obstacles; and, on the 29th of August, a treaty of peace and alliance between Brazil and Portugal was concluded. It is a circumstance not unworthy of notice, that this treaty should have been signed on behalf of Portugal by a British subject only; but it is still more remarkable, that, though his most faithful majesty declared in it that he recognized Brazil as an empire independent of, and separate from Portugal, and transferred of his own free will the sovereignty of it to don Pedro and his legitimate successors, there was no stipulation to prevent the two crowns from being united in the same person. One of the articles of it was, that the king of Portugal should, during his own life, retain the title of emperor of Brazil [see Public Documents, p. 104*].

The treaty was officially announced in Lisbon on the 15th of November, and the proper measures were ordered to be taken for carrying into execution its different clauses. Portugal made this year an important alteration in her commercial system. Many of the principal articles of traffic were excluded from her ports by prohibitory laws. With respect to most of these articles, the prohibition was now abolished; and in lieu of it, there was substituted a duty of thirty per cent. The new regulations were extended not only to Lisbon and Oporto, but to the Azores, Madeira, and the Cape Verd islands.

The matter, which, in the be ginning of the year, chiefly occupied the attention of the Brazilian authorities, was the punishment of those who had been concerned in the insurrection at Pernambuco. Fre Caneca was executed on the 13th of January at Pernambuco;

and Macario, governor of the Registro, on the 11th of February. On the 17th of March, John William Ratcliff, born in Portugal of English parents, John Metrowich, a Maltese by birth, and Joquinda Silva Loureiro, a European Portuguese, suffered the same fate at Rio de Janeiro. Besides the numbers who perished by the executioner, many were left languishing in prison.

The administration of the emperor was violent and tyrannical: in none of his proceedings did there appear any reverence either for the forms or for the spirit of a free constitution. On the contrary, all his conduct seemed to tend towards the establishment of absolute power, and to the discouragement of a spirit of liberty. A necessary step in this course of proceeding was, to secure the co-operation of the troops, and the support of the existing civil authorities. For this purpose, notwithstanding the financial embarrassments, there issued, on the 10th of January, a decree, fixing a table of increased monthly allowances to the body of police, to the officers of foreign corps, and to those of the other troops. Of foreign troops there were at that time about 4,000 in Brazil, and an addition of 3,000 was to be made as soon as they could be recruited. At the same time, another decree established a juridical college in the capital. As another step towards the abandonment of constitutional forms, loyal addresses were procured from the provinces, disapproving of any restrictions on the power of the emperor, and inviting him to reign with absolute authority. Of this kind was an address transmitted by the cabildo (or municipality) of Monte Video, in return for a portrait of the emperor, with which

he had presented them. "On the 4th of December," say these loyal councillors, "appeared on the the waters of our horizon like a true luminary, the precious gift which your imperial majesty had sent us. On the same day, your resplend ent august colours ennobled the great hall of head-quarters; and on the 5th, the same most inestimable picture, was conveyed, incognito, to the capitular palace, till a room should be prepared for its solemn inauguration. In this inestimable gift your council think they perceive a solution of the famous problem of the quadrature of the sphere." After telling the emperor that they experienced in his presence a mixed sensation of pleasure and trembling, as if in the presence of the angel of the Lord," and that Monte Video might say of him, as the church says in the Canticles, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine," they advise him to "govern imperially, and assume absolute power," as the most energetic and the most prompt mode of ruling. An answer was returned to this address on the 7th of January, in which his imperial majesty pretended to rebuke gently the too eager zeal of the people of Monte Video; but he nominated both the Syndic and the other members of the cabildo knights of the order of Christ. A similar address sent from Rio Grande was answered in a similar manner. The abject language of these addresses proves, that the general opinion was, that absolute power was the aim of Pedro's wishes, though he did not think it prudent as yet to avow his purposes.

In a letter of the 5th of May, the governor of the province of St. Paulo stated, that he had been making a tour among the towns

within his jurisdiction, and found the people every where disposed to proclaim his majesty as the absolute sovereign; and he expressed hopes that the capital would declare itself to the same effect, and that his majesty would be restored to the enjoyment of his inalienable rights. Upon the receipt of this communication, his majesty issued a decree, blaming, but in very gentle terms, these proceedings.

