It became necessary at this time to increase the authority of the missionaries, who, from their first entrance into the interior parts of America, had defended their proselites against the armed savages, with no other weapons than the gospel of Christ in one hand, and a crucifix in the other. An ordinance was therefore published on the 21st of December, 1686, which declared that theholy fathers of the society of Jesus should not only be invested with the spiritual government, as before, but also the political and temporal one, over the towns and villages under their administration.
Some years after the publication of this edict, which, though it opened a passage for the Portugueze to the gold and diamond mines in Brazil, had nearly been attended by the most fatal consequences in Paraguay, the richest fleet which ever sailed from Brazil entered the port of Lisbon. It contained more than a ton and a half of gold, and came most opportunely to relievethe exigencies of don Pedro, who, foreseeing the events that would most probably follow the death of Charles the IId of Spain, was preparing a considerable armament, which was attended by so great an expence, that the royal treasury being nearly exhausted, he was under the necessity of having recourse to thecortes, from whom he obtained a supply of 600,000 crowns.
Louis the XIVth, deeply interested in the motions of Portugal, was presently informed of this new subsidy, and the apparent motives alledged by the king to induce its being speedily granted. This intelligence did not at first appear to make much impression on the French monarch, but he soon after took umbrage at it, and still more particularly on hearing that the Spanish ambassador continued living in a great style at Lisbon, had an opera performed in his own house, gave the most magnificent entertainments, and had succeeded in gaining the favour of the king of Portugal.
The court of France was very well aware, that don Pedro had legitimate claims on the crown of Spain, that his vicinity to Madrid would facilitate his views, and that he might easily find allies to support hispretensions; it was therefore thought expedient to dispatch an envoy extraordinary with orders to sound the intentions of the court of Lisbon on this subject.
The nearer Charles the IId approached towards his end, the more were the powers of Europe employed in forming plans for dividing his inheritance. Different treaties had been formed during the course of his illness between France, England, and the United Provinces; but these were presently annulled, when on the demise of that prince, his will declared Philip, duke d’Anjou, heir to the crown of Spain. The new king was at first acknowledged by all the powers in Europe, except the Empire: he took upon himself the title of Philip the Vth, and departed immediately for Spain. It was this occasion which gave rise to the following memorable speech of Louis the XIVth; “My son, there are now no longer any Pyrenees;” a speech which unhappily was but too soon forgotten, since the first war undertaken by France, after that of thesuccession, was against the Spaniards.
Philip the Vth entered his new dominions without the smallest opposition; he was received with much solemnity, and with every testimony of joy, on the 14thof April, 1701, at Madrid, where the people took the oath of allegiance, and expressed an attachment to his person, which neither time, nor reverse of fortune, had ever the power to weaken. Destitute of troops sufficient to oppose the united forces of France and Spain, and without allies to furnish him with supplies, don Pedro gave up for the present all idea of bringing forward the claims of the house of Braganza to the crown of Spain, and hastened to form an alliance with Louis the XIVth and Philip the Vth, as the properest means of preventing the kings of Spain from renewing their pretensions to that of Portugal.
This alliance was greatly approved by the public; the Portugueze still bearing in mind the misery of their situation, whilst under the dominion of the house of Austria, and remembering with pleasure and gratitude the signal services rendered them by that of Bourbon. Their great disinclination to war, also added to their satisfaction, since they had now every reason to flatter themselves they might be suffered to remain neuter; but this hope, alas! was presently destroyed, for England, having on the 7th of September, 1701, formed a league with the Empire and Holland against France and Spain, immediately on warbeing declared, commanded her fleet to commence hostilities on the coast of Portugal. Don Pedro directly gave orders to the duke de Cadaval to assemble a sufficient body of troops to secure the sea-ports from the insults of the English; and at the same time informed his allies of his situation, and the danger with which he was threatened, unless speedily assisted. Neither France nor Spain were in a condition to equip a fleet capable of standing against the attacks of the English, and yet these powers insisted on Portugal’s taking an active part in the war. Spain, in particular, treated the Portugueze ambassador with insupportable insolence, and on his urging the necessity of his master’s remaining neuter, he was answered by the cardinal Portocarrero, “that no other conduct could be expected from the rebel duke of Braganza.”
The king of Portugal, whose love of peace had even induced him to pass over in silence the intelligence he had received from his minister at the Hague, that by a private treaty between France and Spain, his kingdom was to become a province of the last-mentioned country, now thought himself justified in breaking with allies, who not only gave him up to the power of hisenemies, but were even employed in contriving his destruction, he therefore on the 6th of May, 1703, entered into the league styled thegrand alliance, and obtained the most favourable conditions; the emperor promising to keep in pay 14,000 Portugueze, and the queen of England engaging herself to maintain a fleet ready at all times to defend Portugal and its colonies. There were also secret articles in this treaty, which treaty itself was not to be made public till the archduke Charles arrived at Lisbon, by which don Pedro was to be put into possession of Badajos, Alcantara, Albaquerque, Valentia in Estremadura; Bayonne, Vigo, Tuy, and Gardia, in Gallicia.
Louis the XIVth was presently made acquainted with this convention, and gave orders to his ambassador to demand an explanation, which he was constantly refused.
On the 9th of May, 1704, an English fleet appeared off Lisbon, and landed the archduke Charles, together with 10,000 men. A very few months after his arrival, the court of Portugal was plunged into the deepest distress by the death of the infanta, a child of eight years old, who was betrothed to the archduke. It being of thegreatest importance to lose no time in commencing hostilities, the troops were scarcely landed before they were employed in actual service. Nothing decisive occurred during the first campaign; good and ill success equally attended their arms; and the English alone gained a conquest, which they have constantly preserved. The Spaniards, from the most unpardonable negligence, having left Gibraltar with only a garrison of a hundred men, it was taken on the 4th of August by the English, who fought under the command of the prince of Darmstadt, and admiral Rooke.
The second campaign in 1705 was of very little importance; and the advantages obtained in that of the following year, were much more brilliant than solid. On the 16th of June, lord Galway and the marquis de Minas entered Madrid without resistance, and caused the archduke Charles to be proclaimed king of Spain: the greater part of the people, however, faithful to their first engagements, ventured even on the same day to shout out “Long live Philip the Vth, our lawful sovereign.” Such marks of affection, testified by the Spaniards, and at such a moment, were a certain presage that the triumphof the archduke would be but of short duration.
The English and Portugueze armies quitted Madrid on the 1st of August, and prudently avoided engaging the Spanish and French troops, commanded by marshal Berwick, having been informed, that they had recently received a powerful reinforcement from France. The English and Portugueze generals were on this occasion condemned or excused, according to the dictates of party spirit, for not having taken greater advantage of so fortunate a beginning.
The Portugueze troops being returned to their winter quarters, the king gave orders for the levying of twelve thousand men, being determined to carry on the war with the greatest spirit and activity; but unfortunately for Portugal and its allies, don Pedro departed this life, after a very short illness, on the 9th of December, 1706.
