"'There, you see! where's the distress?' said the urchin, laughing.
'The basket is as full as it can hold. Off with you to the town, and
when your fish are once sold, you may make yourself - some
water-gruel.' With these words the elf leaped into the fish-basket,
crept out again on the other side, plucked a king-cup, took seat in
it, and gave the word - 'Forwards!' The flower, on the instant,
displayed its petals. There appeared sail and rudder to the small and
delicate ship, which at once took motion, and sailed gaily through
the air.
"'A prosperous market to you, Swanhilda!' cried Sweetflower, 'behave
discreetly now, and do your tutor justice!'
"Swanhilda, perforce, resigned herself to her destiny. She took her
basket, and carried it home, intending to disguise herself as
completely as possible before making for the town. But all her
clothes lay crumbling into dust. Needs must she then, harassed by
hunger and thirst, begin her weary walk, equipped, as she was, in her
velvet riding-habit.
"Without fatigue, surprised at her celerity - she was in the
market-place. The eyes of all naturally took the direction of the
well-born fisherwoman. Still pity held the tongue of scorn in thrall,
and Swanhilda saw her basket speedily emptied. Once more within her
castle walls, she beheld a running spring in the courtyard, and near
it an earthen pitcher. She filled - drank - and carried the remainder
to the hall, where she found a small fire burning, a pipkin, and a
loaf. She submissively cooked herself a meagre pottage of bread and
water, appeased the cravings of nature, and fell into a sound sleep.
"Morning came, and she awoke with thirst burning afresh. She hastened
to the spring, but fountain and pitcher were no loner there. In their
stead a hoarse laugh greeted her; and in the next instant she
perceived the tiny butler, astride upon a cork, galloping before her
across the courtyard, and addressing his pupil with another snatch of
his derisive song.
"The courage of Swanhilda surmounted her wrath, and she carried her
fish-basket to the lake. It was soon filled, and she again on her way
to market. An amazing multitude of people were already in motion
here, who presently thronged about the market-woman. The basket was
nearly emptied, when two of her old suitors approached. Swanhilda was
confounded, and a blush of deep shame inflamed her countenance.
Curiosity and the pleasure of malice spurred them to accost her; but
the sometime-haughty damsel cast her eyes upon the ground, and in
answer tendered her fish for sale. The knights bought; mixing,
however, ungentle gibes with their good coin. Swanhilda, at the
moment, caught sight of her tutor peeping from a daisy - saluting her
with his little cap, and nodding approbation.
"'I would you were in the kingdom of pepper!' thought Swanhilda, and
in the next instant the fairy was running upon her nose and cheeks,
most unmercifully stamping, and tickling her with a little hair till
she sneezed again.
"'Stay, stay, I must teach thee courtesy, if I can. What! a profane
swearer too! Wish me in the kingdom of pepper! We'll have pepper
growing on thy soft cheeks here. There, there - is that pepper? Thou
art rouged, my lady, ready for a ball!'
"Swanhilda turned upon her homeward way, the adhesive Elf still
tripping ceaselessly about her face, and bore her infliction with a
virtuous patience. In her court and hall she found, as before, the
spring, the bread, and the fire. As before, she satisfied hunger and
thirst, and slept - the sweeter already for her punishment and pain.
"And so passed day after day. The tricky Elf became a less severe,
still trusty schoolmaster. The profits of her trading, under fairy
guardianship, were great to marvelling; and it must be owned that her
aversion to angling craft did not increase in proportion. As time ran
on, she had encountered all her discarded knights, now singly and now
in companies. A year and a half elapsed, and left the relation
between suitors and maiden as at the beginning. At length a chivalric
and gentle knight, noble in person as in birth, ventured to accost
her, loving and reverently as in her brighter days of yore. Abashed,
overcome with shame, the maiden was at the mercy of the light-winged,
blithe, and watchful god, who seized his hour to enthrone himself
upon her heart. She bought the fairy caps and mantles - she made
honourable satisfaction to the knights, and to him whose generous
constancy had won her heart, she gave a willing and a softened hand.
