this year, which I have intrusted to you, equally authorizing you to do whatever may be necessary for the execution of my royal orders. Given in the palace of Rio de Janeiro, this 2nd of May, 1826. (Signed) THE KING. The Marquis of Angra, Sir Charles Stuart. No. V. Mr. Secretary CANNING to Sir CHARLES STUART. (Extract) Foreign-office, July 12, 1826. Colonel Freemantle arrived here on Friday evening, the 7th instant, with your excellency's despatches to the 7th of May inclusive, which have been laid before the king. Every thing of what your excellency brings from Rio Janeiro to Lisbon will be precisely what the Portuguese government and nation are prepared to expect, except the charter of a constitution. The opinion, indeed, has long prevailed at Lisbon, that a convocation of the Cortes (in some shape or other) would be necessary for the sanction of a new order of succession to the crown of Portugal. Whether the substitution of a representative constitution for the more antient form of national assembly, will be received with equal satisfaction in Portugal cannot be confidently pronounced beforehand. But there appears no reason to doubt of the acquiescence of the nation in the dispensation of a sovereign, for the manifestation of whose pleasure they have professed to look with the utmost deference and submission. Whatever may be, upon the whole, the preferable choice between the respective merits of the two modes of settlement, which were at the emperor's option, that by a convocation of the Cortes, or that by a constitutional charter, it is not to be denied that there is much weight in the remark of his imperial majesty, that the convocation of an assembly which has been so long disused, that its very composition and modes of proceeding might be liable to doubt, would be even more likely to lead to the stirring of difficult questions, and to the excitement of excessive popular claims; more likely, in short, in the emperor's own words, to degenerate into a "constituent assembly," than a new code, defining at once the rights and duties of all ranks and orders of the state, and prescribing the forms of their deliberations, and the limits of their respective powers. It is not to be denied that the notables of France, in 1789, on the one hand, and the charter of Louis 18th, in 1815, on the other, come, in a remarkable degree, in aid of his imperial majesty's reasoning. It may be hoped, therefore, that when those Courts which are naturally most adverse to any convocation of national assemblies consider that the avoiding of all such convocation was absolutely impossible, and that the option was merely between two forms of assembly, they will abstain from opposition to that which has been selected; the rejection whereof in Portugal could only lead to a state of things which would revive all the diffi culties that have just been overcome, and place the Crown of Portugal, and not the Crown only but the monarchy itself of Brazil, in danger. In order that we may inculcate with more effect on other governments the duty of abstaining from any interference with the free agency of Portugal, it is particularly expedient to remove all grounds of jealousy as to the exertion of British influence on so momentous an occasion. For this reason, while his majesty entirely approves of your excellency's having consented (under the peculiar circumstances of your situation in Brazil) to be the bearer of the emperor's decrees from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon, I am to signify to you his majesty's pleasure, that so soon as you shall have delivered those several instruments into the proper hands, and shall have rendered account to the Portuguese ministry of the mission with which your excellency was charged from his most faithful majesty's government to the emperor of Brazil, your excellency should take leave of the Infanta Regent, and return home. (Signed) GEORGE CANNING. His Excellency Sir Charles Stuart, G.C.B., &c. No. VI.-Mr. Secretary CANNING to Sir WILLIAM A'COURT. (Extract) Foreign-office, July 12, 1826. I enclose to your excellency a copy of a despatch which I address, by this occasion, to sir Charles Stuart. If sir Charles Stuart sailed from Rio de Janeiro, as I understand (from other information) he was likely to do, on the 11th of May, his excellency may have reached Lisbon early in this month, and may, perhaps, have embarked for England even before this packet arrives in the Tagus. A foolish notion had got abroad in France, that sir Charles Stuart's powers from the emperor of Brazil amounted to the constituting of his excellency a member of the regency of Portugal. I see nothing in the copy of those powers which I have received from sir Charles Stuart that admits such a construction. There is