throne, consenting at the same time to leave the kingdom, on condition of receiving an income for life suited to his rank. Donna Maria da Gloria was proclaimed queen of Portugal, and in 1835 was married to the duke of Leuchtenberg, son of Eugene Beauharnois. This prince died in March of the same year, after having been married about a month.

Don Pedro died a few months after his daughter had assumed the regal power; but his short reign was distinguished by two remarkable acts, one of which is likely to have a beneficial effect on the commerce of the country, the other not less likely to have an influence over the religion and social habits of the people. By the former, the abolition of the Oporto wine company, which was a most injurious monopoly, was effected, thereby giving the grower a fair recompense for encouraging the cultivation of the grape, and thus producing wine of a better quality; while, owing to the competition of merchants who export the wine, it could be bought at a lower price. The English being great buyers of wine, the decree of Don Pedro was advantageous to them, as well as to the Portuguese. We must not, however, forget to state, that the young queen was prevailed upon, in 1838, to grant a new charter of monopoly to the Oporto wine company for twenty years, thereby frustrating the benefits which were to be expected from its previous abolition. The other memorable act of the regent was the suppression of all the monasteries and convents in the kingdom, and the seizure of all lands belonging to them; a measure which was considered as retaliatory for the assistance given to Don Miguel by the monks, &c., during the contest between the rival brothers. This was, notwithstanding, an act of unmerited severity; for although small pensions-none exceeding fifty pounds a year-were granted to those who had not openly avowed themselves in favour of Don Miguel, it was so easy to accuse them of having done so, that very few actually received the pittance. The lands thus confiscated were ordered to be sold for the benefit of the state; and after the death of Don Pedro, the cortes divided them into very small lots, allowing labouring people to become the purchasers on easy terms. The sale took place in 1835, and among the buyers were many foreigners, who have settled in Portugal on these small estates, and who, as well as the Portuguese peasantry thus converted into landed proprietors, will be the means of promoting industry, and thereby increasing the comforts of a large class of the inhabitants.

To pursue this sketch of the history of Portugal farther is needless; for though several attempts have been made to overturn the existing government, and although the political horizon wears an unsettled aspect, the events which have subsequently occurred present few features worthy of comment. The queen's second marriage with a prince of the family of Saxe-Coburg must not, however, be forgotten; neither should we omit that Portugal, so early and so constantly foremost among the slave-dealing nations of Europe, has followed the example of Great Britain, and decreed its abolition.

The government of Portugal is an hereditary monarchy, with an upper and a lower representative chamber, both of which are elective, the franchise being vested in the holders of a certain small amount of fixed property. The cortes meet and dissolve at specified periods, without the intervention of the sovereign, and the latter has no veto on a law passed twice by both houses. Each province has a governor, to whom the details of its government are entrusted, but great abuses exist in almost every department, both in the judicial and administrative branches, the inade quacy of the salaries leading to the acceptance of bribes. And with regard to the prevalence of crime, it may be truly said, that so common is assas sination, and so numerous are thefts, that the law and the police are im potent alike to secure either property or life.

The Portuguese language differs but little from the Spanish; and, in

Southey's "Peninsular War," the author says, "add hypocrisy to a Span iard's vices, and you have the Portuguese character." But we are inclined to think him slanderous. The fifteenth century was the era of the heroic age in Portugal, at which time its literature vied with the Spanish; at present, the Italian opera is the chief attraction in Lisbon. Though Portugal has lost Brazil, she still retains the Azores, Madeira, Cape de Verd, and Guinea islands; the settlements of Angola and Mozambique, in Africa; and those of Goa, Dilli, Macao, &c., in Asia.

THE HISTORY OF GERMANY.

[AUSTRIAN EMPIRE, GERMAN STATES, &c.]

