The Sun.
London, England, 1822-11-27 00:00:00

measures which you' have' adopted for the reformation of the
social edifice.

- " My attention is naturally fixed on the political constitution
—a fundamental law of the state which I swore to voluntarily
and deliberately, and which receives this -day the sacred pro-
mise of all the citizens. Yes, Gentlemen, they must feel a vir-
tuous pride in beholding the rights of man, as a member of
society, established on principle's as solid and durable as eternal
Morality : the throne built upon the law and the prosperity of
social institutions, supported by the sublime power of the di-
vine religion which we profess; the safety of individuals and
property, combined with the interest and security of the state ;
the agreement, the harmony between the rights of the citizen
and his duties, the civil liberty of the individual and the well-
being of society, guaranteed by the responsibility of the public

functionaries and by the just liberty of the press. Ah ! Gen-
tlemen, what a sum of happy results do the conditions of our

social compact promise !
" Faithful representatives of the nation, you embraced the
whole extent of the wants of the people. While research and
meditation prepared the work of the Constitutional Code, your
care provided a remedy for the evils that most urgently required
it. Thus the administration of justice and finance, the resto-
ration of public credit, commerce, navigation, agriculture, ma-
nufactures, public instruction, and philanthropy, received the
impulse of wisdom and patriotic zeal which characterize
and distinguish the regenerators of a nation in an enlight-
ened age. _ _ _

" To this spirit of justice and order with which the plan of
the political regeneration of the monarchy was conceived, we
owe the relations of friendship and interest which happily sub-
sist with Foreign Powers, and very particularly with the Con-
stitutional and Reprlsentative Governments of both Worlds.—
And I have particular satisfaction in being able to announce to
'you, that the most positive declarations of the Governments of
France and England have fully secured us against the fears of
any attack upon our independence.
" To this same wisdom, and to the measures of conciliation
with which you have endeavoured to maintain the integrity Of
the United Kingdom, and to strengthen the fraternal ties which
bind us to the Portuguese of Brazil, the dissenting provinces
will owe, I hope, the return of their tranquillity, and of the
blessings which they cannot expect but from the union with the
Portuguese of Europe. This subject, Gentlemen, awakens re-
collections which deeply afflict my heart. I would not touch on
it, were it not so intimately connected with the march of your
labours, and with the right it gives you to the national acknow-
ledgment, and to my particular gratitude,. The glory of Kings
is inseparable from the happiness of their subjects : and he who

