thus solemnly and publicly announced. His Majesty, therefore, received his Royal Highness upon his arrival in England, with that honour and distinction due to his exalted station.

During his Royal Highness's stay in this country, it was agreed upon, by a protocol, dated 12th January, 1828, and drawn up under his Majesty's authority, to facilitate the raising a loan of money for the use of his Royal Highness, and to allow the British troops, which had been ordered to return immediately from Portugal, to remain there during a reasonable period, according to his Royal Highness's wishes; and at his departure, a squadron of his Majesty's fleet was detached, for the purpose of escorting his Royal Highness, and in order to mark to the world the satisfaction which his Majesty felt, upon seeing the Government of Portugal confided by the Emperor Don Pedro to his brother the Infant Don Miguel, as his lieutenant.

In the mean time, his Majesty's influence at the Court of Rio de Janeiro had been uniformly exerted to persuade the Emperor Don Pedro, to complete his intended abdication of the Crown of Portugal, and to send to Europe the young Queen, Donna Maria da Gloria.

All these acts, so friendly, and at the same time so serviceable to his Royal Highness, were founded on his Majesty's conviction, that his Royal Highness the Infant was deterniined to uphold the charter granted to the people of Portugal by the Emperor and King Don Pedro, which his Royal Highness had himself promised to observe, both in his letter to his august sister, and in that to his Majesty, and to which he had solemnly sworn, before he left Vienna.

His Majesty naturally regards with preference and favour a form of Government, resembling in principle that under which his own dominions have enjoyed so many years of happiness, and risen to so high a pitch of prosperity and glory; and he would have wished that the people of Portugal, in whose fate his Majesty takes so deep an interest, should possess the advantage of similar institutions, conferred upon them by their Sovereign in the legitimate exercise of his authority, and confirmed by their own acceptance and consent.

His Majesty, therefore, the more deeply laments that circumstances had occurred, since the arrival of his Royal Highness in Por

tugal, which had led to the belief, in which his Majesty could not but participate, that his Royal Highness entertained the fixed intention of setting aside the Charter.

By an article in that charter, the King or Regent of Portugal is obliged, upon dissolving the Cortes, immediately to convoke them again. Upon the strict observance of this important condition, it is quite evident the existence of the charter itself depends. If, having exercised his prerogative in dissolving the chambers, the Sovereign can, either directly or by any expedient, avoid convoking them again for an indefinite period, it is obvious that the character of the Government would be totally altered, and that from a mixed, it would become an absolute monarchy.

In the present instance, his Royal Highness's Ministers have advised him, instead of immediately summoning another Cortes, to publish a decree, declaring that their immediate convocation is impracticable. The reason alleged is, that there exists no law to regulate the elections, and that the provisional dispositions, made for the purpose by the Decree of the 7th August, 1826, are evidently faulty. His Royal Highness therefore abolishes them altogether, and appoints a commission, consisting of 10 persons, to prepare a new regulation, and to submit it to his approbation. No time is specified within which the commission is required to complete its task, nor any, within which the regulation itself, after having received the sanction of his Royal Highness, is to be carried into effect. The convocation of the Chambers may be delayed indefinitely, in direct contradiction to the express meaning of the Charter in one of its fundamental clauses.

No justification for this striking irregularity is to be found in the necessity of the case. There are two different modes by which his Royal Highness might have avoided an infringement of the Charter. 1. He might have postponed the dissolution of the late Chambers, and allowed them to frame a law for the regulation of future elections :—or,

2. He might have dissolved the Chambers, and allowed the elections to proceed under the regulations of 1826.

Either of these modes would have been preferable to that, which

has been actually adopted by his Royal Highness: - by either of them he would have avoided that alarm, and distrust of his intentions to which it has so generally given birth.

It is not merely in his Royal Highness's departure in this instance, from what his Majesty considers the positive engagement made to the Portuguese nation and to the Emperor Don Pedro, and witnessed by his Majesty, and the Emperor of Austria, that his Majesty saw reason to complain of the course taken by his Royal Highness, since he assumed the Regency. The manner in which his Royal Highness exercised the power lawfully belonging to him, unfortunately confirmed those apprehensions, to which he had already given birth by acts that can be reconciled, neither to the institutions of his country, nor to his own promises.

