The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-29 00:00:00

THE LATE QUEEN OF PORTUGAL.

Os Monday last week was announced, by a telegraphic
despatch from Lisbon, the unexpected intelligence that
Donna Maria da Gloria, Queen of Portugal, died in child-
bed on the 15th instant.
Upon the previous accouchement of her late Majesty,
the faculty greatly feared she could not again surmount
the difficulties and dangers attendant upon her state of
corpulence, but, as she had been all along in perfect
health and spirits, the risk was lost sight of, and the
public were ill-prepared to hear of the Queen's death, at
half-past 11 o'clock on the 15th, before it was known that
she had been ill or in danger. The effect of her Majesty's
melancholy decease was enhanced by her having been to
the list seen in the midst of the people; no one appeared
more to enjoy the theatre on Sunday night, and she was
amusing herself with her children in the palace-gardens
on Monday ; but on Tuesday the Queen was no more.
Her son, Dom Pedro V., was proclaimed King, and his
father, Dom Fernando, installed as regent until he attains
his majority of 18, on the 16th of September, 1855.
Although still young, having been born on the 4th of
April, 1819, only a month before Her Majesty Queen
Victoria, her name belongs to transactions and contests
which have long passed away. Her life, especially in her
earliest years, was singularly agitated and unfortunate;
and the subsequent period of her reign has not responded
to the enthusiastic hopes of the constitutional party which
placed her on the throne. Her political career may be
said to have begun in her infancy, for she was still at Rio
Janeiro, the place of her birth, in 1826, when the death of
King John IV., followed by the renunciation of the Crown
by her father and the proclamation of the constitutional
charter, raised her to the throne, and she was betrothed a
few months afterwards to her uncle, Dom Miguel, then
made Regent of the kingdom. No sooner, however, had
this Prince assumed the reins of Government in the name
of his niece, than he usurped the Crown, and his first act
was to forbid his Sovereign and his bride from landing in
her own dominions. Donna Maria then came to England,
where she was received by George. IV. as Queen of Por-
tugal, and the leaders of the Constitutional party prepared
for that struggle which they ultimately led to asmccessful
issue, with the assistance of the other members of the
quadruple alliance. During that contest the young Queen
resided in Brazil or in Paris, and it was not till Dom
Pedro had captured Lisbon that she was enabled, in Sep-
tember; 1833, to enter her capital and ascend her throne.
Her father, unhappily, survived this event but one year,
' and on the 18th of September, 1831, the Cortes were in-
duced unanimously to declare their Sovereign, then only
fifteen, to he of full age, and in complete possession of her
royal prerogative. A few months later she contracted a •
marriage with Prince Augustus, of Leuchtenberg, the
eldest son of Prince Eugene Beauharnais ; but here again
the singular 21-fortune of her life prevailed, and the Queen,
married in January, 1835, was a widow before Fas4,!er. A
second marriage was concluded in the following year with
Prince Ferdinand, of the Romanist branch of the Coburg
family, which bar conferred upon the house of Braganza
no less than eight lineal descendants. -
A reign of twenty years is thus abruptly terminated,
' and, although it Ins, not fulfilled the hopes of its first
adherents, or rewarded, the exertions made by other
Powers to secure the succession in the constitutional line,.
it is due to the memory of the late Queen to bear in mind
the extraordinary difficulties of the position in which, by
no. fault of her own, she-was placed. Raised to the throne
in childhood, born and bred S.-m.lth America, and de-
prived of her parents before. she- knew their worth, she
had• to encounter the intrigues of a profligate court, and
the incessant struggles of political- parties, in which per-
sona" ambition and rivalry held a. large share. Between
these contending factious she had to steer her course,
though scarcely a year passed without some violent
attempt to change the Goverzanent, or some open collision
between' the national party and, the• prerogatives of the
crown. At times the opposition assumed the form of
open insurrection, and, in 1837-mere especially, it is pro-
bable that the Junta of Oporto would have succeeded in
its objects, whatever they were, Sut for the direct inter-
' position:of 'England, France, and; Spain.- All confidence
between the-SOvereign and the nation-had. long been de-
stroyed. The mixt was regarded as faithless in its en-
gagements;.bigated in its opinionptand absolutist in its
tendencies ; it was always a matter. of uncertainty
how; long: such a government could- hold its ground.
Since the last singular rising of Marshal. Saldanha, by
whi=ch that veteran politician forced himself upon the
crown =and • the • country, he has held!. the- rudder with a
firm hand, but several reasons warrantithe-belief that his
power is not likely to be of very long. duration. Upon
the accession of the-young king, the Cortes will doubtless
be convoked, and, although the king-consort has naturally
received:the temporary powers of regent, it will probably
be the wish of the nation to anticipate, by a few months,
the legailinajority of tNeir new sovereign;,andi to remove,
as much as possible,•from his court, those influences which
are supposed to have contributed so powerfully to the
errors and-the unpopularity of the late reign.
Her Majesty has left seven children ;.. namely, Dom
Pedro Alcantara, -Duke of Braganza, born Sept. 16, 1837;
Dom Louia•Thilippe, Duke of Oporto, born Oct. 31, 1838 ;
Dom Joio; Dike of Saxe and of Beja, horn March 16,
1842 ; Donna • Marie-Anne; born July 21, 1843; Donna
Antonia, born •Feb. •17,1843; Dom Ferdinand, born July
23, 1846 ; anst.Dom Augusta, born Nov. 4,187.