An historian of merit[30]has ventured to blame this prince for not remaining neuterin thewar of the succession; but we have already seen that he was forced into hostile measures, by the conduct of the different parties. Other historians, still more severe, accuse him of not attending sufficiently to the important objects of agriculture and commerce. Nothing can be more unjust in most particulars than these reproaches, since it was during his reign that vegetables, and the most delicious fruits first flourished in Portugal,[31]and that the famous treaty was made with England, by which the latter power entered into engagements to take Portugueze wines in exchange for English manufactures.
Cotemporary writers have done more justice to the merits of this sovereign, and allowed him not only the eminent virtues which ought to adorn a great monarch, but the superior talents of a wise administrator. Posterity has gone still farther, attributing to him the double merit of having, by his first alliance with Spain, gloriously terminated a dangerous revolution in the state, and of having carried his point, by quietly effecting another revolution in his own family.
John the Vth, the son of don Pedro (or Pedro the IId) succeeded to the throne on the 9th of December, 1706, but was not solemnly proclaimed king till the 1st of January, 1707. This young prince, aged only seventeen years, continued faithful to the engagements taken by his father with the allied powers, against France and Spain, and put every thing in order to carry on the war with the greatest vigour. Success, however, did not wait upon his arms, for Philip the Vth having returned to his capital on the 8th of October, 1706, gave the command of the army destined to act against Portugal to marshal Berwick, who on the 15th of April, 1707, gained a complete victory over the allied armies, under the command of lord Galway, at the celebrated battle of Almanza, where the greater part of the Portugueze present on the occasion were either killed or taken prisoners. An extraordinary circumstance, and the only one of the kind to be met with in history, took place at this battle, where the English, under the command of a French general,[32]were beaten by an English one who commanded the French army.
The year 1708, though it affords nothing very interesting relative to the actions which took place between Spain and Portugal, must always recal to our memory the noblest victory ever obtained by humanity over the ravages of war; since the kings of those two countries, by mutual agreement, prevented hostilities of any kind being committed against husbandmen and vine-dressers.
John the Vth, in the same year, united himself by still closer ties to the house of Austria; and on the 8th of October formed an alliance with the second daughter of the emperor Leopold. The joy occasioned by this marriage was greatly augmented by the arrival of a fleet of merchantmen, consisting of a hundred sail, from Brazil, having on board to the amount of six millions sterling in gold, diamonds and tobacco.
Nothing could be more timely than this supply; the subsidies promised to the Portugueze being very ill paid, and their army having suffered considerably, on the 7th of May, 1709, when the Portugueze were defeated on the banks of theCaya, by the marquis de Bay, in the campaign of Gudina.[33]The king was also obliged to withstand the instances of his allies, in an affair which he was decided not to give up; and the ambassadors from the Empire and England, together with the States-General, having remonstrated in the strongest manner about the franchises of foreign ministers, which his father had abolished twenty years before, he resisted all their arguments with a firmness they little expected, and, forced them to lay aside their claims. The year 1709, which began so prosperously for the archduke Charles, ended in the most disastrous manner for him and for Portugal.
General Stanhope on the 27th of July,defeated the French and Spanish armies at Almenara, and afterwards greatly contributed to gaining the great victory of Saragossa; on this occasion the marquis de Bay was so completely beaten by the count de Staremberg, that Philip the Vth was obliged to quit Madrid, and the archduke entered the capital without striking a blow. No monarch, however, ever met with a worse reception from his subjects; they treated him with every possible mark of aversion, avoiding his sight, shutting themselves up in their own apartments, and even disdaining to pick up the money he threw into the streets. All his endeavours were fruitless to extort the oath of allegiance from several of the nobility, and having commanded the marquis de Mancera,[34]president of the council of Castille, an old man turned of a hundred years of age, tocome and kiss his hand, he received the following reply: “I have but one faith and one king, which is Philip the Vth to whom I have sworn allegiance. I acknowledge the archduke as a great prince, but not as my sovereign, and having lived a hundred years without failing in any of my duties; I will not, for the short space of time I have yet to pass in this world, blast my spotless reputation by a dishonourable action.”
The archduke, irritated at such opposition, proposed giving up the town to be pillaged, but the generous Stanhope representing the cruelty as well as impolicy of such vengeance, “Well,” replied Charles, “if we cannot plunder the city, let us at least quit it.” If, indeed, the approach of the duke de Vendôme had not made this retreat necessary, circumstances alone must, sooner or later, have forced the archduke to take this step; since both he and his partizans began to perceive the impossibility of preserving a crown, which thepeople were decided, at the risk of their lives and properties, to replace on the head of him whom they had acknowledged as its lawful possessor. The reverse of fortune which Philip had experienced, far from weakening the attachment of the Spaniards, had very much contributed to increase it; so great, indeed, was the affection they bore him, that they preferred burning their provisions to selling them to his enemies. Such conduct gave rise to Stanhope’s remark, “that a victorious army might indeed march through Spain, but that it required a still stronger one to keep possession of it.”
If a retreat through a country so ill disposed towards Charles, was in itself so dangerous, how infinitely more so must it be on the arrival of such an enemy as the duke de Vendôme, who, having reconducted Philip to Madrid, on the 3d of December, went immediately in pursuit of the archduke and Stanhope, who were making every possible effort to regain Portugal.
Vendôme, having swam his troops across the Tagus, attacked general Stanhope, who was shut up inBriguegua, and on the 9th of December forced him to surrender himself prisoner, together with 5000 English. His success did not stop here, for havingjoined the count de Staremberg the same day at Villaviciosa, he, the following one, gave the battle which is known in history by the name of the above-mentioned place.
Philip the Vth, who had not hitherto joined his generals in the field of battle, commanded, on that day, the right wing of his army, whilst the duke de Vendôme appeared at the head of the left: and thus a victory was obtained which ended all conflicts, and put him in the unrivalled possession of the crown of Spain. It was after this engagement that Philip, being unprovided with a bed, Vendôme exclaimed, “I will presently form you the most glorious bed on which a sovereign ever slept;” and he gave orders that a mattress should be made of the standards and colours taken from the enemy.
The defeat at Villaviciosa having placed the Portugueze in a most critical situation, it was thought highly necessary, in 1711, to defend their own frontiers as much as possible, without ever attempting to attack those of their neighbours. The intelligence received of the capture of Rio Janeiro by Guy Trouin, cut off every hope of carrying on the war any longer. This place surrendered after eleven days siege, on the 23d of September, and the loss onthis occasion was estimated at twenty-five millions of French livres; which made it impossible for Brazil (for some time at least) to furnish supplies to the mother country: a circumstance the more to be regretted, as Portugal never stood in greater need of assistance.
A peace was now their only resource, and an unexpected event took place, which not only gave them an opening to make propositions, but accelerated the negociations. The emperor Joseph dying, the archduke Charles succeeded him in the imperial dignity; and from that moment it became contrary to the interest, not only of the allies, but of the whole of Europe, to place the crown of Spain upon his head. To preserve thebalance of powerhad been thepretextalledged for the war, which could certainly never have been maintained, had the vast possessions of the emperor Charles the Vth been once more united under the dominion of one and the same person. The real and only motive, however, for this war, appears to be the ancient hatred entertained against the name of Louis the Great.
