to her father, whose good-nature was only equalled by his political incapacity—the wife of a prince of the Orleans family, remarkable only for his avarice and his ignorance of the art of government,— to such the imperial legend did not inspire the same confidence in the future of the Brazilian nation.
The doubts that hovered over the third reign grew thicker as
the infirmity of the aged Emperor increased, in the period begin-
ning in 1887. He was constitutionally incapacitated for the exer-
cise of the functions of his high office. After his return from
Europe, in 1888, his attendant physician, Dr. Motta Maia, was
employed near him in the discharge of duties not provided for in
the constitution. He acted as a sort of chancellor, arranged the
audiences given by the Emperor to his ministers, who no longer
met in council with the chief of the nation, and the latter dis-
patched the business of each portfolio as far as permitted by his
watchful attendant, and as well as his enfeebled faculties would
allow.
At that time, full of apprehension even for those who were
interested in the maintenance of the monarchy, and while the
Joam Alfredo cabinet was still in power, a combination of the
partisans of the empire in the Liberal and Conservative parties
was suggested, whereby the Emperor should be declared physi-
cally incapacitated to reign. At that time, however, the palace
of the imperial princess in the little city of Petropolis was the
scene of chicanery and conflicting intrigues, and the future chief
of the ministry, the Viscount of Ouro Preto, was already sure of
succeeding Joam Alfredo, supported by the zeal of two friends in
the princess’ household, and it was thought more prudent to
make haste slowly and to gather the fruits of the inauguration of
the third reign under the direction of the Liberal party, rather
than share them with political adversaries. It was by this ar-
rangement alone that the old monarch was spared the fate of
another King Lear.
The history of the Brazilian monarchy, as well as that of the
evolution of republican opinion in Brazil, are yet to be written,
particularly in its relation to the strife which in that part of the
American continent was carried on for a century between monarch-
ical and democratic principles.
The present writer disturbed and full of anxiety at this mo-
ment in which a crisis is approaching in the combat which must
