found extremely difficult.
The fact that Brazil had been an independent monarchy for some years
helped to combat the views of those who shouted "Liberty!" too loudly,
and would fain have abandoned practice for theory. It was understood
that the first requisites were order and security, together with
reasonable checks on authority. Further, it was realized that there must
be sufficient elasticity to meet future needs and circumstances.

But for the Emperor, the forming of the Constitution would have been a
failure. Almost immediately after his first opening of the Assembly he
laid before it a sketch of the Constitution that they had to form. "The
recent Constitutions," he said, "founded on the models of those of 1791
and 1792, had been acknowledged as too abstract and metaphysical for
execution. This had been proved by the example of France, and more
recently by that of Spain and Portugal. We have need of a Constitution
where the powers may be so divided and defined that no one branch can
arrogate to itself the prerogative of another; a Constitution which may
be an unsurmountable barrier against all invasion of the royal
authority, whether aristocratic or popular, which will overthrow anarchy
and cherish the tree of liberty, beneath whose shade we shall see the
union and the independence of the Empire flourish--in a word, a
Constitution that will excite the admiration of other nations, and even
of our enemies, who will consecrate the triumph of our principles by
adopting them."

There was, however, too much of self-denial in the Emperor's views to
meet with the approbation of the Assembly. At the head of the Ministry
were the brothers Andrada--men who in earlier days had rendered great
services to Dom Pedro, but who had grown somewhat arbitrary,
overbearing, and impatient, and now presumed on their past services in
establishing the Empire to tyrannize over both the Emperor and the
Assembly. In the end the members of the Assembly forced the brothers to
resign, at which the people rose and drew Jose Bonifacio in triumph
through the streets of Rio to his official residence.

Fearing the people, the Assembly reinstated the Andradas for a period of
eight months, after which they were again ejected. From this time on
they became violent opponents of the Assembly and the Court, seemingly
determined that if they could not rule, nobody else should. Their
newspaper, the _Tamayo_, was a powerful organ in the capital, and proved