In the course of this same year (1711) France began to enter into correspondence with England: the duke of Marlboroughhad been recalled by the court of St. James’s, whose views tended towards peace, in as high a degree as his led towards war. In this situation of affairs the Portugueze had the prudence to attach themselves more closely than ever to the interests of Great Britain: they were accordingly admitted to the conferences held at Utrecht, on the 29th of January, 1712, and on the 11th of April, in the same year, France made peace by five different treaties; the first with England, signed atthreeo’clock in the afternoon; the second with the duke of Savoy, atfouro’clock; the third with the king of Portugal, ateight; the fourth with the king of Prussia, atmidnight; and the fifth with the States-General, at aquarter past onethe next morning.
By the treaty with Portugal, France engaged that Spain should lay no claim to any part of that country; and at the same time renounced her pretensions on the river of the Amazons. Nothing now remained for the tranquillity of John the Vth, but to conclude peace with Philip the Vth, and all difficulties being done away by the mediation of the court of Versailles, it was at last signed at Utrecht, on the 13th of February, 1715.
The people of Portugal, thus delivered from the horrors of war, remained in the greatest tranquillity during the reign of John the Vth, who never took the smallest part in any war, except that which arose between the Ecclesiastical States, the Venetians, and Turks, shortly after the peace of Utrecht. On this occasion the king of Portugal sent out a squadron to assist the former; and the pope, in acknowledgment of so essential a service, divided the archbishopric of Lisbon into two dioceses, and raised the royal chapel to the dignity of a metropolitan, patriarchal church: since which time the city of Lisbon has been separated into two great districts, distinguished by the name of eastern and western.
The patriarch received permission from the pope to officiate habited like his holiness; whilst the canons of his church had the privilege of wearing habits resembling those of cardinals.
The king immediately caused a most superb patriarchal church to be erected, and greatly beautified the fine palace of his predecessors: he also constructed an aqueduct, which was still more useful than magnificent, Lisbon having been hitherto very ill supplied with water; whilst on theother hand he built the sumptuous convent of Mafra, which may be termed with equal justice moremagnificentthanuseful.[35]The taste displayed by his majesty for architecture, did not divert his attention from the cultivation of arts and sciences. On the 8th of December, 1720, he issued a decree for the institution of theRoyal Academy of the History of Portugal.[36]He gave orders for the purchasing of a variety of curious and valuable articles from foreign countries, such as pictures, statues, books, and manuscripts. He encouraged and rewarded artists of every description, and succeeded in inspiring them with that noble emulation so necessary to the progress of talents; but he did not sufficiently interest himself about artificers, and the means of improving the industry of his people, and making it turn out to thegreatest advantage: this neglect may probably be attributed to lord Tyrawley, the English ambassador, who had obtained a very great ascendance over the mind of this prince; who, however, paid the strictest attention to every other branch of the administration. He was possessed of much firmness of character, was a rigorous observer of justice, and knew much better than any of his predecessors how to maintain the necessary subordination between the people and the nobles, who had formerly been very absolute, nay, indeed almost independant. He proved his strict adherence to justice on several occasions; especially in the following instance; when Cæsar de Ménézes, the son of the viceroy of Bahia having, with the assistance of several other gentlemen, forcibly rescued one of his attendants from the hands of the corregidor, the king immediately deprived the latter of his employment, as a punishment for his want of firmness; banished Ménézes to Africa, and either exiled or imprisoned all the gentlemen concerned in the business.
This monarch, though slavishly attached to the fair sex, still retained the inflexible justice of his character, even in moments when the greatest men have sometimes yielded to the seductions of beauty. Therelations of a gentleman condemned to work in the mines, contrived to interest the king’s mistress in his favour: but this prince presently put a stop to her entreaties, by observing, “that the pardon she solicited depended on the king of Portugal, who resided in theTerreiro de Paco: but that in her house he appeared in no other character than that of her lover.”
The convents, and different houses of the grandees, which had hitherto served as sanctuaries for criminals, were in this reign deprived of that privilege, which indeed had only served to screen the most notorious villains from the punishments due to their crimes. His humanity was equal to his justice, for during an epidemical malady in Lisbon, which in the year 1723 carried off a thousand persons in a month, he gave audience three times a week to every description of his subjects, whether blacks or whites, freemen or slaves; he also forbid the nobles who composed his court to quit the capital, and insisted on their seconding his benevolence, and aiding him in the distribution of his charities.
A dreadful tempest, in the following year, destroyed more than a hundred vessels in the Tagus: immediately the beneficenthand of this humane monarch, was stretched forth, to repair, to the utmost of his power, the cruel losses sustained on this fatal occasion.
The great abuses which had for a long time taken place in the administration of the holy office, called for the attention of a just and merciful sovereign. John the Vth succeeded in making a most important reform. Before his reign, the prisoners detained in the inquisition were never allowed counsel to plead their cause; so great an abuse of power sensibly affected the king, who obtained a bull from pope Benedick the XIIIth, in 1725, by which these unhappy prisoners were granted every assistance that justice made necessary in their situation: this was followed up by a decree, obliging the inquisitors to communicate the sentences they pronounced to the king’s council, before they were put in execution.
Such was the conduct of John the Vth, that he was equally beloved and feared by his people. The grandees, indeed, viewed him with sentiments of fear rather than of love; a truth of which he was so well convinced, that he is said to have declared, that though his grandfather feared the grandees, and his father both loved andfeared them, that he himself neither feared nor loved them.
These sentiments are supposed to have arisen in his bosom, from the untoward conduct of the nobles, who, on several years being passed without the queen’s having children, neglected paying their court to his majesty, and attached themselves very particularly to his brother, don Francisco: a prince, who is represented of so savage a disposition, that it appears extraordinary any one should wish to approach his person. One author,[37]in particular, mentions him as cruel, constantly delighting in fighting, and infesting the streets of Lisbon, at the head of a set of armed men, who nightly rambled through the city in search of adventures. These bands of gentlemen were termedranchos; their amusement consisted in attacking and insulting passengers of every description, and such was the force of example, that several personages of the first nobility vied with don Francisco in the commission of these dreadful disorders. The duke de Cadaval, the marquis de Marialva, de Cascaes, the Aveiros, and the Obidos, hadeach their separaterancho. No night ever passed without people being wounded or murdered by this illustrious banditti; hatred, revenge, and a sort of civil war throughout the city, unrestrained by the presence of the king, were the natural consequences of such horrid barbarity. Foreigners also formed offensive and defensive treaties; and a body of sailors left their vessels on pretence of attacking the bravoes of Lisbon, whom they plundered, whenever their party happened to be the strongest.
A personage likewise acted a part in these nocturnal scenes, who afterwards made a very different and still more celebrated figure in the page of history. Carvalho, possessed of extraordinary strength, and invincible courage, with a form nearly gigantic, seemed decided to surpass every other bravo of the age. He chose for his companion a man of a mind and person resembling his own, who, with himself, was habited in a white Spanish capotte, with shoes and hat of the same colour: thus accoutered, they were easily distinguished in the night, when, without any other assistance, they attacked the differentranchos, which they frequently conquered; though never without being exposed to themost dangerous resistance, nor without receiving several wounds.
