MARQUIS OF POMBAL.

SEBASTIAN JOSEPH DE CARVALHO E MELLO, MARQUIS OF POMBAL, the great statesman and educator of Portugal, was born in 1693, in the reign of John V., who laid out 225,000l. on a chapel, measuring 17 feet by 12 feet, in the Church of St. Roque, and left his country. at his death burdened with a debt of three millions sterling, "with a nominal navy and a nominal army, dismantled and abandoned fortresses, nominal lines of defense, nominal regiments of observation, and apparently on the brink of ruin." Long before Pombal came into power he appears to have contemplated this state of things with something of the resolute spirit of Chancellor Erskine, who, while yet a young lawyer, being checked in censure of some legal abuse by the remark, "It was the law before you were born," replied, "It is because I was not born that it is law, and I will alter it before I die." Accordingly, when at length the Portuguese reformer had power commensurate with his will, he unflinchingly devoted his energies to the uprooting of ancient prejudices and the establishment of beneficial changes.

Pombal entered the University of Coimbra in 1717, but quitted. it in disgust at its "routine of unprofitable studies," and entered. the army as a private, according to the custom of Portugal. Promoted to the rank of corporal he relinquished this nominal profession of arms, and devoted himself thenceforth to the study of history, politics, and legislation. While occupied with these more congenial pursuits he was presented by an uncle to Cardinal Motta, at that time high in favor with John V. The Cardinal's shrewd perception at once fixed on Pombal as one whose talents might be turned to account, and he strongly recommended him to the King. Dom John, however, beyond appointing him member of the Royal Academy of History, and expressing an anxiety that he should undertake the biographies of certain Portuguese monarchs, does for some time to have further noticed him. Having married in the interval Donna Theresa de Noronha, a widow, and niece of the Count dos Arcos, Pombal seems to have

not

appear

seriously desired some active employment in the State; but he continued unemployed till the latter end of the year 1739, when by Cardinal Motta's recommendation he was sent to London as Minister. There he studied hard, in spite of ill-health, to acquaint himself with the history, constitution, and legislation of Great Britain, but remained ignorant of the English language; an odd fact, which the Conde da Carnota excuses by the remark that French was the language chiefly spoken at the eourt of George II., and that most of the best works then in vogue on politics or legislation were by French writers. In the course of his reading these authors, Sully became the model example of a Minister in the eyes of Pombal.

In 1745 he represented his government at Vienna, where he married the Countess Daun for his second wife. In 1750 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs, and enjoyed the confidence of Dom Joseph, who, for 27 years, sustained his measures of political, religious, and educational reform. In the first year of his ministry he succeeded in restricting the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, and prohibiting its private tortures and public executions, which had for so long a period disgraced the country. So early in his ministry as 1751 a decree regulating its practices was promulgated. By this decree it was enacted that no auto-da-fé was henceforward to be celebrated and no sentences were to be executed without the consent and approbation of government, which reserved for itself as a court of appeal the province of inquiry and examination, and of confirming or reversing the sentence.

In 1761 (Sept. 19), he secured the passage of a law by which all slaves arriving in Portugal and touching her soil were declared to be ipso facto free men; that other law of mercy which forbade at home the imprisonment of debtors who were bona fide unable to meet the demands of their creditors; and many other edicts, all emanating from the same spirit.

When the city of Lisbon was well-nigh destroyed by the earthquake on the morning of All Saints' Day, in 1755, and the conflagration which followed the falling of the roofs of the numerous churches on the millions of tapers which were burning in honor of the festival, the efforts of the Minister rose to the greatness and urgency of the occasion. "What is to be done," said the King, who happened to be at a country residence on that fatal day, "to meet this infliction of Divine justice?" "Bury the dead, and feed the living," said his intrepid Minister Pombal-and at once entered his carriage and drove to Lisbon, to share the danger and alleviate the calamities of the earthquake and fire; and for several days his

carriage was his head-quarters, where he issued over 200 regulations, which not only brought order out of chaos, but permanent improvement out of these terrible disasters. In an incredible short space of time two hundred decrees were promulgated respecting the maintenance of order, the lodging of the people, the distribution of provisions, and the burial of the dead. In these numerous decrees Pombal entered into the minutest details; and, such was the rapidity with which they were conceived and promulgated, that many were written in pencil on his kness, and without being copied, were hastily forwarded to their various destinations. The wounded were removed and their wounds dressed; the houseless were collected and lodged in temporary huts; provisions were brought from all quarters and distributed to the poor; monopolies of all kinds were forbidden; troops were drawn from the provinces to preserve order; idlers were forced to work; the dispersed nuns were reassembled; the ruins removed; the dead buried, and public worship restored.

Before the earthquake not a single regular street above the length of 100 yards existed. Now they were rebuilt handsome, solid, level, and well paved. A public garden was for the first time laid out. Sewers were constructed in the new streets. Rules for enforcing general cleanliness were likewise made. Much was done not only in the useful but the decorative line, and Lisbon rose from ruin in renewed beauty; but many of Pombal's plans were destined never to be carried out, and the one most regretted by the Portuguese-namely, the magnificent promenade which he designed to form on the shores of the lovely Tagus, from Santa Appallonia to Belem, a distance of about five miles, was never even commenced.

