SIRE,
My sense of the impropriety of intruding myself on the attention of your Imperial Majesty, on any subject unconnected with the official position with which your Majesty has been pleased to honour me, could only have been overcome by an irresistible desire, under existing circumstances, to contribute to the service of your Majesty and the Empire.
The conduct of the late legislative assembly, which sought to derogate from the dignity and prerogatives of Your Majesty—even presuming to require you to divest yourself of your crown in their presence—who deprived you of your Council of State—denied you a voice in the enactment of laws and the formation of the constitution, and who dared to object to your exercising the only remaining function of royalty—that of rewarding services, and conferring honours—could no longer be tolerated; and the justice and wisdom of Your Imperial Majesty in dissolving such an assembly will be duly appreciated by discerning men, and by those whose love of good order and their country supersedes their ambition or personal interests. There are, however, individuals who will wickedly take advantage of the late proceedings to kindle the flames of discord, and throw the empire into anarchy and confusion, unless timely prevented by the wisdom and energy of Your Imperial Majesty.
The declaration that you will give to your people a practical constitution, more free than even that which the late assembly professed an intention to establish, cannot—considering the spirit which now pervades South America—have the effect of averting impending evils, unless Your Imperial Majesty shall be pleased to dissipate all doubts by at once declaring—before news of the recent events can be dispersed throughout the provinces, and before the discontented members of the late congress can return to their constituents—what is the precise nature of that constitution which Your Imperial Majesty intends to bestow.
Permit me, then, humbly and respectfully to suggest to Your Imperial Majesty, as a means of tranquillising the public mind—of averting evils at home, and preventing injurious representations abroad—that, even before the sailing of the next packet for Europe, Your Majesty should specifically declare the nature of the government you are graciously pleased should be adopted. As no monarch is more happy, or more truly powerful than the limited monarch of England, surrounded by a free people, enriched by that industry which the security of property by means of just laws never fails to create—if Your Majesty were to decree that the English constitution, in its most perfect practical form (which, with slight alteration, and, chiefly in name, is also the constitution of the United States of North America), shall be the model for the Government of Brazil under Your Imperial Majesty, with power to the constituent assembly so to alter particular parts as local circumstances may render advisable—it would excite the sympathy of powerful states abroad, and the firm allegiance of the Brazilian people to Your Majesty's throne.
Were Your Majesty, by a few brief lines in the Gazette, to announce your intention so to do, and were you to banish all distrust from the public mind by removing from your person for a time, and finding employment on honourable missions abroad, for those Portuguese individuals of whom the Brazilians are jealous—the purity of Your Majesty's motives would be secured from the possibility of misrepresentation—the factions which disturb the country would be silenced or converted—and the feelings of the world, especially those of England and North America, would be interested in promoting the glory, happiness, and prosperity of Your Imperial Majesty.
These thoughts, hastily expressed, but most respectfully submitted to your gracious consideration will, I hope, be candidly appreciated by Your Imperial Majesty, proceeding, as they do, from the heart of
Your Majesty's most faithful and dutiful Servant,
COCHRANE AND MARANHAÕ.
His Majesty saw good to adopt this advice in part, but in offering it—though instrumental in establishing the political liberties of Brazil—I had unconsciously placed myself in the position of a partisan against the powerful faction which influenced the administration, and through them every part of the empire. My unauthorised services after the pursuit of the Portuguese fleet and army—resulting in the annexation of the Northern provinces—had drawn upon me the resentment of those now in power whose ultimate intentions were thus defeated. That I—a foreigner, having nothing to do with national politics—should have counselled His Majesty to banish those who opposed him, was not to be borne, and the resentment caused by my recent services was increased to bitter enmity for meddling in affairs which it was considered did not concern me; though I could have had no other object than the good of the Empire by the establishment of a constitution which should give it stability in the estimation of European states.