P O R T U G A I,. 



127 



vested in four ministers and secretaries of state ; one 

 \\as pivMdenl of the treasury, or at the head of the 

 finance department ; another minister of the int. 

 .inother of war and foreign allairs ; the fourth of the 

 marine and the colonies. There were five royal councils 

 which judged without appeal; two fur Km ope, at Lisbon 

 and Oporto; two for Brazil, at Bahia and Rio Janeiro; 

 and one for Abia at Gea. Each province in Portugal 

 had it> si p .irate go\ ernor ; each city had its own magis- 

 trate*. The Portuguese laws have been by various 

 writers alternately praised and condemned ; but all 

 authors agree that they have always been miserably 

 anil partially administered. The salaries of the judges 

 were so small, their love of money so strong, and the 

 probability of escaping detection so certain, that bribery 

 was carried on here to a degree unknown elsewhere ; 

 and any crime, however vicious, might, with the help 

 of a little money, be committed with perfect impunity. 

 This character was applicable (and we fear '* still ap- 

 plicable) both to the superior and inferior judges, and 

 the laws, therefore, were and are uniformly administered 

 in a way rather to promote the purposes of oppression 

 or judicial aggrandisement than those of substantial 

 justice. During the levy of 1 809, thousands, who ought 

 to have entered the army, were exempted by means of 

 money ; while others, lame and infirm, were obliged, 

 from want of that powerful medium, to take up arms 

 which they could not wield. On the removal of the 

 royal family to Brazil, the councils of state attended 

 him thither ; and the king was represented by a regen- 

 cy ; the councils by committees. The prisons of the 

 kingdpm are in general in an uncomfortable state. In 

 Lisbon, for example, a number of the cells admit the 

 water of the Tagus, and at high water are regularly in- 

 undated to the depth often or twelve inches. 



The titles of the Portuguese monarch are numerous 

 and pompous Don, King of Portugal and of the Al- 

 garves on this side and on the other side of the sea in 

 Africa, Lord of Guinea, and of the conquest, naviga- 

 tion and commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, India, 

 Brazil, &c. The heir apparent to the throne be- 

 fore the late revolution was Prince of Brazil, while 

 his oldest son was Prince of Beira. The rest of 

 the royal princes are called Infante. The sovereign 

 of this country, however, had originally the title 

 of Senhovia or Lord. The appellation of Don, so 

 old as the eighth century, and at first given only to 

 kings and to individuals belonging to the royal blood, 

 is now assumed by every nobleman and gentleman, and 

 by all persons holding posts of honour under the crown, 

 though it cannot be assumed without the authority of 

 the sovereign. The nobility, named Titulados, are of 

 four classes, dukes, marquises, counts, viscounts. The 

 rank subordinate to nobility is that of the gentlemen or 

 Fidalgos, a class of men that, even more than their su- 

 periors, pride themselves on antiquity of descent, cherish 

 feudal principles, and keep the lower orders of the 

 state in a condition of virtual servitude. There are 

 three orders of knighthood ; the order of St. Avis, 

 whose origin is coeval with the foundation of the mon- 

 archy ; the order of St. James, instituted soon after the 

 preceding; and the order of Christ, instituted in 1319 

 by King Deniz, after abolishing the order of Templar.-. 

 i\ntiqui- The knights of these orders enjoy great revenues, the 

 chief sources of which are ecclesiastical benefices in 

 coinmetidam, a grosa perversion so common in all popish 

 countries. Though these three orders are religious, 

 the knights are at liberty to form matrimonial con- 

 nexions. 



The Portuguese have ever been remarkable for a dfe- 



ti- 

 nd 

 of 



regard of antiquity, and for demolishing every edifice Portufti. 

 that I iark* of age, at a time when all the cul- 



tivated nations of Europe were endeavouring to pre- 

 serve with veneration every fragment of (.nek or Ro- 

 man genius. In 1721, a royal edict was published, 

 prohibiting, under severe penalties, this barbarous and 

 dilapidating disposition ; but unfortunately it was not 

 published till nearly all the monument* of the former 

 glory of the kingdom had been buried in oblivion. 

 ry informs us of temples dedicated to Minerva, 

 to Venus, to Ceres, to the Sun and Moon, &c. with 

 the temples and statues of Tiberius, Trajan, Nero, &c. ; 

 but of these buildings not a vestige remains. At Chaves, 

 in the province of Entre Douro e Minho, there were 

 lately discovered the remains of a magnificent aqueduct, 

 baths, cisterns, several pieces of columns, capitals, and 

 cornices of jasper, exquisitely worked. From these it 

 is not improbable that some splendid structures once 

 stood there. There is also a bridge leading over the 

 river Tamego to Chaves, which we learn from an in- 

 scription was built in the time of Trajan. It is still 

 entire, and is one of the most curious objects connected 

 with the antiquities of Portugal. The temple of Diana, 

 the aqueduct and castellum, in the city of Evora, built 

 by Quintus Sertorius, are deservedly ranked high among 

 the relics of Roman grandeur. This city was sur- 

 rounded by a Roman wall, which one of the Portu- 

 guese kings destroyed, in order, as he pretended, to 

 build a new one, which has not yet been effected. Near 

 the city of Braga are the relics of various structures, of 

 great antiquitity ; among others a temple, supposed to 

 have been dedicated to Esculapius. Very ancient coins 

 also have been preserved: the most ancient are supposed 

 to be those of Q. Sertorius, who came to Portugal about 

 eighty-three years before the Christian era. Coins of 

 the different Roman emperors after this date have been 

 found from time to time ; but so implacable a hatred 

 do the Portuguese bear to every thing connected with 

 antiquity, that very few have been preserved ; those of 

 gold and silver have been melted down ; while those of 

 copper, having passed into the hands of tinkers, have 

 been converted to the most low and inglorious purposes. 

 Nor, though Roman remains are the most common and 

 interesting, are Moorish antiquities a-wanting ; for 

 castles, fortresses, and churches, erected by that bar- 

 barous people, may be traced in almost every town and 

 village of the kingdom. There are also various Moorish 

 coins; but they are mostly of base metal and mean 

 workmanship. 



The early history of Portugal, like that of most HUtorr. 

 other states, is involved in obscurity and fable ; and 

 though the Portuguese writers lay claim to a regular 

 descent from Tuba I, and to other honours which exist- 

 ed only in their own imaginations, yet it is allowed by all 

 impartial inquirers, that we have no authentic memo- 

 rials of that kingdom, prior to the time of H ami Icar, 

 the famous Carthaginian general. Nor even from this 

 period, which is comparatively recent, have we any re- 

 gular accounts of its history. All indeed we know with 

 certainty is, that it was conquered by Hamilcar; that 

 it was the scene of various military operations between 

 the Romans and Carthaginians, for the two subsequent 

 centuries; and that in the time of Augustus it was fi- 

 nally conquered by the Romans, and constituted a Ro- 

 man province. It remained in this state during the 

 first four centuries of the Christian era ; but in the 

 sixth, on the downfall of the Roman power, it fell into 

 the hands of the barbarians, who overran the south of 

 Kurope, particularly the Goths and Vandals. The 

 Moors from the north of Africa, early in the eighth 



