in a

prince of Beira, in purfuance of the mode of marriage, which feems manner established in that court, and which already approaches clofely to that antiently practifed in the royal houfe of the Ptolemies, was married juft before the king's death, to his mother's youngest fifter, the princefs Maria Benedicta, fhe being then in her 31st year and the prince in his fixteenth.

The late king's reign was neither happy to himself, nor fortunate to his people. It was early marked by one of thofe awful calamities, thofe tremendous ftrokes of providence, or convulfions of nature, which bring man to a fenfe of his condition, and lay his proudest works in the duft. The fatal earthquake in 1755, overwhelmed his capital, and hook his kingdom to the centre. His fucceeding administration was not much diftinguifhed, by the affection it acquired at home, or the reputation which it fuftained abroad. It was deeply stained with domeftic blood; and rendered odious by an exceffive and horrible cruelty. The first families of the kingdom were ruined, tortured, and nearly cut off from the face of the earth, without that clearness of evidence to the establishment of their guilt, or even that attention to the ufual forms of juftice and modes of enquiry, which fo dreadful and exemplary an execution undoubtedly demanded. From that time, fufpicion, or the will of a favourite, fupplied the place of all evidence, until the numerous dungeons of the kingdom feemed at length scarcely capable of affording room to the wretched bodies of thofe who had been its principal citizens. The

king himself had nearly perished difgracefully, by the hands of aflaf fins, in fome idle nocturnal excurfion; and if it had not been for the powerful intervention of a great and faithful ally, he would probably have feen his kingdom overrun, if not finally fubverted, by a foreign enemy.

It muft, however, in juftice to the memory of the late king be acknow ledged, that he gave a ftriking inftance both of firmness and virtue, in the conftancy with which he fupported his engagements and faith with Great Britain, during the trying circumftances, and furrounding dangers of the late war. Without wishing to detract in any degree from the merit of fuch a conduct, it must alfo with equal truth be acknowledged, that he could not, confitently with the character of a ftatesman and politician, have

acted otherwife. That he had no other alternative than the part which he took, or to adopt that weak, defperate, and at all times to be confidered moft fatal meafure, of refigning the keys, the ftrength, and the arms of his king. dom into the hands, and laying even his own perfon at the mercy of an envious and inveterate enemy, who had an old and never-forgotten claim upon the whole.

The expulfion of the jefuits from Portugal, which first opened the way to the diffolution and ruin of that celebrated and extraordinary order of men in every other part of the world, will for ever render the late reign. diflinguifhed. A great deal was alfo done, to diminish the exceffive numbers and overgrown wealth and influence of all orders of the clergy, as well as to abate the rigours of the inquifition. In de rogation

rogation however from the latter merit, that tribunal was ftill kept up as an engine of ftate tyranny, when it was enfeebled as an inftrument of religious perfecution. Upon the death of the king, the princefs of Brazil was immediately acknowledged as fovereign, and entered into the administration of public affairs. It was reported, but we cannot say with what foundation, that a confiderable party, who were fuppofed to be fecretly fupported by the prime minifter, had fome intention of placing the crown directly upon the head of the prefumptive heir, the prince of Beira. If any fuch scheme was in agitation, it was not avowed, nor have any of those refentments appeared, which might have been expected from the knowledge of fuch a defign.

March 6th.

One of the first acts of the new government, was the removal from power of 1777- the Marquis de Pombal, who had for many years governed the kingdom with a moft unbounded authority, and which his numerous enemies fay, was directed to the most cruel and arbitrary purpofes. This minifter was let down from his high authority with great gentleness, for that country, and that fpecies of government. He was informed by a note from the queen, that, in confideration of the great regard and efteem which the late king her father had for him, as well as of his own age and infirmities, he was permitted, at his own defire, to retire from the royal fervice to his eftate in the country. In the fame note, the queen granted him a continuance of the appointments of his office as fecretary of state, and beftowed on him

a vacant Commandery of St. James.

No public blefling or advantage; neither the deliverance from a foreign enemy, nor a domeftic tyranny, could have excited a greater or more univerfal joy, than the removal of this nobleman from power, and his fubfequent difgrace, which became every day more apparent. Whether it proceeded from the boldness, wisdom, and rectitude of his measures, his oppofing national vices, and popular prejudices, the defpotim of his administration, or, more probably, from the mixed operation of all thefe caufes, he had the fortune to incur the abhorrence and dread of every order of men in the state and kingdom. The antient nobility, condered him equally the deftroyer of their order, and the exterminator of their race; the clergy anathematized him, as the enemy of religion in general, as well as the fubvertor of their particular inftitutions, and the defroyer of their general and perfonal rights; the common people execrated him, as the fcourge and curfe of their country. To add to the weight of domeftic enmity and clamour, he had continual difputes with the English merchants and factory, (who form a great body in that country) upon matters relative to trade, and to their real or fuppofed rights and immunities.

In fuch a flate of public diflike and violent prejudice, it would not be an eafy matter to obtain the real character of a minifter, at a much nearer diflance, and in a country where enquiry was much more open, and difquifitions of that nature better understood and more liberally conducted, than in [AZ] 2 Portugal,

in their fqualid condition, afforded no faint representation of a refurrection of the dead. Many of thefe were of family and condition, whose friends having no fufpicion of their fate, had long fuppofed that they had perished by the hands of affaffims, or by fome untoward accident of which they could frame no idea. Near 4000 more it was faid had perished in thofe prifons during the defpotifm of the favourite. Of the living, it may well be fuppofed, that even the most criminal declared and protefted their innocence. Each had his tale of woe; and each the particular hiftory, of the cruelties he had experienced, and the fufferings he had undergone, to recite. The emotions of the hearers may poffibly be conceived. Their execration and abhorrence of the late minifter will be easily fappofed.

Among thofe of high rank, who were now restored to the light of heaven, was, faid to be, a fon of the Marquis of Tavora, who was committed to prifon at five years of age, and having feen no perfon fince that time but a keeper, and that only at the ftated and fhort feafons, allotted for the adminiftration of his fcanty provifion, exhibited the fhocking fpectacle of a human being, almost deftitute of language and ideas, and without the smallest memory or knowledge of his family or former condition."

The ancient bishop of Coimbra, who had been committed to prifon about the time of the fuppreffion of the jefuits, for fome enthufiaftical writings he had publifhed, in which, along with a direct charge of herefy against the minifter, he faid it was approach

ing faft to the throne, and would foon overfpread the nation, now prefented a piteous fpectacle to the people, appearing before them almost naked, as he came out of prifon, and relating to them, aamong his other fufferings, that he had lain upon nothing but bare boards during the whole time of his confinement, whilft his age, venerable appearance, and the fanctity attributed to his character, excited all the mixed emotions of pity and horror in his hearers.

The remains of the unfortunate family of Tavora, confifting of the Marquis de Alorna, and his three brothers, who had been obliged to adopt their mother's name of Lorena, that of Tavora having been for ever abolished, were, in fome time after their release, reftored to all their ancient honours and rights by a public decree, in which the queen declared, that the important affair in which they were concerned, had been fcrupuloudly enquired into, by the Solicitor General, and minifters of ability appointed for that purpose, who had unanimously declared them entirely innocent. Two of the Marquis's brothers were appointed to honourable commands in the army. M. de Andrada, formerly minifter from that court to the United Provinces, who had been thrown into prifon immediately after his recal, and who now refufed to quit it, until he obtained a promife of a full enquiry into his conduct, received the fatisfaction of having his innocence publicly acknowledged by a fimilar decree, and was appointed High Chancellor of the kingdom. Several who had fuffered the lofs of their offices, and endured all the