od is
W. Bollaert, The Wars of Succession of Portugal and
Spain from 1821 to 1840 (London, 1870).]

*697. Nominal Constitutionalism, 1834-1853.*--The reign of Queen Maria
(1834-1853) was a period of factional turbulence. There were now three
political groups of principal importance: the Miguelists, representing
the interests of the repudiated absolutist regime; the Chartists, who
advocated the principles of the moderate constitution (that of 1826)
at the time in operation; and the Septembrists,[871] who were (p. 631)
attached rather to the principles of the radical instrument of
1821-1822. By all, save perhaps the Miguelists, the maintenance of a
constitution of some type was regarded as no longer an open question.
In 1836 the Septembrists stimulated a popular rising in consequence of
which the constitution of 1822 was declared again in effect until a
new one should have been devised, and, April 4, 1838, there was
brought forward under Septembrist auspices an instrument in which it
was provided that an elected senate should take the place of the
aristocratic House of Peers for which the Charter provided, and that
elections to the House of Deputies should thenceforth be direct. In
1839, however, a moderate ministry was constituted with Antonio
Bermudo da Costa Cabral as its real, though not its nominal, head, and
by a pronunciamento of February 10, 1842, the Charter was restored to
operation. Costa Cabral (Count of Thomar after 1845) ruled
despotically until May, 1846, when by a combination of Miguelists,
Septembrists, and Chartists he was driven into exile.[872] The
Chartist ministry of Saldanha succeeded. In 1849 it was replaced by a
ministry under the returned Thomar, but by a rising of April 7, 1851,
Thomar was again exiled. At the head of a moderate coalition Saldanha
governed peacefully through the next five years (1851-1856). The
period was marked by two important developments. July 5, 1852, a
so-called "Additional Act" revised the Charter by providing for the
direct election of deputies, the decentralization of the executive,
the creation of representative municipal councils, and the abolition
of capital punishment for political offenses. A second fact of
importance was the amalgamation, in 1852, of the Septembrists and the
Chartists to form the party of Regeneradores, or Regenerators, in
support of the Charter in its new and liberalized form.

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