began to decline. He had given
himself up to the influence of the Portuguese; the most popular men who
had worked for the independence were banished; and a continual change of
ministry showed a disposition on the part of the sovereign to prosecute
obstinately measures of which his advisers disapproved. His popularity
was regained, however, to some extent, when, on the death of his father,
he was unanimously acknowledged king of Portugal, and especially when he
abdicated that crown in favour of his daughter, Donna Maria; but his
line of policy was not altered, and commercial treaties entered into
with European states conceding them favours, which were popularly
considered to be injurious to Brazilian trade, met with bitter censure.

During the year 1827 the public debt was consolidated, and a department
was created for the application of a sinking fund.

Abdication of Pedro I., 1831.

The year 1828 was a calamitous one for Brazil. It began with the defeat
of the Brazilian army by the Argentine forces, and this entirely through
the incapacity of the commander-in-chief; and misunderstandings,
afterwards compensated by humbling money-payments on the part of Brazil,
arose with the United States, France and England on account of merchant
vessels captured by the Brazilian squadron blockading Buenos Aires.
Financial embarrassments increased to an alarming extent; the emperor
was compelled by the British government to make peace with Buenos Aires
and to renounce the Banda Oriental; and to fill the sum of disasters Dom
Miguel had treacherously usurped the crown of Portugal. It was under
these unlucky auspices that the elections of new deputies took place in
1829. As was expected the result was the election everywhere of
ultra-liberals opposed to the emperor, and in the succeeding year people
everywhere exhibited their disaffection. During the session of 1830 the
chambers adopted a criminal code in which punishment by death for
political offences was abolished. It was openly suggested in the
journals to reform the constitution by turning Brazil into independent
federal provinces, governed by authorities popularly elected, as in the
United States. Alarmed at length at the ground gained by this idea in
the provinces, the emperor set off to Minas to stir up the former
enthusiasm in his favour from recollections of the independence, but was
coldly received. On his return to Rio in March 1831 scenes of disorder
occurred, and grea