SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

RIOGRAenv,

Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal; with Extracts from his Writings, and from Despatches in the State Paper Office. never before published. By John Smith, Esq., Private Secretary to the Marshal Marquis De Saldanha. In two volumes. TASvins. Longman and Co. A Visit to the East; comprising Germany and the Danube, Constantinople. Asia Minor, Egypt and Idumea. By the Reverend Henry Formby. M.A Burns. nnersrics.

A Treatise on Food and Diet, with Observations on the Dietetical Regimen suited for Disordered States of the Digestive Organs ; and an Account of the Dietaries of some of the principal Metropolitan and other Establishments for Paupers, Lunatics,

Criminals, Children, the Sick. Sm. By Jonathan Pereira, 'M.D., F.R,S., 8,:c.

Longman and Co.

MR. SMITH'S MEMOIRS OF THE MARQUIS OF POMBAL.

So much has the fame of this once celebrated statesman faded, that some readers may require to be told that SEBASTIAN JOSEPH DE CARVALHO E MELLO, Marquis of Pombal, was a Portuguese minister of the last century, who aimed at regenerating Por- tugal. Supported unflinchingly by his Sovereign Don JOSEPH, he held office for twenty-seven years, (1750-11777) ; during which period he exercised almost absolute power, and in ad- ministrative matters unquestionably restored affairs. On his ac- cession to office, he found no ships, a few inefficient soldiers, and twenty-two thousand taxgatherers ; yet the finances were in con- fusion, the taxation oppressive though not productive, and the treasury empty. When he resigned, on the death of his master, he had created a navy : suddenly involved in a war against France and Spain, he repelled the Spanish invasion, with some assistance from Great Britain, and maintained the army on an efficient foot- ing; whilst, in addition to reforming the finances, he left behind him in the treasury seventy-eight millions of cruzados. But his greatest task, as it appeared to many contemporaries, was his expulsion of the Jesuits. In a country then and now the most bigoted in Europe, and with a Royal Family religiously mad, the King perhaps excepted, he began by regulating the In- quisition, (1751); punished the highest ecclesiastics for secular crimes ; expelled the Jesuits for an alleged conspiracy to murder the Sovereign ; set the Court of Rome at defiance, and but for the death of Pope CLEMENT XIII. and the election of GANOANELLI, would probably have proceeded to the length of a separation from Rome, and the union of church and state in Portugal in the person of his Most Faithful Majesty.

The taste of POMBAL inclined him to building ; and he pos- sessed an opportunity which falls to the lot of few. The cele- brated earthquake of Lisbon, that almost desroyed the city in 1755, compelled its reerection ; and although his plan was never thoroughly carried out, he very greatly improved the capital : "all the edifices now existing, of any importance or consequence," says Mr. &Arm, "were planned and executed by him." It was this terrible catastrophe which is said to have laid the foundation of his enduring influence with the King. At the time of the shock, the Royal Family were at the small palace of Belem, in the suburbs ; and escaped the danger, though not the terror. When agony and confusion were at their height, POMBAL entered the palace : "What is to be done," exclaimed the King, "to meet this in- fliction of Divine justice ?" The Minister calmly replied, "Bury the dead and feed the living." Don JOSEPH ever after looked upon him as" a mortal of superior mould." The Minister was equally active in matters of education and commerce ; for activity seemed a part of his nature. He reformed the Universities ; regulated the professorships, and, in despite of religious opposition, appointed new ; compelled the regular attend- ance of students, abolished degrees of course, prescribed the me- thod of study, and even directed the books to be read and the grammars to be conned. He paid a similar attention to commer- cial and elementary education, and produced, according to his own account, the most favourable results.

" The very first and most simple rudiments of this [national] progress," says he, in a resume of his policy, addressed to his Sovereign in 1775, and consisting of a modest memorial of himself, " may be seen even in the acquire- ment of a correct and intelligible handwriting. For previous to the year 1750, it was a rare event to meet with an individual capable of composing a legible letter; whilst it is now equally rare to find a respectable person in Lisbon who writes badly. So much so indeed, that when it is necessary to appoint a clerk to any of the accountant's offices of the Royal Treasury, or other public offices, reams of memorials and petitions are sent in, all written in the most beautiful hand."

