The Story of the Nations: Portugal

by H. Morse Stephens

XVIII.
MODERN PORTUGAL.
CIVIL WARS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT.

THE history of Portugal, after the conclusion of the Peninsular War, affords a melancholy example of the evil effects of all prolonged wars. The people, without great monarchs or great ministers, was divided into many parties, which quarrelled and fought; numerous civil wars distressed the country; commerce and agriculture were neglected; local rivalry and class jealousy were allowed to grow to serious proportions; the government of the country and the administration of justice went from bad to worse; and, as usual, misery and poverty followed in the train of political discontent. It is neither interesting nor instructive to study the details of the civil wars of the first half of the nineteenth century. Throughout the whole story of Portugal, the most prominent feature is the singular tenacity with which the little country maintained its independence and its individuality, and it is painful to observe that this patriotic feeling almost entirely disappeared for a time. It was during this period that Portugal fell to the rank of a third-rate state, for it now ceased to be an important factor in European politics, either from its wealth and its colonies, or as the trusted ally of England. This was largely due to a change in the attitude of England, where the old historical friendship for Portugal, which had been maintained since the Middle Ages and had been of advantage to both parties, was abandoned, to the lasting regret of every one who values the existence of sentiment and of historical continuity in politics. Nevertheless, in spite of its loss of importance, some account must be given of Portugal during this distressing epoch; for, if it is interesting to study the history of a nation in prosperity, it is also instructive to see how it fell to its lowest depths.

John VI. had greatly enjoyed the peace and comfort of his residence in Brazil as Prince Regent, and he had become more attached to Brazil than to Portugal, when he was proclaimed King of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves in 1816. The people of the mother country resented this heartily; they looked upon him as a deserter; and feared that he would favour the interests of the colony unduly. They were also alarmed at the growing spirit of independence in Brazil; they knew that the chief wealth of Portugal during the eighteenth century had been derived from its great colony, and they were well aware that any separation would be most prejudicial to their prosperity. The affection of the new king for Brazil appeared in the very first year of his reign, for instead of insisting on the restitution of Olivença, he preferred to attack the former possessions of Spain in South America, and ordered to Brazil a corps of 4,500 veterans of the Peninsular War under the command of Lieutenant-General Le Cor. A pretext for war was found in the republican movement of Artigas; the local militia could make no stand against the Portuguese soldiers; on the 20th of January, 1817, Le Cor took Monte Video, and he soon occupied all the country up to the left bank of the River Plate. The victorious general was created Baron of Laguna, and continued to occupy the Banda Oriental until 1825, when the inhabitants rose in rebellion, and after much warfare they founded the Republic of Uruguay, and became independent alike of Brazil and the Argentine Republic.

John VI. gave colour to the accusation of the Portuguese that he intended to desert them for the Brazilians, and invert the position of the two nations, by his obstinate refusal to leave Rio de Janeiro. The English Cabinet persistently urged him to return to Europe, but he remained deaf to all remonstrances, and paid little or no attention to the state of affairs in Portugal. He met with no help, but only with opposition from his queen, Donna Carlotta Joaquina, who was always intriguing against him, and who had, as early as 1805, promised a liberal constitution to certain Portuguese radical leaders, in order to build up a position distinct from her husband. Nor had she intrigued only in Portugal, for in 1812 it was discovered that she had formed a scheme to become independent Queen of Brazil. All these plots were intended for the eventual advantage of her younger son, Dom Miguel, an arrogant youth, who was commonly believed to be illegitimate. Nor was John VI. more happy in his relations with his elder son, Dom Pedro, who was a fanatical admirer of the system of parliamentary government. Dom Pedro was further Grand Master of the Freemasons of Brazil, and an open supporter of the Brazilian party, which hoped for a liberal constitution and complete separation from Portugal. This prince was a man of real ability, high character, and enlightened opinions, and his importance in the family was increased by his marriage, through the negotiations of Dom Pedro de Menezes Coutinho, Marquis of Marialva, and Prince Metternich, with the Archduchess Maria Josepha, daughter of the Emperor Francis I. of Austria.

