About this time, the Marquis of Palmella had widely circulated a document, appealing to the loyalty of the Portuguese, and declaring the policy desired by the mother country; which policy was—­to divide Brazil into a number of petty states, easy to be intimidated and controlled.  As this scheme held out large promise of irresponsible power to influential persons in such anticipated states—­it could scarcely fail to be agreeable to many expectants of office, whose interest it therefore was to prevent the consolidation of the empire, by promoting disunion.  It was scarcely a secret that some in the administration were favourable to these views, though not openly professing them; so that the patriotic efforts of His Majesty were paralysed, and the administration, no less than the legislature, exhibited a policy seriously detrimental to the interests of the Empire.

Indeed, a powerful party in the legislative assembly openly called in question the Emperor’s authority—­even requiring His Majesty to divest himself of his crown in their presence.  They deprived him of his council of state; denied him a voice in the enactment of laws, and the functions of administration; even objecting to His Majesty’s exercise of the common prerogative of royalty to confer crown lands as territorial rewards for public services—­the latter limitation of the royal prerogative being avowedly directed against the grant of an estate to myself, as spontaneously accorded by His Majesty, in gratitude for my recent services to the nation.

This was the state of affairs on my return to Rio de Janeiro, and as His Majesty did me the honour to consult with me in his difficulties, I unhesitatingly recommended him to support his dignity constitutionally—­despite all attempts made for its limitation by the Portuguese faction; which—­extraordinary as it may appear—­was now said to be countenanced by the Andradas, who, though out of office, were still deputies to the assembly, and who—­in consequence of their dismissal from power—­were considered to be giving opposition to every measure calculated to promote unity between the Emperor and the legislature.  The Brazilian patriots—­and with good reason—­were becoming alarmed, lest an attempt might yet be made to place Portugal and Brazil upon their former relative footing, and the Emperor, who was thoroughly Brazilian—­from a conviction that Portuguese ascendancy could never be regained—­was no less so.

Matters, at length, rose to such a pitch in the assembly, that the intentions of the factious majority became no longer doubtful, when His Majesty somewhat unceremoniously adopted the course pursued in England by Cromwell in a somewhat similar predicament, viz. to dissolve the assembly, and, should it prove refractory, to turn the members out by force.  Cutting short all farther altercation with his legislature, the scene of the English protectorate was re-enacted in Brazil; the Emperor entering Rio de Janeiro at the head of a body of cavalry—­surrounding the chamber with a military force—­planting cannon before it—­and ordering its instantaneous dissolution; the members—­after in vain remonstrating against this proceeding—­being compelled to retire.