ideology, sometimes trading sides. Nevertheless, the civil war between the competing armies spread to all parts of the country, and only foreign intervention could stop the bloodletting. The popular uprising was brutally suppressed with support from Great Britain and Spain, and the war ended in a clear Cartista victory, with opposition troops being imprisoned. The Convention of Gramido, an agreement that included amnesty for the Septembrists, was signed in Porto on 29 June 1847. Regeneration Between 1847 and 1851 nothing politically notable happened: nothing was legislated, there were few conflicts and parliament convened routinely. Costa Cabral's return from exile marked the only scandal of note when he received a carriage in exchange for a purchase. The last true conflict of this period was less a revolution and more a personal conflict. Marshal Saldanha, a Liberal commander in the Liberal Wars and leader against the Patuleia forces, finding himself sidelined in the new political order, began a revolt in the military headquarters at Sintra. Few supported him, and worse for his cause, he found only disappointment in successive cities (Mafra, Coimbra, Viseu, and Porto). Finally, while he was a refugee in Galicia, the former commander was acclaimed by regiments in Porto, and he returned to enthusiastic support at the São João Theatre. His movement was a self-styled Regeneração (Regeneration) of the political order in reaction to a corrupt system; the queen, worried that Saldanha would attract new adherents and thus plunge the nation once again into a civil war, decided to bring him into the fold, and installed him in government. Rotativism Consequently, Portuguese politics entered a period of tacit coexistence between the parties. While the Constitutional Charter did not change, the processes of government were modified: elections were made by direct suffrage, while Parliament could appoint commissions of inquiry into governmental acts. A wave of enthusiasm for national reconciliation swept the country, Cabral went again into exile and the country embarked on a program of internal improvements directed by Minister Fontes Pereira de Melo. Chartists and non-Chartists transformed into the Partido Regenerador (Regenerator Party) and the Partido Histórico (Historic Party), respectively, while later the reinvented Septembrists formed the Partido Progressista (Progressive Party). These two parties, Regenerador and Histórico, were centrist (i.e., center-right and center-left respectively) "liberal" organizations led by politicians dedicated to the monarchy and interested in economic reconstruction and solving the deepening financial crisis. Yet the years following 1868