Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/572

Rh 550 PORTUGAL [HISTORY. Lisbon was erected into a patriarchate, and the title of &quot; Fidelissimus &quot; or &quot;Most-Faithful&quot; was conferred upon the kings of Portugal, to correspond with those of &quot; Most Christian &quot; and &quot; Most Catholic &quot; attributed to the kings of France and Spain respectively. Joseph. Joseph, who succeeded his father in 1750, had the merit of perceiving the pre-eminent powers of Sebastiilo de Carvalho, who governed Portugal throughout this reign, and who, under his title of the marquis of Pombal (see POAIBAL), ranks among the very greatest of 18th-century statesmen. In everything in his great internal and ad ministrative reforms, in his financial reforms, in the re organization of the army, in the abolition of slavery, and in the great struggle with the Jesuits Joseph supported his minister. Pombal made the king more absolute than ever, and exalted the royal prerogative while using it for purposes of reform ; and in return the king maintained Pombal in power in spite of the violent protests of the priests and the opposition of his wife. Circumstances greatly helped the minister to establish an ascendency over the king s mind : his conduct at the time of the great earthquake on 1st November 1755 secured him his high position over the other two secretaries of state; the Tavora plot gave him the influence which enabled him to overthrow the Jesuits in 1759 ; and the second attempt on the king s life in 1769 strengthened his hands in his negotiations with Rome and ensured the suppression of the order in 1773. The only war in which Portugal was engaged during this reign was caused by the close alliance with England, for, when Choiseul made the Family Com pact and Spain entered upon the Seven Years War, a Spanish army under the marqiiis of Sarria invaded Port ugal and took Braganza and Almeida in 1762. Pombal immediately applied to England for help, when the count of Lippe-Biickeburg came over with a body of English troops and set to work to organize the Portuguese army ; and, mainly owing to the brilliant services of Brigadier- General Burgoyne, the Spaniards were defeated at Valencia de Alcantara and Villa Velha, and peace was made on 10th February 1763. The close of the reign was disturbed by disputes with Spain as to the possession of Sacramento in South America, which were still unsettled when King Joseph died on 20th February 1777, leaving four daughters, of whom the eldest, Donna Maria Francisca, had married the king s brother, Dom Pedro. Maria I. The accession of Donna Maria was the signal for the overthrow of the great marquis and the reversal of his policy. The new queen was a weak woman, and her husband, Dom Pedro, who was proclaimed king, was a weak man ; coins were struck in the names of Pedro III. and Maria I., but both sovereigns were ruled by the queen- dowager, who hated Pombal, and eventually sentenced him never to come within twenty leagues of the court. The incapacity of his successor soon became manifest, while the queen, who was completely under the sway of her confessor, Dom Ignacio de San Caetano, found her greatest happiness in raising and sending large sums of money to the Latin convent at Jerusalem. Such was the state of Portugal when the great crisis in the world s history caused by the French Revolution was at hand ; and, when in 1792 it became evident that affairs could no longer go on in this haphazard fashion, it was also evident that the queen was no longer fit even for the slight fatigue she had to undergo. Her brain had given way in 1788, after the successive deaths of her husband, of her eldest son Dom Joseph, who had married his aunt, Donna Maria Benedicta, and of her confessor, and Dom John found it necessary to take the management of affairs into his own hands, though he was not actually declared regent until 1799. Pedro III. About the time that Dom John became regent the wish to check the spread of the principles of the French Revolution, which were as much feared in Portugal as in all other Continental states, led to the great activity of Dom Diogo Ignacio de Pina Manique, the intendant- general of police. He eagerly hunted down all Portuguese gentlemen suspected of encouraging French principles or of being freemasons, expelled all Frenchmen from the kingdom, and kept a jealous eye on the American consul, Edward Church, and a merchant named Jacome Ratton, whom he declared to be at the head of a republican con spiracy. Moreover, the Portuguese ministers not only combated the dreaded French principles at home, they also believed it a holy duty to join in the general war against France, and therefore a corps of 5000 men was sent into the eastern Pyrenees to serve under General John Forbes Skelater, and four ships under the marquis of Niza joined the English fleet in the Mediterranean. The Portuguese force under Forbes Skelater served in all the actions in the eastern Pyrenees, shared in the suc cesses of General Ricardos, and in the defeats of the count de la Union and General Urrutia ; but nevertheless the Spanish Government, then under the influence of Godoy, the Prince of the Peace, did not hesitate to desert Portugal and make a separate peace with the French republic at Basel in July 1795. This naturally drove Portugal into a still closer alliance with England ; and, when, after the treaty of San Ildefonso (1796), by which Spain declared war against England, and the secret convention between Perignon and Godoy to divide Portugal between them, Spanish troops were massed on the Portuguese frontiers, an urgent supplication for help was sent to England. In response the House of Commons voted Portugal a subsidy of 200,000 ; a force of 6000 men was despatched under Major- General Sir Charles Stuart, which deterred the Spaniards from attempting an invasion ; and the prince of Walcleck, like the count of Lippe in former days, was sent to reorganize the Portuguese army. Yet the English party was not strong enough to carry the day entirely ; Sir Charles Stuart was soon withdrawn, and an effort made to secure peace with France through the mediation of Spain. But the concessions of the French party were of no avail; the First Consul was as violently opposed to Portugal, as being a province of England, as the Convention and Directory had been, and in 1800 Lucien Bonaparte was sent to Madrid with instructions from his brother to insist on the abandonment of the English alliance, on the opening of Portuguese ports to France and the closing of them to England, on the extension of French Guiana to the Amazons, on the cession of a portion of Portugal to Spain, until the recovery from England of Trinidad, Port Mahon, and Malta, and on the payment of a large sum of money, and he was authorized to offer to Spain a corps of 15,000 Frenchmen if these hard terms were rejected. The Portu guese ministers did reject them, and immediately Leclerc s corps entered Spain. The campaign lasted but a few days. Olivenza and Campo Mayor fell into the hands of the Spaniards, who also won bloodless victories at Arronches and Flor da Rosa. Peace was made at Badajoz with Spain, by which Portugal ceded Olivenza, and at Paris with France, by which it consented to the extension of French Guiana to the Amazons, and promised a large indemnity. Napoleon Bonaparte was anything but satisfied with the treaty of Badajoz, and received Lucien on his return with but little favour, for his aim was utterly to destroy Portugal as a nation ; and it was with a full intention to excite her to war that he sent one of the roughest and least educated of his generals, Lannes, as ambassador to Lisbon. Lannes acted fully up to his chiefs expectations : he ordered the dismissal of all the ministers who favoured England, and