BRAZIL. 



667 



tics, and council of state. The two chambers pos- 

 sess, in general, great privileges. The emperor has 

 the executive and mediatorial authorities ; but his 

 veto is not absolute. He cannot refuse his sanction 

 to a bill equally approved by two legislative assem- 

 blies. The press is free, but libels are punished by 

 law. All immunities, privileged corporations, &c., 

 are abolished. The Roman Catholic is the estab- 

 lished religion : to other denominations domestic 

 worship is allowed, but without the power of having 

 churches, &c. Notwithstanding this liberal constitu- 

 tion, the republican party gairted the supremacy in 

 Pernambuco. The president, Man. de Carvalho Paes 

 d'Andrade, recalled by the emperor, attempted to 

 unite the northern provinces into one republic, called 

 the Union of (he Equator. But as soon as the empe- 

 ror had no longer cause to fear an attack from Portu- 

 gal, his forces invaded Pernambuco, in August, by 

 land and sea, under the command of lord Cochrane 

 and general Lima. Carvalho and Barros, with a 

 great portion of the inhabitants, made an obstinate re- 

 sistance ; but, on the 17th of September, 1824, the city 

 was taken by assault. Carvalho had fled to a British 

 ship of war ; the others into the interior of the country. 

 In the following year, the emperor sent general 

 Brandt and the chev. de Carneiro to London, to nego- 

 ciate there, with the Portuguese minister, the mar- 

 quis de Villareal, respecting the independence of B. 

 Similar negotiations afterwards took place in Lisbon, 

 through the British envoy extraordinary, Sir Charles 

 Stuart, who finally concluded, at Rio Janeiro, with 

 the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, Luis Jose de 

 Carvalho e Mello, a treaty between B. and Portugal, 

 Aug. 29, 1825, on the following terms : 1. B. should 

 be recognised as an independent empire, separate 

 from Portugal and Algarvia. 2. The king of Portu- 

 gal was to resign the sovereignty of B. in favour of 

 Fiis son and his legitimate posterity. 3. The king 

 of Portugal should retain the title of emperor of B. 

 for his own person merely. 4. The emperor don 

 Pedro should promise to receive from no Portuguese 

 colony proposals tor a union with B. 5. The trade 

 between the two nations should be restored, and all 

 property confiscated should be returned, or compensa- 

 tion made for it The king of Portugal ratified 

 this treaty Nov. 15, 1825. The emperor of Brazil 

 sent ambassadors to the courts of Lisbon, London, 

 Paris, and Vienna. Sir Charles Stuart, soon after, 

 concluded at Rio, Oct. 18, 1825, a treaty of amity and 

 commerce, and another treaty, respecting the aboli- 

 tion of the slave-trade, delayed for four additional 

 years, between B. and Great Britain. But neither was 

 ratified by the king of Great Britain, because, among 

 other things, they contained stipulations for the 

 mutual surrender of political criminals (or those 

 charged with high treason) and refugees. About 

 this time, the government of the United Provinces of 

 the Plata urged the restoration of the Banda Oriental, 

 which B. had held in possession since 1816. The 

 emperor, therefore, declared war against Buenos 

 Ayres, Dec. 10, 1825, and caused the mouth of the 

 La Plata to be blockaded by his vessels of war. But 

 the people of the Cisplatino, with the natives of 

 Monte Video, had already taken up arms, for the 

 sake of a union with the United Provinces of the 

 Plata. The insurgents took Maldonado. General 

 Lecor (viscount de Laguna), however, maintained 

 himself in Monte Video. On the other hand, the 

 republic of the Plata formally received the Banda 

 Oriental into its confederacy, and, at the close of the 

 year 1825, B. possessed but two points in the Banda 

 Oriental Monte Video and the colony del San Sa- 

 gramento. A question of much importance now 

 arose, whether the emperor don Pedro should succeed 

 his father, king John VI., in the kingdom of Portu- 



gal. The king died Marcli 10, 1826, having ap- 

 pointed his daughter, the infanta Isabella Maria, 

 provisional regent. According to the constitution of 

 B., don Pedro could not leave the country without 

 the consent of the general assembly. He therefore 

 entered upon the government of Portugal, and gave 

 this kingdom a representative constitution, but re- 

 nounced the crown of Portugal in his own person by 

 the act of abdication of May 2, 1826, and resigned 

 his right to his daughter donna Maria da Gloria, 

 princess of Beira, born in 1819, who was to marry her 

 uncle don Miguel, born in 1802 ; meanwhile, the 

 emperor confirmed Miguel regent of Portugal; but 

 Miguel had not long taken the oath to the constitu- 

 tion, till he issued a decree convoking the cortes of 

 Lamego, by whom he was declared absolute king of 

 Portugal and Algarves, and took the reins of go- 

 vernment accordingly. (For a further account of 

 Maria, Miguel, and the state of Portugal, see Por- 

 tugal.) Soon after, May 8, Pedro opened the second 

 constitutional assembly of B. at Rio. He had pre- 

 viously, April 16, 1826, founded the new Brazilian 

 order of Pedro I. 



The war with Buenos Ayres was continued in the. 

 Banda Oriental with little vigour, and with little 

 prospect of advantage to either party, but with a 

 ruinous cliarge upon the finances of both. A nego- 

 tiation for peace was at length opened, under the 

 mediation of Great Britain, wliich terminated in the 

 execution of a treaty, Aug. 27, 1828. In this treaty, 

 the emperor of Brazil and the government of the 

 United Provinces unite in declaring the Cisplatino, or 

 the province of Monte Video, which had been 

 the chief object of controversy, a free and inde- 

 pendent state, under such form of government as 

 it might deem most suitable to its interests, wants, 

 and resources. It was stipulated, that, for the 

 purpose of forming this government, the existing 

 government of the Banda Oriental should, imme- 

 diately on the ratification of the treaty, convoke the 

 representatives of that part of the province subject to 

 it, and the government of Monte Video its citizens, 

 to make choice of a proportional number of delegates, 

 and that these representatives and delegates should 

 constitute a provisional government, whose duty it 

 should be to form a political constitution for the new 

 state. After the meeting of this provisional govern- 

 ment, the functions of the previously existing go- 

 vernments were to cease. The independence of the 

 province of Monte Video was guaranteed by the 

 contracting parties. This treaty was duly ratified, 

 the blockade of the La Plata was immediately raised, 

 and the troops of the two belligerents were withdrawn 

 from the contested territory. By an act of the legis- 

 lature, passed in 1827, the celibacy of the clergy has 

 been abolished in B. For further information, see 

 Banda Oriental. 



After the close of the war for the Banda Or. nt:U, 

 (1828), the attention of Pedro was principally drawn 

 to the settlement of Portugal, and to the domestic 

 concerns of the empire, the finances of wiiich were in 

 a very embarrassed condition. The elements of de- 

 mocracy were largely mixed up with imperial princi- 

 ples. The gold and silver of the country had entirely 

 vanished, and there was no currency but paper, 

 which would not circulate beyond the capital, and 

 large pieces of copper, which bore a discount of forty 

 per cent. ; and the people were in a high state of ex- 

 citement lest the extinction of the constitution of Por- 

 tugal was but a prelude to a similar event in Brazil. 

 These and other circumstances gradually alienated 

 the public mind, and the nation became divided into 

 constitutionalists or republicans, who were Brazilians, 

 and absolutists, who were Portuguese. In March, 

 1831, while on a tour in the mining districts, don 

 4 M2 



