Ill 



POUT 



POSKH. 



HI 



Mtornonnudiispn>*nMitwuiUllbrtbrzid*d. In 1757 

 Ut* Jesuits w*n> deprived of UM port of confessors to the royal family, 

 and forbiddMi tit* court; two jean afterward* they ware banished 

 boa the kinplom w>d their o*Utea wen confiscated. 



Man* Francises Iabel, eldest daughter of 3ot6, succeeded him in 

 1777. During UM reign of Maria, UM power remained almost entirely 

 in the hand* of an ignorant nobility and of a (till more ignorant and 

 ambitious elenr. Ln 1789, on account of a aerioiu indisposition of 



declared regent with fall rtgal powers. Portugal for some years 

 preferred a m*r* ahadow of independence by the greatest sacrifices, 

 till at last Oroeral Junot entered that country, and the house of 

 Bragmnca was declared by Napoleon Bonaparte to hare forfeited the 

 throne, owing to the refuaal of Joam VI. to eeizc the British merchan- 

 die* in hii dominion*. The regent now put himself entirely under 

 UM protection of the Engliah, and in November, 1807, embarked for 

 Brazil. Junot entered the capital on the next day, and Portugal was 

 in every respect treated as a conquered country. This led to the 

 Peninsular War, in which the Portuguese now took an actire part. On 

 th* death of Maria laabella in 1810, Joam VL was called to the throne 

 f Portugal, which he occupied conjointly with that of Brazil, where 

 he continued > reside. In August, 1820, the cry for liberty which 

 was raised in Spain, was responded to in Portugal, and a rev< 

 commenced, in which the army and the citizens acted in concert On 

 UM 15th of September, 1820, all the troops and the citizens of Lisbon 

 unanimously proclaimed the constitution, and the cessation of the 

 absolute government which had hitherto prevailed in Portugal. A 

 provisional government was immediately established, which acted in 

 union with the junta at Oporto. In the meantime Count Palmella, 

 the head of the regency, was dispatched to Rio Janeiro with an 

 account of what had passed, and a petition that the king Joam VI. or 

 th* prince royal Dom Pedro would return to Lisbon. The revolution 

 was unattended either by violence or bloodshed. The Cortes having 

 assembled in 1821, under the presidency of the archbishop of Braga, 

 various laws were passed, among which freedom of person and property, 

 the liberty of the press, legal equality and the abolition of privileges, 

 the admission of citizens to all offices, and the sovereignty of the 

 people, were passed almost unanimously. 



After some disturbances in Brazil, Joam VI. sailed for Portugal, 

 where he was not allowed to land until he had given his consent to 

 several acts of the Cortes, which imposed restrictions on his power, 

 and had sworn to observe the new constitution. The ambassadors of 

 Russia and Austria left the court; Brazil separated itself from Portugal ; 

 and the country was disturbed by various attempts in favour of the 

 old system of government. In the meanwhile the constitution was 

 completed by the legislative assembly, and publicly sworn to by the 

 king on the 1st of October, 1822, but the Infante Dom Miguel, 

 assisted by the Count of Amarante and other noblemen, resolved to 

 overthrow it After many disturbances and insurrectionary move- 

 ments Dom Miguel obtained possession of supreme power, the ambas- 

 sadors of the foreign states were not allowed to enter the presence of 

 the king, and he was closely watched ; but Joam succeeded in escaping 

 on board an English man-of-war at anchor in the Tagus, where, 

 having sent for the diplomatic body, he deprived his son of command, 

 and summoned him to his presence. Dom Miguel obeyed, confessed 

 that he had been deceived and misguided, and received the royal 

 pardon, with permission to travel. On the 14th of May the king 

 returned ashore, and early in June proclaimed a sort of amnesty for 

 the adherents of the Cortes of 1820. In 1825, after many difficulties 

 and protracted negotiations, the independence of Brazil was finally 

 ' IbjrJ . \ ! . -.-. !i.. in.T.'ly P ';iu!..l tli.- immTial title 



Early in March, 1826, Joam VI. died, after having named the 

 Infant* Isabel regent She administered the kingdom in the name of 

 Dora Pedro, the emperor of BrazU, as king of Portugal. On the 23rd 

 of April, Pedro IV. granted the latter kingdom a constitution, which 

 established two chambers, and in other respects resembled the French 

 charter. On the 2nd of May however he abdicated the Portuguese 

 throne in favour of Dona Maria da Gloria (he remaining king during 

 bur minority) on condition of her marrying her uncle Dom Miguel 

 But a party secretly favoured by Spain aimed at the overthrow of the 

 constitution grant-si by Doui Pedro. Dom Miguel having caused the 

 Cortes to awembln in June, 1828, was declared by that body sovereign 

 uf Portugal, chiefly on the grounds that Dom Pedro had forfeited all 

 right to the crown, as well as to the appointment of a successor, by 

 becoming a Brazilian citizen, and not residing in Portugal On the 

 4th of July, 1S26, Dom Miguel assumed the royal title. 



On th* 24th of February, 1832, the naval forces of Dom Pedro 

 arrived off Terceira, of which island they took possession in the name 

 of Dons, Maria, as lawful queen of Portugal Three months after 

 ' ::.-. 32), an expedition 10,000 strong sailed from St Michael's in 

 UM Azores, and on the 10th of July landed near Oporto, which city 

 they took without opposition. The Miguelite forces laid siege to 

 Oporto, but were defeated in several engagements by the troops of 

 Uom Pedro, who were chiefly Englishmen. After a siege of several 

 month*, an expedition was fitted out by means of a loan raised in 

 England, and Dom Pedro, encouraged by the recent victory won by 



Admiral Napier over the naval forces of Dom Miguel, sailed with part 

 of his forces for Lisbon, of which he took possession with compara- 

 tively little trouble. He then established a permanent government, 

 and shortly after sent to England for the young queen, who was 

 received by the Portuguese nation with every demonstration of joy. 