nothing in sir Charles Stuart's despatches to countenance the gloss which it has been attempted to put upon sir Charles Stuart's consent to be the bearer of the emperor's decrees to Lishon; the instruction to sir Charles Stuart to return "so soon as he shall have delivered those instruments into the proper hands, and have rendered to the Portuguese ministry an account of his mission from his most faithful majesty to Brazil,” cannot be mistaken. I do not think it necessary to state to sir Charles Stuart a misapprehension, in which I am confident he does not participate, and which his speedy departure from Lisbon will effectually put down. Lest, however, the regency or ministry of Portugal should be led which may possibly be the case, into any error upon this subject, and should consult your excellency upon the expediency of requesting sir Charles Stuart to remain at Lisbon, to superintend, either as a member of the government, or as a commissioner of the emperor of Brazil, or in any other character, the execution of his imperial majesty's decrees, or of any of them, I am to instruct your excellency to discourage at once any such proposition, and to decline transmitting it to your court. The general substance of the instruction to sir Charles Stuart your excellency will consider as addressed equally to yourself, and will make it the guide of your language in communicating with the Portuguese government, and with your diplomatic colleagues. (Signed) GEORGE CANNING. His Excellency Sir William A'Court, G.C.B., &c. No. VII. Mr. Secretary CANNING to Sir WILLIAM A'COURT. (Extract) Foreign-office, July 17, 1826. I transmit to your excellency copies of all the despatches on the affairs of Portugal, which have been addressed to his majesty's ambassadors and ministers abroad, since the date of my last despatch to your excellency. Your excellency is at liberty to make such communication of them as you may think expedient to count de Porto Santo, who will not fail to observe with what anxious perseverance his majesty's government are labouring, to create in other powers a disposition favourable to the peace and security of Portugal. In submitting these considerations to count de Porto Santo, your excellency will take care not to offer them as the settled opinion or peremptory advice of your government. We are too conscious of the imperfectness of our acquaintance with the prevailing sentiments of the Portuguese nation, and of the inability of any foreign government to enter fully into national feelings, prejudices, or prepossessions, to presume to offer counsel to the Portuguese ministry, in any other sense, or with any other view, than that of laying before them the elements of a decision which it is for them, and them only, to form. It appears to us, upon the whole, that the best chance of a safe tranquil issue to the present extraordinary crisis in Portugal, will be to be found in an acceptance (as immediate as may be suitable with the importance of the measure) of the charter of Don Pedro, coupled (as it is) with his abdication of the throne. Any other course must, as it appears to us, be full of danger; but if, nevertheless, another course shall be pursued, we shall not be the less anxious for its peaceable and happy issue, than if it were one which we had ourselves advised. (Signed) GEORGE CANNING. His Excellency Sir William A' Court, G.C.B., &c. No. VIII.-Mr. Secretary CANNING to Sir Wм. A'COURT. Foreign-office, July 19, 1826. Sir,-In my despatch of the 17th instant, as well as in all the despatches upon the same subject, which have been addressed to his majesty's ambassadors and ministers, copies of which I have enclosed to your excellency, your excellency will observe that I have cautiously abstained from entering, in the smallest degree, into the merits of the constitutional charter which Don Pedro has devised for Portugal. It is not for his majesty's government to analyze a project, framed by a friendly sovereign for the government of his dominions, nor to express any other sentiment respecting it, than the wish and the hope that if carried into effect in Portugal it may conduce to the stability of the monarchy, to the prosperity of the state, and to the happiness and rational liberty of the people. There are, however, two points in this constitutional charter (I am not, upon such examination as I have yet been able to give it, aware of more) to which I am compelled to call your excellency's attention, and to direct you to invite that of the Portuguese ministry, because they trench directly upon the rights of this country under treaty. With any internal changes in a foreign state affecting only the municipal laws of that state and the interests of its subjects, no foreign government has any pretension