SPEECH of Count DE SAMPAYO on the Installation of the Portu guese Cortes. "Illustrious Representatives of the Portuguese Nation:- The happy day is at length arrived, which the Portuguese so anxiously desired, and which is going to crown their ardent wishes and their flattering hopes-a day ever glorious and memorable, which will form the most brilliant epoch in the history of the monarchy, and in the annals of the reign of our pious and august monarch, Don John VI., and which, presenting to admiring Europe the truly prodigious result of an energetical, but peaceable effort, will regain for the Portuguese the name and the glory which our preceding misfortunes have obscured, and almost extinguished. "In your hands, gentlemen, are now placed the fate of this magnanimous nation;-the happiness of our beloved and common country. The zeal and patriotism of the Portuguese confide in your virtue and wisdom. They will not be deceived in their choice, nor disappointed in their hopes. "The government, after having at the holy altar returned due thanks to the Sovereign Author of all good, and humbly supplicating him to be pleased to pour down upon you the spirit of wisdom and prudence, so necessary for the due accomplishment of your arduous and sublime duties, comes to congratulate you on your happy meeting, and considers itself as fulfilling one of its most important duties and noble offices, by recommending to your care and solicitude the interest and the destiny of an illustrious people, which desires and deserves to be happy. "In the minds and hearts of the Portuguese are engraved twe fundamental principles, which they have loudly proclaimed to the whole world, on which the public happiness must repose, and which we all swear to maintain-obedience and fidelity to king John VI. and to his august dynasty-the pure and sincere profession of the holy religion of our forefathers. "The first ensures to us, by the virtues hereditary in the house of Braganza, the sweets of a paternal government; the second offers us the firmest support of our happiness in the maxims of a divine morality, which so perfectly adapts and identifies itself with the necessities and sentiments of man. "It is on these foundations that the majestic edifice of the Portu guese constitution must rise, which, keeping in view the sacred rights of civil liberty, of property, of the safety of the citizen, has to trace, with a firm and steady hand, the invariable line of demarcation which is for ever to divide law from arbitrary will, power from despotism, liberty from licentiousness, obedience from slavery. "When this great work has been profoundly meditated, and wisely developed and executed with the attention which the state and circumstances of the nation require-with the energy which its urgent wants demand with the prudence and circumspection which belong to the superiority, or (if I may so speak) to the impassible independence of the legislator-then the Portuguese, restored to their rights and to their dignity, will resume the place which belongs to them among civilized, free, and independent nations: under the shelter of peace and domestic felicity, they will see those political institutions flourish, which render a nation great and respected. They will form round the august throne of their monarch a firm barrier, equally inaccessible to internal passions, the enemies of social order, and the external attacks of any ambitious and usurping power; and nobly proud of the just and precious liberty which their worthy representatives have known how to acquire and ensure to them, they will transmit to posterity the names of the fathers of the country, covered with a thousand benedictions, and accompanied by the most affectionate and most glorious recollections. "Such are the happy efforts which the government augurs and hopes of your wise deliberations, of your enlightened zeal-of your consummate prudence, and of your eminent virtue. It is shortly going to conclude the memorable and difficult functions with which it has hitherto been charged, and esteeming itself happy in having maintained peace and public tranquillity, it profits by this opportunity again to ad dress the sincere expressions of its praise, and thanks to all classes of citizens to whom, under the favour of Providence, so extraordinary and invaluable a blessing is due. May that allwise Providence grant that this heroic nation may attain and enjoy, for many centuries to come, the felicity which it merits, and which the eminent qualities of its illustrious representatives so largely promise. May our adored monarch, condescending to the public wishes, and sanctioning by his royal assent the work of the national wisdom, come and occupy the throne of love, loyalty, and gratitude, which is prepared for him in the hearts of his people; and may we all, united in fraternal concord, and reciprocally bound by the sacred ties of love to our country, one day rejoice in our happy fate, bless the epoch of our regeneration, and give worthy examples of virtue to our remotest posterity." DISCOURSE which the King of Portugal caused to be read by his Secretary in the Sitting of July 4th, in Answer to that which had been addressed to him by the President of the Cortes, on the occasion of his taking the Oath to the Bases of the Constitution : "Gentlemen Deputies of these Kingdoms;-If it is natural for every man well born to feel a par ticular delight in revisiting his dear country after an absence of a short duration, what satisfaction must be experienced by a prince, who, after an absence of thirteen years, is restored to the ancient capital of his august ancestors, and tastes the invaluable happiness of being received with sentiments which correspond to the paternal affection of his heart for a whole nation assembled in the persons of its worthy representatives, united in this congress by their love of their king and country? "Yes, gentlemen, I am convinced that a pure love for your king, a disinterested desire for the public good, and the unanimous wishes of the citizens, have alone brought you within this assembly, on which Portugal, Europe, and the whole world, have fixed their eyes. From you alone can be expected the happy regeneration of a people who by their worth and virtues have occupied so eminent a place in the history of nations. "When I received the happy intelligence that, in the ancient