presides over a free nation, is as happy as those are miserable
who rule over slaves. This is the measure of the satisfaction
which your illustrious and useful labours give me. They open
a boundless career of prosperity and glory to the noble Portu-
guese nation, whose fate is essentially united 'with mine.
" You are going, Gentlemen,. to receive from your consti-
tuents the congratulations and benedictions to which your ser-
vices entitle you. Carry to them, at the same time, the certainty
that my care and solicitude continue to be devoted to the welfare
of the nation. - Assure them of the sincerity of my intentions
and the consistency of my proceedings, of which you have been
eye-witnesses and if it should be necessary, inspire them with
true love 'of their country, which binds them to sacrifice every
thing for it ; and teach them that sincere adherence to the Con-
stitutional system essentially: consists in obedience to the law,
and in love of order and justice, without which the best institu-
tions cannot prosper: In this manner continuing to instruct and
to edify, you will enjoy in -the public gratitude the just reward
of your glorious labours ; and the generous nation to which you
have consecrated them, by following the course,whichyoa have
traced out for it, will become, by the perfection of its social in-
stitutions, themodel and the envy of other people."
His Majesty having concluded his speech, the President rose
to reply in the name of the Assembly, as follows :
" Senhor,—The political constitution of the Portuguese Mo-
narchy having been yesterday sworn to and proclaimed
throughout the whOle kingdom,of .Portugal and Alprve, it is
proper that the constituent Cortes 'of the nation should this clay
be dissolved. Called by the free election of the people to frame
! this new social compact, we have never for a moment neglect-
ed that useful work, and never for a moment would wish to
continue in seo eminent a situation after having concluded and
made public our task. To ourselves we owe the duty of re-
turning to the general class of citizens, there to give a strik-
ing
example of obedience to the law we have founded.. To
the nation we owe the duty of not withholding for a single day
the pacific enjoyment of the advantages and the privileges
which the constitutional law assures to her. Finally, our duty
to 'your Majesty required that we should hasten as fat as
practicable the moment of your entering on the full exercise of
that executive power which for the felicity of the Monarchy, is
vested in your Majesty's Government. Such, Senhor, is the
basis of the unanimous resolution adopted by the Congress for
closing on this day the Constitutional Cortes.
" It is pot necessary that 'a general review of our legislative
labours daily executed with the most unwearied diligence dur-
ing the long period of 21 months, should at the last moment of
this final and solemn meeting occupy the place of more im-
Portant reflections. Those labours have been performed in the
face of the whole nation ; they are recorded in our acts ; for
them we neither merit praise, nor covet recompence. Since we
owe every thing to the country, to the country we cheerfully de-
vote our studies, our cares, and sacrifice our interests and our con-
veniences ; and we are ready to sacrifice our lives, should such
'sacrifice be required of us. If the result of the work corres-
pond with the good.wishes of those who have executed it—that
is, if the new political Constitution fix, as we venture to hope it
will, the felicity of the great family of the Portuguese nation,
and re-open the closed fountains of public prosperity, we shall
have the most brilliant recompense, and the Constitutional
Cortes will then be crowned with a tribute of praise and glory,
of which neither envy nor calumny will be ever able to deprive
them—with that tribute which polished nations never fail to be-
stow on wise Legislators, in manifest preference to those who
only aim at extended empire by means of sanguinary conquests.
But, Senhor, what the Cortes cannot at the present mo-
ment refrain from declaring, since its omission would be the
basest ingratitude, is, that no constituent body ever executed
its labours under circumstances more favourable than those in
which we have been placed. To give in the midst of arms a
new Constitution to a conquered country has always been found
as easy, as it is difficult and hazardous amidst the sweets of
peace suddenly to change the fundamental law of an old Go-
vernment. In the tormer case, surprise and terror may wrest
from a people, in despite of their natural ind. pendence and love
Of liberty, a servile obedience ; but in the latter, obstacles al-
most insurmountable are opposed to such a change.' Ancient
customs, rights acquired by the use or the abuse of time, con-
flicting parties, passions, and personal interests, at every step fa-
tally interrupt the harmony of all classes of citizens. Then an
untractable people, throwing off all restraint, when they think
they are in the pursuit of liberty, fall into licentiousness, the
fatal precursor of anarchy, as that is of despotism. But, thanks
to Providence, which in an age so fertile in political revolutions,
in which the lofty vessel of the European States has been nearly
overwhelmed by internal and external wars, has given to asto-
nished Europe the first example of a regeneration commenced
and concluded in the short space of two years, in which the in-
habitants of great cities and of the poorest villages have not for
a single day discontinued their usual occupations—in which no
parties have dared to show themselves in a way capable of af-
fecting the security of the Republic,—and in, which all citizens
have with marked alacrity, or at least, with firm resignation, sa-
crificed their own interests to the public welfare.
" It is but a few days ago that, in the name of the august
Congress, I had to congratulate your Majesty and the whole
Nation on the happy completion of the Constitution, and on the
glory which your Majesty acquired when you accepted it, and
swore to maintain it. But, Senhor, the Congress is now pene-
trated with other sentiments. We neither eulogize nor congra-
tulate. We exhibit to the whole world our love and gratitude
to your Majesty and the Portuguese Nation—your Majesty
having commanded as a father, the 'people having obeyed as
children—for the preservation of public tranquillity and the pa-
cific establishment of the political system, by which the Mo-
narchy is to be governed. Nor does this declaration detract any
thing from our own glory. Indeed, to what greater glory could
we aspire, than to that of being the Legislators of a Nation
equally courageous and prudent, and which has now at its
head a Monarch who merits the love and veneration of the
people ?
"Encouraged as we are by so successful an experiment, we can
no longer apprehend a violent crisis, in the progressive operation