"It is also shown by the extensive diffusion of mercantile knowledge through the means of the Aula do Commercio. For it had przviously been necessary to send to Venice or Genoa for competent bookkeepers, who received an annual salary of from 240/. to 3001.; whereas there are now, on a vacancy occurring, twenty and more qualified persons always ready to occupy their places—persons whose knowledge enables them to conduct every branch of mercantile corre- spondence."

His interference with commerce was as minute as with educa- tion ; his views being animated by the spirit of the old com- mercial and then fashionable system,—unless his opinion as re- garded the uselessness of gold and silver mines be an exception. He established the great wine-companies, under the notion of keeping the profits from the English merchants and improving the article. With a similar object, he directed, by means of an obsolete law, the vines to be rooted up on what he deemed unfit soils, and the land to be sown with corn. He "encouraged" home manufactures, and advanced public money to manufacturing companies. He established a sugar-refinery, with privileges ; be exempted growers of mulberry-trees from excise, tithes, and other imposts, and gave them the power of holding certain employments, which otherwise required nobrezza. He prohibited the exportation of raw silk and of gold and precious stones! To prevent the English and other foreigners from monopolizing, as it was called, the profits of the retail-trade by carrying on business in the name of Portuguese, he issued a decree forbidding any one to have two shops : but the law being still evaded, he ordered all shops to be closed unless the ostensible owners could show that they were entitled bona fide to one half of the profits. Schemes that could produce no perma- nent benefit, and argued no true perception of the principles of trade or the duties of a government, but more excusable and less mischievous then than now, as faith will support an individual or a body successfully through difficulties, where misgiving would fail at once. By these measures, POMBAL and the Portuguese would say, he stimulated trade ; others would maintain, in despite of them, and by the merits of his general administration. However, trade did improve.

His general regulations were equally stringent. From being the most disorderly city in Europe, the streets of Lisbon became tolerably safe, and property secure. The English Ambassador, writing of a tnauvais sujet of an Englishman who had emigrated thither, says, " He has come to the wrong place to play tricks "; as he doubtless found, for he was in prison at the time of writing. Some of POMBAL'S regulations were more philosophical, and in ad- vance of his age and country : he forbade the confinement of un- fortunate debtors; and slaves landing in Portugal became free. Others were of an equivocal character.1

"About this period a most curious law was enacted. It had become a cus- tom among ladies of rank and title, on the death of their husbands, to close the windows of their houses, and to retire into some dark corner of a gloomy chamber, where, often for the space of an entire year, they slept on the floor, stationary themselves and inaccessible to visiters. By this absurd mode of mourning the death of a husband, serious maladies were frequently contracted, which eventually proved fatal. It was therefore enacted, that widows should not be allowed to shut themselves up in dark rooms ; or deprive themselves of the use of a comfortable bed ; or remain within the house for a whole year. They were moreover enjoined to remove to another abode on the death of their husbands ; and if this were not practicable, they might remain in the house, but without closing the shutters, or mourning more than eight days, or staying at home more than a month, or sleeping on the ground in the corner of a dark room."

Such extensive and violent changes could only be effected by a despotism, and by a despotism where the nobility were spiritless and the people passive—not citizens but machines. Despotism, severe, sanguinary, and merciless, is the charge brought against Postner. by his enemies: and he certainly seemed little inclined to spare those whom he suspected of standing in his way. The same conspiracy against the life of the King which he made use of to destroy the Jesuits, caused the execution of several of the first nobility and the imprisonment of many more ; but the secrecy observed in the trials on these and all other judicial proceedings renders it impossible to form a judgment upon the cases. That the King was shot at and wounded when returning to Lisbon from a private visit, there is no doubt ; and the general opinion appears to have assigned the conspiracy to the persons accused.

His government was distinguished by its oneness. He would "bear no brother near his throne." Every thing appears to have emanated from himself, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of his business ; for he issued no fewer than two hundred decrees or orders relative to the earthquake at Lisbon, of which, had he taken more time to consider them, one tithe might have sufficed. Mr. Lyrrrarrosi, the English Ambassador, in a despatch written in 1768, gives this account of his government— "It may not be improper to acquaint your Lordship with the manner of doing business here. The Count d'Oeyras [Pombal's first title) has the entire confi- dence of his master. Da Cunha never takes the least step without conferring with the Count. There are here no under-secretaries ; and none of the clerks of the office admitted to any confidence further than the papers set before them, and no one is to know what the other is about. The fixed salary of each clerk is very near 2001. per annnm, the first clerk about 300/., besides rewards of sine- cure places to those who do any particular service; so that there are some of the clerks have six or eight hundred or a thousand pounds a year. But if any should be suspected of the least breach of trust, they have nothing to expect but a dungeon. Thus, all business remaining in the Count's breast, and the ample rewards he gives to his clerks, with the awe they stand in of punishment, shut the door entirely to all hopes of any secret intelligence from that quarter, more than the Count pleases to communicate himself."

