applied to Great Britain for troops to
support his government. This request created no little difficulty. It
was impossible for Great Britain to allow the government of Portugal to
fall into the hands of a party resting for support on the absolutists
in Spain and the French army, and it was equally impossible to employ
British troops to maintain the cause of the King of Portugal against his
ultra-royalist subjects when Great Britain had protested so vigorously
against the kings of Spain and the Two Sicilies receiving foreign
assistance against their liberal subjects; there were moreover no troops
that could well be spared.

Canning accordingly contented himself with despatching a naval squadron
to the Tagus to act as a moral support to the king. As the event proved,
this squadron was sufficient to determine the course of events. At the
same time Canning refused to guarantee any constitution, though when
France joined the eastern powers in threatening the proposed
constitution, he intimated his readiness to resist by force of arms any
foreign intervention in Portugal. On April 30, 1824, Dom Miguel
attempted another _coup d'etat_, and was for nine days in possession of
Lisbon, where he made wholesale arrests of his political opponents. John
VI. was, however, supported by all the foreign ambassadors, and on March
9, by their advice, he went on board the British ship of war, _Windsor
Castle_, where he summoned his son to appear before him. Dom Miguel
thought it wisest to obey; the king sent him abroad, and the attempt at
a revolution was over for the present. The junta appointed in the
previous year to frame a constitution now reported in favour of a
revival of the ancient cortes, and this proposal was accepted by the
king. The cortes were not, however, actually assembled; still, the mere
fact of Dom Miguel's absence left the government a little stronger.

Meanwhile, the relations between Portugal and Brazil occasioned
difficulties between the former country and Great Britain. On leaving
Brazil, King John VI. had entrusted the government to his elder son,
Peter, to whom he had given secret instructions to proclaim himself
Emperor of Brazil in case he found it impossible to maintain the union
between Brazil and the mother country. Acting on these instructions,
Peter had proclaimed the independence of Brazil on October 12, 1822,
adopting for himself the style of constitutional emperor. Next month
Lord Cochrane, who had been