to national politics with renewed strength. They delivered a powerful blow to the government when they managed to win several seats in the Chamber of Deputies in 1860. The Emperor asked the Marquis (later Duke) of Caxias, who had commanded the Brazilian forces in the Platine War and who was also a member of the Conservative Party, to head a new cabinet on 2 March 1861. The new government had to face a major challenge as the Chamber of Deputies was divided in three groups: the traditional or "pure" Conservatives, the "moderate" Conservatives and the Liberals. Caxias named men who were part of the pure and moderate Conservatives to the remaining portfolios in an effort to weaken the revigorated Liberal opposition and consolidate a workable governing majority. The cabinet was unable to function due to a lack of true support internally. It was doomed when José Tomás Nabuco de Araújo Filho, the former Justice minister in the Conciliation cabinet, delivered a speech advocating a merger of moderate Conservatives and Liberals into a truly new political party. So well-received was this speech that both groups voted together as a single cohesive faction, leaving the government without a majority. The cabinet requested Pedro II dissolve the Chamber and call for new elections, but he refused. With no remaining alternative, the ministers resigned. On 24 May 1862 the Emperor named a member of the Moderate-Liberal coalition to form a new cabinet. The new political party, in which the majority of members were former Conservatives, was called the "Progressist League". It was the end of 14 years of Conservative dominance in national politics. The period had marked a time of peace and prosperity for Brazil. "The political system functioned smoothly. Civil liberties were maintained. A start had been made on the introduction into Brazil of railroad, telegraph and steamship lines. The country was no longer troubled by the disputes and conflicts that had racked it during its first thirty years." This tranquility disappeared when the British consul in Rio de Janeiro, William Dougal Christie, nearly sparked a war between Britain and Brazil. Christie believed in Gunboat diplomacy and sent an ultimatum containing abusive demands arising out of two minor incidents at the end of 1861 and early in 1862. The first was the sinking of a commercial barque on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul and the ensuing ransack of the wreck by