"Upon her wedding day, the QUIET PEOPLE did not fail to adorn the
festival with their radiant presence; albeit the merry creatures
played a strange cross-game on the occasion. The blissful day over,
and the happy bride and bridegroom withdrawing from the banquet and
the dance, the well-pleased chirping, able little tutor hopped before
them, and led them to the hymeneal bower with floral flute, and
gratulatory song!"
PORTUGAL.[35]
[Footnote 35: _Memoirs of the Marquis of Pombal_. By J. SMITH, Esq.,
Private Secretary to the Marquis of Saldanha. Two vols.]
The connexion of Portugal with England has been continued for so long
a period, and the fortunes of Portugal have risen and fallen so
constantly in the exact degree of her more intimate or more relaxed
alliance with England that a knowledge of her interests, her habits,
and her history, becomes an especial accomplishment of the English
statesman. The two countries have an additional tie, in the
similitude of their early pursuits, their original character for
enterprise, and their mutual services. Portugal, like England, with a
narrow territory, but that territory largely open to the sea, was
maritime from her beginning; like England, her early power was
derived from the discovery of remote countries; like England, she
threw her force into colonization, at an era when all other nations
of Europe were wasting their strength in unnecessary wars; like
England, without desiring to enlarge her territory, she has preserved
her independence; and, so sustain the similitude to its full extent,
like England, she founded an immense colony in the western world,
with which, after severing the link of government, she retains the
link of a common language, policy, literature, and religion.
The growth of the great European powers at length overshadowed the
prosperity of Portugal, and the usurpation of her government by Spain
sank her into a temporary depression. But the native gallantry of the
nation at length shook off the yoke; and a new effort commenced for
her restoration to the place which she was entitled to maintain in
the world. It is remarkable that, at such periods in the history of
nations, some eminent individual comes forward, as if designated for
the especial office of a national guide. Such an individual was the
Marquis of Pombal, the virtual sovereign of Portugal for twenty-seven
years - a man of talent, intrepidity, and virtue. His services were
the crush of faction and the birth of public spirit, the fall of the
Jesuits and the peace of his country. His inscription should be, "The
Restorer of his Country."
The Marquis of Pombal was born on the 13th of May 1699, at Soure, a
Portuguese village near the town of Pombal. His father, Manoel
Carvalho, was a country gentleman of moderate fortune, of the rank of
_fidalgo de provincia_ - a distinction which gave him the privileges
attached to nobility, though not to the title of a grandee, that
honour not descending below dukes, marquises, and counts. His mother
was Theresa de Mendonca, a woman of family. He had two brothers,
Francis and Paul. His own names were Sebastian Joseph, to which was
added that of Mello, from his maternal ancestor.
Having, like the sons of Portuguese gentlemen in general, studied for
a period in the university of Coimbra, he entered the army as a
private, according to the custom of the country, and rose to the rank
of corporal, which he held until circumstances, and an introduction
to Cardinal Motta, who was subsequently prime-minister, induced him
to devote himself to the study of history, politics, and law. The
cardinal, struck with his ability, strongly advised him to persevere
in those pursuits, appointed him, in 1733, member of the Royal
Academy of History, and shortly after, the king proposed that he
should write the history of certain of the Portuguese monarchs; but
this design was laid aside, and Pombal remained unemployed for six
years, until, in 1739, he was sent by the cardinal to London, as
Portuguese minister. He retained his office until 1745; yet it is
remarkable, and an evidence of the difficulty of acquiring a new
language, that Pombal, though thus living six active years in the
country, was never able to acquire the English language. It must,
however, be recollected, that at this period French was the universal
language of diplomacy, the language of the court circles, and the
polished language of all the travelled ranks of England. The
writings, too, of the French historians, wits, and politicians, were
the study of every man who pretended to good-breeding, and the only
study of most; so that, to a stranger, the acquisition of the
vernacular tongue could be scarcely more than a matter of curiosity.
