 

 investigate the causes which led to the separation of Brazil from the 

 mother country. 



There is no problem in politics, it has been profoundly remarked, 

 more difficult of solution than that of colonies. To watch over their 

 infancy ; to mark the hour of their maturity ; to know when to yield to 

 well-founded remonstrance, and when to exact implicit obedience, re- 

 quires the exercise of consummate sagacity. Much more skill and poli- 

 tical discernment, we venture to pronounce, is required of those daring 

 spirits who wield the destinies of colonies, to mark the hour when, by 

 education, the mind of the country is prepaied — when the faculties of 

 the gifted few are prepared to lead, and of the intelligent mass to fol- 

 low— /»'c labor, hoc opus est — for then alone can a well-conducted revolu- 

 tion ensue. Did this calm, decided, energetic operation of the reason of 

 the people — diffusively in the common sense of the mass — eminently in 

 the strong conviction of the gifted minds — did this chaste operation of 

 intellect, we ask, exist in Brazil when she reared the standard of inde- 

 pendence .'' We confidently answer the question with a decided nega- 

 tive. Not only was the mind of the country totally unprepared for the 

 revolution, but there really existed no grounds for the measure. Brazil 

 had ceased to be a colony ; and, under the mild despotism of the house of 

 Braganza, the country was slowly but steadily advancing in the march 

 of civilization. Up to that period, the political surface of these beautiful 

 regions was still and unrulHcd as a mountain lake — singularly contrast- 

 ing with the convulsed state of Spanish America. The constitutional 



