POMEGRANATE POMPADOUR. 



627 



army received an entirely new organization, and 

 the fortifications on tlie frontiers were put in a bet- 

 ter condition. Poinbal was no less active in his 

 efforts to improve the country in every relation, 

 and paid particular attention to the schools; he 

 also rendered the censorship less strict, and by a 

 law of 1773, established the toleration of converts 

 to Christianity, who had before been treated as 

 secret Jews, and denied many civil privileges. 

 Projects of ambition and of vengeance on his 

 enemies, who repeatedly attempted his life, and his 

 plan of placing on the throne the prince of Beira, 

 the grandson of the queen, occupied the rest of his 

 public life. Joseph I., whose daughter was the 

 bitter enemy of Pombal, died February 24, 1777, 

 and the minister was dismissed. The state prison- 

 ers, whom he had incarcerated, 9800 in number, 

 were released, and all his regulations were abolish- 

 ed, so that Portugal sunk back into its former state 

 of imbecility. Pombal transferred to the young 

 queen a treasure of 78,000,000 crusados, and a well 

 organized state. But the hate of his enemies was 

 more powerful than his services. The Portuguese 

 nobility left no means untried to bring him to the 

 scaffold. The queen caused an examination to be 

 made into the trial of the assassins of the king, and 

 Pombal saved himself only by exhibiting the ori- 

 ginal proofs of the conspiracy, which had not been 

 made public. The hated and persecuted Pombal 

 retained his titles and his estates, and, retiring into 

 the village of Pombal, occupied himself in reading 

 and in works of charity. He died there, May 8, 

 1782, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. His 

 history has been misrepresented by his Italian bio- 

 grapher, an ex- Jesuit, and in the Anecdotes du Min- 

 istere de Pombal (Warsaw, 1784). See L' Adminis- 

 tration du Marquis de Pombal (Amsterdam, 1788, 

 4 vols.) 



POMEGRANATE (punicumgranatum). In its 

 wild state, this is a dense spiny shrub, eight or ten 

 feet high, but, when cultivated with care, and in a 

 favourable climate, it attains double these dimen- 

 sions. It is supposed to have originated in the north 

 of Africa, and thence to have been introduced into 

 Italy. By the Romans it was called malum Puni- 

 cum, or Carthaginian apple, and the country adja- 

 cent to Carthage was then celebrated for its pro- 

 duction. The leaves are opposite, lanceolate, entire 

 ami smooth ; the flowers are of a brilliant red, large, 

 arid almost sessile ; the fruit, when cultivated, at- 

 tains the size of a large apple, and has a thick cori- 

 aceous rind, crowned at the summit with the teeth 

 of the persistent calyx. It is filled with a multitude 

 of small red seeds, and the pulp is more or less acid, 

 and slightly astringent. The pomegranate is now 

 naturalized as well as extensively cultivated through- 

 out a great part of the south of Europe, for the sake 

 of the fruit ; and, even in those climates where this 

 does not attain perfection, the beauty of the flowers 

 renders it a favourite ornamental shrub. Numerous 

 remarkable varieties have been produced, differing 

 in the beauty of their flowers, and in the taste and 

 quality of the fruit. The pomegranate, in warm 

 climates, sometimes attains an enormous size. A 

 cooling and agreeable beverage is made of the juice 

 mixed with water and sugar or honey. Another 

 species (P. nana) inhabits the West Indies and 

 Guiana, where it is sometimes used as a hedge 

 plant. The flowers and fruit are very small. These 

 two plants, by themselves, constitute a distinct na- 

 tural family. 



POMERANIA (in German Pommerri) ; a duchy 

 belonging to Prussia, having Mecklenburg on the 

 west, Brandenburg on the south, West Prussia on 

 the east, and the Baltic on th north. It is divided 



by the Oder into Anterior or Hither Pomerania 

 (J'orpommern), and Hinder or Farther Pomerania 

 (Hinterpommern). It contained, in 1828, a popula- 

 tion of 877,555, principally Protestants, on 12,000 

 square miles. It is a low and almost level country. 

 The Oder is the principal river. The soil is in 

 general sandy and indifferent. The mineral pro- 

 ductions are unimportant, and the manufactures in- 

 considerable. The commerce, of which Stettin is 

 the centre, is of more consequence. The principal 

 productions are corn, flax, hemp, tobacco and wood: 

 besides these articles, cattle, butter, wool, &c., are 

 exported. Pomerania is divided into three govern- 

 ments, Stettin, Koslin and Stralsund. The duchy 

 was claimed by the house of Brandenburg in J657, 

 on the extinction of its ducal house, but it was oc- 

 cupied by Sweden during the thirty years' war, and 

 Farther Pomerania was retained by that power at 

 the peace of Westphalia. Prussia acquired a large 

 part of Farther Pomerania by the peace of Stock- 

 holm (1720), and, in 1815, obtained the remainder 

 from Denmark (to whom it had been ceded by Swe- 

 den) in exchange for Lauenburg, and a sum of 

 money. Since 1823, Pomerania has provincial 

 estates, and the present king of Prussia has abolish- 

 ed slavery. The Pomeranians are partly Germans 

 and partly Cassubians, or descendants of the old 

 Vandals, with a peculiar dialect. See Prussia. 



POMFRET, JOHN, an English poet, was born in 

 Bedfordshire in 1667, studied at Queen's College, 

 Cambridge, and took orders. He died in 1703. 

 His Choice has been highly popular. His poems 

 were published in 1699, and some additional pieces 

 appeared after his death. 



POMOLOGY ; a word much in use in France 

 and Germany for that branch of gardening which 

 embraces the cultivation of fruit trees, shrubs, &c., 

 (pomaeeae, drupacea:, bacciferte), and, of course, the 

 cultivation of the fruits themselves. There exist 

 many pomological societies, much the same as the 

 British and American horticultural societies, 

 though the former, as the name implies, direct their 

 attention chiefly to the cultivation of fruits. 



POMPADOUR, JEANNE ANTOINETTE POISSON, 

 marchioness de; the mistress of Louis XV., in whose 

 affections she succeeded Madame de Chateauroux. 

 She was born in 1720, and was the daughter of a 

 kept mistress by a farmer of Ferte-sous Jouare, who 

 had made a tolerable fortune in the corn trade, and 

 was accused of some frauds. In 1741, she was 

 married to a sousfermier d'Etioles. She was well 

 educated, sensible, amiable, rich in graces and ac- 

 complishments, and gifted by nature with a good 

 heart and a good understanding. " I know her 

 well," said Voltaire : " I was the confidant of her 

 love. She declared to me that she had always had 

 a secret presentiment that she should be loved by 

 the king, and that, without well knowing why, she 

 had felt a violent inclination in his favour." This 

 notion, which, in her circumstances, was somewhat 

 wild, seems to have been raised by her often seeing 

 the king at the chase in the forest of Senart. Tour- 

 nehem, her mother's lover, had a country seat in the 

 vicinity. Mad. d'Etioles made her appearance in 

 a sort of a calash, and attracted the notice of the 

 king, who frequently sent her game. She was fin- 

 ally presented to the king, whose favour she soon 

 entirely engrossed. In 1745, she appeared at court 

 [ 'under the title of marchioness of Pompadour. Here 

 she enjoyed the highest consideration, but did not 

 at first interfere in political affairs, satisfied with 

 appearing as the patroness of learning and the arts. 

 She collected books, pictures, and curiosities, aiid 

 encouraged the institution of the military school, of 

 which Paris du Verney was the founder. But , when 

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