FROM all that can be collected of the early history of Germany, it ap pears to have been divided into many petty nations and principalities, some governed by kings whose power was limited, others by such as were absolute; some of their princes were elective, and others hereditary; and some aristocratical and democratical governments were also found among them. Many of these states and kingdoms frequently united under one head or general, both in their offensive and defensive wars. This was the state of the Germans before they were conquered by the Romans. At that time the children went naked, and the men hung the skin of some wild beast upon their shoulders, fastening it with a thong; and persons of the best quality wore only a little woolen mantle, or a coat without sleeves. Their usual bed was the ground, a little straw, with the skins of wolves or bears. Their food was bread, meat, butter, and fruit, as at present, and their drink, water, milk, and beer; for in those early ages they were strangers to the use of wine. They were accustomed to convivial entertainments, sitting in a semi-circle, with the master of the family in the middle, and the rest on the right and left, according to their quality; but to these feasts no women were admitted, nor a son under twenty years of age. They expressed an extraordinary regard for morality, and were very strict in divine worship, choosing their priests out of the nobility, who were not entirely ignorant of moral philosophy and physics, and were usually called to councils of state. Women, we are told, were likewise admitted to the priestly office, and both the one and the other were treated with the most profound respect by the laity. The doctrine of transmigration prevailed in Germany; they believed that departed souls, when they had left these bodies, animated other creatures; and, according as they behaved in this life, were happy or miserable. Cluverius observes, that they worshiped the sun with such devotion, that they seemed to acKnowledge that planet as the supreme God, and to it dedicated the first day of the week. They also worshiped Woden, or Godan, after whom the fourth day of the week was called Wednesday. It is said that this word Godan, becoming afterwards contracted into God, the Germans and English gave that name to the Deity. They also worshiped the god Faranes, the same with the Danish Thor, the Thunderer, from whom our Thursday has its name. The goddess Freia, or Venus, gave her name to Friday. and Tuisco, the same with Mars, gave name to Tuesday.

Like the ancient Britons, they performed their sacrifices in groves, the oak being usually chosen for an altar; and, instead of a temple, they erected an arbour made of the boughs of the oak and beech. The priests, as well as the sacrifice, were always crowned with wreaths of oak, or of some other sacred tree. They sacrificed not only beasts, but men; and these human sacrifices were taken from among their slaves or malefactors. Their belief that their souls should animate other bodies after death, it is said, made them fearless of danger, and upon extraordinary occasions they made no scruple of sacrificing their own lives. They burnt their dead bodies, and, having gathered up the bones and ashes of the funeral pile, buried them together; at the funerals of the great, warlike exercises were exhibited with all the rude pageantry of barbaric splendour, and songs were sung in memory of the heroic actions of the deccased.

These were the manners of the Germans, before they were subdued by the Romans, who met with such resistance, that they were contented with making the Rhine and the Danube the boundaries of their conquests; they accordingly built fortresses, and stationed garrisons on the banks of both those rivers, to prevent the incursions of what they termed the barbarous nations; but within about a hundred years after Constantine the Great, the Franks, Burgundians, Alemanni, and other German nations, broke through those boundaries, passed the Rhine, and dispossessed the Romans of all Gaul, Rhætia, and Noricum, which they shared among themseves; but the Franks prevailing over the rest, at length established their empire over all modern Germany, France, and Italy, under the conduct of Charlo magne, or Charles the Great. This celebrated man was crowned at Rome by Pope Leo III. in the church of St. Peter, on Christmas-day, 800, amid the acclamations of the clergy and the people. Nicephorus, at that time emperor of the East, attended at the coronation; and these princes agreed that the state of Venice should serve as the limit to each empire. Charle magne now exercised all the authority of the Cæsars; the whole country from Benevento to Bayonne, and from Bayonne to Bavaria, acknowledging his power.

The Germans had previously been converted to Christianity by one Winfred, an Englishman, who also collected them in towns, and thus introduced the elements of civilization among them. The Saxons were made Christians by Charlemagne, after a long and bloody warfare.

