But for the Emperor, the forming of the Constitution would have been a failure.  Almost immediately after his first opening of the Assembly he laid before it a sketch of the Constitution that they had to form.  “The recent Constitutions,” he said, “founded on the models of those of 1791 and 1792, had been acknowledged as too abstract and metaphysical for execution.  This had been proved by the example of France, and more recently by that of Spain and Portugal.  We have need of a Constitution where the powers may be so divided and defined that no one branch can arrogate to itself the prerogative of another; a Constitution which may be an unsurmountable barrier against all invasion of the royal authority, whether aristocratic or popular, which will overthrow anarchy and cherish the tree of liberty, beneath whose shade we shall see the union and the independence of the Empire flourish—­in a word, a Constitution that will excite the admiration of other nations, and even of our enemies, who will consecrate the triumph of our principles by adopting them.”

There was, however, too much of self-denial in the Emperor’s views to meet with the approbation of the Assembly.  At the head of the Ministry were the brothers Andrada—­men who in earlier days had rendered great services to Dom Pedro, but who had grown somewhat arbitrary, overbearing, and impatient, and now presumed on their past services in establishing the Empire to tyrannize over both the Emperor and the Assembly.  In the end the members of the Assembly forced the brothers to resign, at which the people rose and drew Jose Bonifacio in triumph through the streets of Rio to his official residence.

Fearing the people, the Assembly reinstated the Andradas for a period of eight months, after which they were again ejected.  From this time on they became violent opponents of the Assembly and the Court, seemingly determined that if they could not rule, nobody else should.  Their newspaper, the Tamayo, was a powerful organ in the capital, and proved itself as unsparing as it was libellous in its attacks.

It was owing to obstruction of this kind that for a long while no advance was made in the formation of a Constitution, for as the Emperor made suggestions, the Andradas caused them to be thrown out.  Bills brought in by members were never read, and the brothers even went so far as to attack the Portuguese employes of the Emperor, and when one of these wrote a scathing article against them, they used personal violence toward him.  He appealed to the Assembly, whereupon the Andradas insisted that he and all his fellows should be dismissed.

Week by week the Tamayo grew more virulent and threatening against the Emperor.  Dom Pedro grew alarmed, for the Andradas were wealthy and powerful, and the Emperor felt that their disaffection might be a sign of general popular feeling—­that the republican movement was gaining ground too much for his safety.  His actions against the republican movement in various parts of the Empire, necessary though they were, had, nevertheless, forced him into connection with, and reliance on, the Portuguese residents and militia, a class almost as distasteful to the liberal Brazilians as the Portuguese whom they had driven out of the country.  Thoroughly liberal in his own tendencies, Pedro yet felt that the Andradas might be expressing a general discontent with his rule.