All the endeavours of his majesty to prevent such dreadful disorders, proved fruitless: they were thought, indeed, to proceed in some degree from a spirit of chivalry, which suited the national taste, and which the people did not wish to extinguish. The justice which always distinguished the character of the king, was about that time put to a severe and singular test, by a very unexpected claim, and one which had all the appearance of being well founded. In the year 1724, the chevalierPorta, a gentleman of Lausanne, arrived in Portugal, and was presented at court, where he demanded a private audience of his majesty, on a very particular occasion; no less than to lay claim to the possessions of don Antonio, who had been proclaimed king of Portugal in 1580, and from whom he alledged his wife was lineally descended. The king having granted him several audiences, and received him with great distinction, did not, however, venture to give judgment either for or against his claim, but left the decision to two juntas or councils. These were immediately assembled, and the opinions of the most celebrated civilians taken on the occasion.The result of their deliberations was, that the Swiss gentleman’s claims were not legal, since don Antonio had been proscribed by Philip the IId of Spain, as a traitor to his country, and his property justly confiscated to the crown. This decision of the civilians was approved and confirmed by the two juntas.
That Philip the IId, who himself usurped the crown of the Braganzas, should pronounce such a sentence, is not extraordinary. Philip the IVth likewise pronounced one of the same nature against that family: but surprising indeed must it appear in the eyes of posterity, that a grandson of the duke of Braganza should acknowledge and admit such a judgment as just and legal. Whilst the Portugueze looked up with gratitude and blessings to a prince, under whose reign they had enjoyed all the comforts of peace, and whilst his paternal hands were ever open to bestow fresh marks of his bounty, they were on the eve of receiving a blow to their happiness, as dreadful as it was unexpected.
John the Vth, who was above the middle size, very well made, and so extremely strong, that his great delight in the bullfights was to seize the furious animal by the horns, and bring him to the ground,was attacked by a lingering illness, which, during the last eight years of his reign, reduced him to a state of inactivity, very fatal to the interests of his kingdom.
So great was his devotion after this attack, that he neglected all public affairs, which were entirely confided to the care of brother Gaspard, arécollet friar. From that moment the revenues of the state were employed in building or endowing convents and churches, and causing masses to be said: this last piece of devotion was carried to such an excess, that it arose to a degree of madness; and it became necessary to conceal from his majesty the deaths which took place in Lisbon; for no sooner did any one expire, were it the meanest of his subjects, than he caused at least a hundred masses to be said on the occasion. This gave rise to the following expression: “that John sent the living to hell, to pray the dead out of purgatory.”
During the course of this fatal malady, which terminated in death on the 31st of July, 1750, every branch of the administration became relaxed, and the state was in the end not only destitute of money, but charged with a debt of a hundred millions of French livres.
John the Vth, as has been already observed,was of a fine height; his figure was noble, and his countenance agreeable, though his complexion was rather dark and thick. His dress was magnificent, and he sent for all his cloaths from Paris. As for his character, it is not very easy to delineate; he was particularly jealous of the dignity of his throne and his quality as king; and sought more to inspire his grandees with fear, than with love. He bore, in many particulars, a great resemblance to Louis the XIVth; their tastes were the same, except indeed in the article of war, which the Portugueze monarch always wished to avoid. The French, and some other nations, have reproached this prince with his partial attachment to the English, into whose hands he gave up the whole of the commerce both of Portugal and its colonies.
Joseph the Ist succeeded his father at a most unfavourable juncture: the deplorable state of the government and finances, required not only his strictest attention, but the assistance of the most able ministers. Diego de Mendoça was the first entrusted with the care of public affairs; but his majesty soon perceived that his choice had fallen on an improper person. Carvalho, who has been already mentionedas destined to play a great part on the stage of Portugal, and who, in future, will make the most conspicuous figure in this history, had displayed very great talents in his embassies to London and Vienna: he had also shewn himself so superior to all who composed the council held on the death of John the Vth, that he was fixed upon to replace Mendoça, who was afterwards banished to Mazagan, in Africa.
The new minister was born in 1699, of a gentleman’s family from Soure, near Coimbra; in the university of which he was educated: after having made a great proficiency in his studies, he entered into the service, which his levity and misconduct obliged him to quit. Launched into the pleasures of the great world, his gallantry and spirit of chivalry seduced the affections of a young heiress, of the illustrious house of Almada. He succeeded in carrying her off, and married her in spite of her family, whose resentment he braved with impunity, notwithstanding all their efforts to cause his destruction: fortunately for him, brother Gaspard, who was the uncle of the duke d’Aveiro, and the favourite of John the Vth, was particularly his friend, and sent him off immediately; first to London, and afterwards to Vienna,as secretary to the embassy. During his residence in the last mentioned city, he received intelligence of the death of his wife. He very soon was happy enough to captivate the heart of a relation of the celebrated count de Daun, and having received letters patent of nobility from the court of Lisbon, all the numerous objections made at first to this alliance were immediately removed. Thus fortunate in a foreign country, let us now examine the different qualities and talents which paved the way for the brilliant post he was destined to fill on his return to his native land. The page of history scarcely furnishes a man possessed of so fine an understanding, and so strong a mind; or who could assume such a variety of forms, with a character so strikingly contrasted. He, indeed, displayed successively the lively wit and fascinating manners of a finished man of fashion; the cultivated understanding of the most learned scholar; the supple humour of the most artful courtier; the ready genius of the most consummate man of business; and the subtle spirit of the most able negociator. With his friends, Carvalho was sometimes open, and perfectly unreserved; whilst at other times he treated them with the same profound dissimulationhe practised towards his enemies. The services he received were always rewarded, and the injuries he suffered were never forgiven. His manners towards foreigners were as easy and obliging as they were stiff and reserved towards his countrymen. Such, indeed, was the extent of his capacity, and his profound knowledge in politics, that he has ever been equally celebrated as a minister of state, and a manager of foreign affairs.
The great similarity existing between Carvalho, marquis de Pombal, and the cardinal de Richelieu, has given rise to the following comparison.[38]These two great personages had each been elevated from the middling station of life to the highest dignities. Each governed by terror, and re-established the sovereign authority, by cutting off the heads, and humbling the arrogance of a turbulent nobility. Each had the ridiculous pretension of being esteemed wits, and possessed of universal knowledge. Each was a profound politician, an imperious master, an irreconcileable enemy, and yet withal of amiable manners. Each rose to dignities byhonourable means, and though alike disdaining to bend the knee at the shrine of fortune, each became possessed of immense riches.
It would greatly exceed the limits of this work, were we to attempt to enter minutely into the long administration of the marquis de Pombal; we shall therefore only take notice of some important particulars, and the most remarkable events, which took place during the reign of his master.
