; 
1799-] 
but the exceffes and follies into which he 
was precipitated by the petulance of 
youth, foon obliged him to quit his mi- 
litary ftation. 
~ Atthat time, the favourite diverfion of 
the young nobility of Lifbon confifted in 
fallying forth at night, and attacking the 
guards that patrolled the ftreets of the 
city—eguards, who, partaking more of 
the wolf than the dog, often {tripped in- 
ftead of protecting the paffenger. The 
young men had at their head a brother of 
the king, a perfonage of a cruel and fero- 
cious difpofition; and not a night paffed 
without fome bloody broil, nor many 
without a murder. In thefe hazardous 
rencounters,. young Carvalho was ever 
one of the foremoft. His profligate courfe 
did not, however, prevent him from win- 
ning the heart of a young lady of the an- 
cient houfe ot Aveiro; nor did the repug- 
nance of her family, who abhorred fo 
mean an alliance, hinder him from bring- 
ing his amour to a fortunate conclufion. 
He earried her off, married her in {pite of 
them ; and found means to avoid the dag- 
gers and the prifons, with which they 
fought to avenge the deadly affront that 
had been offered to their honour. 
Having acquired in the mean time a 
conicioufnefs of the great gifts he had re- 
ceived from nature, he thought of turn- 
ing his attention to politics, and fucceeded 
in obtaining the appointment of fecretary 
to the Portuguefe embafly at the court of 
Vienna. Here he gave the firft indication 
of thofe fuperior talents and that vait ge- 
nius which afterwards made him omni- 
potent in Portugal. 
His diplomatic career was fcarcely be- 
gun, when he received accounts that his 
wife was no more; the hatred of her fa- 
mily, which fhe had incurred by her mar- 
riage, favouring a fufpicion that life and 
deat: had been difpenied to her from the 
fame fource. Thus left at liberty, he 
offered his hand to a iair relative of that 
Marfhal Daun, whole name, and the hif- 
tory of the feven years: war, will be of 
equal duration. His fine perfon and en- 
gaging manners procured him, as before, 
the confent of the lady; but, as before, 
he failed in obtaiming that of her parents. 
The pride of family is in Germany ftill 
more icrupulous than tn Portugal; aud a 
countryman of Carvalho, then at Vienna, 
tooka pleafure in repeating that his birth 
was mean, and his manners diflolute. For- 
tunately, the ambaffador Taaces, whofe 
friendthip he ad gained, refiened in his 
favour; and his new dignity was ac- 
cepted in place of a wide: {preading ge- 
MonTHLY Mac. No, XL1, 
Memoirs of the Marquis de Pombal. 
49 
nealogical tree and fplendid armorial bear- 
ings. He was at this time lefs than thirty 
years of age. : 
His difpatches and his political conduét 
foon gave a high opinion of his talents, 
and fuggefted the idea of afligning them a 
wider fphere of agtion. He was accord- 
ingly recalled from his embafly; Doz 
Diego de Mendoza, the prime minifter was 
exiled, and the reins of government were 
put into the hands of Carvalho. 
To mend the ftate and the manners of 
a nation long debafed by tyranny and cor- 
ruption, is at once a difficult and an un- 
grateful talk. Abufes and ufurpations, 
when fanétioned by the lapfe of time, are 
held facred, and he who attempts to re- 
form the one, or retrench the other, is 
fure of the enmity of all thofe who con- 
fider the plunder of the public as property, 
and oppreffion as a right. Hence it is, 
that every bungling ftatefman can do mif- 
chief with greater {ecurity, than the wifeft 
can do good. Even the common people 
are taught by their crafty oppreffors to 
clamour againft the man whote hand is 
kindly extended to raife them from the 
ground. All this was experienced by the 
new minifter of Portugal. The hatred of 
an infolent nobility, whofe ambition he 
repreffed, was envenomed by envy and 
rage, at the pre-eminence of an upftart; 
while the popular voice was raifed againft 
him by the holy infpiration of the priefts, 
whofe numbers and influence he fought to 
diminifh; and whom he fcrupled not to 
call the mofi dangerous vermin that can in- 
feft a flate. He was, however, upheld 
by the efteem and friendfhip of his matter 
Jofeph, and gained a large acceffion of 
reputation and-of authority, by the great- 
nefs of mind and abilities which he dif- 
played on two fignal occafions. ‘The firft 
was the ever memorable earthquake of 
1755. 
He had hardJy begun ‘to apply reme- 
dies to the diforders and penury of the 
ftate, when that horrible cataftraphe oc- 
curred. Onthe rft of November, the fair 
and ferene afpect of the heavens befpoke 
no enmity, foreboded no misfortune to 
the devoted inhabitants of Lifbon, when, 
on a fudden, an obfcure fubterraneons 
found was heard, and immediately fol- 
lowed by a moit tremendous ccnvulfion. 
Many were buried beneath the ruins of 
their abodes; the earth {wallowed many ; 
and many were confumed by the flames, 
while affaflins, ftabbing with one hand, 
and plundering with the other, increafed 
the dreadful confufion of the fcene, in 
which not one of the four elements was 
G ttile, 
sys 
