1823. Don Joaq. de Carneiro Campos (formerly professor of mathematics at the college of Lisbon) received the department of foreign affairs, and don Man. Jacint. Figueroa da Gama that of the finances-both adherents to the political principles of 1791.-Meanwhile, the royal power had been restored in Lisbon in May, 1823; but the Brazilians demanded the more loudly a free constitution and a separation from Portugal. The emperor, therefore, refused to receive the envoy of the king his father, the count de Rio Mayor, Sept. 6, 1823, because he could not give assurance of the acknowledgment of the independence of B. At the same time, the congress authorized a loan of £2,500,000 in London, which has subsequently been increased about £700,000. (75 per cent. only was paid in specie, at 6 per cent. interest!) The constitution of Aug. 10, 1823, which the national assembly had accepted with some alterations, was final'y laid before the emperor, but, in consequence of a revolution which suddenly ensued, not accepted, because it resembled the Spanish and Portuguese constitutions, and restricted too much the authority of the sovereign. Since the fall of the Andrade, the republican party had gained strength, and attacked, in their journals, with particular violence, the Portuguese in the Brazilian service, and demanded their expulsion. Two officers, in retaliation, did some injury, Nov. 8, to an apothecary at Rio, who laid his complaints before the congress. The two ex-ministers Andrade, and their third brother, don Antonio Carlos, likewise a deputy, demanded that congress should investigate the matter; others desired that it should be referred to the courts of justice. This gave rise to a violent tumult on the 10th; the people took part in it; the dismissal of the ministers, and the departure of all the Portuguese, were loudly required. The ministers gave in their resignation, and the emperor collected the troops at his palace San Christovao, four leagues from the city. The congress hereupon declared itself permanent. Nov. 12, it was informed, by a message from the emperor, that all the officers regarded themselves as injured by two journals, of one of which the three Andrade were editors, and patrons of the other; and they were accused, in general, of being at the head of a rebelious party. The minister of the interior declared, at the same time, that the troops insisted on the removal of the two An drade from the assembly. Immediately after, the troops entered the city, surrounded the hall of the convention, and an officer delivered an imperial decree, ordering the dissolution of the assembly. The president recorded it on the journals, declared the session terminated, and the deputies separated, Nov. 12, 1823. But while departing, and subsequently, many were arrested; among them the three Andrade, who were eventually transported. In a decree of the same day, the emperor termed the assembly perjured, but, on the following day, limited this expression to the faction of the Andrade. The provinces, also, were_the_theatre of many turbulent scenes. In Pernambuco, the violent dissolution of the congress gave rise to much dissatisfaction, and it was difficult to appease the hatred of the Brazilians against the Portuguese. A second national assembly was finally convened at the end of Nov., 1823, and the emperor caused a constitution, drawn up by his council of state, to be laid before the cabildo (the municipality) of the capital, Dec. 11, 1823, which collected the votes of the citizens respecting it in writing. As all assented to this constitution, the oath was administered Jan. 9, 1824. The same course was pursued in the provinces: but here many citizens voted against the constitution; among others, the president, Man. de Carvalho Paes d'Andrade of Pernambuco. March 25, 1824, the oath to observe the constitution was also taken by the emperor and empress. In its fundamental principles, this constitution coincided with those previously projected. The four branches of civil authority-the legislative, the mediative, the executive and the judicial -are made to rest on a transfer of power by the people. The government is monarchical, hereditary, constitutional and representative. The representation of the Brazilian nation consists of the emperor and the general assembly, a body composed of two chambers-that of the deputies, chosen for four years, and that of the senators, chosen by the emperor from the election-lists. With the former rests the power of originating bills for the imposition of taxes and the levying of soldiers, as well as of proposing a change of dynasty. The latter retain their dignity for life. The sessions of these chambers are public. The majority of votes decides. The senate has jurisdiction of the misdemeanors of the members of the royal family, of the ministers, deputies and council of state. The two chambers pos