The respective domains of Spain and Portugal on the continent of South America, had never been properly divided; but in the year 1751, commissaries were sent thither to settle this affair, and on their report the limits were fixed, and a line of separation traced between the possessions of these two powers; this was approved and confirmed by treaties signed in the month of April in the same year; these treaties, however, were not easily put into execution, being strongly opposed by the Indians of Para and Marignan, and still more violently by those who inhabited the countries near the rivers d’Uraguay and Parana. Whatever may be the motives alledged in favour of the war then declared against these Indians, the principle on which it was founded was certainly unjust;for even on the supposition that one power has a right to insist on the neighbouring states adopting the form of government most conformable to the views of that power; it surely can never have that of attacking their independence; particularly after their having conformed to the new established laws, lived happily under them; and desiring nothing more than to be allowed the quiet enjoyment of the blessings of peace. The Portugueze, who dreaded the approach of the Spaniards towards Brazil, and still more particularly towards the mines of St. Paul, and their settlements on the river Parana; and the Spaniards, who were equally apprehensive that the Portugueze, by posting themselves on the Uraguay and Rio de la Plata, should come too near the colonies of Buenos Ayres, Chili, and the mines of Potosi, had by mutual agreement ceded the tract of country lying between their different settlements, to the Jesuits who acted as missionaries in that distant quarter of the globe.
If the grant of these lands, the length of which had never been ascertained, though the breadth had been determined, became clearly void on the part of those who ceded it, it could not possibly be valid on thepart of those who signed it; unless, indeed, it was acknowledged as such by the parties concerned; and this was the ground on which the missionaries built all their pretensions. This society of holy men, to the disgrace of the other colonies,[39]had by constant attention and assiduity greatly humanized Paraguay and the other countries in the circle of their mission: villages were built in every part, Christianity triumphed over infidelity and idolatry; the savages became civilized, and lived happy under a wise government; no people, indeed, ever appeared more truly blessed; the produce of their labour was distributed in common; there were neither rich nor poor; no distinctions of high and low, consequently no avarice, ambition, or jealousy: all took an equal share in the labours of the day, and all were equally rewarded. The Jesuits distributed in the different towns and villages, treated the people with paternal tenderness, and reigned over the whole of Paraguay like the patriarchs of old, surrounded by a numerous and affectionate family. The authority they had established, by a system of politicsvery different from that of the generality of earthly governments, was founded on a perfect union of public utility and private happiness; and this astonishing republic existed some time in peace; for the missionaries, from moderation, and a wish to avoid all disputes with Spain and Portugal, paid a reasonable tribute to those powers, without murmuring at the illegality of such a demand on a free people, who, though now formed into a commonwealth, was not on that account to be esteemed either Spanish or Portugueze.
The courts of Lisbon and Madrid, jealous of the great population and rapid civilization of countries situated so near to their most important colonies, united to rob the Jesuits of the fruit of their labours, and to divide the spoil between them. In vain these holy fathers represented their lawful claim to lands, which had been particularly granted to them, and the injustice of committing such an outrage on a free people, who, though they had embraced the Christian religion, and adopted European manners, never intended bowing their necks to the yoke of foreign powers. The just reasons alledged by the Jesuits were treated as acts of rebellion, and an armed force immediately invaded theircolonies. The Indians made all the resistance in their power, but were presently overcome by the superior skill and experience of European troops. A small number amongst them submitted to their new masters, whilst the rest, accompanied by their holy comforters, went farther up the country, and formed another settlement.
The war of the missionariesbore a very serious aspect at Lisbon; and Carvalho dispatched his brother to terminate it as soon as possible. The effects of this war proved in the end very fatal to the Jesuits, for it prejudiced the king strongly against them, and certainly prepared the way for their destruction. A very short time afterwards, Joseph the First not only banished all father confessors of that order from the court of Lisbon, but every other Jesuit who held employments of whatsoever nature.[40]
Such about this time became the distressed state of the finances of Portugal, that the gold of Brazil became an object of the greatest importance to the minister.The usual annual importation of gold from that country he knew to amount to forty millions of French livres, whilst he also knew, that there were not more than fifteen millions, and those too not without alloy, in circulation throughout the whole of Portugal. He accordingly published an edict, forbidding the exportation of gold out of the kingdom. England was greatly alarmed at this intelligence; and government thought the affair of too much importance to trust to the common mode of representation; lord Tyrawley was therefore sent ambassador to Lisbon, with the strictest injunctions to prevent the effect of this edict; but neither his repeated expostulations, nor the threatened hostilities of his court, were of any avail to cause its revocation.
The establishment of several new manufactories in Portugal, occasioned fresh complaints on the part of the English, which were treated with as little attention as the former one.[41]
In the mean time Portugal was on the eve of sinking under a blow which no human prudence could possibly foresee or avert, and which was still more dreadful, from its not being preceded by any of those signs which usually presage such awful events.
Never did the horizon appear more clear, nor the sun shine more bright than on the 1st of November, in the year 1755, and never did the Portugueze prepare to celebrate All-Saints’ Day under more favourable auspices; when, near the hour of ten, invited by the beauty of the weather, and the solemnity of the festival, the people with religious haste flocked towards the churches, the earth suddenly shook under their feet; clouds of dust darkened the sun; the musical instruments, which invited them to partake of the holy mysteries, sounded no more; repeated and violent shocks of an earthquake were felt; houses with terrific noise fell to the ground on every side; the most solid edifices were thrown down; the magnificent palace of the kings of Portugal was entirely destroyed, and scarcely could those who inhabited it, find time to escape from being buried under the ruins.
Such of the inhabitants of Lisbon whowere fortunate enough to avoid being crushed by the rubbish of their fallen dwellings, knew not where to seek a place of refuge. Some amongst them flew to the churches, which presently became their tombs, whilst others, dreading to be swallowed by the earth, which seemed gaping to receive them, rushed impetuously towards the sea. The magnificent quays on the banks of the Tagus were thronged with people; when, in the twinkling of an eye, the element towards which they looked for safety, rose to a prodigious height, and threatened them with, if possible, a still more horrid death than that they sought to escape. The waves of the sea rose several fathoms above the ordinary level, and dashing towards a shore they were never destined to overflow, drove in vessels, some of which arrived in safety, whilst others were entirely shattered to pieces, and swallowed up the unhappy wretches, who had escaped being buried in the bosom of the earth.
Earth and water were not the only elements which fought against the miserable Portugueze; fire and air contributed likewise to their destruction: the former, in particular, caused the most dreadful catastrophes: for though, at first, apparentlysmothered amongst the rubbish, it presently forced itself a passage, and burst forth with such fury, as baffled every attempt to stop its progress.
The public storehouses, and private magazines were soon reduced to ashes: the immense riches they contained were entirely consumed; for such was the violence of the flames, and the excess of heat, that it was impossible to approach the burning tenements, or assist the wretched inhabitants, whose piercing cries struck to the heart. But, dreadful to relate, in the midst of scenes of so much horror, men (if such they can be called) of different nations and complexions, whose lives had hitherto been spared, in this awful moment took advantage of the confusion which reigned throughout the city, to commit the most horrible depredations. These wretches, dispersed in every quarter, braved the greatest dangers; not alas! to succour a distressed fellow-creature, but to rob and murder him; since whosoever discovered a hidden treasure, or delivered up the keys to these merciless invaders, was sure to pay the forfeit with his life.