capital of the monarchy, there were about to assemble, citizens remarkable for their knowledge and personal qualities, citizens marked out by public opinion, and freely chosen to save their country from the shipwreck with which it was threatened in the ocean of misfortunes, accumulat ing for a long series of years since the establishment of our primitive constitution, it was impossible that, feeling the duties which my title of king imposed upon me, I should not hasten back to the cradle of the monarchy. It would have been the first time that a Portuguese monarch did not aspire to the honour of joining the representatives of the nation to watch over its interests and to insure its prosperity. If it was possible that the Portuguese should dream of proscribing the form of monarchical government, your king would not find in the lessons bequeathed to him from his predecessors, and in his own heart, other doctrines than to abandon to the decrees of Provi. dence with a sigh, but without thoughts of culpable vengeance, the nation which should reject him as its chief. But it gives me pleasure to proclaim to the uni verse, that the Portuguese have never forgotten for an instant what they are, and what they have been, and that they will always recollect their renown for virtues and loyalty. "In the act of the convocation of the Cortes, the Portuguese protested that the edifice of the new constitution which they proposed to form reposed on the im mutable basis of hereditary monarchy, preserved in the house of Braganza: they renewed the oaths of fidelity, which were taken by all classes of the nation on my accession to the throne possessed by my ancestors. They have also sanctioned the fundamental principle of every constitutional monarchy, that the exercise of sovereignty, consisting in the exercise of the legislative power, cannot be vested separately in any one of the integral parts of the government, but in the union of the monarch and the deputies elected by the people, as you have been, who are to form the supreme national council, called by our ancestors the Cortes, and to whom collectively belongs the exercise of the legislative power; so that if ever the monarch usurped this right with out the participation of the chamber of deputies, the government would be transformed into a despotism; and, in like manner, if the chamber of deputies should attempt to exercise alone the legislative power, the constitutional government would be transformed into the government of a mob. "Convinced of the truth of these incontestable principles of the constitutional rights of nations, as soon as I learned that the citizens of these kingdoms had elected deputies to represent them in the Cortes, I resolved to set sail to occupy the important post which, according to principles hitherto acknowledged, had been allotted me by Providence. "Nevertheless, as it was not compatible with the general good of the monarchy that I should transport immediately the seat of government from Brazil to Europe, without having adopted necessary measures that the union of the two kingdoms, and the march of affairs, might not suffer before the establishment of the future constitution, I began by giving the orders which appeared "These preparations being "I declared immediately, that deputies from that kingdom should be nominated according to the forms adopted here, to come to unite themselves with you. In a word, I wished that all those deputies joined with us, and bound by their oaths, should concur, in the name of their constituents, in the great work which was to rivet the bonds of unalterable union among all those who glory in possessing and deserving the name of Portuguese in the four quarters of the world. "Organs of my unalterable sentiments, and of the sincere wishes which, during the course of my administration, I have never ceased to form for the prosperity of the monarchy, my ministers of state will lay before you whatever subjects of discussion, with a view to the general good I am desirous you should know and observe; that we may bring to the most speedy termination the important work which we have undertaken.” INSTRUCTIONS of his Majesty the King of Portugal, relative to the Government of Brazil during his Absence in Europe. The prince royal of the united kingdom shall take the title of prince regent, or wy lieutenant in the provisional government of the kingdom of Brazil, with which he is charged. In this government, M. Conde dos Arcos shall be minister and secretary of state for the affairs of the kingdom of Brazil, and for foreign affairs. The Conde de Louzana D. Diogo de Menezes, minister and secretary of state for the affairs of finance, as he now is; major-general Carlos Fre derico de Caula to be secretary of state, ad interim, in the war department; and Manoel Antonio Faninha, major-general in the fleet, to be secretary of state, ad interim, for the marine depart ment. The prince royal shall take his resolutions in the council formed of the two ministers of state, and of the two secretaries of state, ad interim, and its determinations shall be reported by the minister or secretary of state whose department they concern, who shall be responsible. The prince royal shall have all powers for the administration of justice or finance and econo mical government. He shall be able to commute or dispense with the penalty of death to which criminals may be sentenced. He shall decide all questions relative to the public administration. He shall appoint to all the offices of justice or finance, to all civil and military employments; and the persons so appointed shall immediately enter on the exercise of their functions by virtue of his decree. He shall promote to all benefices or ecclesiastial dignities, excepting bishopricks; but he may propose to me, for them, such persons as may be worthy. He may make war, offensive or defensive, against any enemy who may attack the kingdom of Brazil, if the circumstances of the case are so urgent that my royal orders cannot be waited for without the greatest injury to my faithful subjects in this kingdom; and for the same reason, and in similar circumstances, he may make truces or some provisional treaty with the enemies of the state. Lastly, the prince may confer, as honorary favours, the habits of the three military orders of Christ, S. Bento de Aviz, and S. Tiago da Espada, to persons whom he |