"Having been informed," says he, "of the reprehensible conduct of Manoel da Cunha de Azcredo Coutinho Souza e Chicoro, in taking criminal and scandalous steps, contrary to the established system of government, and to the constitution which I have sworn to maintain, I have resolved, with the advice of my council of state, to suspend him from the exercise of his functions, and to order him immediately to come to this capital to answer for such blameable proceedings." These are not the terms, in which treason should be spoken of.

Though there were many who were proud to grovel in the dust before him, others regarded his course of policy with alarm and hatred. In May, two attempts, it was reported, were made upon his life; and several persons were apprehended and thrown into confinement at the Isla de Cobras. But so much pains were taken to prevent the affair from coming to the knowledge of the public, that it remained involved in mystery. The suspicions, that were entertained of the emperor's purposes, were rendered both stronger and more general, by the treaty which he concluded with Portugal. The tenor of that arrangement was such as to lead naturally to the belief, that he intended, after the

death of his father, to unite the two crowns on his own head.

The relations between Brazil and some of the neighbouring independent states, became of a very delicate and perplexing kind. Early in the year, the independent troops of Peru, having taken possession of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, called upon don Sebastian Ramos, governor of the province of Chiquitos, who still adhered to the king of Spain, to join their standard. He refused to do so, and resolved to seek the protection of the imperial arms. With this view, he sent his aide-de-camp D. Jose Maria de Velasco to the governor of the adjacent Brazilian province, Matto Grosso, with a proposal to unite the province of Chiquitos with the empire of Brazil. This proposal the governor of Matto Grosso, by the advice of the provisional authorities, accepted in the month of April; and he immediately sent a detachment of troops into Chiquitos, in order to prevent the advance of the patriots. These proceedings threatened to involve the emperor in a war with Peru and Colombia. But the sense of danger overcame his ambition; and in August, he, by an official document, disavowed the measures which had been taken by the provincial authorities. "Though the governors," said his majesty in this instrument, "hoped, perhaps, by this means better to provide for the defence of the capital of Matto Grosso, and actuated, by an indiscreet zeal, thought to do a service to his majesty and to the empire by the acquisition of an adjacent country, in order thereby to support the exertions of the royalists in America; yet it should have occurred to the provisional government, that the particular VOL LXVII.

interest of a nation is not a sufficient or honourable reason for aggrandizing itself at the expense of the fidelity of people who are led to make such a sacrifice only by calamities, which, though serious, are, however, transitory. Besides, the government is quite incompetent to make a practical decision on the questions which divide the liberals and the royalists in Spanish America, and should not have resolved on such measures. Therefore, his majesty the emperor commands the minister of state for foreign affairs to signify his surprise to the government at the resolution which it took, not only to accept the union of the province of Chiquitos, but to make the Brazilian troops pass the frontier of the empire to protect it; and the more so, as, if his majesty had been previously consulted, as he ought to have been, he never would have given his consent to a step so contrary to the generous and liberal sentiments which guide the policy of his cabinet, and to his intention of not interfering in the present contest between the inhabitants of Spanish America and the mother country."

In adopting this prudent resolution, his majesty was probably influenced not a little, by the awkward circumstances in which he was then placed, with respect to the government of Buenos Ayres. Though general Lecor, with upwards of 2,000 troops, supported by a small naval squadron, still held Monte Video and the Banda Oriental as a dependency of Brazil, the inhabitants of that province were known to be exceedingly averse to the Brazilian dominion, and to be anxious to be united, as they formerly were, under the [N]

same government with the provinces of the Rio de la Plata. Availing himself of this disposition, Fructuoso Rivera, who had once been in the service of Artigas, but when the fortunes of that chieftain began to decline, had entered the Brazilian service as colonel, and was afterwards promoted to the rank of brigadier and decorated with orders of distinction, raised the standard of revolt on the 27th of April, and soon collected such a force as enabled him to take Maldonado, and gave him the command of a great part of the country. In the beginning of May, a force of about 300 men, under the command of Juan Antonio Lavalleja, collected and equipped (it would appear) by the zeal of individuals, and without the avowed support of the government, set out from Buenos Ayres; and, landing on the eastern side of the river on the 6th of May, made 218 Brazilian cavalry prisoners, together with eleven officers, two lieutenant colonels, and one colonel. Lavalleja assumed the supreme military command; and, in conjunction with Rivera, liberated nearly the whole of the Banda Oriental from the Brazilian yoke. Colonia and Monte Video were the only points which Lecor was able to hold; and he trembled for the safety of both. Even the latter, where he himself commanded, was invested by part of the independent troops.

