ADMINISTRATION OF THE MARQUIS OF POMBAL.
The twenty-six years reign of Joseph Emanuel, from 1750 to 1777, proved more salutary for the Portuguese nation. The rigid despotism of the powerful Marquis de Pombal, who in the name of the king ruled with unlimited sway, left unpleasant recollections in the minds of a portion of the nation. Nevertheless the spirit of the higher nobility and of the ecclesiastics was not wholly subdued by his measures. In the dungeons which were filled with state prisoners, it is possible that some men of talent languished. But Pombal’s iron arm roused the slumbering nation. The despotic system of government adopted by this state reformer, who was, perhaps, only cruel from necessity, was an enlightening system, and his object was to restore the ancient glory of the Portuguese name. To literature he attached but little immediate importance. But he crippled the spiritual despotism, which held captive the last remnant of Portuguese energy. Europe is mainly indebted to him for the suppression of the order of the jesuits; and the Portuguese, in particular, have to thank him for that revived feeling of independence which soon penetrated into their literature. A taste for the fine arts, for philosophy, and literary cultivation, became fashionable in Portugal. The connexion with England proved, in some respects, advantageous to the new progress of Portuguese genius, and promoted literary improvement; for the Gallicists lost a considerable portion of their political ascendancy, when English literature began to be properly estimated in Portugal.