telligence which he had received direct from Spain in the course of the last week, and which he had hastened to communicate to the British Government on the 18th of of this month, gave him reason to believe in the existence of this culpable project; that the Infant had himself been the first to speak to him of his fears with respect to this, and had expressed a wish that means should be thought of to prevent a movement, which, should it break out before his arrival at Lisbon, might place him in a very difficult and embarrassing situation. Prince Metternich added, that, as the Infant entertained views so favourable, the most effectual means to employ, would be a direct overture from this prince to the king of Spain. He proposed, therefore, to invite the Infant to write immediately to his Catholic majesty, to inform him of the determination which he had come to, in conformity with the decree of the emperor Don Pedro, his brother, of the 3d of July, and to ask of him, at the same time, with confidence, to take such measures as, in his wisdom, he should judge most effectual in preserving tranquillity in the Pe. ninsula, and to make known to the aforesaid refugees that the Infant highly disapproved of such projects, and was determined to repress them.

This proposal of prince Metternich having heen unanimously approved, the Portuguese plenipotentiaries having undertaken to submit it to the Infant, and that prince having received it favourably, the baron de Villa Secca, and the count de Villa-Real have announced to-day to the conference, that his royal highness had willingly consented to write to the king of

Spain in the sense agreed upon; that they had it in command to de. liver to prince Metternich the letter of the Infant to his Catholic majesty, with the request that it might be forwarded to its destination as soon as possible, and to annex a copy of it to the present protocol.

The prince Metternich declared that he took charge of it with the greater pleasure inasmuch as he did not doubt but that a step so frank and loyal on the part of the Infant would produce all the effect which it gave a right to expect. He then proposed to communicate the present protocol to the cabinets of London, Paris, Berlin, and Petersburg, with the request that they would transmit, without delay to their respective missions at Madrid, orders to support, with all their influence, the step which the Infant has just taken towards his Catholic majesty.

This proposition having been unanimously approved, it was agreed that the despatches for Paris and London should be in con. sequence made up immediately, and that they should be intrusted to M. de Neumann.

(Signed)
METTERNICH.
LEBZELTERN.
NEUMANN.

H. DE BOM BELLES.
H. WELLESLEY.
CONDE DE VILLA-REAL.
BARAO DE VILLA-SECCA.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE Infant DON MIGUEL to HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SPAIN.

Vienna, Oct. 21, 1827.

My very dear Uncle,-I have the honour to inform your majesty, that I have received a decree, dated from Rio de Janeiro, by which my

august brother, the emperor of Brazil, and king of Portugal and the Algarves, nominates me his lieutenant and regent in the last. mentioned kingdoms. Having accepted this regency, and proposing shortly to repair to Lisbon, it has come to my knowledge from sources worthy of credit, that some of the chiefs of the Portuguese re. fugees, who are now in the dominions of your majesty, intend in the mean time to excite movements, with the intention of disturbing public order in Portugal, which would necessarily produce calamities which will not escape the high penetration of your majesty.

In this state of things, I address myself directly to your majesty, with the confidence with which I am inspired by the sincere and wellknown desire by which your majesty is animated of maintaining tranquillity in the Peninsula, in order that, weghing in your high wisdom. a matter so weighty, your majesty would deign to take those mea. sures which you shall judge the most fitting, in order to make known to the aforesaid refugees my most entire disapprobation of such projects, which I am firmly resolved to repress.-May God, &c. (Signed)

THE INFANT DON MIGUEL. His Majesty the King of Spain.

lution by which they established the strong reasons why they acknow ledged that, by right, the crown of Portugal had reverted to his august person, it nevertheless appeared expedient, and even necessary, and it was on this account decreed by his majesty, that, besides the special acts, they should draw up a single resolution, comprising the whole of the several grounds thereof, thus obviating the doubts (cer. tainly no other than specious ones) which on this subject may be raised, or such as interest or partyspirit may have already suggested; and in order that the same, being generally signed by the members of which the Three Estates are composed, might become the sole voice of the whole nation, by expounding and maintaining the fundamental law of the succession to the crown, with that unbiassed im. partiality and firm resolution, suited to a people, seriously determined not to commit, and at the same time not to allow of injustice.

