74 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



time trade had vanished, many of her Indian provinces were 

 taken by the Dutch, and the country, loaded with debt, had 

 practically become a commercial dependency of England. 

 When its formal independence was acknowledged in 1668 by 

 treaty with Spain, only the vestiges of its former glory re- 

 mained. In 1703, the Methuen treaty was negotiated with 

 England, by which the latter secured and ever since has kept 

 the trade supremacy of Portugal. In 1750, Joseph, the grand- 

 son of John IV, ascended the Portuguese throne. It was 

 during his reign (1750-1777) that the Marquis de Pombal 

 took entire charge of the reins of government. He carried on 

 a relentless war against the old nobility and the clergy, and as 

 a result of his efforts, the Jesuits were expelled in 1759, and 

 for many years thereafter all the property of religious orders 

 was confiscated and secularized. The republican revolutionists 

 of to-day are merely repeating what Pombal did over a hun- 

 dred and fifty years ago. 



During the Napoleonic wars, the French invaded Portugal, 

 and were about to partition the country with Spain, much after 

 the manner of Poland. John VI, King of Portugal, in order 

 to escape the French invaders, went to Brazil and set up his 

 throne in Rio de Janeiro, in 1807. During the Peninsular 

 Wars, the English and Portuguese troops under Sir Arthur 

 Wellesley freed Portugal from the French invaders. The 

 transfer of the seat of government from Portugal to Brazil 

 was a source of humiHation to the Portuguese, and, although 

 King John might have returned to Portugal after the battle of 

 Waterloo, in 1814, when Napoleon's power was broken, he 

 stayed in Brazil until 1821, when Napoleon died in St. Helena. 

 When he returned to Portugal it was to find a constitution pro- 

 claimed. He left his son, Dom Pedro, as regent in Brazil, but 

 in 1822 Brazil declared its independence and made Dom Pedro 

 its first emperor. 



From that time to this the fortunes of Portugal have varied, 

 with but little improvement in the prospects of the country. 

 In 188 1, the so-called Republican party commenced its active 

 propaganda, determined to oust the royal family and overturn 

 most of the existing institutions. The country became bank- 

 rupt in 1892, and in 1901 its revenues were practically seques- 

 tered to pay the foreign debts, and the management of the 

 revenue was put in the hands of a commission, including repre- 



