Burning of Constitutional documents

On 29 September 1833 the people’s judge (juiz do povo, elected representative of the craft guilds) petitioned the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) to collect and publicly burn, ‘as unworthy and shameful acts of a loyal people’, all documents and orders issued by the Constitutional Government. The Council granted the petition, and the burning took place on 4 October of that year, at about 4 in the afternoon, in the Largo da Sé, before a large crowd and the military corps of the 1st and 2nd line. According to the Pregador Imparcial, the documents burnt were ‘the minutes of the elections and all the other autographs and powers of attorney of the substitute deputies’. After the ceremony the juiz de fora (crown-appointed judge from outside the district) raised several cheers for John VI, absolute king, which the people warmly echoed.