Pombal next turned his attention to the interests of agriculture as one of the chief sources of national prosperity, without exactly copying the spasmodic efforts of an ancient king (Dom Alfonso IV.), who enacted that the husbandman who neglected his lands should, for the first offense, forfeit his flocks, and if he persisted in careless or unskillful cultivation, should be hung. Stringent and compulsory edicts now rescued great tracts of soil from obstinate cultivation of the poorest sort of vines, and devoted them to corn and timber, while the importation of mulberry trees at the rate of 20,000 plants and upwards in successive years quadrupled the production of silk goods, and turned the attention of landholders to a new branch of industry.

It was through Pombal's judicious policy that the vine in the Upper Douro, and of which the "genuine old port" is made, was

rescued from a ruinous method of culture, and the vine from processes of deterioration, and its sale from the grasp of a monopoly, until the production rose to the highest demand in the foreign markets. His efforts, although crowned with success, involved the government in an insurrectionary movement in the district, and well-nigh caused a rupture with England, whose merchants had a monopoly of all the wines of this grape-a portion of the vintage being now brought into open market.

From the improvement of the soil and the agriculture, to the cultivation of the minds of the people, the transition was natural in this clear-sighted minister. His own son he sent to Rome, and afterwards to Vienna and Venice, to enjoy advantages he could not get at home; and at the same time, Pombal set agencies at work to relieve others from the necessities of sending their sons abroad for similar advantages. He determined that no Portuguese youth should have the excuse of want of opportunity, for not knowing how to write a decent letter in his vernacular, or be compelled to go to Venice and Genoa to obtain a commercial education. A School of Commerce was opened in Lisbon for those who wished to become clerks and enter the public offices; and a College (Royal Collegio dos Nobres) for the liberal education of the sons of the nobility. The laws and ordinances of this seminary were entirely framed by Pombal-so universal was his genius and so capable was he of perceiving and remedying every kind of evil that afflicted and depressed his country. As the old custom of conversing in Latin was still observed, to the utter destruction of good Latinity, he directed that the students should for the future converse either in Portuguese, French, Italian, or English, and never in Latin, as, he remarks, the familiar use of this dead language tends more para os ensinar a barbarisar than to facilitate the knowledge of it. With respect to modern languages, it was directed that all lessons, so far as that was practicable, should, be given viva voce, without overwhelming the pupils with a multitude of useless rules; since living languages are more readily acquired by conversation and reading, than by elaborate grammars and abstruse philological works. "How far we are from following such valuable precepts," say the Conde da Carnota, "parents must have often felt, for it too frequently happens that, after their children have been ostensibly learning French for several years at an English school, they have come home as unable to converse in it as if they had never opened a French gramAnd from what does this arise, but from the inefficient system of teaching pursued at most places of instruction ?"

mar.

The discipline of the University at Coimbra was also entirely remodeled. Two months only were allowed for vacation, instead of the long periods hitherto wasted under that name. Regular attendance at lectures and lessons was strictly insisted upon, unless illness or any other sufficient cause was pleaded. Fines were inflicted for the first and second absence, and confinement for the third. By these ordinances all idlers were compelled to take their names off the books, and in a short time the number of students fell from several thousands to 600 or 700.

In like manner, with a view to real progress, Pombal regulated the management of the Botanic Garden, ordering the curators to reduce the number of plants to those necessary for botanic studies, in order that the students might not be ignorant of this brauch of medicine, as it is practiced with little expense in other Universities, and to remember that the garden was raised "for the study of boys, not the ostentation of princes."

In the same year the Royal Press was instituted, the superintendence of which was given to Nicolas Pagliarini, a Roman printer, who had been expatriated for printing anti-Jesuitical works. Previous to this period, such was the deplorable state of letters, that almost all Portuguese works were printed in foreign countries.

But Pombal's attention was not exclusively turned to the education of the higher classes. In the same year, November 6, 1772, he established in the Portuguese dominions no less than 887 professors and masters for the gratuitous instruction of all his Majesty's subjects, and, of these, 94 were appointed to the islands and colonies. Small taxes, under the name of "the literary subsidy," were laid on various articles of general consumption, in order to pay the salaries of these professors; and still further to prove his love for literature, and to show the exalted opinion he entertained of its influence upon mankind, and with the hope of elevating its professors both in their own estimation and in that of the people, Pombal determined that they should enjoy the various privileges attached to nobreza, or nobility, in Portugal, and so it was accordingly decreed. His biographer says, speaking of the pains he took to educate the people :

He hoped by these means to lay the foundation on which, at a future period, the superstructure of a free government might be erected. He was well aware that, if popular governments are to be any thing but shadows, they must be based on popular knowledge. He felt that his country without the aid of education would be unfit for any of those forms of free government which, when the people are ignorant, too frequently confer absolute power on factions, who enjoy the good for which others have toiled. He perceived that the spirit of revolution was already abroad in his time, that its progress was slow but irre