half in paper. To aid this forced combination of the cambistas, Government called upon the future contractors of snuff, ordering them to buy instantly some large sums of paper-money on its account, at whatever prices the cambistas might ask. The consequence of this was, that, while the paper-money was at a discount of 32 per cent at Oporto, at Lisbon it was varying between 26 and 27. But even expedients like these, while they immensely increased all future difficulties, failed to give any effectual relief to the public necessities. Great efforts were made to pay regularly, every fortnight, the soldiers of the garrison; but sometimes the money could be raised only by compelling the snuff contractors to advance, on the credit of their contract, the insignificant sum. The pay of all the public officers, civil or military, (with the exception of the police, who were allowed to pay themselves), was in arrear for many months of some of them, for a whole year. They held indeed obligations for their monthly payments, but no man was foolish enough to give them money for such documents.

Great exertions were made, in the beginning of the year, to fit out an expedition to reduce Terceira, one of the Azores, the only spot in the dominions of Portugal which yet remained true to its rightful monarch. On Miguel's usurpation last year, it had declared for the young Queen, about the same time with Madeira, but had been more successful in its resistance. It was governed, in the name of the Queen, by general Carbarra, who had about 500 infantry, and 200 artillery under his command. The island had ever since been blockaded by a small Portuguese squadron:

but, in defiance of the blockade, Count Villa Flor, and a numerous body of the Portuguese whose adherence to the constitution had driven them from their country, succeeded in throwing themselves into it, and adding both numbers and confidence to the garrison Villa Flor took the command. He had shewn himself an able and enterprising officer in the rebellions which followed the introduction of the constitution. His deep stake in the undertaking, the inevitable and dreadful retribution which awaited him if he failed, as a nobleman whose head would have been the most welcome present that war could bring to Miguel, and the impossibility of escape, cooped up as he was within the verge of a small island, gave assurance of a desperate, as well as of a skilful, defence.

In the middle of June, an expedition sailed from Lisbon to effect the reduction of the island. It did not reach Terceira till the end of July, when it joined the blockading squadron, and, having procured a number of boats from the neighbouring islands, prepared to make the attack, and effect a landing, on the 11th of August. The ships made their approach with great caution. At day-break, the better to conceal their designs, they appeared close under land in front of the bays to the west of Angra and the castle; but soon after, the wind blowing fresher, and showers obscuring the horizon, they changed their course, and gliding rapidly along the coast, suddenly appeared in the bay of Villa Praya. The proximity to the land, in which, favoured by the wind, they had been enabled to double the Cape of Praya, and the mists and showers which obscured the horizon, concealed their

movements; and it was only at eleven in the morning, when the fog cleared off, and the wind calmed, that the man-of-war was discovered, which formed the vanguard of the squadron. She was entering the bay, followed by all the ships of the squadron, with the exception of a corvette left off the port of Angra. The port of the fort instantly opened its fire, and was. answered by the man-of-war and other ships of the squadron, which, continuing their course, penetrated as far as the water allowed them, cast anchor, took in their sails, and kept up without interruption a vigorous cannonade. By four o'clock in the afternoon, the enemy, without ceasing their fire from on board for a single moment, sent a column of troops in the launches, who attacked with rapidity and courage the point where the fort of Espirito Santo stands, and where an accumulation of large stones of basalt, and masses of lava, form a strait, at the base of a scarp of stone, nearly vertical. The volunteers, however, the only force which Villa Flor had to depend on, did their duty well; and, in the face of a heavy fire which covered the landing, succeeded in driving back some of the barges. But the greater part of the attacking force, casting themselves boldly upon the rocks, and climbing the fort of Espirito Santo, which was now evacuated, succeeded in throwing some men into the interior of it, whilst a few others further off got up the scarp or slope. Their design was, to gain possession of the fort, and the crest of the rock, and to occupy with this force the heights on the left of the constitutionalists, in order to protect their ulterior operations. The volunteers frustrated this plan. Climb

ing rapidly the height which commanded the fort, they jumped into it, bayonet in hand, dislodged the enemy, precipitated them down to the rocks on which they landed, and themselves garrisoned the crest of the scarp.

The invaders, in the mean time, had withdrawn their launches on board the ships, in order to land a second body of troops, and had left the troops already landed, consisting of their best men, exposed between the sea and a difficult slope in possession of the constitutionalists. Villa Flor, marking his opportunity, threw in upon them his central and strongest column, which had not yet been in action. The rout and confusion were instantaneous-if that can be a rout, where there was no possibility of running away. With the sea on one hand, and inaccessible cliffs on the other, the continued fire of the constitutionalists pouring in upon them from before, behind, and above, they called in vain for the launches to re-embark them. Abandoned in a position where they could neither extend themselves and form, nor retire, they sought shelter among the rocks which the sea was gradually invading, as the tide was coming in, or crept for concealment into caves which the billows had hollowed out in the cliffs.