In Portugal, the government of the Regency had grown intensely unpopular, for Lord Stuart de Rothesay and Marshal Beresford ruled most despotically. The people which had endured the authority of the English during the terrible war for existence, and the very soldiers who had served so gallantly under English officers on the field of battle, soon grew weary of foreign rule in time of peace, and raised the cry of “Portugal for the Portuguese.” The ministers, who had reluctantly paid the large sums needed for the expenses of the army, even when aided by subsidies from England, now that those subsidies were withdrawn, insisted on great reductions, and practically paid nothing at all. Democratic ideas spread swiftly; the people claimed a share in the government, and expressed aloud their hatred for the king, the Regency, and the English, and a spirit of discontent arose in every part of the kingdom. The first outbreak took place in 1818, when General Gomes Freire de Andrade, who had commanded the Portuguese Legion in the Russian and other campaigns in Napoleon’s army, and who was an ardent lover of France, planned a “pronunciamento,” but the plot was discovered and suppressed with stringent severity by the Regency, which ordered the execution of the general and of ten of his partisans. This rigorous punishment only enraged the radical party, and when Beresford went to Brazil in 1820 in order to get money from the king to pay the arrears due to the army, advantage was taken of his absence by the people of Oporto to raise the standard of revolt under the leadership of Colonel Antonio de Silveira, Brito da Fonseca, and other officers belonging to the garrison. The Regency in Lisbon, deprived of the presence of Beresford, gave way before a similar rising in the capital, headed by the Counts of Resende, Penafiel, and Sampaio, and the revolutionary juntas formed in the two great cities agreed to act in harmony. The English officers were driven from the country; Beresford was not allowed to land when he returned from Rio de Janeiro; a fresh regency was proclaimed; and a constituent assembly was summoned to draw up a constitution for Portugal.

This assembly, of which the majority consisted of men of the most democratic opinions, at once abolished all relics of feudalism, and, to the disgust of the ecclesiastics, suppressed the Inquisition in Portugal, in spite of its studied moderation in recent years, on account of its former misdeeds. The deputies then proceeded to draw up a most impracticable constitution for the future government of the country, which showed that they had studied the glowing speeches of the orators of the French Revolution, and had not profited by the knowledge of their mistakes. By this constitution, which was known in later history as the “Constitution of 1822,” protection of person and property was guaranteed; and liberty of the press, equality before the law, the admissibility of all citizens to all offices, the abolition of privileges and the sovereignty of the nation were proclaimed. One freely elected chamber was to be summoned yearly to make laws and superintend the government of the country, and the king was granted only a suspensive veto over its measures. On hearing of this revolution, Prussia, Austria, and Russia withdrew their ambassadors from Lisbon, and England insisted that John VI. should at once proceed to Portugal. The king accordingly left Rio de Janeiro and returned to Lisbon, where he solemnly swore to observe the new constitution, and to rule for the future as a constitutional monarch. The queen and Dom Miguel were not so complaisant; they refused to recognize the constitution, and were at once forced to leave Lisbon. On the departure of John VI., Brazil declared itself independent, and Dom Pedro, who was elected emperor, granted that country a liberal parliamentary constitution. The Portuguese troops and royal vessels made a slight attempt to preserve the royal authority in South America, but the latter were speedily defeated by Lord Cochrane, who entered the Brazilian service, and the separation of the great colony from its mother-country became an acknowledged fact.

The loss of Brazil and the conversion of the government of Portugal into a limited monarchy, enraged the nobility, and still more the clergy, who looked with horror on the radical reforms of the constituent assembly, and when the French invaded Spain in 1823 to suppress the rebellion in that country, General Francisco de Silveira, Count of Amarante, raised a “pronunciamento” in the Tras-os-Montes against the Constitution of 1822. John VI. had imbibed some of his elder son’s ideas, and was in favour of modifying the absolute character of the Portuguese monarchy, but he never concealed his opinion that the radical party had gone too far in its extreme reforms. He therefore took advantage of the “pronunciamento” in the north to declare the Constitution of 1822 abrogated, and appointed the Count of Palmella prime minister, with instructions to form a “junta,” and to draw up a moderate and well-balanced parliamentary constitution on the English model. But the absolutist party, headed by the queen and Dom Miguel, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the army, would not tolerate any form of constitutional monarchy; they raised an insurrection in Lisbon against John VI.; the king’s greatest friend, the liberal-minded Marquis of Loulé, was assassinated; Palmella and his colleagues were imprisoned; and the king himself was shut up in his palace and eventually fled for refuge on board an English man-of-war in the Tagus. The united action of the foreign ambassadors and ministers accredited to Portugal, led by Sir William A’Court, afterwards Lord Heytesbury, the representative of England, secured the restoration of the king’s authority; the insurrection was suppressed; Dom Miguel was banished; Palmella was re-appointed prime minister; and at the close of 1824, the king returned to Brazil to spend his last days in peace. On reaching Rio de Janeiro, he recognized Dom Pedro as Emperor of Brazil, and on the 6th of March, 1826, John VI. died in the country of his choice. By his will, John VI. left the regency of Portugal to his daughter Isabel Maria, to the disgust of Dom Miguel, who had fully expected in spite of his conduct that Portugal would be in some manner bequeathed to him, and that Dom Pedro would be satisfied with the government of Brazil.