Times, however, are changed; and the diplomatist who should now come
to this country without a knowledge of the language, would be
despised for his ignorance of an essential knowledge, and had better
remain at home. Soon after his return, he was employed in a
negotiation to reconcile the courts of Rome and Vienna on an
ecclesiastical claim. His reputation had already reached Vienna; and
it is surmised that Maria Theresa, the empress, had desired his
appointment as ambassador. His embassy was successful. At Vienna,
Pombal, who was a widower, married the Countess Ernestein Daun, by
whom he had two sons and three daughters. Pombal was destined to be a
favourite at courts from his handsome exterior. He was above the
middle size, finely formed, and with a remarkably intellectual
countenance; his manners graceful, and his language animated and
elegant. His reputation at Vienna was so high, that on a vacancy in
the Foreign office at Lisbon, Pombal was recalled to take the
portfolio in 1750. Don John, the king, died shortly after, and Don
Joseph, at the age of thirty-five, ascended the throne, appointing
Pombal virtually his prime-minister - a rank which he held, unshaken
and unrivaled, for the extraordinary period of twenty-seven years.
The six years of unemployed and private life, which the great
minister had spent in the practical study of his country, were of the
most memorable service to his future administration. His six years'
residence in England added practical knowledge to theoretical; and
with the whole machinery of a free, active, and popular government in
constant operation before his eyes, he returned to take the
government of a dilapidated country. The power of the priesthood,
exercised in the most fearful shape of tyranny; the power of the
crown, at once feeble and arbitrary; the power of opinion, wholly
extinguished; and the power of the people, perverted into the
instrument of their own oppression - were the elements of evil with
which the minister had to deal; and he dealt with them vigorously,
sincerely, and successfully.
The most horrible tribunal of irresponsible power, combined with the
most remorseless priestcraft, was the Inquisition; for it not merely
punished men for obeying their own consciences, but tried them in
defiance of every principle of enquiry. It not only made a law
contradictory of every other law, but it established a tribunal
subversive of every mode by which the innocent could be defended. It
was a murderer on principle. Pombal's first act was a bold and noble
effort to reduce this tribunal within the limits of national safety.
By a decree of 1751, it was ordered that thenceforth no judicial
burnings should take place without the consent and approval of the
government, taking to itself the right of enquiry and examination,
and confirming or reversing the sentence according to its own
judgment. This measure decided at once the originality and the
boldness of the minister: for it was the first effort of the kind in
a Popish kingdom; and it was made against the whole power of Rome,
the restless intrigues of the Jesuits, and the inveterate
superstition of the people.
Having achieved this great work of humanity, the minister's next
attention was directed to the defences of the kingdom. He found all
the fortresses in a state of decay, he appropriated an annual revenue
of L.7000 for their reparation; he established a national manufactory
of gunpowder, it having been previously supplied by contract, and
being of course supplied of the worst quality at the highest rate. He
established regulations for the fisheries, he broke up iniquitous
contracts, he attempted to establish a sugar refinery, and directed
the attention of the people largely to the cultivation of silk. His
next reformation was that of the police. The disorders of the late
reign had covered the highways with robbers. Pombal instituted a
police so effective, and proceeded with such determined justice
against all disturbers of the peace, that the roads grew suddenly
safe, and the streets of Lisbon became proverbial for security, at a
time when every capital of Europe was infested with robbers and
assassins, and when even the state of London was so hazardous, as to
be mentioned in the king's speech in 1753 as a scandal to the
country. The next reform was in the collection of the revenue. An
immense portion of the taxes had hitherto gone into the pockets of
the collectors. Pombal appointed twenty-eight receivers for the
various provinces, abolished at a stroke a host of inferior officers,
made the promisers responsible for the receivers, and restored the
revenue to a healthy condition. Commerce next engaged his attention;
he established a company to trade to the East and China, the old
sources of Portuguese wealth. In the western dominions of Portugal,
commerce had hitherto languished. He established a great company for
the Brazil trade. But his still higher praise was his humanity.
Though acting in the midst of a nation overrun with the most violent
follies and prejudices of Popery, he laboured to correct the abuses
of the convents; and, among the rest, their habit of retaining as
nuns the daughters of the Brazilian Portuguese who had been sent over
for their education. By a wise and humane decree, issued in 1765, the
Indians, and a large portion of Brazil, were declared free.
