long since to have enjoyed a national representation. But either the
nation did not in time perceive its real interests, or, perceiving them,
was unable to declare them, on account of the forces and ascendancy of
the Portuguese party; which, perceiving clearly to what a degree of
weakness, littleness, and poverty, Portugal was reduced, and to how low
a state it had fallen, would never consent (notwithstanding their
proclamation of liberty, fearing a separation,) that the people of
Brazil should enjoy a representation equal to what they themselves then
possessed. They had miscalculated their plans for conquest, and from
that miscalculation arises our good fortune.

"Brazil, which for upwards of three hundred years had borne the
degrading name of a colony, and had suffered all the evils arising from
the destructive system then pursued, exulted with pleasure when my Lord
Don John VI., King of Portugal and Algarve, my august father, raised it
to the dignity of a kingdom, by his decree of the 16th of December,
1815; but Portugal burned with rage, and trembled with fear. The delight
which the inhabitants of this vast continent displayed on the occasion
was unbounded; but the politic measure was not followed up, as it ought
to have been, by another, that is, by the convocation of an assembly to
organise the new kingdom.

"Brazil, always frank in her mode of proceeding, and mortified at having
borne the yoke of iron so long, both before and after that measure
echoed the cry for the constitution of Portugal, immediately on the
proclamation of liberty in Portugal; expecting that after this proof of
confidence given to her pseudo brethren, they would assist her to
deliver herself from the vipers that were consuming her entrails, and
little thinking she should be deceived.

"The Brazilians, who truly loved their country, never intended, however,
to subject themselves to a constitution in which all had not a voice,
and whose views were to convert them at once from free men into vile
slaves. Nevertheless, the obstacles which, before the 26th April, 1821,
opposed the liberties of Brazil, and which continued to exist, being
maintained by the European troops, caused the people, fearing that they
should never enjoy a representative assembly of their own, even for the
very love of liberty, to follow the infamous Cortes of Portugal, and
they even made the sacrifice of submitting to be insulted by the
demagogue party which predominated in