undertaken with the moft confident hopes, and for fome time purfued with very flattering appearances of fuccefs. It was fuppofed the principal means for the immediate reduction of the colonies; but it has only ferved, in conjunction with other operations, which in the firft inftance have fucceeded better, to demonftrate the difficulties attending the fubjugation of a numerous people at a great distance, in an extenfive country marked with ftrong lines, and abounding in ftrong natural defences, if the refources of war are not exceedingly deficient, and that the fpirit of the people is in any degree proportioned to their fituation. It may now, whatever it was in the beginning, be a matter of doubt, whether any fuperiority of power, of wealth, and of difcipline, will be found to overbalance fuch difficulties.

It would not be easy at prefent, as many things neceffary to be known have not yet been fully explained, and improper, as the whole is ftill a fubject of public inveftigation, to attempt forming any judgment upon the general plan or fyftem of this campaign. The general conduct of the war this year has already undergone much cenfure; and undoubtedly the fending of the grand army at fuck a diftance to the fouthward, whilft the inferior was left struggling with infurmountable difficulties in the north, when it would feem that their junction or co-operation would have rendered them greatly fuperior to any force which could have been poffibly brought to oppofe their progrefs, feems, in this view of things, not to be easily accounted for. It is, however, a subject, upon which no conclufive opinion can yet be formed.

СНАР.

in a

prince of Beira, in purfuance of the mode of marriage, which feems manner established in that court, and which already ap proaches closely 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.

His

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 dut. The fatal earthquake in 1755, overwhelmed his capital, and fhook his kingdom to the centre. fucceeding administration was not much diftinguished, by the affection it acquired at home, or the reputation which it fuftained abroad. It was deeply ftained with domeftic blood; and rendered odious by an exceffive and horrible cruelty. The firt 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 fcarcely capable of affording room to the wretched bodies of thofe who had been its principal citizens. The +

king himfelf had nearly perished difgracefully, by the hands of affaf 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.

Without

It must, however, in justice to the memory of the late king be acknowledged, 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 circumstances, and furrounding dangers of the late war. wishing to detract in any degree from the merit of fuch a conduct, it muft alfo with equal truth be acknowledged, that he could not, confiftently with the character of a fatefman 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 kingdom 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 firft 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 diftinguifhed. 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 adminiftration of public affairs. It was reported, but we cannot fay 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 thofe refentments appeared, which might have been expected from the knowledge of fuch a defign.

March 6th.

1777.

One of the first acts of the new government, was the removal from power of 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 bestowed on him

James.

No public blefling or advantage; neither the deliverance from a foreign enemy, nor a domestic 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 boldnefs, wisdom, and rectitude of his measures, his oppofing national vices, and popular prejudices, the defpotifm of his adminiftration, 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 ftate and kingdom. The antient nobility, confidered 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 destroyer 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 ftate 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 diftance, and in a country where enquiry was much more open, and difquifitions of that nature better understood and more liberally conducted, than in [M] 2 Portugal,

Portugal. His friends reprefent him as a minifter of great abilities, and as a bold reformer, who endeavoured by the most vigorous exertions to reflore to its antient power, reputation, and fplendour, a country which had been long fallen into the most humiliating state of weakness, and the people funk in the most degrading barbarifm. The country, they fay, was little and badly cultivated; the arts were loft; industry extinct; and every fort of bufinefs was conducted by ftrangers. Thus, the people depended entirely on foreigners for corn and cloathing, the crown was without treasure, and the state without finances. The military glory of the kingdom was extinct; and its fafety depending upon the precarious caprice or negligence of its neighbours, whilst it maintained a nominal army, without foldiers or Under all thefe diftreffing circumstances, the nation was devoured by an idle, vicious, and abandoned nobility, with a moft ignorant and luxuriant clergy, both of whom were poffeffed of exorbitant riches.

arms.

reftraint of their numbers. It was as little to be fuppofed, that the avarice of foreigners would not be alarmed at the internal improvement of the country, who knew that their former gains arofe from its uncultivation and anarchy, as that its dangerous neighbours could behold with fatisfaction their ambitious views fruftrated, by the growing ftrength of the kingdom, and the increafing reputation of its government.

This is a very short and flight fketch, but as much as we have room for, of the various ground taken by the numerous foes, and few, indeed, friends, in the condemnation or defence, of this fallen, and once all-powerful minister. It would feem upon the whole, that he poffeffed no inconfiderable fhare of ability; that a ftrong fpirit of enterprize, and turn for innovation, were among the leading features of his character; and that his natural boldness of difpofition, and an exceffive confidence of fuccefs in his defigns, led him into fome extremes, which the prudent attention of a more cautious statef man to times, circumftances, and the character of the people, would have avoided.

of

Few princes have had an oppor tunity of acquiring popularity at an eafier rate than the queen Portugal. After the degradation of the favourite, it was only to open the prifon doors, and to ac quire at once the univerfal love and applaufe of her fubjects. This meafure was faid to have been recommended by the late king in his last moments. The appearance of eight hundred wretches, rifing from their dungeons where they had been fo long buried, and