Such atrocious crimes, however, remained not long unpunished; for the moment the government was able to act, the strictestsearch was made for the savage monsters, who, to the disgrace of humanity, still continued to commit them. Those who escaped the sword of justice, were strongly fettered, and never relieved from the weight of their chains, but whilst employed in burying the dead, the numbers of which so infected the air, and caused such putrid exhalations, that the plague seemed to threaten this miserable city with still another, and equally dreadful calamity. The greater part of these atrocious villains survived but a very few days their accomplices; thus finding a speedy punishment from the effects of their own diabolical actions; since many amongst them were struck dead by the putrid vapours issuing from the very bodies of those they had so inhumanly butchered.
The intelligence of this dreadful event was presently circulated throughout Europe; and the English displayed on the occasion a degree of humanity and generosity superior to all praise. All causes of discontent given them by the Portugueze were, at this calamitous moment, nobly forgotten; and they alone afforded them more assistance than they received from the united efforts of all their neighbours and allies. Justice is also due to the conductof Carvalho, who during several days carried on business, eat, and slept in his carriage, which conveyed him continually from place to place, and whithersoever his presence was particularly required. Such was his activity, that he published more than a hundred ordinances in the space of eight days. He advised the king to wear nothing but undyed woollen cloth, manufactured in the country; and his example was followed by the court, and every other description of persons: he also engaged his majesty to sign an edict, by which all foreign merchandize was obliged to pay an additional duty; and this he enforced, notwithstanding the representations of the foreign ministers, and more particularly those of the English ambassador. By the effects of his zeal, Lisbon was soon cleared of all rubbish, and wide strait streets built, with new houses on each side. Such indeed were the signal services he rendered the state on this disastrous occasion, that he became the idol of the people, and was appointed prime minister by his majesty. He was not, however, so elated by his good fortune, as not to be perfectly aware that he had great and dangerous enemies, whose hatred was still increased by his new dignities; but he was far from suspecting theextent of their malice, or the dreadful precipice on which he stood. The attack meditated against him, was still more formidable, from the profound secrecy with which it was concealed, and from the parties concerned in it being of the first consideration in the state.
The duke d’Aveiro, one of the greatest men in the kingdom, was the ostensible chief of this conspiracy; whilst the marchioness de Tavora, a most distinguished character at court, was in fact the principal agent; and the whole was conducted by father Malagrida, a member of the most powerful religious order in the Christian world.
The union of persons so differently situated, and of such opposite characters, was the effect of a concatenation of circumstances of the most extraordinary nature.
The duke d’Aveiro was descended from the younger branch of the family of Mascarenhas, which, though one of the most ancient houses in Portugal, was not one of the most noble, and he certainly had no claim to the distinguished rank he afterwards held, which he owed entirely to his uncle, brother Gaspard, a mere Portugueze gentleman; he himself being incapable of pushing his fortune, or aspiring to favourthrough his personal merit. His figure was greatly against him, for he was short, and far from handsome; add to this, he was ignorant, obstinate, deranged in his fortune, and capable of every crime; meanly servile towards Carvalho, whom he secretly detested; and so proudly vain of his birth, as openly to declare, that his family, being descended fromGeorge(the natural son of John the IId, surnamed the Great)he was but one degree removed from the crown.
Stung to the quick at being no longer treated with the same distinction as during the reign of John the Vth, he formed the terrible design of assassinating his successor; and his pride giving way to his resentment, he indiscriminately attached himself to every one who had, or who thought he had, reason to complain of the court; particularly to the Jesuits, and the family of Tavora. To the former he had always testified the greatest aversion during the administration of his uncle, brother Gaspard, but he now sought their society, frequently visiting them, and receiving them night and day in his own apartments. After some little time, he judged them worthy of his confidence, and revealed his shocking design to father Malagrida. TheJesuit having succeeded in bringing about a reconciliation between the duke and the Tavoras, who had long resented his having deprived them of several domains formerly belonging to their family, prevailed upon him to open his heart to the old marchioness de Tavora, whose confessor he was. The duke the more readily consented to this plan as he knew the implacable hatred borne by the marchioness to the king, and his minister, who had refused her solicitations in favour of her husband, for whom she wished to procure the title of duke. This lady was in every respect widely different from her brother-in law, the duke d’Aveiro. Nature had bestowed on her the most striking beauty, the most imposing carriage, and the most seductive graces. She was endowed with a genius capable of conceiving the most extensive plans, with judgment to ripen, and talents to execute them. The strength of her body fitted her to support the greatest fatigue, the temper of her mind to brave the greatest dangers, whilst the firmness of her character made her disdain to submit to the king or to his minister. Nature had also planted in her bosom the shoots of the noblest passions—passions, alas! which, as they are well or ill directed, form thegreatest men, or the most atrocious villains.
Mistress of immense riches, her liberal spirit induced her to bestow them freely; whilst her superior judgment taught her to set bounds to her generosity. Thus endowed with qualities both of body and mind, so infinitely above those of the duke d’Aveiro, the marchioness soon became the life and soul of the conspiracy, which she conducted with the most wonderful skill and address. Her principal accomplices were chosen from the members of her own family, but her insinuating manners gained her several partizans, not only in the highest, but even in the lowest ranks of the people. Her conduct, in the mean time, was of a very extraordinary nature, since she never endeavoured to conceal from the prime minister the hatred she bore him, nor failed speaking of him openly, in terms of the greatest contempt. The sovereign himself was not treated with more indulgence; he became the subject of the most poignant satire, and the bitterest sarcasms; whilst the queen and princesses were the constant objects of her ridicule.
Inspired by the most diabolical sentiments, she put on the mask of religion toeffect her purpose, and by her feigned devotion deceived the most clear-sighted. Whilst her thoughts were employed in forming plans of the blackest treason, she frequented the churches, made one in the different processions, went on pilgrimages, and practised all the external forms of religion with the greatest ostentation. Her confessor, father Malagrida, was an Italian Jesuit, sent by the general of the society on a mission to Portugal. Zealous, eloquent, and enthusiastic, he presently became the most fashionable spiritual director: people of every description made choice of him for their confessor: he was regarded as a saint, and consulted as an oracle.
More than two hundred and fifty persons of consequence were concerned in this conspiracy, and nothing now seemed wanting but to fix the day for putting their design into execution.