to meddle. But treaty is a law which binds state to state, and of which no internal changes in one state can justify the violation, to the detriment of another. By one article of the proposed constitution, the liberty of religious worship is restrained far within the limits to which the British nation is entitled to enjoy it, and does enjoy it, in Portugal. It is ordained that no external appear ance of a church shall be allowed to any other than the established religion of the country. I need not inform your excellency that his majesty's subjects resident at Lisbon have a church, which by no means corresponds with this limitation; and I am to direct your excellency to lose no time in protesting, in the strongest terms, against any deterioration of this their rightful privilege. par The other point to which I ticularly refer is the abolition of private jurisdictions, which may be construed to involve in Portugal, as it has been construed to involve in Brazil, the extinction of the jurisdiction of the judge conservator. In Brazil we could found our remonstrance against this extinction of our privilege only upon the treaty of 1810, which was on the point of expiring. But in Portugal, we hold that privilege by treaties of ancient date and perpetual obligation, and your excellency must protest against any attempt to abolish it by inference I am, &c. No. IX.-Mr. Secretary CANNING to Sir WILLIAM A'COURT. (Extract) Foreign-office, July 22, 1826. His Excellency Sir William No. X.-Mr. Secretary CANNING Foreign-office, July 22, 1826. My reason for sending off this despatch by an extra packet is to obviate any doubt which might possibly arise in your excellency's mind as to the execution of the instructions contained in my despatch of the 12th inst. I write to your excellency for the express purpose of repeating his majesty's pleasure that you return home forthwith, after delivering into the hands of the regency the decrees of the emperor Don Pedro, and into the hands of M. de Porto Santo, or, in case of M. de Porto Santo's resignation, into those of his successor, or, in default of a new appointment, into sir William A'Court's hands, to be delivered by him to the proper minister, at a proper time, the papers relative to the commercial negotiation between Portugal and Brazil, in whatever state that negotiation may be. It is the desire and determination of his majesty's government to avoid, as far as possible, the appearance of any direct interference of British agency in the establishment of the new order of things in Portugal. It is therefore his majesty's positive command that your excellency should not protract your stay at Lisbon on any account whatever, nor allow any suggestions or solicitations from any quarter to induce you to delay your return home. (Signed) GEORGE CANNING. His Excellency Sir Charles Stuart, G.C.B., &c. No. XI.-Sir CHARLES STUART to Mr. Secretary CANNING. (Received July 22.) Rio de Janeiro, May 9, 1826. Sir, I have this moment received from the minister of foreign affairs the accompanying note, to which I should have thought it unnecessary to call your attention, if, upon comparing it with the one sent home by his majesty's chargé d'affaires, I had not observed a material difference between the two copies, inasmuch as the note addressed to me expresses the happiness which his imperial majesty will derive from the support, in addition to the approbation, of his Britannic majesty, of the measures lately adopted by the court of Brazil for the welfare of the people of Portugal. Mr. Chamberlain having acknowledged the receipt of the note transmitted to himself, I have not thought it expedient, upon this occasion, to return any answer to the viscount de Inhambupe. I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) CHARLES STUART. The Rt. Hon. Geo. Canning, &c. (Enclosure in No. 11.-Translation.) The VISCONDE DE INHAMBUPE to Sir CHARLES STUART. Palace of Rio de Janeiro, Sir, His majesty the emperor being called upon, definitively, to determine upon the course which it may be most advisable to pursue with respect to the question of the succession to the Crown of Portugal, which has devolved upon him by the death of his august father, the king of Portugal and of the Algarves, and deeming his own retention of the sovereignty of Portugal, the Algarves, and their dominions, to be incompatible with the interests of the empire of Brazil, as well as of those kingdoms, has been pleased, with a view to promote the welfare thereof, to abdicate and cede the indisputable and inalienable rights which he has to the Crown of the Portuguese monarchy, and to the sovereignty of the said kingdoms, to the person of his most cherished, esteemed, and well-beloved daughter, the lady princess of the Great Parà, |