But Pombal had been too magnanimous for the court and nobles; and the
loss of his power as minister produced a succession of intrigues
against him, by the relatives of the Tavora family, and doubtless
also by the ecclesiastical influence, which has always been at once
so powerful and so prejudicial in Portugal. He was insulted by a
trial, at which, however, the only sentence inflicted was an order to
retire twenty leagues from the court. The Queen was, at that time,
probably suffering under the first access of that derangement, which,
in a few years after, utterly incapacitated her, and condemned the
remainder of her life to melancholy and total solitude. But the last
praise is not given to the great minister, while his personal
disinterestedness is forgotten. One of the final acts of his life was
to present to the throne a statement of his public income, when it
appeared that, during the twenty-seven years of his administration,
he had received no public emolument but his salary as secretary of
state, and about L.100 a-year for another office. But he was rich;
for, as his two brothers remained unmarried, their incomes were
joined with his own. He lived, held in high respect and estimation by
the European courts, to the great age of eighty-three, dying on the
5th of May without pain. A long inscription, yet in which the
panegyric did not exceed the justice, was placed on his tomb. Yet a
single sentence might have established his claim to the perpetual
gratitude of his country and mankind--
"Here lies the man who banished the
Jesuits from Portugal."
Mr Smith's volume is intelligently written, and does much credit to
his research and skill.
MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN.
PART XII.
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And Heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in the pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
SHAKSPEARE.
Elnathan was a man of many cares, and every kind of wisdom, but
one--the wisdom of knowing when he had wealth enough. He evidently
loved accumulation; and the result was, that every hour of his
existence was one of terror. Half the brokers and chief traders in
France were already in prison; and yet he carried on the perilous
game of commerce. He was known to be immensely opulent; and he must
have regarded the day which passed over his head, without seeing his
strong boxes put under the government seal, and himself thrown into
some _oubliette_, as a sort of miracle. But he was now assailed by a
new alarm. War with England began to be rumoured among the bearded
brethren of the synagogue; and Elnathan had ships on every sea, from
Peru to Japan. Like Shakspeare's princely merchant--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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