Expedients were adopted to civilize them, and privileges were granted
to the Portuguese who should contract marriage among them. Of course
those great objects were not achieved without encountering serious
difficulties. The pride of the idle aristocracy, the sleepless
intriguing of the Jesuits, the ignorant enthusiasm of the people, and
the sluggish supremacy of the priests, were all up in arms against
him. But his principle was pure, his knowledge sound, and his
resolution decided. Above all, he had, in the person of the king, a
man of strong mind, convinced of the necessities of change, and
determined to sustain the minister. The reforms soon vindicated
themselves by the public prosperity; and Pombal exercised all the
powers of a despotic sovereign, in the benevolent spirit of a
regenerator of his country.
But a tremendous physical calamity was now about to put to the test
at once the fortitude of this great minister, and the resources of
Portugal.
On the morning of All-Saints' day, the 1st of November 1755, Lisbon
was almost torn up from the foundations by the most terrible
earthquake on European record. As it was a high Romish festival, the
population were crowding to the churches, which were lighted up in
honour of the day. About a quarter before ten the first shock was
felt, which lasted the extraordinary length of six or seven minutes;
then followed an interval of about five minutes, after which the
shock was renewed, lasting about three minutes. The concussions were
so violent in both instances that nearly all the solid buildings were
dashed to the ground, and the principal part of the city almost
wholly ruined. The terror of the population, rushing through the
falling streets, gathered in the churches, or madly attempting to
escape into the fields, may be imagined; but the whole scene of
horror, death, and ruin, exceeds all description. The ground split
into chasms, into which the people were plunged in their fright.
Crowds fled to the water; but the Tagus, agitated like the land,
suddenly rose to an extraordinary height, burst upon the land, and
swept away all within its reach. It was said to have risen to the
height of five-and-twenty or thirty feet above its usual level, and
to have sunk again as much below it. And this phenomenon occurred
four times.
The despatch from the British consul stated, that the especial force
of the earthquake seemed to be directly under the city; for while
Lisbon was lifted from the ground, as if by the explosion of a
gunpowder mine, the damage either above or below was not so
considerable. One of the principal quays, to which it was said that
many people had crowded for safety, was plunged under the Tagus, and
totally disappeared. Ships were carried down by the shock on the
river, dashes to pieces against each other, or flung upon the shore.
To complete the catastrophe, fires broke out in the ruins, which
spread over the face of the city, burned for five or six days, and
reduced all the goods and property of the people to ashes. For forty
days the shocks continued with more or less violence, but they had
now nothing left to destroy. The people were thus kept in a constant
state of alarm, and forced to encamp in the open fields, though it
was now winter. The royal family were encamped in the gardens of the
palace; and, as in all the elements of society had been shaken
together, Lisbon and its vicinity became the place of gathering for
banditti from all quarters in the kingdom. A number of Spanish
deserters made their way to the city, and robberies and murders of
the most desperate kind were constantly perpetrated.
During this awful period, the whole weight of government fell upon
the shoulders of the minister; and he bore it well. He adopted the
most active measures for provisioning the city, for repressing
plunder and violence, and for enabling the population to support
themselves during this period of suffering. It was calculated that
seven millions sterling could scarcely repair the damage of the city;
and that not less than eighty thousand lives had been lost, either
crushed by the earth or swallowed up by the waters. Some conception
of the native mortality may be formed from that of the English: of
the comparatively small number of whom, resident at that time in
Lisbon, no less than twenty-eight men and fifty women were among the
sufferers.
The royal family were at the palace of Belem when this tremendous
calamity occurred. Pombal instantly hastened there. He found every
one in consternation. "What is to be done," exclaimed the king, as he
entered "to meet this infliction of divine justice?" The calm and
resolute answer of Pombal was - "Bury the dead, and feed the living."
This sentence is still recorded, with honour, in the memory of
Portugal.
