Mr. Loring to Mr. Blaine.

No. 14.]

Sir: I most respectfully acknowledge the receipt of a cablegram from the Department of State, dated 19th October, relating to the death of the King of Portugal, in the following words:

Suitably express President’s sincere condolences upon His Majesty’s lamented death.

This cablegram I communicated to the foreign office in a note dated 21st instant, copy of which I transmit herewith.

I have also the honor to inclose copy and translation of a note, dated October 19, from the minister of foreign affairs, informing me of the death of His Majesty Dom Luiz I, and of the advent of Dom Carlos to the throne.

I also inclose a printed copy of the proclamation of His Majesty Dom Carlos I upon assuming the duties of his office, dated October 19, and a translation thereof.

I transmit, also, the proclamation of the prime minister Luciano de Castro, issued on the same occasion, with a translation thereof.

I have, etc.,

Geo. B. Loring.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 14.]

Mr. Loring to Mr. Gomes.

Sir: The President of the United States has learned with pain the death of Dom Luiz I, King of Portugal, and I am instructed by cablegram from the Department of State, Washington, to express the sincere condolence of the President on the lamented decease of His Majesty. In giving expression to his own sympathy on this occasion the President speaks also for the American people, who appreciate the wisdom and dignity of the late King in his peaceful and prosperous reign and the loss the Kingdom suffers in his death.

To the Queen also the President extends his warm sympathy in Her Majesty’s severe affliction.

[Page 654]

I take this occasion to renew to your excellency my high consideration and to express the earnest desire of the President for the prosperity of the Kingdom under the reign which has just now commenced.

Geo. B. Loring.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 14.—Translation.]

Mr. Gomes to Mr. Loring.

Oppressed with deep sorrow, I fulfill the sad and painful duty of communicating to your excellency that to day, the 19th, at 11 o’clock and 5 minutes in the morning, God was pleased to call to His holy glory the King, Dom Luiz I, who succumbed after great and prolonged suffering to the grave malady with which he was afflicted.

His most faithful Majesty the King Dom Carlos, in succession in accordance with the terms of the constitutional charter, assumed the Government, has been pleased to confirm the ministry which was found in office, and resolved, in demonstration of his profound sentiment for the irreparable loss of his greatly loved and esteemed father, the King Senhor Dom Luiz, of most blessed memory, to seclude himself during the space of eight days; determining, also, that general mourning shall be assumed for a period of three months, half of that time deep mourning.

His Majesty the King Dom Carlos will not delay conveying to the knowledge of the Senhor President of the Republic this deplorable and sad intelligence, in the conviction which he feels of the Senhor President’s great interest in everything which concerns his royal family.

I avail, etc.,

Barros Gomes.
[Inclosure 3 in No. 14.—Translation.]

Proclamation of Horn Carlos I.

Portuguese! God was pleased to put a premature end to the life of the King Dom Luiz I, my esteemed and much loved father, after a reign of twenty-eight years which will remain marked in the history of the country as a period of peace, toleration, and liberty, of fruitful changes in the fundamental and organic laws, and of the most ample moral and material development.

In conformity with the political institutions of the monarchy I am called to preside over the destinies of the kingdom and for the best performance of the duties incumbent upon me I am sustained by the tradition left to me by the late sovereign and the veneration with which the Portuguese people regard his memory and partake with me and with the royal family in the great grief which afflicts us all alike.

In the most faithful execution of our political institutions, in the incessant effort to raise as far as in me lies the greatness and prosperity of my country, I will exercise, as it becomes me, the most conscientious diligence. In this way I will endeavor also to merit the affection of the people, and thus imitate the monarch who so well knew how to endear them to his person, and who was so early snatched from the endearments of his family and the respect and love of the entire nation.

Hastening then to fulfill a precept of the fundamental law of the monarchy:

I swear to maintain the Roman Catholic apostolic religion, the integrity of the kingdom, to observe, and cause to be observed the political constitution of the Portuguese nation, and other laws of the kingdom, and to provide for the general welfare of the nation as far as in me lies; and I engage soon to ratify this oath before the General Cortes of the Portuguese nation.

I declare also that it pleases me that the actual ministers and secretaries of state continue in the exercise of their functions.


Dom Carlos I.

(Countersigned by the ministers of state.)

[Inclosure 4 in No. 14.—Translation.]

Prime Minister’s proclamation.

His Majesty the King, Senhor Dom Luiz I, having died this day at eleven o’clock and five minutes in the morning, His Majesty the King, the Senhor Dom Carlos I, resolves, in demonstration of bis great grief, to seclude himself for the period of eight days.

[Page 655]

The same august senhor ordains as follows:

That there shall be observed general mourning for the period of three months—deep mourning for the first half of that time, and light mourning for the latter.

That for eight successive days, counting from to-day, all business shall be suspended before the tribunals and public departments with the exception of fiscal offices and all stations of public health.

That all theaters and public amusements shall be closed during these eight days.

That the authorities shall order the observance of all demonstrations customary on similar occasions.

That on the day of the interment of the deceased monarch, which shall be solemnized as indicated in the programme, and which will be made known in due season, all persons who assist at similar funeral solemnities will present themselves either in their uniforms or in a dress of deep mourning.

That all these orders be announced to the authorities and persons interested, and to be put into force when printed in the “Diario do Governo” without waiting for further orders, and that from this moment all corporations and functionaries consider themselves as already having received notice.


José Luciano de Castro.