political mal-contents, were shipped off for Angola. Though of good families, and respectable characters, they were chained up with the most abandoned ruffians, robbers, and assassins, doomed to the same punishment for their crimes. To revive the horrors of a slave-ship in the middle passage, they were stowed away in the smallest compass possible, in a vessel heavily laden with stores for the colony, and the best places were assigned to the malefactors, leaving the more deadly and pestilential births to magistrates, members of the cortes, and other reputable persons, the victims of their own loyalty, or of their master's suspicions. Out of respect to their former station, and pity for their present sufferings, these men for some time had been spared the fatigues of hard labour; but the superintendant received orders to discontinue this misplaced lenity.

The political prisoners confined in the dungeons at Lisbon, were scarcely less fortunate. Trials they could not obtain; when declared innocent, they could not gain their liberty. Those who were confined n the castle of St. Julian, under the tyranny and caprice of Telles ordao, presented to Miguel a petion against their jailor, in which they thus stated some of the miseries of their situation.

"The prisoners of the Tower of St. Julian have been lodged in the worst cells-subterraneous, dark, exposed to rain and all weathers, and so damp that it has frequently been necessary to strew the ground with furze, to enable them to walk on it. They have occupied Nos. 130, 131, 132, which being only nine yards long, and three yards wide, are crowded with such a number as to raise the temperature to such a

degree as to cause cutaneous eruptions and other complaints. Among these sufferers are the Spanish bishop, Dr. Diego Munoz Torrero, Dom. Ant. Pinho, and J. Ant. Cansado; these latter being already declared innocent by the Commission. In one of these cells a complete inundation has occurred more than once,leaving a continual dampness, and causing a consequent deterioration of health. Besides this dreadful state, Sir, the governor has ordered the windows to be closed, to shut out the few spans of light of the heavens and the fresh air, the only remaining part of it being from the fissures of the door, whereto the prisoners apply in turn their mouths, to breathe particles of that air which the Almighty spreads so unsparingly to all animals and living beings. Another cell, called the principal one from below, is also inhabited, and so dark, that, at ten o'clock a.m., let the sun be as brilliant as possible, six lights will not suffice to lighten it, being twenty steps below the surface of the ground. Such, Sir, has been the habitations of your petitioners, not for the space of a few days, but for eighteen, twenty, and twentythree months; whereas, several other better cells are occupied by only three or four prisoners.

"From the description of the dungeons, we pass to that of the treatment and of victuals. We beg to state to your majesty, that the latter have frequently, and on purpose, remained exposed, at the gate of the prison, to all the vicissitudes of the weather, in order to spoil them; that we are obliged to take them all from one house appointed by the governor, and at an enmous expense; that three or four times salt water has been given for our drink, provisions in a state of

corruption, mixed up with gravel and pepper by the ensign Maia, and-which exceeds the belief of any human being-with stinking dirt. The governor, in manifest transgression of the laws of the kingdom, and offending the laws of nature, has ordered sick prisoners into solitary confinement in dungeons without any light whatever, damp, filled with vermin, without either water, bed, or even victuals, for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, as has been the case with Minoso and Elpidio Soares among others. In April last, Bern. Luis Fernandes was confined for ten days in one of these dungeons."

The complaints of these miserable men were poured into the ear of Miguel in vain. Not even the death of his mother, who had been blamed for much of this cruelty, and who, at last, was called to her account, made any change in the proceedings of a disposition which her maxims and her conduct had already deadened to the beauty of all laws, human and divine. Telles Jordao, and Bastos, formerly minister of police, now of the interior, two of the worst instruments of Miguel's despotism, had been named to their offices by her dictation. It was imagined they would fall, when the influence which had protected them was withdrawn. But they had served long enough to conciliate the favour of their master's kindred disposition, and their power seemed rather to be confirmed than shaken. Bastos, soon afterwards, added the ministry of the marine to that of the interior. Yet that there was in Lisbon a capacity of resisting unjust power, if people could only have been brought to feel the injuries of others as their own, or had lived under freer forms long enough to feel the