Under these circumstances, a provisional government was established in the Banda Oriental, which held its first sitting on the 14th of June. The deputies from the different districts chose don Manuel Calleros for their president, and Francisco Oranjo, secretary. Lavalleja appeared before them, and

was confirmed in the command in chief of the army. A commission of finance was established; and duties on goods exported and imported, were ordered to be levied. The commander-in-chief stated to the government, that he depended for arms, ammunition, and other implements of war, not only on the resources of the country, but on his credit and the influence of his friends in Buenos Ayres. The most important proceeding of this government was a declaration, that the acts which purported to incorporate the province with Brazil were null, and that their general and uniform desire had been to remain in union with the provinces of Rio de la Plata. This declaration was communicated to the congress of Buenos Ayres; accompanied by a request that they might be received as a member of the republic. Such an application was not likely to be rejected. Accordingly, the congress, by an act passed on the 25th of October, acknowledged the independence of the Banda Oriental; declared the nullity of those acts which affected to unite it with Brazil; and bound themselves to defend and provide for its safety, and to do every thing in their power to accelerate the evacuation of it by the troops of his Brazilian majesty. At the same time, they added, that, preserving the same spirit of moderation and of justice which had always directed their councils, it was their wish not to go to war, if the restitution of the whole of the province could be effected amicably.*

* See the note from the minister for

foreign affairs of the provinces of the

Rio de la Plata, to the Brazilian minister for foreign affairs-Public Documents, p. 105*.

On the 17th of May, the news of Rivera's revolt was received at Rio de Janeiro; and on the 21st of the same month, an expedition sailed with a reinforcement of about 1,500 men for the garrison of Monte Video. Though this prompt aid saved Monte Video from immediated anger, it did not suffice to re-establish the authority of don Pedro. In the course of July and August, fortune appears uniformly to have favoured the cause of the Independents. In trifling skirmishes during that period, the Brazilians lost about 700 horses, and had about 50 officers and soldiers killed or wounded. The ranks of the Imperialists were thinned likewise by desertion. The force of the Independents, on the contrary, was increasing in numbers and improving in discipline. The provisional government, which had established its seat in the town of Florida, decreed the formation of a patriotic legion, and made other arrangements for carrying on the war. Colonia was watched by about 600 men, commanded by don Ignacio Oribe. On the 15th of August the Imperialists made a sortie, but were driven back with the loss of nine men killed and ten wounded. Rivera had been employed chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Rio Negro. In the beginning of September, his van-guard received a check, but apparently not of much consequence. On the 24th of September, at day-break, he took, with 250 men, the Rincon de las Gallinas, where the enemy had a considerable number of horses, and a small guard, all of whom, except such as escaped on board the ships of war, were put to the sword. At eight o'clock, news was brought that the Imperial colonel, Geronimo Gonzales Jardin, was advancing

Rivera,

with at least 700 men. collecting all his men, waited for the enemy half a league from the Rio Negro. The moment the Imperialists appeared, they were attacked; the rout was complete, and they were pursued above four leagues: they left on the field more than 100 killed, including 16officers, and above 300 were made prisoners. The remainder of the enemy's forces fled into the mountains; and not above 100 of them finally escaped.

Colonel Ventus Manuel, with 2,000 men principally cavalry, having left Monte Video, were, on the 12th of October, encountered on the banks of the Sarandi, by an equal force under Lavalleja. The engagement was short but decisive. The result of it was, that more than 400 of the Imperialists were left dead on the field of battle; 470 were taken prisoners, together with 50 officers; without including the wounded and the stragglers. More than 2,000 stand of arms, ten ammunition-waggons, and all their baggage, fell into the hands of Lavalleja. His loss was only one officer killed, and 30 wounded: and 30 soldiers killed, and 70 wounded. On the following day, a division of the enemy, commanded by don Antonio Jose Oliviera, surrendered on capitulation, at the pass of Perdido, to adjutant don Santos Aguilar, and 27 men under his command.

These events seemed to portend that Monte Video could not but fall shortly; especially as the Banda Oriental had been admitted a member of the republic of Rio de la Plata, and would thenceforth be aided by the whole strength of the commonwealth. The determination of the congress to expel the Imperialists from the BandaOriental was formally announced to the