BRAZIL. sess, in general, great privileges. The emperor has the executive and mediatorial authorities; but his veto is not absolute. He cannot refuse his sanction to a bill equally approved by two legislative assemblies. The press is free, but libels are punished by law. All immunities, privileged corporations, &c. are abolished. The Roman Catholic is the established religion: to other denominations domestic worship is allowed, but without the power of having churches, &c. Notwithstanding this liberal constitution, the republican party gained the supremacy in Pernambuco. The president, Man. de Carvalho Paes d'Andrade, recalled by the emperor, attempted to unite the northern provinces into one republic, called the Union of the Equator. But, as soon as the emperor had no longer cause to fear an attack from Portugal, his forces invaded Pernambuco, in August, by land and sea, under the command of lord Cochrane and general Lima. Carvalho and Barros, with a great portion of the inhabitants, made an obstinate resistance; but, on the 17th of Sept., 1824, the city was taken by assault. Carvalho had fled to an English ship of war; the others into the interior of the country.-In the following year, the emperor sent general Brandt and the chev. de Carneiro to London, to negotiate there, with the Portuguese minister, the marquis de Villareal, respecting the independence of B. Similar negotiations afterwards took place in Lisbon, through the British envoy extraordinary, sir Charles Stuart, who finally concluded, at Rio Janeiro, with the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, Luis Jose de Carvalho e Mello, a treaty between B. and Portugal, Aug. 29, 1825, on the following terms:-1. B. should be recognised as an independent empire, separate from Portugal and Algarvia. 2. The king of Portugal was to resign the sovereignty of B. in favor of his son and his legitimate posterity. 3. The king of Portugal should retain the title of emperor of B. for his own person merely. 4. The emperor don Pedro should promise to receive from no Portuguese colony proposals for a union with B. 5. The trade between the two nations should be restored, and all property confiscated should be returned, or compensation made for it. The king of Portugal ratified this treaty Nov. 15, 1825. The emperor of B. has since sent ambassadors to the courts of Lisbon, London, Paris and Vienna. Sir Charles Stuart, soon after, concluded at Rio, Oct. 18, 1825, a treaty 249 of amity and commerce, and another treaty, respecting the abolition of the slave-trade, delayed for four additional years, between B. and Great Britain. But neither was ratified by the king of Great Britain, because, among other things, they contained stipulations for the mutual surrender of political criminals (or those charged with high treason) and refugees. About this time, the government of the United Provinces of the Plata urged the restoration of the Banda Oriental, which B. had held in possession since 1816. The emperor, therefore, declared war against Buenos Ayres, Dec. 10, 1825, and caused the mouth of the La Plata to be blockaded by his vessels of war. But the people of the Cisplatino, with the natives of Monte Video, had already taken up arms, for the sake of a union with the United Provinces of the Plata. The insurgents took Maldonado. General Lecor (viscount de Laguna), however, maintained himself in Monte Video. On the other hand, the republic of the Plata formally received the Banda Oriental into its confederacy, and, at the close of the year 1825, B. possessed but two points in the Banda Oriental-Monte Video and the colony del San Sagramento. A question of much importance now arose, whether the emperor don Pedro should succeed his father, king John VI, in the kingdom of Portugal. The king died March 10, 1826, having appointed his daughter, the infanta Isabella Maria, provisional regent. According to the constitution of B., don Pedro could not leave the country without the consent of the general assembly. He therefore entered upon the government of Portugal, and gave this kingdom a representative constitution, but renounced the crown of Portugal in his own person by the act of abdication of May 2, 1826, and resigned his right to his daughter donna Maria da Gloria, princess of Beira, born in 1819, who was to marry her uncle don Miguel, born in 1802; meanwhile, the emperor confirmed the present regent of Portugal. (For a further account of Maria, Miguel, and the state of Portugal, see Portugal.) Soon after, May 8, he opened the second constitutional assembly of B. at Rio. He had previously, April 16, 1826, founded the new Brazilian order of Pedro I.The war with Buenos Ayres was continued in the Banda Oriental with little vigor, and with little prospect of advantage to either party, but with a ruinous charge upon the finances of both. A negotiation for peace was at length