been published
for the assembling or regulating the election of deputies from the
provinces of Brazil, to form a constituent assembly. Early in April,
1823, the greater number of those who could be collected in the present
state of the country had arrived in the capital. On the 14th of that
month, the Emperor fixed their first meeting for the 17th. Accordingly
on the 17th of April, 1823, the deputies, in number 52, entered their
house of assembly at nine o'clock in the morning, and proceeded to elect
a temporary president and secretary, when the Right Reverend Don Jose
Caetano da Silva Coutinho, bishop and grand chaplain, was elected
president, and Manoel Jose de Sousa Franca secretary.

The first act was to name two committees; one of five members, to hold a
scrutiny on the election of the deputies generally; and the other of
three, to examine those of the five. This necessary business, and some
consequent discussion, occupied the whole of the first and greater part
of the second session; towards the end of the latter, the form of the
oath to be administered to the members, was decided:--

"I swear to fulfil, faithfully and truly, the obligations of deputy to
the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly of Brazil, convoked in
order to frame a political constitution for the empire of Brazil, and to
make indispensable and urgent reforms. Maintaining always the Roman
Catholic and Apostolic religion, and the integrity and independence of
the empire; without admitting any other nation whatever to any bond of
union or federation which might oppose that independence. Maintaining
also the constitutional empire, and the dynasty of the Lord Don Peter,
our first Emperor, and his issue."

The third session was occupied in regulating the forms of the assembly.
The throne to be placed at one end of the hall; on the first step on the
right-hand side, the President shall have his chair when the Emperor
presides, otherwise the chair to be in front of the throne, with a small
table, separate from the table of the members, and on it the Gospel, a
copy of the constitution, and a list of the members. When the Emperor
opens the assembly, his great officers may accompany him, and the
ministers may sit on his right; proper places are appointed for
ambassadors, and a gallery is open to strangers. Some other forms as to
the reception of the Emperor, or a regent, or a minister commissioned by
him, were also settled; and then the 1st of May