PORTUGAL had groaned still more heavily than Spain under the extinction of her ancient glory, and the oppressive yoke of absolute power. The period when her navies rode triumphant over distant oceans, and subjected the empires of the east and of the west, had been succeeded by an era of degradation, in which she with difficulty maintained her place among the secondary powers of Europe. The diffusion of knowledge and thought, and the great revolutions of which she felt the influence, went far to rouse the nation from its lethargy. In bestirring themselves against the invasion of France, the Portuguese were animated by the desire, not only of national independence, but of recovering the ancient freedom of their constitution. In this respect they had not, we fear, much cause to congratulate themselves in the treat ment which they experienced from Britain. The national junta, formed upon the liberation of the country from French dominion, was put down by the British military force, and its place supplied by a regency acting under the sole authority of the King. Britain, whose military force formed the sole prop of the power of that mo

VOL. XIII. PART I.

narch, could certainly, as she did in Sicily, have insisted upon his granting to his subjects a form of a free constitution. She never, on this head, however, offered any thing beyond barren advice. Other discontents rankled in the minds of the Portuguese. Since the King appeared to have fixed his permanent residence in Brazil, the Eu ropean part of the monarchy saw itself reduced to the condition of a mere province, under what it was accustomed to view as a humble and tributary appendage. The general command of the army, still retained by Marshal Beresford, and the numbers of English officers holding commissions in it, seemed to fix upon them a stamp of foreign subjection. The patriotism, moreover, of the Portuguese troops was mightily inflamed by the almost total cessation of their pay, and by the privations of every kind which they endured in consequence of the financial embarrassments of the regency.

Under the combined influence of all these causes, the spark which fell from the Spanish revolution could not be long of bursting into a flame. Oporto, the centre of Portuguese commerce, had naturally imbibed the greatest por

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tion of the new ideas, and was the most ripe for a change. The plan of raising the standard of liberty had been secretly formed by a number of the principal officers of the army stationed there, at the head of whom was Sepulveda, a young man of birth and talents, whose father had taken a distinguished part against the French in the late revolution. On the night of the 23d August, a meeting was held, and the immediate execution of their design was resolved upon. The officers going through their respective quarters, called together the troops, and represented to them the degraded and enslaved state of the nation, as well as their own wants and privations. These evils could be remedied only by the formation of a constitutional order, such as they had seen so happily established in a sister kingdom. The soldiery, with loud cries, assented, and swore fidelity to the King, the Cortes, and the constitution. At day-break the event was first announced to the people by a general discharge of artillery; and the whole had rather the appearance of a public festival, than of a great political and military revolution.

This great event, being reported in the north of Portugal, and the fortresses along the Minho, was followed by a general declaration in favour of the new system. In the course of a short time the junta found themselves at the head of upwards of 20,000 men. Of the troops ordered by the regency to march upon Oporto, under the command of the Conde de Amarante and General Vittoria, the greater part joined the revolutionists; the rest dispersed, and sought safety within the Spanish frontier. The army of the junta, therefore, found no difficulty in advancing upon Coimbra, where it halted, hoping to attain its object, rather by the voluntary concurrence of its brethren in arms, than by the painful alternative of a civil war.

The regency now found themselves reduced to an extremity, in which only the most ample concessions could afford a hope of maintaining their ground. They issued a decree for the convocation of the Cortes, though under the ancient form of the commons, nobles, and clergy, sitting in separate houses; they undertook to solicit the King to send into Portugal a Prince_of his house; they suspended the English officers; they announced immediate steps to be taken for discharging the arrears of pay due to the troops. But these measures were taken too late, and were too evidently prompted by the impending peril, and likely to pass away along with it, to have any effect in arresting the progress of revolution. If the institutions now called for were too democratic, the old feudal Cortes was founded upon forms of political society that had wholly passed away, and could in no degree satisfy the national wish. Notwithstanding, therefore, all the promises and proclamations of the regency, and their attempts to under-rate the actual strength of the hostile party, the ferment in Lisbon was continually increasing, and a crisis evidently could not be far distant.

A peculiar circumstance was likely to hasten the dreaded convulsion. The 15th September, as the era of the expulsion of the French from Portugal, had been ever since celebrated by a general field-day of the troops. So serious, however, did the regency consider the disposition now prevalent in the army, that they ordered this custom to be discontinued, and the soldiers to remain in their barracks. The determination, however, was already taken to celebrate this day by another species of deliverance. At four in the afternoon, a regiment quitted their quarters, and hastened to the great square, where they immediately began to call aloud, the " Constitution, the

King." This signal heard, all the different regiments, including the militia, were successively seen arriving on the same spot, raising similar cries, which were soon echoed by the whole population of Lisbon. Field-Marshal the Marquis de Rezende, and other high officers, were carried away by the torrent. The multitude, in their enthusiasm, called for an old popular magistrate, named "the Judge of the people," whose functions had long ceased, but whose name was still dear to them. Under his superintendance a junta was formed, and notice was given to the troops from Oporto, that their brethren in Lisbon were ready in every respect to co-operate with them. Some difference, however, arose between the two juntas, each claiming the superiority: that of Lisbon, as being formed in the capital; while that of Oporto boasted of themselves as first formed, as the authors of Spanish liberty, and as generally recognized throughout the provinces. After some discussion, the affair was adjusted by the two juntas being incorporated into one, and being appointed to proceed jointly to arrange the mode of convening the Cortes.