Among a corrupt and slavish court and people, this self- dependence and isolation favoured the execution of his plans and the temporary preservation of' his power, but was fatal to the per- manence of both. The dictatorship passes with the difficulty. Even in a free state, a man can only hope long to retain public power by uniting himself with some party ; and the more his party belongs to enduring classes, whether territorial, commercial, cle- rical, or what not, the more certain his reliance. But in a despotic monarchy, where every thing rests on the caprice of the crown, fortune, liberty, and even life itself, can only be preserved by a minister who has created enemies, (as all reformers must,) by the assistance of a powerful party, whose interests seem identified with his own. With the death of Do st JOSEPH came the downfall of POMBAL. He had indeed reached the age of seventy-eight ; and, foreseeing his dismissal, anticipated it by resigning. The Queen, (a weak woman, who subsequently had to be restrained, and died mad,) with her nephew-husband, a fool if not an idiot, were both fanatics, and favoured the enemies of POMBAL. But at first some decorum was observed. The decree permitting him to resign and retire to his estate conferred upon him for life the salary of Se- cretary of State, and gave him in addition the commandery of St. Jago de Lanhazo. But this apparent gratitude was of short duration. A revisal of the judgment against the conspirators pro- fessed to find them innocent ; the imprisoned foes of the Minister were released, the banished returned, and the court swarmed with &is enemies. He was harrassed by libels, and one of them of so stinging a character that the ex-Minister adopted legal measures, and put in what was technically called a "defence." The contents -of this document appear to have alarmed the Court ; for a royal -decree forbade proceedings on both sides, and ordered the defence to be burned. Not satisfied with indirect measures, his enemies stimulated the Queen to order a commission to examine the aged and worn-out Minister touching every act of which he had been accused; and the inquisition seems to have been carried into effect with all the petty malice of priests and Portuguese. This is the account of them which POMBAL gives in a letter to his son, in December 1779— ., Notwithstanding these excessive maladies that had so much reduced me, and the fatigue of an examination which lasted above fifty days, where I had been compelled to attend each time for five, six, seven, or eight hours, at the end of which I retired, extenuated, at forty minutes past twelve o'clock last Saturday night,—notwithstanding, I repeat, the distressed and weak state in which I was, no sooner did I hear of the arrival of the Ministers at the Court- house, than I ordered myself to be carried there on a hide by two servants. I immediately signified to the harsh judge, Jose Luis Francl, as I expressed on former occasions, that my profound obedience to the commands of the Queen would always bring me to the spot where be saw me, so long as my strength would allow, and that if I breathed my last in his presence, I should die in obedience to the orders cf my Sovereign, with the same honour with which I had always executed the orders of her Majesty's august father and grandfather ; and that I should long since have offered up my life with resignation to Divine justice, but for the fear of being misrepresented by my enemies, slighted by my Sovereign and by my country, which I had always served with equal zeal and fidelity. The said Ministers having seen that my debility and prostration would not suffer me to continue my profound obedience, ordered me to return to my bed ; whither my servants carried me, on the same miserable conveyance In which I had been brought."

Eight months afterwards, the determination of the Queen was thus Celestially expressed-

• ' 16th August 1781,

" After having decided by the just motives that were laid before me, that it was no longer expedient that the Marquis of Pombal should continue to enjoy in my royal service the post of Secretary of State for the Home Department, and having in consequence ordered him to leave my court and to retire to his -estate at Pombal, it was not to be imagined that after this order he would dare to form an apology of his late administration, under the frivolous pretence of defending himself in a civil suit, which apology has since been condemned by our decree of the 3d September 1779.

