_15th_.--The feast of Our Lady of the Assumption, called here Nossa Senhora da Gloria, the patroness of the Emperor's eldest child, is celebrated to-day, and of course the whole of the royal family attended Mass in the morning and evening. I was spending the day with Mrs. May, at her pleasant house on the Gloria hill, and we agreed to go in the afternoon to see the ceremony. The church is situated on a platform, rather more than half way up a steep eminence overlooking the bay. The body is an octagon of thirty-two feet diameter; and the choir, of the same shape, is twenty-one feet in diameter. We entered among a great crowd of persons, and placed ourselves within the choir; and shortly afterwards the Imperial party entered, and I was not disagreeably surprised at being most pleasantly recognised. The salutation, as this evening's service is called, was well performed as to music, and very short: after it, for the first time, I heard a Portuguese sermon. It was of course occasional. The text, 1 Kings, chap. ii. ver. 19.--"And the king rose up to meet his mother, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the "king's mother, and she sat on his right hand." The application of this text to the legend of the Assumption is obvious, and occupied the first division of the discourse. The second part consisted in an application of the history of the early part of Solomon's reign to the present circumstances of Brazil; the restoration of the kingdom, the triumph over faction, and the institution of laws, forming the grounds of comparison. The whole people of Brazil were called upon to join in thanksgiving and prayers to the Virgin of Glory: thanksgiving that she had given to her people, as rulers, the descendants of the Emanuels, the Johns, and the Henrys of Portugal, and of the Maria Theresas of Austria; and prayers that she would continue her gracious protection, and that most especially to the eldest hope of Brazil, named after her and dedicated to her. The whole was gravely and properly done, with as little of the appearance of flattery to the illustrious persons present as possible, and did not last above fifteen minutes. On this occasion, the veadors, and other persons attendant on the Imperial family, wore white silk surplices, and bore torches in their hands.