loss of them as a personal deprivation, was manifest from the following occurrence. The corporation of Trades have, for a long time, enjoyed the privilege of nominating twenty-four deputies to represent their body in the Senado, or Municipality. These twenty-four also elect one of their number to be judge of the people; and this judge has the right of admittance at all times to the king, and to command all the doors of the palace to open to him by a single blow of his staff. These deputies and their chief (O. Juiz de Foro) having presented themselves at Queluz, without wearing the medal with Don Miguel's effigy, were sent away under various pretences, and set down as mal-contents. Their election was annulled by the absolute command of the prince, who enjoined the corporations to meet again, and proceed to a new election, on the ground of the first having been obtained by undue and reprehensible fraud. The same ordinance appointed as president of the election, a magistrate well known for his violent principles, and upon whom the court relied for influencing a choice more favourable to its views. The corporations, consisting of between 7,000 and 8,000 persons, were then reassembled; and, in opposition to all the efforts of the president, they re-elected the same twenty-four deputies, who, in their turn, nominated for judge of the people, the same person who had met with the affront at Queluz, and incurred the displeasure of the prince.

The finances were getting deeper and deeper into inextricable confusion. The revenue scarcely sufficed for the household expenses, and the maintenance of the troops; and the necessity of removing dis

man

content far from the latter, on whom so much depended, drove Miguel to all manner of desperate expedients. He brought out a loan for 25,000,000 of francs, to be paid in twenty-five years, at the rate of 500,000 francs every six months. Nobody would touch it in Lisbon; tricks were tried to give it a name in foreign markets; but no monied would have any thing to do with Miguel and his securities. In fact, the branches of revenue offered as securities for the loan, were already otherwise appropriated, or, like almost all the other branches of revenue, anticipated for several years to come. His next expedient was both unjust, and mischievous to himself. It was determined to fund all the floating debt of the commissariat, accumulated from the time of his arrival in Portugal, up to the 30th of June, in the consolidated stock of the country. This debt had previously been held a sacred one, and liquidated monthly by a special fund provided for the purpose, it being considered most essential to keep up the credit of the commissariat, on which the subsistence of the troops depended, and consequently the preservation of order. Necessity, however, compelled the government to disregard this prudent consideration, and also the still more inevitable one, that it would be compelled to pay higher in all future contracts. In the mean time the various tradesmen, who had sent supplies to the commissariat, were brought into great distress by wanting their money, for the stock scarcely yielded fifty per cent of their real claim.

Part of the Portuguese navy was employed in attempting to blockade Terceira, where the regency,

in the name of the young queen, was still ruling, but the blockade was very ineffectually maintained. Miguel made it a pretext, however, for seizing some English merchant vessels as having been guilty of violating it. He was deaf to all the remonstrances of the English consul; but as soon as a threat of force being used reached him, the pretended prizes were instantly delivered up to the

owners.

The regency of Terceira was formally installed in the month of March, the marquis of Palmella and councillor Guerreiro having arrived at the island on the 15th, with the decree of the emperor of Brazil to that effect. The members of the regency were, the marquis Palmella, councillor Guerreiro, and count Villa Flor, who in the preceding year had so triumphantly defeated the Portuguese expedition. In this decree, the emperor made no pretension to resume the rights to the throne of Portugal which he had renounced by his abdication; he professed to act only in the character of tutor and guardian to his daughter, the queen, in whose favour he had abdicated; and he characterised Miguel as being, what he truly was, a perjured and usurping rebel, who, "in manifest abuse of my confidence," said the emperor, "and with the not less manifest breach of the obedience and fidelity which in the most public and solemu manner he repeatedly promised by word and oath to me as his lawful sovereign and king, and moreover contrary to his formal recognition of my aforesaid dear and muchbeloved daughter, Donna Maria II. as reigning queen, in virtue of my abdication, with whom in that quality he solemnly contracted es

pousals, has revolted in the said kingdoms, calling himself and causing himself to be called king and sovereign thereof, whereby he has suppressed the office of lieutenancy and regency which I delegated to him, usurped a crown to which he has no title, and overthrown the institutions which were granted by my sovereign and legitimate authority, for the purpose of promoting and securing the greatness and prosperity of the said kingdoms, which institutions he had, in the face of Europe, sworn faithfully to maintain, and cause to be maintained." As these events had produced a situation of affairs for which the public jurisprudence of Portugal had not provided; as there was not in Portugal any go vernment which, to supply the legislative forms, could legitimately convoke a new Chamber of Deputies, and re-constitute a Chamber of Peers, now almost extinct by the voluntary renunciation of the greater part of its members; as it was only from his daughter, the legitimate reigning queen (he, as her guardian and natural protector, supplying what was defective in her age), that the remedy could proceed therefore, "in the character of guardian and natural protector of my dear and muchbeloved daughter, Donna Maria II. aforesaid, I have thought fit to create and appoint a regency, which in her royal name shall rule, govern, and administer the kingdoms of Portugal, Algarves, and their dominions, and shall in them fulfil and cause to be published and carried into effect my decree of the 3rd of March of last year, and cause her legitimate and imprescriptible rights to be in every other manner preserved and respected."