This first body being put thoroughly hors de combat, Villa Flor immediately dispersed his force to resist the attack of the second body, which was now leaving the ships. Scarcely were his dispositions taken, when, under shelter of the man-ofwar and frigates, a second column was embarked, and the launches, appearing in succession, threatened his right; but the first fire of the field artillery of the constitution

alists from the battery, having upset the first launch, and the next having disordered their whole line, the launches drew back and covered themselves under the line-of-battle ship. The rest of the artillery, and the mortars of the constitutionalists, having been delayed by the difficulties of the road, now arrived, and the first grenade which they threw threatened the squadron with a new danger. It was, however, now night; the tide was full; the man-of-war, which at low water had touched ground, floated again; and the calm, which prevailed during the evening, was succeeded by a light breeze. The commander's ship, seeing the attack on the right frustrated, and having lost the flower of his troops, which had attacked the left, made signals to the rest of the squadron; and the ships, cutting their cables in haste, sailed out of the bay and put to sea, which they would not all have effected, if there had been time to bring to the batteries of Prava a greater number of pieces of a larger calibre, or if the mortars had arrived sooner. Besides the loss sustained in the second attempt, the Miguelites lost the whole body of troops landed for the first assault, which amounted to between eight hundred and one thousand men. Nearly four hundred of them were made prisoners; the rest were killed or drowned. The second in command of the expedition was killed; the commander-in-chief died of his wounds, in the course of the voyage back to Lisbon.

When Don Miguel declared himself king in 1828, the Spanish ambassador had withdrawn from Lisbon, along with the rest of the corps diplomatique. This retirement was a mere passing homage to the sense of duty and honour

which had dictated such a proceeding to the representatives of the other European sovereigns. That Miguel had become king by destroying a constitution was, in Ferdinand's eyes, the most sacred title by which royalty could be held; and Miguel's interest was supported at Madrid, by the great influence of his mother over Ferdinand's family. In the course of the present year, Ferdinand acknowledged Miguel as king of Portugal; the relations of amity were formally re-established; and signor Acosta Montalegre presented his dentials as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, on the 14th of October. Ferdinand was doing all he could to recommend successful usurpation to the adherents of his brother Don Carlos. The Pope's nuncio, too, on Don Miguel's birth day, repaired to the palace, and paid his respects to him, when seated on the throne.

The other sovereigns of Europe still kept aloof from any communication with the usurper-from any act which might be considered a recognition of his title. The Portuguese refugees, and the ministers of Don Pedro, insisted that they ought to do more, and drive him from his throne by positive interference. These applications were addressed particularly to the British ministry. The marquis of Barbacena the Brazilian envoy, presented an official note to lord Aberdeen, detailing the treaties that regulated the relations between Britain and Portugal; exposing the lawless course of Don Miguel's aggressions; and concluding that Miguel's proceedings, crowned by his assumption of the style and state of king, formed an attack upon the rights of the true sovereign of Portugal, Douna Maria, which Britain, by her treaties

with that country, was bound to lend her aid in repelling. Lord Aberdeen, in answer, admitted to their fullest extent the obligations created by these treaties; but he maintained that they gave no countenance to the demand now made of an armed interference on the part of Britain, to remedy the consequences of an internal revolution. "It is assumed," said our Foreign Secretary, "that the usurpation of the throne of Portugal by the Infant Don Miguel has given to her most Faithful Majesty, the right of demanding from this country effectual succours for the recovery of her crown and kingdom. But in the whole series of treaties there is no express stipulation which can warrant this pretension, neither is such an obligation implied by their general tenor and spirit. It is either for the purpose of resisting successful rebellion, or of deciding by force a doubtful question of succession, that Great Britain is now called upon to act. But it is impossible to imagine that any independent state could ever intend thus to commit the control and direction of its internal affairs to the hands of another power. For, doubtless, if his Britannic majesty be under the necessity of furnishing effectual succours, in the event of any internal revolt or dissension in Portugal, it would become a duty, and, indeed it would be essential, to take care that no such case should exist, if it could be prevented. Hence a constant and minute interference in the affairs of Portugal would be indispensable; for his majesty could never consent to hold his fleets and armies at the disposal of a king of Portugal, without exercising those due precautions, and that superintendence, which would assure him that his

forces would not be employed in averting the effects of mis-government, folly, or caprice. Is this a condition, in which any state, professing to be independent, could endure to exist? The truth is, that the whole spirit of the treaties, as well as their history, shews, that the principle of the guarantee given by England is, the protection of Portugal from foreign interference."

The British Government refused, therefore, to interfere in this domestic quarrel; and, holding that it was not entitled to make any distinction between the claimants of the Portuguese crown, in so far as their respective pretensions were supported only by domestic force, it considered itself bound to observe, in regard to all military operations, a strict neutrality. A great number of Portuguese refugees, most of them military men, had arrived in England, taking up their residence principally in Portsmouth, Falmouth, and the neighbourhood. As it was believed that they were meditating to fit out some expedition from these ports against Don Miguel, the British government, holding that to permit this would be a breach of neutrality, informed the Brazilian minister, that it would not allow such designs to be carried on in British harbours, and that, for security's sake, the refugees must remove farther from the coast. The envoy then stated that those troops were about to be conveyed to Brazil; and accordingly four vessels, having on board six hundred and fifty-two officers and men, under the command of general count Saldanha, who had been the constitutional minister of war, sailed from Plymouth. The British government suspected that the true design was to land these troops