opened, under the mediation of Great Britain, which terminated in the execution of a treaty, Aug. 27, 1828. In this treaty, the emperor of Brazil and the government of the United Provinces unite in declaring the Cisplatino, or the province of Monte Video, which had been the chief object of controversy, a free and independent state, under such form of government as it might deem most suitable to its interests, wants and resources. It was stipulated, that, for the purpose of forming this government, the existing government of the Banda Oriental should, immediately on the ratification of the treaty, convoke the representatives of the part of the province subject to it, and the government of Monte Video its citizens, to make choice of a proportional number of delegates, and that these representatives and delegates should constitute a provisional government, whose duty it should be to form a political constitution for the new state. After the meeting of this provisional government, the functions of the previously existing governments were to cease. The independence of the province of Monte Video was guarantied by the contracting parties. This treaty was duly ratified, the blockade of the La Plata was immediately raised, and the troops of the two belligerents were withdrawn from the contested territory.-By an act of the legislature, passed in 1827, the celibacy of the clergy has been abolished in B. (For further information, see Banda Oriental.) The national debt of B. is considerable, including the English loan of £3,200,000. The principal ecclesiastical dignitaries are an archbishop, who resides at Bahia, and 16 bishops, of the Roman Catholic, the established religion. In all the large towns, the government supports elementary and high schools. In the former, the system of mutual instruction is introduced. In Bahia and Rio Janeiro, there are institutions for teaching surgery, medicine, engineering and law, and for imparting commercial information. Rio has an academy for the instruction of officers intended for the naval service; also an observatory. This city and Bahia, also, contain academies for the promotion of the fine arts, public libraries, &c. In 1826, 300 young Brazilians were pursuing their studies in France. The army consisted, in 1824, of 30,000 regular troops and 50,000 militia, besides a regiment of free Negroes. The navy, in 1826, consisted of 96 ships, including 1 ship of the line and 4 frigates. The revenue of B. has been lately estimated, by the minister of finances, at about $16,290,000. Of this sum, about $7,200,000 are all which come into the hands of the general government for the supply of the general expenses. The remainder is consumed in the internal administration of the provinces in which it is collected. The whole estimate, however, is vague, and not much to be depended on. Notwithstanding the many natural resources of B., it must long remain weak, in a political view; for its inconsiderable population is too unequal in its advantages and too divided in its views. 1,800,000 are Negro slaves, ignorant and barbarous; the Indians are of no advantage to the industry of the country. They live, for the most part, retired in the wilderness. The Mulattoes seem to combine in themselves the vices of the savage and the European. Both sexes give themselves up, without shame, to the impulses of their passions, and their cruelty to their slaves is often horrible. The Europeans and the Creoles form, to some extent, the aristocracy of the country. Most of them are planters or miners, or overseers in the colonies, and, in this way, are scattered far over the country, with little communication with each other, without knowledge and education. The most cultivated persons are found in the maritime cities. But, even in Rio, the merchants, according to Mathison, are men of very little information. They take no interest in any thing but what immediately concerns their business. The clergy Mathison found so dissolute, that he was ashamed to give a description of their morals. Of men of higher character, capable of administering public offices, there are but few, and they are chiefly Portuguese. (See the Corografia Brazilica of Manoel Ayres de Cazal, Rio Janeiro, 1817, 2 vols. 4to.; Southey's History of Brazil, London, 1818, 2 vols. 4to.) BREACH; the aperture or passage made in the wall of any fortified place, by the ordnance of the besiegers, for the purpose of entering the fortress. They should be made where there is the least defence, that is, in the front or face of the bastions. In order to divide the resistance of the besieged, breaches are commonly made at once in the faces of the attacked bastions, and in the ravelin. This is effected by battering, and, at such places as the cannon do not reach, by the aid of mines.-Breach-Battery. (See Battery.)