After the death of Charlemagne, and of Louis le Debonnaire, his son and successor, the empire was divided between the four sons of Louis; Lothaire was emperor; Pepin, king of Aquitaine; Louis, king of Germany; and Charles the Bald, king of France. This partition was a continual source of discontent among the parties. The French enjoyed the empire under eight emperors, until the year 912, when Louis III., the last prince of the race of Charlemagne, dying without male issue, Conrad, count of Franconia, son-in-law to Louis, was elected emperor, but was not acknowledged in Italy nor in France. The reign of Conrad produced no change whatever in Germany; but it was about this period that the German bishops fixed themselves in the possession of their fiefs; and many cities began to enjoy the right of natural liberty; following the example of the cities of Italy, some bought these rights of their lords, and others procured them with arms in their hands. Questions affecting the general interests of the Germanic body were determined in a diet, consisting of the emperor, the electors, and the representatives of the princes, and of the free cities. There were also minor diets in the different cities or divisions of the empire. It may, however, be proper to mention in this place, that the constitution of the empire has undergone a total change. There is no emperor of Germany; the title is sunk in that of emperor of Austria, which that sovereign holds by inheritance, not election. The ecclesiastical electorates have been taken possession of by secular princes.

Bohemia is united to Austria; the palatinate has disappeared; Saxony is given to the kingdom of Prussia, formerly the electorate of Brandenburg; and the electorates of Hanover and Bavaria are also converted into kingdoms. Most of these changes are the work of the late wars.

Conrad was succeeded by Henry, duke of Savoy, whom on his deathbed he recommended to the states. And in Henry II. the male race of the Saxon kings and emperors ended, in 1024. The states then elected Conrad II., who, by means of his son, afterwards Henry III., annexed the kingdom of Burgundy to the empire, rendered Poland subject to his dominion, and, in a treaty with Denmark, appointed the river Eider as the boundary of the German empire. Henry III. is regarded as the most powerful and absolute of the German emperors. He deposed three popes who had set up against each other, and supported a fourth against them from which time the vacancy of the papal chair was always intimated to the emperor, and it became an established form for him to send a deputation to Rome, requesting that a new pope might be elected. Henry IV., his son, was, however, put under the ban by the pope, Gregory VII., and his subjects and son excited to rebel against him; on which he was deposed by the states. Henry V. succeeded his father, but was obliged to renounce all pretensions to the investiture of bishoprics, which had been claimed by his ancestors; and in him became extinct the male line of the Frank emperors. Upon this the pope caused Lotharius, duke of Saxony, to be elected; but he was not acknowledged by all Germany for their sovereign till after a ten years' war. Frederic I., who became emperor in 1152, effectually exercised his sovereignty over the see of Rome, by virtue of his coronation at Arles, reserving also his dominion over that kingdom, and obliging Poland to pay him tribute and take an oath of allegiance. To him succeeded Henry VI., Philip III., and Otho; the latter of whom, being deposed by the pope, was succeeded by Frederic II., whom historians extol for his learning, wisdom and resolution; he was five times excommunicated by three popes, but prevailed so far against Pope Gregory IX. as to depose him from the papal chair. These continual contests between him and the popes gave rise to the two famous factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines; the former adhering to the papal see, and the latter to the emperors.

About the middle of the thirteenth century the empire was rent asunder by factions, each of which supported a particular candidate for the imperial dignity; these were William, earl of Holland, Henry of Thuringia, Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother to Henry III. of England; and Alphonso, king of Castile. At this time the great officers of the household laid claim to a right of electing the emperor, to the exclusion of the princes and great towns, or without consulting any other members of the empire; the distracted state of the empire served to confirm to them this claim; and Gregory X., who then filled the pontifical chair at Rome, either considering such claim as valid, or desirous of rendering it so, directed a bull to those great officers, the purport of which was to exhort them to choose an emperor, and by that means to end the troubles in Germany. From that time they have been considered as the sole electors; and their right to this privilege was established beyond all controversy in the reign of Charles IV., by the glorious constitution known by the title of the golden bull, published in the year 1357, which decreed that the territories by virtue of which the great offices were held, should descend to the heirs-male forever, in perpetual entail, entire and indivisible.

