he declared with bitterness that the error of the Brazilians had been in warming in their bosom the viper of monarchy whose victims they had become.
The reign of Pedro II., which began in 1841, is divided into three distinct periods: the first is that of his apprenticeship in the art of government under the influence of those who were charged with his tuition, of whom one was a bishop and the other a courtesan ; the second is that of the conservative predominance characterized by the reaction against the liberal advances of the regency ; and the third is that of a pseudo-philosophy in which the monarch attempted to compensate for the public liberties more or less suppressed, by improved material conditions.
The writer of this article, who was personally well acquainted with the second emperor, and who knows by experience that the liberty of the press, at least, was respected under his reign, will be the last to refuse to do him justice.
As the period of the regency has bequeathed to Brazilian his-
tory the names of Feijó and Bernardo de Vasconcellos, so the reign
of Pedro II. has furnished those of illustrious Brazilians, who,
under the very monarchy, have materially advanced the cause of
liberty.
Not to lengthen too much the historic roll, it will be enough.
to mention here Eusebio de Queiroz, the typical constitutional
minister ; Carneiro Leam, the advocate of the policy of concilia-
tion, which ended the ostracism of the liberal party ; Rio Branco,
the originator of the legislative movement for the abolition of
slavery, and José Antonio Saraiva, who gave Brazil the electoral
law the sincere execution of which would be sufficient to lead to
a republican form of government.
Indeed, in all the long reign of Pedro II. there are only three things in his political conduct which reach the altitude of his moral stature—the liberty of the press, the abolition of slavery and the disinterested patriotism which in the last days of the government inspired the aged emperor, as was shown by his willingness to abdicate in favor of the republic.
This consent to abdicate, unique of its kind, deserves more particular mention, since it offers an opportunity for throwing light upon the present political situation in Brazil.
In 1869 certain men of undoubted political sincerity who had lost faith in the programme of the liberal party, which, while in