"Having subsequently questioned him concerning various accusations brought -against him, so far from justifying himself, all his replies, and the evidence gathered therefrom, have tended to aggravate those offences which were the subject of inquiry in an assembly of judges to whom I confided this affair ; and I was assured by them, after due deliberation, that the Marquis of Porn- bal was a criminal worthy of exemplary punishment. Nevertheless, out of regard for the advanced age of the offender, and of his heavy infirmities, con- sulting my clemency rather than my justice I have been softened by the prayers of the said Marquis, who has supplicated for pardon, detesting his own rash excesses, and have remitted all bodily punishments, enjoining him simply to absent himself from the court, at a distance of at least twenty leagues, until further orders on my part ; without prejudice, nevertheless, either to the rights and just pretensions that my crown may have against him, or of those of any of my subjects, who, supposing themselves injured by the said Marquis, may likewise support their claims, not only for the restitution of their pro- perty, but likewise for the full and complete indemnification of all they have suffered ; my royal intention being only to pardon him the personal chastise- ment which justice and the laws require, and not to prejudice either the in- terest of aggrieved persons or of our royal domains; an that all parties in general and our royal attornies will have full power to use all legal means against the estates of the said Marquis, either during his life or after his death.

"QUEEN."

The same causes that were fatal to the power and repose of PostaaL, were destructive to the permanence of his reforms, and injurious to his posthumous fame. The benefits of despotism perish with the individual despot. No decrees, no forced or stimulated exer- tions made at the bidding and by the regulation of power, will be permanent, however successful they may seem whilst the mind that communicated the first impetus continues to direct and urge. No- thing will give permanence to national reforms but national cha- racter, and national institutions, or, as our ancestors expressed it, estates; for useful power in bodies seems inseparable from pos- sessions. It is a question whether there existed in Portugal any means of forming estates, or classes of the community that might have been Intrusted with power ; and whether the nobility, clergy, lesser gentry, proprietors, and trading classes, were not so ignorant, untrained in affairs, and utterly corrupt, as to be Incapable of exercising any function to check the Govern- ment or originate reforms. For ourselves, we believe they were, and still are throughout the Peninsula, incapable of govern- ment, or almost of being governed. But POMBAL never tried them. He did not even attempt to form a party of officials, whose emoluments depending upon himself, and whose habits originating in his training, might have offered some resistance to mere courtiers, and given some permanence to his measures. " L'etat c'est mot," might have been said with more truth by POMBAL than by Louis the Fourteenth: and he reaped the reward of his egotism, in a reputation comparatively ephemeral, and in the failure of vast designs, which not being planned in conformity with the nature of things' and having no base to rest upon, withered rather than perished. For it is hazardous to say that Portugal did not receive an impetus from his rule: the French invasion might have found things worse than they were but for the exertions of this minister.

The biography of Poaanxi. was altogether public; for though he

did not reach ministerial power till turned of fifty, little seems to be known of his early life or his previous career. He was born in 1699 ; hia father being a lesser baron—" Hidalgo de Provincia "— a distinction which entitled him to many of the privileges attached to nobility, although not to the rank and immunities of a grandee. After passing through the University of Co-

imbra, the future minister entered the army as a private, ac- cording to custom, says Mr. SMITH ; and rose to the rank of corporal. Finding nothing to employ him, he quitted the army, and occupied himself in studying history, politics, and legis- lation. By the invitation of an uncle he went to Lisbon, and was presented to Cardinal Morra ; through whose interest he was appointed a member of an Academy of History, and it was in- tended by the Court to have employed him in an historical work. This design, however, was abandoned; and in 1739 he was sent as Ambassador to London, where he remained till 1745. Diploma- tically be did not do much in this country, nor did he acquire the language ; but he gave considerable attention to the constitution and its practical working. In 1749 he was appointed Ambassador to Vienna, to act as mediator between that Court and the Pope, with whom he was so soon to be involved in deadly difference. On the present occasion, however, he satisfied all parties, and re- turned home in 1750; when he was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by the new King, JOSEPH; JOHN the Fifth having died in the same year.

POMBAL was twice married. The first time, during his obscurity, to Donna THERESA DE Nostorcue, a widow, of very ancient family; whose displeasure we have somewhere read that the match ex- cited; and the hatred of the nobility displayed by PostnaL has been ascribed to his feelings upon this subject. His se- cond wife was a daughter of Marshal DAusr, whom he married during his embassy to Vienna. The present Marquis DE SAL- DANHA is his grandson.