The hearts of kings are not invulnerable; their passions are frequently strong, and their means of satisfying them easier than those of other men; this facility ought, in fact, to put them on their guard, and teach them to curb the violence of their inclinations, since their elevated rank, and the crowd by which they are constantly surrounded,make it impossible that their actions should long remain concealed. Joseph the 1st made frequent visits to the young marchioness of Tavora; these gave rise to suspicions of an affair of gallantry being carried on between them, which, whether just or unjust, served as a plausible pretext for attempting his life. On the 3d of September, his majesty visited the marchioness, and remained with her, contrary to custom, till eleven o’clock at night. We dare not investigate the reasons of this visit being so unusually prolonged, lest it should implicate other persons in this horrid transaction, without diminishing the enormous guilt of the regicides. The king was on that night attended by only one domestic, who went with him in his calash, drawn by two mules, and driven by a postilion. The conspirators, perfectly well acquainted with the road he would take in returning to Belem, placed themselves in the most convenient spots for the execution of their dreadful project. To secure their success, they divided into different parties; the first of which let the carriage pass quietly on, till it arrived in the midst of the assassins, who consisted of a hundred and fifty persons. Some of these immediately fired, and the pannels of the calashwere shivered to pieces by balls of different sizes: the king received several wounds; whilst his valet de chambre, whose name wasTaxera, with a degree of courage, and a sublime devotion to his master, worthy of the greatest encomium, prevailed on the king to sink to the bottom of the carriage, and seating himself upon him, screened his sovereign from the impending danger. The postilion (calledCastodio da Costo) at the same moment, with the greatest presence of mind and intrepidity, whipping his mules with violence, gallopped forwards, and in the midst of continual firing, forced them down a steep precipice, and dashing over wide fields, and through bye roads, reached Belem in safety.[42]The king, on alighting from his carriage, wrapped himself in a large cloak, belonging to one of the guards, and sent immediately for Carvalho, for whom he waited with such impatience that he remained at the gate of the palace, without suffering his wounds to be dressed, and without either breathing a complaint,of expressing the smallest signs of apprehension. The prime minister hastened to attend his sovereign, and listened to all that had passed without change of countenance. He then entreated the king to keep the affair secret, and gave orders to the valet de chambre and guards to be equally silent; thus prudently deciding on concealing for some time the punishment awaiting the regicides, with as much art as they had employed in forming so treasonable and bloody a design; for it must be allowed that no conspiracy was ever kept more secret, or was so near being successful; but the attempt being once made, and by so considerable a number of persons, it was scarcely possible the original authors of the plot could long remain concealed.
Notwithstanding all the above-mentioned precautions, a report was presently circulated throughout Lisbon, that the king had been assassinated. Crowds of people assembled before the palace, and eagerly demanded to see his majesty, who immediately complied with their request, and declared aloud, that the hurts he had received were occasioned by being overturned in his calash. He afterwards engaged the nobles more particularly attached to his person, and who had eagerly flown to attendhim, to leave no means untried to remove every suspicion from the minds of the public, of an attempt having been made against his life.
The duke d’Aveiro, who had been the first to propose pursuing the assassins at the head of the horse guards on duty that night at the palace, seemed unwilling to consent to the plan of secrecy adopted by the king: but Carvalho, who began to entertain some suspicions of his being concerned in the conspiracy, was not the dupe of his zeal: he therefore pretended to entrust him with some particular secrets, whilst he insisted upon his entering into the views, and complying with the injunctions of his majesty.
Difficult as it appears to keep secret an affair of this nature, it, however, never transpired; and the king, even before his wounds were closed, appeared in public, and took his usual exercise. The conspirators also put on a calm appearance, and began to believe all danger over. One man only amongst the number, named Polycarpe, who was a domestic in the Tavora family, mistrusted such mysterious inactivity on the part of government, and taking alarm, quitted the kingdom.
Every thing now appeared quiet; thepublic mind was re-assured; the conspirators thought themselves in safety, and the attempt on the king’s life seemed forgotten. Carvalho, however, had been constantly and secretly employed in diving to the bottom of this dreadful transaction: the principal contrivers of it were already known to him, when, by the effect of the most extraordinary chance, he became acquainted with the whole of their accomplices.
The conspirators, once relieved from all apprehensions of discovery, without the smallest compunction for the enormity of their crime, turned their thoughts towards a second attempt, and the means of making it a successful one. The spot chosen for their private meetings, was a garden belonging to Tavora, which also served as a place of rendezvous to a foreign servant, who carried on a clandestine correspondence with a woman in the house: she, one night, failing in her appointment, her lover concealed himself in the garden, near the very spot where the conspirators held their assembly. Not one word which passed escaped the ears of the attentive listener, who, by that means, became acquainted not only with every particular relative to the first attempt, but with the planlaid for the execution of the second. This man, no sooner contrived to quit the garden, than he flew to the prime minister, and related with the utmost precision every thing which had passed.
Carvalho instantly perceived the imminent danger to which he was exposed; and having now the most convincing proofs, of what before he only suspected, nothing remained to be done but to deliver up the criminals to the severity of the law: he, however, still continued to dissemble; and the duke d’Aveiro, either from his own apprehensions, or by the advice of his friends, having asked leave of absence for three months, it was immediately granted, and that in the most obliging and flattering manner. The marquis de Tavora was at the same time appointed to a commandery, which he had solicited during several years.
Favours thus repeatedly conferred on the principal conspirators, completely put an end to the apprehensions of their friends, relations, and accomplices. The public was likewise deceived; every thing which had passed was buried in oblivion; and nothing was talked of but the intended marriage between the daughter of Carvalho, and the comte de Sampayo, with the entertainmentswhich would naturally take place on so brilliant an alliance. The king himself signed the contract of marriage, promised to defray the expences of the wedding, and invited all the grandees of the kingdom to be present on the occasion.
The duke d’Aveiro no sooner received this intelligence, than he left the country, and repaired with all possible haste to Lisbon; where every thing around him wore the face of joy and pleasure; but on the very day when the court and city were busily employed in preparing for two balls, the one at the prime minister’s at Belem, and the other in Lisbon, at thelong room;[43]intelligence was brought that troops, composed both of horse and foot, had unexpectedly entered the city, and that great numbers of persons of all ranks and descriptions had been taken into custody.
Never was there a transition so sudden from the greatest joy to the deepest sorrow; never were wedding garments so shortly changed to mourning habits; never werecriminals so speedily brought to trial, nor sentences so quickly executed. Scarcely ten days had elapsed since their first imprisonment, before the duke d’Aveiro was drawn and quartered; the marquis de Tavora, his wife, his two sons, and his son-in-law, the count d’Atouguia, beheaded, and four other persons of inferior rank burnt alive.
Dreadful as is the spectacle of punishments, so repugnant to the feelings of humanity; let us, however, take a view of the fatal spot, where the minister, far from listening to the impulse of compassion, but too frequently injurious to the interests of both king and state, delivered up to the hand of the executioner the noble and ignoble, whose blood was suffered to flow indiscriminately in the same channel.
The duke d’Aveiro, on approaching the scaffold, shewed every symptom of the most abject fear, and by his cowardice lost that interest in the hearts of the spectators, which a contrary conduct, even in the greatest criminals, never fails to inspire; whilst the old marchioness of Tavora was all herself, never losing sight of the character by which she had constantly been distinguished, and preserving to the last moment of her existence an heroic firmness,and an unalterable presence of mind.
