52. 
ef a hundred men. Ina country where 
the king went about unattended, or only 
guarded by a few men of a regiment of 
cavalry, a minifter conftantly furrounded 
by the naked {words of a corps devoted to 
his particular fervice, could not fail to 
excite odium, and an outcry of tyranny. 
But his precautions were neceflary in the 
ynidft of a nobility the more dangerous be- 
caufe cowardly, a fanatie and aggrieved 
‘elergy, and a riotous populace. The 
fame defence cannot be made for the pride 
and oftentation of power, which induced 
him to ere&t a palace for himfelf, while 
his fovereign was dwelling in a hovel, 
after the royal refidence had been fhak- 
en into ruins by’ the earthquake of 
F755° 
When the moft urgent cares refulting 
from that event, and thofe that grew out 
of the confpiracy, were over, the Marquis 
de Pomibal returned with equal ardour 
and fuecefs to his favourite reforms. He 
ye-animated commerce and the arts; 
created a navy, and rebuilt the unfor- 
tunate town of Lifbon. His efforts were 
not always unrewarded by the gratitude 
af his countrymen; and when, in 1766, 
a dangerous malady threatened to carry 
him oif, the alarm was general through- 
out Portugal. But towards the clofe of 
his career he became lefs popular, per- 
haps not without reafon. At a time of 
life when moft men feek repofe, his peace- 
ful labours were not enough for him. 
He engaged the Portuguele colonies in 
hoftilities with thofe of Spain; and was 
ieliberately provoking a war in Europe, 
when, in the beginning of 1777, Jofeph I. 
died, and with him the power of the 
Marquis de Pombal. In a week after 
the demife of the crown he was ftripped 
of all his employments. Though in his 
y7th year, his mental and corporeal fa- 
culties were equally unimpaired, and his 
manners fo infinuating, that the Queen 
Dowager charged her daughter not to ad- 
mit him to an audience, well aware that, 
after two or three conferences, he would 
have gained a dominion over her mind, 
zs complete as that which he had exercifed 
over the deceafed monarch’s. 
At the coronation of the new queen, 
the nobility, grown more ferocious by 
the length of the time they had been 
shained down, inftigated the people by 
their emifiaries to demand the iate mi- 
nifter’s head, and the multitude was dif- 
pofed to gratify them; when, ona fud- 
den, a body of cavalry appeared, headed 
by an officer who forbade the Marquis de 
Pombal to be named under the moft ri- 
Memoirs of the Marquis de Pombal. 
[Jan. 
gorous penalties. The fidalgos, who wert. 
aflembled in a gallery, were much dif- 
concerted at the filence that enfued. They 
were obferved to be in great agitation,run- 
ning backward and forward, fending off 
meflages, and darting looks of anger and. 
impatience at the crowd. It was in vain; 
fome dozen of voices, which exclaimed 
Perabal! Pombal! were inftantly over- 
powered by cries of Long live the Queen! 
from Carvalho’s partizans. 
To perfeé&t the great plans, which the 
Marquis de Pombal had fketched out, 
would have required twenty years pro- 
longation of his miniftry, or fmilar fuc- 
ceflors. None fuch appeared; the na- 
tion fell back into apathy, and into the 
clutches of the priefts; and all the old 
evils, and all the old abufes, returned. 
The people then began to perceive that 
he had been labouring for their benefit ; 
and, in fpite of the feverity of his ad- 
miniftration, would gladly have been go- 
verned again by that head which they 
had fo lately devoted to the block *. 
It is generally remarked, perhaps ge- 
nerally true, that the folitude of difcarded 
minifters is haunted by the ghoft of their 
former grandeur; that they cannot con- 
fole themfelves for the lofs of attendance, 
adulation, and power; and that their 
mind, accuftomed to the management of 
great affairs, preys upon itfelf, when de- 
prived of its ufual aliment. Carvalho 
was a ftranger to thefe torments. He 
lived cheerfully, in modeft retirement, on 
his eftate of Pombal, paffing his time in 
reading, in doing aéts of beneficence to 
his indigent neighbours and vaffals, and 
in adminiftering confolation to his wife, 
whofe weaker nature, and German pride, 
could ill breok difgrace, and who then 
began for the firft time to regret that ever 
the left Vienna. 
_ Thougha man ofa great, fagacious, and | 
intrepid mind, the Marquis of Pombal was 
far from a perfect charafter. Haughty, 
violent, vindidtive, and rapacious, he 
mixed his own injuries and intereft with 
thofe of the ftate. Even when in fole 
purfuit of the general welfare, he was 
not irreproachable. Inftead of removing 
the obitacles that ftood in his way with 
difcretion, he rudely overturned them, 
without caring whom they crufhed ; and 
thus miffed the fame of a goed minifter, 
by being too eager to do good. 
EERE neE eer RS 
* Soon after his difgrace, the following 
_faying was current in Portugal :—*«* AZal por 
mal; melber Pombal :* that is, Evil for evil: 
VARIE 
it were better to have Pombal. 
