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ness of the princess regent to a secret design of preparing the way for the assumption of absolute power by Miguel. Others, more charitable, ascribed her conduct to the inherent difficulties of her situation. She was a female, wholly unprepared for the arduous duties, which accidental circumstances devolved upon her; and was called upon to govern a country distracted by powerful and balanced factions, the scene of subtle intrigues or audacious plots, which the firmest and most practised masculine hand might have found it difficult to control. Men construed the strange events which they witnessed, according to their pre-conceived opinions, as they safely might, when every thing seemed lowering, ambiguous, and fraught with approaching vicissitude.

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The old partisans of Don Miguel, the apostolical factions, all those persons who possessed a common bond of union in their aversion to Pedro's constitution, began to speak with boldness and confi. dence, of what they lately durst hardly whisper. This was the im. mediate return of Don Miguel from Vienna for the purpose of assuming the regency, and perhaps the crown itself. Sir William A'Court was accounted favourable to the views of these persons. They founded their calculations upon the article of the charter, which enacts, that "Du

ring the king's (or queen's) minority, the kingdom is to be governed by a regency, which shall belong to the nearest relative of the king, according to the order of succession, who shall have attained twenty-five years of age." Miguel would reach this age in October; and the question now arose, whether the regency of Isabel Maria was not, by the charter temporary only; and whether she ought not to be superseded by Miguel. While this conclusion seemed to be encouraged by the particular article under consideration, other parts of the charter seemed adverse thereto; and thus the question remained sufficiently doubtful to afford each party a fair field of discussion. The constitutional party anxiously desired the presence of Don Pedro in Portugal, as, in their opinion, the only means of quieting the angry factions, which agitated the country, and placing its government upon such a footing as to prevent the continual recurrence of civil wars. Their opponents, on the other hand, laboured incessantly to secure to Miguel a favourable reception in the kingdom, and to reconcile the people to his eventually overturning the constitution, and declaring him. self absolute king of Portugal. It was understood, that Austria had expressed its determination to maintain Don Miguel's rights. Demi-official pieces in the French journals argued elaborately in

support of his pretensions, and proceeded the length of asserting, that Pedro, having abdicated the Portuguese throne, settled the form of government by a constitutional charter, and fixed the succession to the crown, no longer possessed any authority whatever in Portugal; and that therefore his presence there at this time, would be an unwarrantable intrusion, which could not fail to afflict the peninsula with the most violent political convulsions. English journals, having a like reputed connexion with the government, admitted, that the immediate return of Miguel was a probable event; and intimated, that although insuperable objections existed to the unconditional assumption of power by him, yet such an arrangement might be made by the allied powers, as would put an end to the public anxiety now, and insure the future tranquillity of Portugal.

It was impossible to mistake the meaning of these hints. They were elicited by the negotiations in train for enabling Miguel to assume the regency on arriving at the age of twenty-five years. Accordingly it was officially announced in Lisbon, on the 22d of September, that a messenger reached London in August, with letters from Don Pedro to his brother Miguel, and to the courts of Austria and Great Britain, announcing his consent that Miguel should return to Portugal,

and exercise the powers of govern. ment as regent or viceroy. This resolution appears to have been adopted by the emperor of Brazil in June, on the faith of the English and Austrian governments. Preparations were made without delay, for the departure of don Miguel from Vienna, for the purpose of proceeding by the way of Paris and London to Lisbon. Sir William A'Court officially communicated to the princess regent positive assurances of the favourable disposition of Miguel; who accepted the government on the conditions prescribed to him by his brother, and was coming to administer the af fairs of his country, with a firm intention, as he professed, of maintaining to his utmost, the institutions granted to the nation by Don Pedro. Notwithstanding these assurances, however, the constitutional party universally distrusted Miguel's integrity, and anticipated what has since been fully realized, that he would throw himself into the hands of the absolutists, regardless of oaths and promises, and pay little respect to the charter which he was sworn to support, whatever calamities he might thus bring upon his distracted country. Multitudes of Portuguese, both military and private individuals of all ranks, made arrangements to leave the kingdom, when his return was known to be positively fixed. Their fears were not allayed by the letter

which Miguel addressed to the princess regent, to announce the ap. proaching change in the government. It was written at Vienna, under date of October 19th, and concluded with a request that a frigate might be despatched to England for his reception. We copy a paragraph in this letter, which Miguel's after conduct so grossly belied:

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Being determined to maintain inviolate the laws of the realm and the institutions legally conceded by our august brother, all which we have sworn to observe and to enforce, and to adopt as the rule of government in the aforesaid kingdoms, it becomes me to declare this intention, in order that you, my dear sister, may give to such declaration the necessary publicity, and that you may at the same time proclaim my fixed purpose of repressing those factions which, under any pretext whatsoever, tend to subvert the public tranquillity in

these realms, and my earnest desire that the errors and faults which are past, may be buried in eternal oblivion, and that concord and the spirit of conciliation may succeed in the place of those deplorable convulsions which have rent a na. tion so renowned in history for its virtues, its valour, its loyalty and respectful adherence to its princes."