In ITALY, the preceding year had been distinguished by the death of a pope, and so was the present. Pius VIII, who had been elected on the 31st of March, 1829, died in the beginning of December. His pontificate of twenty months was disturbed by the French revo→ lution, which, accompanied as it was, not merely by a separation of the Church from the State, but with a legislative degradation of Christianity to the same level with infidelity, could not but be regarded with an evil eye and a troubled bosom by the court of Rome. His holiness, however, had not placed himself in an attitude of useless opposition, and had continued to maintain his relations with the new government.

Another Italian sovereign disappeared by the death of Francis I, king of Naples, after a reign of nearly six years. He was succeeded by his son Ferdinand II. a young prince, in the twentyfirst year of his age, whose accession was accompanied by many expressions of popular satisfaction. In the proclamation in which he announced his accession, he assured the people that, knowing that the power placed in his hands had been only deposited there for useful purposes, they would find him immediately apply himself to every thing which might secure the happiness of his subjects, and heal the wounds of the country. "As there cannot exist any well regulated society without a right and impartial administration of justice, this will be another object towards which our ardent solicitude will be directed. We wish our tribunals to be as many sanctuaries, which may never be profaned by intrigues, unjust pretensions, or any worldly consideration or hu

man interest. In the eye of the law, all our subjects are equal, and we will take care that justice shall be administered to all without partiality. Finally, the department of finances claims our particular attention, because it gives life and activity to the whole kingdom. We are aware, that there are in that department deep wounds to be healed, and that our people expect some alleviation in the burthens which have created troubles. We are ready to make all kinds of sacrifices to attain that end. We hope that every one, as far as it lies in his power, will imitate our example, in order to restore to this kingdom the prosperity which ought to be the object of the desires of all virtuous and good men." One of the first acts of the new reign, was to break up some of the royal preserves which had been maintained for the amusement of the king, and to restore to agriculture the land which they occupied.

The administration of GREECE, during the present year, remained in the hands of Capo d'Istrias and his partisans; but the allied powers were occupied in attempting to make arrangements for the permanent settlement of its government. Great Britain, Russia, and France, had determined that the sultan should be deprived of that suzeraineté over the Greek provinces which the treaty of Adrianople had secured to him; they had resolved that Greece should be a state completely independent, so far as regarded the formalities of political existence; and that the frontier line, bounding on the north the territory to be comprised within it, should ascend the Aspropotamos from its mouth, tra

verse the lakes Angelo, Vrachori, Saurovitza, and mount Artolina, and run along mount Oxas, the valley of Calouri, and mount Eta, to the mouth of the Sperchius in the gulf of Zeitun. Being the creators of the new state, they assumed a right to determine on its form of government; the form which they preferred, was of course the monarchical; and, as a king was to be provided, the nomination necessarily fell to them.

The three Courts, to avoid occasion of mutual jealousies, excluded from the competition all princes connected with the royal families of any of them. The new Crown was tendered to prince John of Saxony: he declined it; several candidates were passed over in favour of the pretensions of prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg; and in the month of January, England, Russia, and France, concurred in offering him the sovereignty. After the affair had been brought to this stage, Leopold, who had been previously eager enough for the prize, began to bargain for new conditions, as the terms of his acceptance; and expressed his desire to have the island of Candia included in his dominions.* The formal offer to

The following is a Letter from lord Aberdeen to prince Leopold, dated January 31, 1830:

"Your royal highness, by a perusal of already become acquainted with the the protocols of the conferences, has provisions agreed to by the plenipotentiaries of the three powers, respecting the final settlement of Greece, and the nomination of your royal highness to to the sovereignty of the new state. The official communication will be made to your royal highness whenever the protocols shall be signed, and will, But before I join with my Russian and therefore, take place without delay. French colleagues, in transmitting these documents to your royal highness,