"Wherefore, the Three Estates, appointing a committee, composed of an equal number of the members of each, and members of acknowledged talent, proved gravity and love of their country; this committee, after meeting, and again conferring on a point of such great importance, at length made a re. port, on a view of which Three Estates unanimously agreed as follows:

"If the laws of the kingdom excluded Don Pedro from the succession to the crown, at least from the 15th of Nov. 1825, the Portuguese crown, on the 10th of March, 1826, incontestibly belonged to the most high and most powerful king and lord, Don Miguel the First, because, as the two princes were call.

ed thereto, one after the other, on the first-born being legally excluded, the crown, by that legal ex. clusion, necessarily devolved to the second brother. In vain would it be to endeavour to seek out among the claimants another prince, or princess, entitled to the succession, after the first-born had been legally excluded, because, as no other than a descendant of Don Pedro could be found, it would be necessary to argue, in a manner repugnant to reason, and even to the very notion of legal terms, that after being excluded, he still pos. sessed rights to the succession; or else it must be admitted, which would equally be as great, if not a more evident absurdity, that on the 10th of March he could transmit rights which previously, according to the supposition above stated, he did not possess. That prince or princess, so empowered, as long as a minor and in the hands of foreign parents, could not fail also to be reputed a foreigner in Portugal; but even if this were not supposed to be the case, on this account, he, or she, could not acquire rights, of which the only person who could transmit them, was already deprived by law.

ed with the fundamental laws of Portugal, could doubt their excluding from the throne every foreign prince, as well as every other prince who is politically disabled from residing in the kingdom? And who can doubt that Don Pedro, at least from the 15th of November, 1825, became a foreigner, by holding and considering himself as the sovereign of a foreign state; and that he disabled himself from residing in Portugal, not only by the act of constituting himself sovereign of that same foreign state, but also by his binding himself by oath to the laws thereof, which so expressly and peremptorily forbid the same?

"The recollection of the political alterations and changes of Brazil is very recent; the constitutional charter of Brazil is also very generally known throughout Europe, and any effort on the part of the Three Estates to prove the existence of laws and events so notorious, would be superfluous and even objectionable. How much more so must this be the case with true Portuguese, who seek to spare themselves the pain of touching these still bleeding wounds of their unhappy country, or of reviving the bitter recollection of their claims and rights, either regarded with indifference, or purposely ill-requited.

ers.'-the sense of which is so clear and distinct, that any com. mentary thereon would be useless and misplaced. They also allege and call to mind, the petition (undoubtedly granted) of the Three Estates, in 1641, and particularly of the nobility, that most signal monument of their loyalty and zeal for the country's good, as well as of the political discretion of our ancestors. And it ought further to be observed, that it is not to be inferred from the aforesaid petition, that there was any doubt respecting the decision of the Cortes of Lamego, in this respect; previously, the same decision continually served as an argument to repel the pretensions of the Castilians, and as such is deduced in the fifth clause of the famous resolution passed in Cortes, in the said year. In that petition no innovation was sought regard. ing the exclusion of foreigners; it was rather endeavoured to repeat and strengthen the law; and remove all doubts, even the slightest, from interested parties, respecting the legislation known, and hitherto followed, even in the case of there being on the frontiers a formidable army, and, by terror, attempting to compel the arrest of pusillanimous judges.