Germany began to recover from its distracted state in the year 1273, when Count Rodolph of Hapsburgh, the founder of the house of Austria, was advanced to the imperial dignity. Charles IV. of the Austrian family lived to see his son Wenzel, or Wenceslaus, elected king of the

Romans. This prince, who was the fourth son of Charles, at his father's desire succeeded to the empire; but, being dissolute and cruel, was deposed, after he had reigned twenty-two years. Charles was succeeded by three other princes, whose reigns were short; at length, in 1411, Sigismund was unanimously chosen emperor, and in 1414 he proclaimed a general council to be held at Constance, in which three popes were deposed and a new one was set up. At this council the reformers, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, were condemned and burnt, although the emperor had granted them a passport, and was engaged in honour and conscience for their safe return to their country; which so exasperated the Hussites of Bohemia, that they raised a formidable army, and under the conduct of Zisca, their general, defeated his forces in fourteen battles. Frederic, duke of Austria, son-in-law to the emperor Sigismund, was chosen emperor upon the death of his father, and reigned fifty-three years. His son Maximilian was chosen king of the Romans during the life of his father, and afterwards obtained from the pope the imperial crown. During his reign the empire was divided into ten circles.

Charles V., surnamed the Great, son of Philip, king of Spain, and grandson to Maximilian, was elected emperor in 1519. He caused Luther's doctrine to be condemned, and in his reign the disciples of that great reformer obtained the name of Protestants, from their protesting against a decree of the imperial diet in favour of the Catholics. He is said to have been victorious in seventy battles; he had the pope and French king prisoners at the same time, and carried his arms into Africa, where he conquered the kingdom of Tunis, but was disgraced in the war with the piratical states. He compelled the Turks to raise the siege of Vienna, made war on the protestant princes, and took the elector of Saxony and the prince of Hesse prisoners; but, after a reign of thirtyeight years, he resigned the empire to his brother Ferdinand, and the kingdom of Spain to his son, Philip II., himself retiring to the convent of St. Juste, in Spain. The abdication of this prince left the power of the princes of Germany more firm. The house of Austria was divided into two branches, one of which reigned in Spain, and which, by the conquests in the New World, had become much superior, in power and riches, to the Austrian branch. Ferdinand I., successor to Charles V., had great possessions in Germany; Upper Hungary, which he also pos sessed, could afford him little more than the support of the troops necessary to make head against the Turks; Bohemia seemed to bear the yoke with regret; and Livonia, which had hitherto belonged to the empire, was now detached and joined to Poland.

Ferdinand I. distinguished himself by establishing the aulic council of the empire; he was a peaceful prince, and used to assign a part of each day to hear the complaints of his people. Maximilian II., and his son, Rodolph Il., were each elected king of the Romans, but the latter could not be prevailed upon to allow a successor to be chosen in his lifetime. Under Maximilian II., as under Ferdinand I., Lombardy was not, in effect, in the power of Germany; it was in the hands of Philip, appertaining rather to an ally than a vassal. During this time the legislative authority resided always in the emperor, notwithstanding the weakness of the imperial power; and this authority was in its greatest vigour, when the chief of the empire had not diminished his power by increasing that of the princes. Rodolph II. found these obstacles to his authority, and the empire became more weak in his hands. The philosophy, or rather the effeminacy, of this prince, who possessed particular virtues, but not those of a sovereign, occasioned many fermentations. Lutheranism had already spread itself in Germany for the space of a century; princes, kings, cities and nations, had embraced this doctrine. In vain Charles V. and his successors had endeavoured to stop its progress; it