The sentence which condemned her to death having been read to her, she ordered her breakfast as usual, and seated herself at her toilette, where she dressed herself in her accustomed manner. Her confessor having hinted that her moments ought to be otherwise employed, she calmly answered,that there was time enough for every thing. She afterwards breakfasted with her female attendants, and conversed without the smallest emotion. On arriving at the foot of the scaffold, she refused all assistance, and addressing herself in a loud voice to those who had offered it,I am very well able to mount it by myself; for I have not been put to the torture like the others. She accordingly went up with a firm step, but on reaching the platform of the scaffold, her constancy was put to the most cruel proof; for meeting her husband, the marquis de Tavora, he reproached her in the bitterest terms for having caused the destruction of her family. Looking towards him with a serene countenance, she only replied,Well, then! bear your misfortunes as I do, and do not reproach me with them. The executioner coming towards her, she bound her eyesherself, begged him to dispatch his business quickly, spoke a very few words to her confessor, and with her handkerchief gave the fatal signal.
The second son of a woman, whose greatness of mind makes her criminality the more severely to be regretted, displayed a degree of courage equal to that of his mother: he was only nineteen years of age, but his youth did not exempt him from the torture. The severest torments, however, lost their effect; not a groan, not an avowal of any kind escaped him; till at last the executioner hoping that filial affection might draw from him a confession, which the most excruciating tortures could not extort, brought his father to him, who exhorted him in the most pathetic terms not thus uselessly to prolong his sufferings, since not only he himself, but all the accomplices had made an ample confession. Scarcely could the marquis finish his discourse, before he was interrupted by his son, who briefly answered,Father, it was you who gave me life, and you are at liberty to deprive me of it.
The sword of justice hung some time longer suspended over the three Jesuits, Malagrida, Alexander, and Matos, who had been taken up asinstigators and principalchiefs of the conspiracy.[44]Their execution was daily expected; but unfortunately the common modes of justice had not been allowed to take their course, and to the astonishment of all the world, it was not till some years after their imprisonment, that Gabriel Malagrida was alone condemned by an extraordinary court of justice, to be burned alive, (the 21st September, 1761) and then not as a conspirator and regicide, but as a heretic and impostor.[45]
Carvalho, now made count d’Oeyras, had not, however, waited the execution of Malagrida, to banish the Jesuits from Portugal.[46]That a religious order, which causes disturbances in the state, and enters into conspiracies, deserves banishment, and even capital punishment, no one will pretendto deny; but, on the other hand, may it not be alledged that the religious order which had rendered the most essential services to the state, and indeed to Christian countries in general, by instructing youth, and civilizing colonies, might better have been reformed, than entirely destroyed.
A conspiracy, which had been preceded by a revolution in America, attended by circumstances capable of overturning the mother country, and which was followed by the expulsion of the Jesuits, ended at last in a state of tranquillity, which it had cost too many sacrifices to obtain, not to employ every possible means to ensure its duration: but notwithstanding all the endeavours of the king and his minister, the Spaniards and French were determined to disturb it.
A Spanish army, composed of forty thousand men, entered Portugal in 1762; their progress, however, through that country was but very short; and by the assistance of the English, and the count de la Lippe, to whom the former had given the command of the Portugueze troops,[47]an honourable peace was signed on the 10th of February in the following year: after which their quiet was only disturbed by some hostilities in America, which terminated very much in the same manner as the former ones, without the powers of Europe being engaged in the quarrel. The count d’Oeyras, afterwards created marquis de Pombal, never lost sight, even in the midst of all his difficulties, of his original plan of reforms and ameliorations. The greatest obstacles he had to encounter proceeded from Brazil, and the town of Oporto, from the inhabitants of which he had but little reason to expect opposition, since the measure to which they so strongly objected was shortly followed by an increase of their wine trade, which became twice as considerable as before.
Portugal being much more fruitful in vines than in corn, the king published an edict in 1765, commanding all the vines in the environs of the Tagus, Mondego and Vecha, to be rooted up, and the land sown with wheat.
The vineyards in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, Oeyras, and some other places, were, however, suffered to remain. By a former edict, of the month of October, 1761, twenty-two thousand writers or clerks employed in the different tribunals were reduced to only thirty-two persons. The minister, by a salutary law, which took place on the 25th of May, 1773,for everabolished the odious distinction formerly existing in Portugal, between theoldandnewchristians. The latter, composed of converted Jews and Moors, were always suspected of insincerity, and regarded in the kingdomas marked with infamy, and for ever separated from the other Christians, and incapable of acting in any capacity, either ecclesiastical or civil. The progress of learning also was a principal object in the marquis de Pombal’s system of improvement: he reformed the university of Coimbra; he converted on the 19th of May, 1766, the college occupied by the novices of the order of Jesus, and which was esteemed one of the finest buildings in Lisbon, into a school for the nobility: he likewise established other schools for children of all descriptions; and published a plan of public education, which, if properly followed, could not fail of restoringscience and good morals throughout the whole of Portugal. He left no means untried to wrest from the hands of the English the different branches of commerce, of which they were become exclusive possessors. He set just bounds to the despotic authority of the holy office, which, by an edict of the 20th of May, 1769, became merely a royal tribunal, invested with no other power than what was transmitted to it by the sovereign, thus depriving it of all its odious privileges and pretensions; such as the form of its proceedings, and the absurd idea of uniting the authority of the pope and bishops to that of the king; whilst at the same time, it acknowledged no supreme chief but the pope alone. He patronised the arts, and caused a statue of Joseph the Ist to be erected to him. It was on the very day of its exhibition to the public eye, the day he justly esteemed the happiest of his life, that he discovered it had been marked for his destruction. The last melancholy satisfaction, in attending his master’s dying moments, together with the sixty millions of cruzadoes found in the royal treasury after his decease, formed a sufficient proof of the uprightness of his administration.
The reigning queen of Portugal, whowas married in 1760, to her uncle, don Pedro,[48]signalized her accession to the throne, by throwing open the prison gates, and causing the proceedings against the criminals concerned in the conspiracy of the 3d of September, 1758, to be revised; after which the greater part were restored to their former rights; though the examination which had taken place, rather confirmed their guilt, than proved their innocence. Far different was the action commenced against the marquis de Pombal, by the enemies of that able minister; for the proceedings whichdeclared him criminal, and deserving of condign punishment, so evidently proved his innocence, and the injustice of such a sentence, that he was suffered to die quietly in his bed, at his country seat, whither he had some time retired, on the 5th of May, 1782.[49]
The health of the queen, on the demise of her husband, in 1786, was so much deranged, that the prince of Brazil took into his own hands the reins of government. This enlightened and prudent prince has neglected nothing to promote the national industry; he has encouraged literature, made commerce flourish, and even sometimes caused the Brazil gold to circulate again from England to Portugal. He has established so strict a police in Lisbon, that it is impossible for an assassin or conspirator, should such still exist, to escape the punishment due to his crimes. He has augmented the land forces, and invited the most experienced foreign officers to command them; and he has attended particularly to the navy, for which he has been justly rewarded. Pacific, and faithful to his allies, he has followed as exactly as possible the system of neutrality tracedby his mother, who has ever been at peace with her neighbours, and never engaged in any of their wars, till she joined them in that declared against France at the commencement of the revolution: since which, the fate of Portugal has so entirely depended on that of Spain, that the fall of the one must necessarily be succeeded by the destruction of the other. How noble an instance of generosity then does the conduct of England afford, thus to fly to the relief of a country, which, though an ally, had so lately declared war against her?