-The breach is called prac ticable, if it is large enough to afford BREACH-BREAD-FRUIT. some hope of success in case of an assault. This is generally considered to be the case if it allows a passage to 14 men abreast. Frequently, however, a breach of much less extent, even of half that width, may be entered. BREAD. In the earliest antiquity, we find the flour or meal of grain used as food. The inconvenience attending the use of the grain in its natural state, and, perhaps, the accidental observation, that, when bruised, and softened in water, it formed a paste, and, when dried again, a more compact, mealy substance, led, by degrees, to the artificial preparation of bread. Easy as it seems to us, it must have been a long time before it was completely successful. The grain was first bruised between stones, and, from the meal mixed with milk and water, a dry, tough and indigestible paste was made into balls. This is yet the chief food of the caravans in the deserts of Northern Africa. The Carthaginians, also, ate no bread, and hence were called, in derision, by the Romans, pultiphagi (pottage-eaters). After many attempts, or, perhaps, accidentally, it was observed that, by bringing the paste into a state of fermentation, its tenacity is almost entirely destroyed, and the mass becomes bread, porous, agreeable to the taste, digestible, and, consequently, healthy. The process pursued is the following:-Some old dough, called leaven, which, by a peculiar spirituous fermentation, has swelled up, become spongy, and acquired an acid and spirituous smell, is kneaded with the new dough, and produces, though in an inferior degree, a similar fermentation in the whole mass. The whole thus becomes spongy; a quantity of air or gas is developed, which, being prevented from escaping by the tenacity of the dough, heaves and swells it, and gives it a porous consistency. This is called the working of the dough. In this state, the dough is put into the heated oven, where the air contained in it, and the spirituous substance, are still more expanded by heat, and increase the porosity of the bread, making it materially different from the unbaked dough. The best and most wholesome bread is baked in some parts of France, and on the Rhine. In England, the flour is adulterated with too many foreign substances, in order to make the bread whiter. In some parts of Sweden, the bread is composed, in part, of the bark of trees, during the winter. In Westphalia, a kind of very coarse, black bread is made, of which the peasants bake one 251 large loaf for the whole week. This is divided for use with small saws. It is called pumpernickel, and is sometimes exported. In many parts of Germany, bread is made of grain nearly entire, or but just bruised, which is very coarse, and frequently forms part of the food of the horses. Bread is found wherever civilization has extended. It is made of wheat, rye, maize, barley, oats, spelt, &c. The want of bread has often occasioned public commotions, particularly in Paris and ancient Rome. BREAD-FRUIT. The bread-fruit is a large, globular berry, of a pale-green color, about the size of a child's head, marked on the surface with irregular six-sided depressions, and containing a white and somewhat fibrous pulp, which, when ripe, becomes juicy and yellow. The tree that produces it (artocarpus incisa) grows wild in Otaheite and other islands of the South seas, is about 40 feet high, with large and spreading branches, and has large, brightgreen leaves, deeply divided into 7 or 9 spear-shaped lobes.-We are informed, in captain Cook's first voyage round the world, that the eatable part of this fruit lies between the skin and the core; and that it is as white as snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread. When gathered, it is generally used immediately: if it be kept more than 24 hours, it becomes hard and choky. The inhabitants of the South sea islands prepare it as food by dividing the fruit into three or four parts, and roasting it in hot embers. Its taste is insipid, with a slight tartness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with Jerusalem artichoke. Of this fruit, the Otaheitans make various messes by mixing it with water or the milk of the cocoa-nut, then beating it to a paste with a stone pestle, and afterwards mingling with it ripe plantains, bananas, or a sour paste made from the bread-fruit itself, called mahie. It continues in season eight months, and so great is its utility in the island of Otaheite, "that," observes captain Cook, "if, in those parts where it is not spontaneously produced, a man plant but 10 trees in his whole lifetime, he will as completely fulfil his duty to his own and to future generations, as the native of our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter, and reaping in the summer's heat, as often as these seasons return; even if, after he has procured bread for his present household, he should convert the surplus into money, and lay it up for his children." Not only does 252 BREAD-FRUIT-BREATH. this tree supply food, but clothing, and numerous other conveniences of life. The inner bark, which is white, and composed of a net-like series of fibres, is formed into a kind of cloth. The wood is soft, smooth, and of a yellowish color, and is used for the building of boats and houses. In whatever part the tree is wounded, a glutinous, milky juice issues, which, when boiled with cocoa-nut oil, is employed for making bird-lime, and as a cement for filling up cracks in such vessels as are intended for holding water. Some parts of the flowers serve as tinder, and the leaves are used for wrapping up food, and other purposes.