"The same rule was most assuredly observed, as seen from the plain narrative of those memorable events, in the controversy that was raised through the death of king Ferdinand, when Donna Beatrix, who found herself in similar cir. cumstances to Don Pedro, experi enced, as regards the royal succes. sion, the same repulse. Donna Beatrix was born in Portugal; she was the first-born and only daugh. ter of the presiding monarch, and, nevertheless, excluded from the

throne; and what motive excluded her? Was it her sex? But females succeed to the crown in Portugal. Was it the scruples respecting the marriage of Leonora ? These scruples, as recorded in history, did not, however, gain any ground till the Cortes of Coimbra. Was it for entering Portugal with an armed force? But this entry with an armed force was already provoked by resistance. The cause, consequently, clearly rested on her being a foreigner; and this was the ground of objection. This was the case, notwithstanding the public records of those times do not dwell on this point. It was, in fact, the repugnancy and resistance of the people. They knew the Portuguese laws; and the meaning of 'natural king,' that is, one who was born and lives among those over whom he rules, had its just value in the opinion of those true lovers of their country. Their generosity rejected with horror the danger of foreign dominion, and the mechan. ics of Lisbon and Santarem, as described by the only chronicler of that age, evinced more honourable feeling and judgment in their resolutions, than some of the presump. tive wise men of the nineteenth century.

"But, they tell us, that Count de Boulogne was estranged to Portugal, and yet reigned in Portugal. The Count de Boulogne, however, did not reign by right of succession; he reigned extraordinarily by election. The leaders of this kingdom purposely went to France to fetch him-the pope's authority strengthened the choice, and by immediately proceeding to Portugal he recovered his right of birth. He did not take the title of king until after, as it were by dispensation, he

had been specially empowered by the Estates. It was, besides, a very remarkable circumstance, that there was not at the time in the kingdom any other person belonging to the royal family, as the Infanta D. Fernando was married in Castile, and the Infanta D. Leonora married in a country still more remote, in such manner that the laws were not violated in the case of the Count de Boulogne; but in him an extraordinary remedy was rather sought for the most urgent wants of the kingdom; the spirit of the laws and the national usages being at the same time followed with all possible scrupulosity.

"So great and obvious are the objections to, or rather the injuries of a foreign king, whether he be such from birth or choice, that it could not escape the wisdom of our legislators, as well as the instinct, if the expression may be allowed, of the whole nation-whence arose the circumstance that discreet and express laws are not wanting to us, to guard against such contingencies; nor could the opinion and resolution of the people fail, in all cases, to correspond to these laws. In truth, the king being a foreigner by birth, even when by ascending the throne he should become a citi. zen, the ties of blood nevertheless would be wanting, and with them necessarily would be lost those of reciprocal confidence and love; a perfect knowledge of the inclinations, habits, and real interests of the people would also be wanting, and thereby one of the most important means of governing them, with justice and success, lost. If the king, notwithstanding his having been born within the kingdom, should have absented himself, or taken up his residence in a different

state, the kingdom is thus delivered up to viceroys and lieutenants; its advantages overlooked, and those of the people, in a great measure, sacrificed to persons who may be appointed to reside among them; when, on the one hand, we should have discontent and its sad and ruinous effects, and on the other, suspicion, caution, and oppression, which soon would degenerate into tyranny.

"The laws, therefore, held the want of birth, as well as the impossibility of residing within the king. dom, as sufficient grounds for exclusion from the throne. Alonzo III. did not govern Portugal from Boulogne; nor did the Portuguese, his contemporaries, ever even dream that it would be possible to reconcile the government of Portugal with perpetual absence, a morally invincible difficulty. It is, indeed, true that this political monstrosity took place with the intrusion of the kings of Castile; but the absence of the kings of Castile does not prove more against the Portuguese laws of residence, than the want of birth against the laws for the exclusion of foreigners. It ought, however, to be observed, not only that as soon as the oppressive yoke was broken by the courage of our ancestors, the law was not only immediately repealed in the Cortes of 1641, which allowed of non-residents; but the nobles of the kingdom, even in their second act of the Cortes of Thomar, had also the courage to petition that the king should reside among us, the most he possibly could, to which Philip found himself compelled to answer in the following words-I will endeavour to satisfy you.' And how much more must not the Portuguese be persuaded of the necessity of