dent of the Cortes, was charged with the formation of the new administration. To the Baron de Bomfim, the Queen committed the command of the troops, who, in number about 3,000, including the Municipal Guard, were collected in the neighbourhood of the palace of the Necessidades. Circular invitations were also issued to the members of the Cortes, to attend her Majesty. Having assembled at the palace, they voted, among other extraordinary measures, the suspension of the Habeas Corpus; and that, further, the refractory battalions should be forthwith disarmed. In order to carry these resolutions into effect, the troops advanced into the city. A great deal of desultory fighting then ensued; and many lives were lost on both sides. In the end, the insurgents dispersed, which ter. minated this ridiculous affair.

The 4th of April, being the 19th anniversary of the Queen's birthday, was fixed for the solemnities of inaugurating the new constitution. The ceremony passed off auspiciously; the Queen and her consort proceeded in state to the Cortes, where they took the oaths to the new order of things. The Queen then addressed the assembly in a short speech, in which she announced her intention of carrying, without delay, the constitution into effect, "through the exercise of one of the most precious prerogatives which it concedes, by imposing a perpetual silence and forgetfulness over all those fatal dissentions which have afflicted this nation." After a suitable reply from the President, the session was declared to be at an end. A decree of amnesty made its ap pearance immediately, by virtue of which," the events that had taken

place since the 10th of September, 1836, calculated to destroy the institutions proclaimed by the nation at that period, to disturb order, and to treat the Royal authority with disrespect, were to remain in oblivion; and any prosecutions, which those events might have occasioned, were to be considered as having never existed, and the consequences that might have resulted therefrom, as null and void." "Revolutionary acts, or acts having a tendency to excite to revolt, practised by the adherents of the proscribed usurper," were excepted from the benefit of this decree. A further amnesty, extending to certain specified military offences, was published at the same time.

Her Majesty marked her opinion of the services of M. Joao de Oliveira, the Minister of Finance, who had distinguished himself much by his conduct during the late disturbances, by conferring upon him the title of Baron de Tojal; and the Viscounts Reguengo and Das Antas, and the Baron de Bomfim, were gazetted as Counts. General Mendes received the rank of Baron de Caudal.

The new Baron de Tojal, at the same time, retired from his office. The new cabinet was soon after arranged. The Viscount Sa da Bandeira retained his place at its head; the Home department was committed to M. Fernandez Coelho; the Count de Bomfim remained at the War office; M. Duarte de Leitao took the seals; and M. Antonio de Carvalho, provisionally succeeded Joao Oliveira in the Exchequer.

In the middle of June, another disturbance broke out in the streets of Lisbon. It commenced at the cathedral door, during the cele

bration of the feast of Corpus Christi. The mob covered the King, who was attending in person, with abuse, and compelled him to make a precipitate retreat. The Viscount Så da Bandeira had a narrow escape, being felled to the ground by the stroke of a bayonet, and M. Costa Cabral, the civil Governor, together with M. Silva Carvalho, with difficulty made their way from the midst of the infuriated mob, and took refuge in the castle of St. George. The tumult, however, was suppressed in a short time, before any great mischief had been effected; and an order, issued by Government, for the disbanding of several democratic battalions of the national guard, seems to have met with more attention than those of a similar purport which had preceded it in the course of the year.

The banditti, who under the names of Miguelite Guerillas, ravage Portugal, and particularly the southern provinces, seem to have carried on their outrages with increased vigour and audacity during the year. Amongst the boldest and most dexterous of these partizan chieftains, was Remechido, of whom already mention has been made on a former occasion. In common with so many other guerilla leaders of the Peninsula, this person was educated for the priesthood. He had, we are informed, already received the four first grades of holy orders, so as to be qualified for the functions of the altar, when the attractions of a damsel of the Algarves induced him to abandon the clerical profession. He married, and became a farmer, having, from the activity and perseverence which he displayed in overcoming the obstacles to this change in his career, ob

tained the soubriquet of Remechido or the Bustler. For many years, he seems to have lived happily, his means rapidly increased, and he became an ensign of militia, and the tax collector of his district. When the Duke of Tercei ra landed in Algarve in 1833, and the events happened which terminated in the expulsion of Don Miguel, Remechido, who had taken up arms for the usurping prince, refused to lay them down after the contest was brought to an end; withdrawing to the mountains, he collected a company of brigands about him, and became the scourge of the south of Portugal.