The minister then threw himself into his carriage, and returned to
the ruins. For several days his only habitation was his carriage; and
from it he continued to issue regulations for the public security.
Those regulations amounted to the remarkable number of two hundred;
and embraced all the topics of police, provisions, and the burial of
the sufferers. Among those regulations was the singular, but
sagacious one, of prohibiting all persons from leaving the city
without a passport. By this, those who had robbed the people, or
plundered the church plate, were prevented from escaping to the
country and hiding their plunder, and consequently were obliged to
abandon, or to restore it. But every shape of public duty was met by
this vigorous and intelligent minister. He provided for the cure of
the wounded, the habitancy of the houseless, the provision of the
destitute. He brought troops from the provinces for the protection of
the capital, he forced the idlers to work, he collected the inmates
of the ruined religious houses, he removed the ruins of the streets,
buried the dead, and restored the services of the national religion.
Another task subsequently awaited him - the rebuilding of the city. He
began boldly; and all that Lisbon now has of beauty is due to the
taste and energy of Pombal. He built noble squares. He did more: he
built the more important fabric of public sewers in the new streets,
and he laid out a public garden for the popular recreation. But he
found, as Wren found, even in England, the infinite difficulty of
opposing private interest, even in public objects; and Lisbon lost
the opportunity of being the most picturesque and stately of European
cities. One project, which would have been at once of the highest
beauty and of the highest benefit - a terrace along the shore of the
Tagus from Santa Apollonia to Belem, a distance of nearly six miles,
which would have formed the finest promenade in the world - he was
either forced to give up or to delay, until its execution was
hopeless. It was never even begun.
The vigour of Pombal's administration raised bitter enemies to him
among those who had lived on the abuses of government, or the plunder
of the people. The Jesuits hated alike the king and his minister.
They even declared the earthquake to have been a divine judgment for
the sins of the administration. But they were rash enough, in the
intemperance of their zeal, to threaten a repetition of the
earthquake at the same time next year. When the destined day came,
Pombal planted strong guards at the city gates, to prevent the panic
of the people in rushing into the country. The earthquake did not
fulfil the promise; and the people first laughed at themselves, and
then at the Jesuits. The laugh had important results in time.
There are few things more remarkable in diplomatic history, than the
long connexion of Portugal with England. It arose naturally from the
commerce of the two nations - Portugal, already the most adventurous
of nations, and England, growing in commercial enterprise. The
advantages were mutual. In the year 1367, we have a Portuguese treaty
stipulating for protection to the Portuguese traders in England. In
1382, a royal order of Richard II. permits the Portuguese ambassador
to bring his baggage into England free of duty - perhaps one of the
earliest instances of a custom which marked the progress of
civilization, and which has since been generally adopted throughout
all civilized nations. A decree of Henry IV., in 1405, exonerates the
Portuguese resident in England, and their ships, from being made
responsible for the debts contracted by their ambassadors. In 1656,
the important privilege was conceded to the English in Portugal, of
being exempted from the native jurisdiction, and being tried by a
judge appointed by England. This, in our days, might be an
inadmissible privilege; but two centuries ago, in the disturbed
condition of the Portuguese laws and general society, it might have
been necessary for the simple protection of the strangers.
The theories of domestic manufactures and free trade have lately
occupied so large a portion of public interest, that it is curious to
see in what light they were regarded by a statesman so far in advance
of his age as Pombal. The minister's theory is in striking
contradiction to his practice. He evidently approved of monopoly and
prohibitions, but he exercised neither the one nor the other - nature
and necessity were too strong against him. We are, however, to
recollect, that the language of complaint was popular in Portugal, as
it always will be in a poor country, and that the minister who would
be popular must adopt the language of complaint. In an eloquent and
almost impassioned memoir by Pombal, he mourns over the poverty of
his country, and hastily imputes it to the predominance of English
commerce. He tells us that, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
Portugal scarcely produced any thing towards her own support. Two
thirds of her physical necessities were supplied from England. He
complains that England had become mistress of the entire commerce of
Portugal, and in fact that the Portuguese trade was only an English
trade; that the English were the furnishers and retailers of all the