In the meantime the army of Dom Pedro prosecuted its successful 

 struggle. On the 26th of May, 1834, after the surrender of Santarem 

 and other places, Dom Miguel was obliged to capitulate and sign the 

 convention of Evora. He was permitted to leave Portugal, and to 

 embark for Genoa. This event ended the struggle, and the young 

 queen was firmly seated on the throne of Portugal, the regency being 

 conferred upon her father. One of the first acts of his administration 

 was the suppression of the monastic establishments ; another was the 

 partial abolition of paper money, and the formation of a metallic 

 currency. On the 15th of August Dom Pedro was confirmed in the 

 regency by the Cortes, but in the following month the declining state 

 of his health having induced him to resign his office, the Cortes in 

 consequence declared the young queen of age. She then assumed 

 the full exercise of royal authority. Dom Pedro died on the 22nd of 

 September, 1834. Soon after (January, 1835), Dona Maria married 

 Duke Augustus of Leuchtenberg, who died shortly after (March, 1835), 

 and in April, 183C, she married Prince Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg- 

 Gotha. Dona Maria died November 15, 1853, and was succeeded by 

 her eldest son Dom Pedro V., who was born September 16, 1S37. 

 The king-consort is regent of the kingdom during the minority of 

 lii- ..in. 



Language. The language of Portugal, like those of other kingdoms 

 in the Peninsula, originated in a mixture of the Latin, Teutonic, and 

 Arabic. Some writers have called it a dialect of the Castilian ; but, 

 besides the striking difference in its structure and pronunciation, 

 there can be no doubt that tha Portuguese was formed earlier than 

 the Castilian, It might more properly be called a dialect of the 

 Galician, to which it had at first great affinity, and which it still 

 much resembles. The separation of Portugal from Spain, their wars, 

 and the little commercial intercourse which existed between them 

 during the middle ages, combined iu course of time to make the 

 Portuguese a different language. When Henry of Burgundy fixed 

 his court at Ouimaraeus, the French knights who came with him 

 introduced a considerable number of French words into the language 

 of the country. The great efforts too of the Portuguese poets and 

 prose writers in the 15th and 16th centuries to improve their native 

 language by resisting the introduction of Castiliau words, and anathe- 

 matising all those who adopted the Spanish language in their writings, 

 may be mentioned aa one of the means which mainly contributed to 

 render the tongues of Spain and Portugal still more dissimilar. The 

 Spanish, like the Portuguese, has many words borrowed from the 

 Arabic. Their wars with the Moors of Africa and the Mohammedans 

 of India in the 15th century introduced into it many others from the 

 languages spoken in those countries. The pronunciation is difficult 

 for a foreigner, more particularly the nasal sounds, in which it abounds. 

 The gutturals are neither so strong nor so common as in the Spanish, 

 and many consonants have been omitted, so that it is softer than the 

 Spanish, but not so harmonious. 



PORTUGALETE. [BASQUE PROVINCES.] 



PORTUMNA, Galway, Ireland, a market-town and the seat of a 

 Poor-Law Union, is situated at the head of Lough Derg, in 53 6' 

 N. lat, 8 12' W. long., 41 miles E.S.E. from Galway, and 94 miles 

 W.S.W. from Dublin. The population in 1851 was 1542, besides 147 

 in the Union workhouse. Portumua Poor-Law Union comprises 15 

 electoral divisions, with an area of 77,046 acres, and a population in 

 1841 of 30,714; in 1851 of 19,731. The town has been much im- 

 proved by the increased trade of the Shannon. It contains the parish 

 church, a handsome structure in the perpendicular style; a large 

 Roman Catholic chapel ; a dispensary ; Union workhouse ; and bride- 

 well. The Shannon is here crossed by a causeway and wooden bridge 

 820 feet in length. Quarter and petty sessions are held in the town. 

 Saturday is the market-day ; fairs are held six times a year. Portumna 

 Castle, a fine baronial mansion, the seat of the Marquis of Clanricarde, 

 was destroyed by fire in 1826. 



POSEN (Posnanie), a government of Prussia, was formerly a part 

 of the kingdom of Poland. On the first partition of Poland iu 1772, 

 the port of Poseu to the north of the Netze, and oil the second parti- 

 tion in 1793, the remaining part, foil to the share of Prussia; this, 

 together with the part of the kingdom south of the Vistula, as far as 

 Warsaw, acquired by Prussia on the third partition, received tho 

 name of South Prussia, In 1807 all South Prussia was taken from 

 Prussia by Napoleon I., to form part of tho duchy of Warsaw. In 

 1815 the congress of Vienna restored the original province of Poseu 

 to Prussia by the name of the grand-duchy of Poaen. During the 

 insurrectionary troubles in Prussia iu 1848 this government was 

 violently agitated. The Poles were in open insurrection against 

 Prussia in the months of April and May of 1348. The principal 

 action took place at Xion, in the province of Poscn, and Exiu, in the 

 province of Bromberg, in both of which the Poles suffered very 

 severely. At last the loaders were arrested and tho insurgents dis- 

 persed. On the 3rd of April of that year, the districts chiefly 

 inhabited by Germans demanded incorporation with the territory of 

 the German confederation ; the question was referred by Prussia to 