It would seem that a prince, who was relieved from a state of banishment and obscurity, and permitted to assume the vice-regal sceptre, solely upon the faith of the most solemn engagements and most earnest protestations to obey the constitutional charter, could hardly have returned, in the face of all Europe, to violate his plighted honour the moment that power was placed in his hands. But we will not anticipate events; and there. fore leave the relation of Miguel's actual return to a future occasion.

CHAPTER XVII.

Spain.-State of Parties-Views as to Portugal--Conduct of the Govern ment--Submits to Great Britain--Zambrano's Circular-Inguanzo's Exposition--Seditious Correspondence-Disturbances at MalagaSouth American states-Colombian bishops confirmed by the Pope-Abruptly announced to Ferdinand-Consequences--Disturbances in Catalonia-Carlists—Their Progress--All Catalonia in Rebellion-Demands of the Insurgents-Manifesto of the Government--Junta of Manreso-Departure of the King for Tarragona-Operations against the Rebels--Insurrection quelled.

OUR account of SPAIN for 1826 presented a melancholy picture of public imbecility, internal disorder, and infatuated misrule; nor have more recent events indicated any material change for the better in the condition of this distracted country. We have lightly touched, in the preceding chapter, upon the conduct of Spain at the commencement of the period now under review; but a fuller developement of the policy and management of Ferdinand respecting Portugal, properly enters into the Spanish history for the year.

Ever since the overthrow of the constitutional party in Spain, the government of the kingdom had effectively been controlled by persons, who were perfectly fanatical

in their devotion to absolute powers. They' seemed to be actuated by a kind of mania, in favour of bigotry in religion, and servility in politics. The apostolic faction could not but remember how ill they fared in the hands of the constitutional cortes, which, as the very first step towards raising the condition of the country, took mea. sures for rescuing the church lands from the iron grasp of mortmain, and rendering them available for the purposes of public utility, as England had done in the reign of Henry VIII., and France in the beginning of her revolution. Of course, the priesthood, more potent in Spain than in any other nation of Western Europe, and all who were under their influence, enter

tained a mortal hatred for the very name of a constitution. Liberty itself was odious to them, as the watchword of the millions of emancipated colonists in America, whose separation from the mother country had not only involved the latter in a hopeless and ruinous war, but shut out its whole population from access to an inexhaustible source of riches in the western world. It is easy to conceive, therefore, with what pious horror Ferdinand and his court regarded the introduction of a liberal constitution in their immediate neighbourhood, from whence the contagion of liberalism could most easily return into Spain itself, notwithstanding the bloody purification it had lately undergone.

But how should they manifest their detestation of Pedro's charter in such a way as to subvert the regency established under it, with the smallest risk to themselves? The clergy hardly stopped to consider dangers or consequences; being eager to hurry the kingdom into immediate war with the Portuguese. But enough of discretion remained in the go. vernment, to foresee that this would be mere madness. All the great powers of Europe had yield. ed their sanction at least, if not their approbation, to the new institutions of Portugal. Great Britain evidently felt a deep interest in the prosperity of her ancient

ally.

France had acknowledg. ed the regency. In these circumstances, Spain might easily understand, that she would not be borne out in making open war upon Portugal, merely because the latter had accepted a charter, the free gift of her legitimate sovereign. Ferdinand resolved, therefore, to avail himself of the spirit of discontent, which began to show itself in Portugal, and to encourage the disaffected to overturn the lawful government of their country. He refused to recognise the regency, by receiving the Portuguese minister in the customary manner. Desertions from the Portuguese army beginning now to take place, the Spanish captains general in Val. ladolid, and Estremadura, allowed the fugitives to assemble in the territory of Spain, and prepare the invasions, of which we have already given an account. Ferdinand appeared strangely to imagine that a flimsy disguise would serve to veil the character of his operations from the censure of his allies, or at least preserve him from the active interference of any one of them. But the event showed how grossly ignorant his ministry were of the precise relations between England and Portugal; and how blindly infatuated as to the temper, character, and designs of the British cabinet.

The count of Villa Real, the ambassador sent by the regency to

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