The object of his Royal Highness's Government, as described in his own words,—was, de maintenir invariablement la tranquillité en Portugal, au moyen des institutions octroyées par l'Empereur et Roi, &c. His Majesty has, therefore, seen with surprise and regret, that his Royal Highness's first step towards the accomplishment of this purpose by these means, has been to call to his councils, men, who, however distinguished in character, and respectable in station, - were in general known to entertain opinions hostile to those institutions.

His Royal Highness, -- having dismissed from their commands and from his military service, many of those who had led the Portuguese troops to victory, in the recent contest against insurgents, who had opposed in arms the will of their Sovereign the Emperor Don Pedro, and the execution of the Charter,-replaced those officers by others notoriously espousing doctrines, and animated by a spirit incompatible with the constitution which his Royal Highness is himself bound to maintain.

But a Government must be judged of, not only by its overt acts, but also by its pervading tone and spirit, and by the general impression which it creates. In Portugal these are decidedly at variance with the Constitution; which, already a dead letter, seems rapidly approaching to the term of even its nominal existence. The exclusive and hostile ascendancy of one party is indicated by the dismay and VOL. III. No. 19.

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flight of the other. The alarm may be exaggerated; but it is difficult to conceive how so many persons, stained with no crime, should seek safety in exile, if their apprehensions of danger were altogether groundless.

Under treaties which have now existed nearly two centuries, his Majesty is bound to defend the Kingdom of Portugal from all attacks by a foreign enemy: and, equally with his royal predecessors, he has shewn himself ready to assist his ancient ally in a moment of danger or of difficulty. His Majesty cannot but feel that the best chance for safety and tranquillity in Portugal, is now to be found, in the maintenance of the Charter granted by the Emperor Don Pedro, and in his Imperial Majesty's abdication of his rights to that crown. Any attempt on the part of the Infant to set aside the Charter, is calculated to excite its adherents to consider the Emperor Don Pedro as their Protector,--perhaps, their avenger. The least that could be expected, in such a state of things, is that Don Pedro should, contrary to his Majesty's most earnest entreaties, delay his abdication; and should order from Rio de Janeiro the execution of those laws, upon the acceptance of which in Portugal, his Imperial Majesty had declared his abdication to depend. The foundation would thus be laid for a civil war betwixt the two great parties in the State, the one headed by the Emperor,-the other by the Infant-and Portugal thus divided, enfeebled, and exhausted, would fall an easy conquest to a foreign enemy. It is not with Portugal, placed in such circumstances, that his Majesty's predecessors, or himself, have been allied;-or that the strength of England has been put forth for her assistance.

The undersigned has, therefore, received his Majesty's commands to inform his Excellency the Marquis de Palmella that these occurrences, and the consequences too obviously to be apprehended from them, have excited the anxiety of his Majesty for the fate of Portugal, and the welfare and happiness of the Infant himself. The undersigned does not conceal from his Excellency, that this anxiety has not been removed from the minds of his Majesty's servants, by the extract of the letter from the Vicomte de Santarem, inclosed in his Excellency's note of the 8th instant.

The impression made by such acts-inconsistent as they are with the oaths repeatedly taken, and the promises so frequently renewed, by a Prince-cannot be removed by the letter of a minister, declaring that the intention of his master is not that which the whole spirit and tendency of his Government, ever since his accession to it, but too clearly indicate.

Under these circumstances, his Majesty waits for the result of the events now passing in Portugal, though without impatience, yet with an anxiety proportioned to the interest which he has invariably felt for the happiness and tranquillity of that kingdom, and to the sense which his Majesty sincerely entertains of the risk to which all these advantages, as well as the security and honour of his Royal Highness, are exposed, by the conduct of the Portuguese Government, from the moment of his Royal Highness's return.

The undersigned, &c.

The Marquis de Palmella.

DUDLEY.