In this state of affairs a crisis occurred, which was the subject of some temporary alarm. Marshal Beresford, foreseeing, and hoping to avert the present storm, had some time ago sail ed for Brazil, to represent to the King the necessity of taking measures to satisfy the soldiers and people. It was now announced, that he was returned, and in the river, bringing money for the pay of the troops, and ample power to introduce such reforms into the government as might still the national discontent. He was invested particularly with the unlimited military command, under the title of Marquis of Campo Mayor. His vessel, the Vengeur, commanded by Captain Maitland, anchored opposite to the palace

of La Junqueria. The junta, alarmed by this intelligence, which already pro. duced some symptoms of counter-revolution, sent immediate notice to Lord Beresford, that such a change had now taken place, as rendered his assumption of the powers thus delegated entirely out of the question, and that he had no alternative but to proceed directly to England. The Marshal employed successively threats and conciliation; he at length solicited merely permission to land for the adjustment of his private affairs. Every overture being rejected, he finally urged, that as Captain Maitland was under orders to proceed to the Mediterranean, he was left without any means of conveyance to England. The junta replied, that if the packet-boat, which was about to sail, could not answer this purpose, they were ready to provide him with another vessel. Marshal Beresford at length determined to sail in the packet-boat, and he even paid into the hands of the junta, the sum of 106,952 piastres, which he had brought for the pay of the troops. On this transaction being brought under the view of the British government, they very prudently declined giving any opinion, and referred it entirely to the determination of the King of Portugal.

This external danger was succeeded by one arising within the bosom of the assembly itself. The difficulty was about the mode of forming the elections. The Oporto members wished them to take place on the popular model adopted in Spain; while the Lisbon part of the junta preferred the mode used in chusing the ancient Cor

tes.

The former opinion, being supported by the troops and people, prevailed; and decrees were issued to conduct the elections on the Spanish model, at the rate of one deputy to 30,000 inhabitants. The electoral assemblies were to be held on the 26th Novem

ber, and the Cortes to meet on the 6th January 1821. That body, when as sembled, was to fix the other particu lars of the constitution.

This arrangement did not satisfy the more violent partizans of liberty, who called for nothing less than the entire acceptance and immediate enforcement of the Spanish constitution. With this view, on the 11th November, a great body of the troops, in concert, as was supposed, with Silveira, Vice-President of the junta, appeared in arms. Under the influence of this assemblage, the junta decided upon the immediate proclamation of the Spanish constitution, at the same time making certain changes in its own internal composition. The oath was immediately taken by the troops, amid loud acclamations, and the change was forthwith announced to the people.

Although this last movement, amid the surprise of the moment, had taken place with outward apparent harmony, a considerable part of the military kept aloof, and murmurs began soon to arise in the public. Four members of the junta, and 150 officers, gave in their

demission. It soon appeared that the hasty step of the 11th November was taken contrary to the general tenor of public opinion. After a good deal of interior fermentation, the principal military officers assembled in council on the 17th, and resolved, that the members who had demitted, should be invited to resume their functions; that the elections should take place on the same footing as for the Spanish Cortes; but that the new constitution should not be put in action till it was adopted, with the requisite modifications, by the Cortes of Portugal. These resolutions were immediately acted upon. The members who had resigned, resumed their places. Silveira, in his turn, was obliged to resign, and on the 20th, was ordered to quit Lisbon in 24 hours.

This crisis put an end to the disturb. ances which had agitated Lisbon. The elections were tranquilly proceeded in ; but as the Cortes did not meet till the following year, we must of course reserve till the next volume our account of its proceedings.

POPULAR revolutions have a natural tendency to spread; and there were several countries, too closely connected with Spain, and too much united to her in political feeling, not to be liable to imbibe the contagion. Italy was united to her by many ancient ties; and amid the soft effeminacy into which she had sunk, powerful stirrings of her ancient spirit began to be felt. An indignant recollection of departed greatness had become a leading feature in the mind of the modern Italians. The works of her recent poets are filled with the memory of her former glories, and lamentations over her present downfall. The various revolutions through which the country had passed during the last twenty years; even the temporary sway of France, though it was only that of a military despotism, had tended to enlarge the sphere of their political ideas and information. Even before the return of the King, a general call for a constitutional go vernment had been raised. This was recognized and sanctioned by Ferdinand of Naples in his proclamation, issued at Palermo on the 1st May, 1815. He there told his subjects: "A go

vernment, stable, wise, and religious, is assured to you. The people will be the sovereign, and the monarch will only be the depositary of the laws, which shall be decreed by a constitution the most energetic and desirable." He afterwards added," Can you possibly doubt the promises of that father, who, born among you, has every thing in common with you?"

The Neapolitan people had thus a just right to expect from their King the gratification of their wishes for a representative government. But besides the natural tendency of Kings to forget such pledges, after they have served their temporary purpose, a foreign influence of a most powerful nature was exerted in an opposite direction. Austria, which had been the immediate instrument in restoring the Neapolitan family, and still held military possession of the country, claimed a right to bar the adoption of any step tending to commit the tranquillity of her own Italian dominions. In conformity to these views, there was concluded at Vienna, on the 12th June, 1815, a secret convention, of the following te

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