me to the front, and
suppressed all signs of revolution. Thus the boy Emperor's position was
secure.

Still, with a country nearly bankrupt, stringent measures were necessary
to restore prosperity; official independence and peculation had to be
suppressed, and the Regents, who succeeded each other with marked
rapidity, had to be watched, while it was necessary at the same time to
maintain the executive power. These exigences led to strenuous scenes in
the Assembly, and the succession of Regents became still more rapid. In
this capacity Andrada, Carvalho, Muniz, Feijo, and Lima, succeeded each
other, while Ministers and Opposition squabbled and strove together,
denouncing each other as the worst of tyrants.

Notwithstanding the confusion, a certain amount of progress was
effected. Abuses were remedied, reforms effected, while the national
tendency towards Republicanism strengthened the ultra-Liberal party, to
whom the old-time Absolutists allied themselves. A reactionary party,
desirous of seeing the Emperor recalled, came into being, and between
these two was the moderate party, composed of the greater part of the
population of the country, and represented politically by the Regency
and the majority in the legislative chambers.

There was, however, sufficient strength in the Republican and
ultra-Liberal party to accomplish revolt in the provinces of such extent
as to call for military action in order to suppress it. Accordingly the
provinces became, through the various reforms introduced, self-governing
States, and, when the number of Regents had been reduced from three to
one, there was little difference between the Constitution of Brazil and
that of the United States of America.

The old Emperor, Pedro I., died in Portugal on September 24, 1834, and
after that event a strong reaction set in among the Brazilians in favour
of the Monarchy. The democratic party asserted that the Emperor's
sister was, on attaining the age of eighteen, fully capable of
exercising the duties of Regent. Having once granted this, the natural
deduction followed that if a girl was fit to rule at eighteen, a boy was
fit to rule sooner. In 1840 the Opposition brought forward a motion to
the effect that the Emperor was of age, in spite of the article of the
Constitution which declared that the majority of the Sovereign should be
the age of eighteen.

By that time the nation was prosperous and at peace, while moderate men
were tired of the fa