This freebooter's career was at length brought to a conclusion in the summer of the year. On the 28th of July, he was attacked in his mountain fastnesses by Colonel Fontoura, and, after a sharp conflict, his band was dispersed, and himself captured. He was shot at Faro on the 2nd of August.

But the death of Remechido does not seem to have discouraged his comrades. On the contrary, they exhibited more daring and activity than before; often cutting off detachments of military, pillaging villages and towns, and committing every sort of atrocity in the high ways. Remechido left a son, who inherited his father's command, and, in conjunction with another chief, named Baioja, rivalled the exploits of his formidable sire. Baioja soon afterwards fell in a mountain combat, but many candidates appeared for his name and occupation.

Meanwhile, the general elections for the Cortes, under the new constitution, took place. Much violence and chicanery are alleged to have been practised in the course

of them by the contending parties, and especially by the Septembrists, or partisans of the existing constitution, who were thought to have obtained a slight majority in the new chamber.

On the 31st of October, the Queen was brought to bed of a prince, who received the title of Duke of Oporto. It may be

mentioned, as a proof of the reconciliation of parties, that the Duke of Terceira, who before his outbreak in favour of the charter of 1826, in the preceding year, had held the office of president of the supreme military council of justice, was, at the close of this year, re-instated in his post.

VOL. LXXX.

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BE

ELGIUM.-At the close of 1837, the Dutch and Belgian controversy which for the preceding five or six years, had, on account of the impracticable firmness of the King of the Netherlands, subsided into a state of abey. ance, began to show signs of life. In the course of the following year, not only had the negociations on the subject resumed their former activity, but the peace of Europe

seemed more than once about to be compromised. The following was the state of the question at the opening of the year 1838. By the protocols of the 20th and 27th of January 1831, the conference of London had, it may be recollected, proposed, among the bases of separation," that Belgium should consist in future of all the territory which was, by the treaties of 1815, comprised in the denomination of the kingdom of the Netherlands, except such parts of it as formerly constituted the United Provinces, and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburgh. These preliminaries, however, underwent subsequent modifications which, when embodied in the treaty known as the "18 Articles," secured to Belgium the right to treat for the -purchase or redemption of Luxem burgh from Holland on fair terms of pecuniary compensation. The 18 Articles were adopted by the Belgian congress in July, 1831, and, upon the faith of this arrangement, the present King accepted the Throne. But the King of Holland rejected the Articles, a step which was followed up by the invasion of Belgium. The events of the short campaign which ensued are known to our readers; they led to fresh negociations, and the result was, a new treaty called the 24 Articles. By this last ar

rangement, which was less favourable to Belgium, than the treaty of the 18 Articles, inasmuch as it involved a slighter departure from "the bases of separation," a certain portion of the Duchy of Luxemburgh was definitively assigned to the King of Holland, as Grand Duke (no right of redemption being any longer reserved to Belgium) together with the entire sovereignty of Maestricht, and a considerable part of Limburgh. It was, moreover, determined, that Belgium should contribute 8,400,000 florins annually, as her share of the joint debt of the two countries.

After an ineffectual protest, Leopold undertook to accept these last articles in November, 1832. But the King of Holland obstinately refused his concurrence, and for the six ensuing years, the matter remained unadjusted.

The first indication of an intention to disturb the status quo existing between the two countries was manifested by the King of Holland.

Having contrived to obtain from the Germanic Diet at Frankfort the necessary authority, he proceeded, in the Autumn of 1837, to fell timber in the Forest of Grunenwald, which forms part of the disputed territory of Luxemburgh. This proceeding provoked a lively feeling of resentment on the part of the Belgians. They made a demonstration of a resort to arms, and, in the mean time, addressed remonstrances on the subject to the Diet. That body happened not to be assembled at the time, but such of its members as were at Frankfort, took upon themselves to make provisional arrangements for the preservation of the peace between the two [2 G 2]