Such are the leading biographical facts that Mr. Shirrs the private secretary to SALDANHA, has been able to collect of his great progenitor : and even the few anecdotes of Pomnet, that are preserved relate to his public capacity. They show him placable in manner; but the mildest are often the most decided.

" On one occasion, a priest presented himself before him, complaining of the great injustice that had been inflicted upon him ; and, during the interview, allowed many expressions to escape his lips injurious to the Government and insulting to the Minister. Pombal heard him to the end; and then calmly re- plied, that the affair was not exactly in his department, but belonged more pro- perly to that of his brother; to whom he added, he would immediately intro- duce him. And,' before opening the door of the next apartment, he said, if he allows you to tell him one-half of what you have just told me, I will grant your petition.' The door reniained ajar. Not many minutes had elapsed before an angry voice was heard, and the impertinent suitor was kicked out of the room.

On another occasion, a small group was collected in the Rocio, where an individual was declaiming angrily against some injustice that had been done him by some persons in office. A spy approached, who, wishing to deserve the wages of his disgraceful employment, joined the group in the hope of hear- ing something that might excite the anger of the Government, and elicit ap- probation and reward for himself. Trusting to his incognitio, he at last vein- tared to turn the conversation so as to suit his purpose, and began with sun- dry severe reflections upon the King and the Minister. The first speaker, whose loyalty had never for a moment wavered, transferred his anger to the supposed defamer of his Sovereign, and ended by bestbwing on him a hearty beating. The poor spy sneaked off, and laying the case before Pombal, com-

plained wofully of the thumping he bad received. Ah, my friend,' replied the Minister, it is but part of the wages of your profession.' (Men amigo, estes sao us ossos do officio.)

"It was a saying of Pornbal's, that he feared but two things—children and fools.

"It is perhaps not generally known, even in Portugal, that Pombal was the first person who introduced the use of forks into that country. This simple instrument of daily convenience the Minister brought with him from England

on his return from the court of St. James's, in 1745." • • •

"There seems formerly to have existed in Portugal no small tendency to- wards the Israelitish religion ; and we learn that in the year 1630, one Manoel Fernandez de Villa Real, Portuguese Consul at Paris, was condemned in that capital to be burnt for having embraced the religion of Moses. Having, how- ever, retracted, the historian relates he was only strangled! It is a popular story in Portugal, that Don Joseph, at one time, had insisted upon all those in any way tainted with Jewish blood wearing a white hat as a badge of dis- tinction, or rather of disgrace ; and that a decree to that effect was ordered to be forthwith promulgated. Pombal remonstrated, but in vain. Finding reason ineffectual, he pretended compliance; and presented himself to the King with the edict, at the same time drawing out from under his cloak two white hats, which he placed on the table. The King, astonished, inquired the meaning of the joke. Oh,' replied Pombal, am only come prepared to obey your Majesty's edict, with one hat for you and another for myself.' Thus hinting at a well•known fact, that the Royal Family itself was not entirely free from, the imaginary stain. The King laughed, and gave up the point."

As a biography, the book is deficient in matter and manner, and scarcely worthy of the subject. The facts are few ; the narrative is vague and wordy ; the arrangement without method or regard to the nature of the materials. Mr. SMITH refers to a good many works upon the life, character, and administration of Post- Bet.: but he seems to have profited little by their informa- tion; and as he compendiously classes them as libels, perhaps

he designedly rejected their aid. His main authorities are family papers, the archives of Portugal and Vienna, and our Foreign State Paper Office. This last repository, however, he did not refer to till he had written his book; so he puts the in- formation it furnishes into the shape of appendixes to each chapter. This would have been of less consequence had the main narrative been condensed and satisfactory ; but it is not. Trifles are often dwelt upon, principal affairs compendiously passed over ; and the style has both a foreign and a "red tape" air, without the grace of French manner or the precision of business. The two volumes convey a general view, coleur de rose, of Postuaes administration ; they contain some state papers, useful to any one writing its his- tory, but scarcely needed in a biography ; and the extracts from the letters of the English Envoys, though not striking, are distinct and lifelike sketches. But the matter bears no proportion to the bulk : the book as a whole is empty and unsatisfactory, and the lifeof POMBAL is yet to be written.