-As the climate of the South sea islands is considered not very different from that of the West Indies, it was, about 42 years ago, thought desirable, that some of the trees should be transferred, in a growing state, to the English islands there. His majesty's ship the Bounty sailed, in 1787, for this purpose, to the South seas, under the command of lieutenant, afterwards admiral, Bligh. But a fatal mutiny of the crew at that time prevented the accomplishment of this benevolent design. The commander of the vessel, however, returned in safety to his country, and a second expedition, under the same person, and for the same purpose, was fitted out in the year 1791. He arrived in safety at Otaheite, and, after an absence from England of about 18 months, landed in Jamaica, with 352 bread-fruit-trees, in a living state, having left many others at different places in his passage thither. From Jamaica, these trees were transferred to other islands; but, the Negroes naving a general and long-established predilection for the plaintain, the breadfruit not much relished by them. Where, however, it has not been generally introduced as an article of food, it is used as a delicacy; and, whether employed as bread, or in the form of pudding, it is considered highly palatable by the European inhabitants. BREAKERS; billows which break violently over rocks lying under the surface of the sea. They are readily distinguished by the foam which they produce, and by a peculiar hoarse roaring, very different from that of waves in deep water. When a ship is driven among breakers, it is hardly possible to save her, as every billow that heaves her upward serves to dash her down with additional force. BREAKING BULK; the act of beginning to unlade a ship, or of discharging the first part of the cargo. BREAKWATER. (See Cherbourg, Plymouth and Delaware.) BREAST. (See Chest.) BREAST-PLATE; a piece of defensive armor, covering the breast, originally made of thongs, cords, leather, &c. (hence lorica, cuirass), but afterwards of brass, iron, or other metals. It may be considered as an improvement of the shield or buckler, which was borne on the left arm, and moved so as to protect, successively, all parts of the body. It being perceived that the free use of both hands in the' employment of offensive weapons was important, the defensive armor was attached to the body, and received different names from its position, use, &c.; as, for instance, breast-plate, cuisses, greaves. These different species of defensive armor are of little use against fire-arms, and have, therefore, generally fallen into disuse in modern war. (See Cuirass.)—— Breast-plate, in Jewish antiquity, was a folded piece of rich, embroidered stuff, worn by the high-priest. It was set with 12 precious stones, bearing the names of the tribes. It was also called the breastplate of judgment, because it contained the Urim and Thummim. BREAST-WHEEL; a water-wheel which receives the water at about half its height, or at the level of its axis. In England, float-boards are employed, which are fitted accurately to the mill-course, so that the water, after acting on the floats by its impulse, is detained in the course, and acts by its weight. In the U. States, they are often constructed with buckets, and with a part of the circumference fitted to the mill-course. In BREAST-WORK. In the military art, every elevation made for protection against the shot of the enemy. Wood and stone are not suitable for breastworks, on account of their liability to splinter. The best are made of earth; in some circumstances, of fascines, dung, gabions, bags of sand and of wool. The thickness of the work must be in proportion to the artillery of the enemy. general, it ought not to be less than 10, nor more than 18, or, at most, 24 feet thick. The rule of Cugnot is, that the breast-work should be so high, that nothing but the sky and the tops of trees can be seen within cannon shot from the interior of the intrenchments. If this rule cannot be followed, on account of the height of neighboring mountains, the interior of the fortification ought to be secured by traverses. BREATH. The air which issues from ८ |