Your Grace's illustrious Father has left a Name behind Him as glorious as any Person of the Age: it is unnecessary to enter into the Particulars of his Character; to mention his Name, is the greatest Panegyrick: Immediately to succeed that Great Man, must have been extremely to the Disadvantage of any other Person, but it is far from being so to Your Grace; it makes your Virtues but the more conspicuous, and convinces us the Nation is not without one Man worthy of being his Successor. I have nothing more to trouble Your Grace with, than only to wish you the Honours you so well deserve, and to beg you would excuse my presuming to honour my-self with the Title of, _May it please your Grace, Your Grace's most Obedient, Humble Servant_, Gabriel Roussillon. [Illustration] PREFACE. _Amongst the Historians of the present Age, none has more justly deserv'd, neither has any acquir'd a greater Reputation than the Abbot ~de Vertot~; not only by this Piece, but also by the ~Revolutions of~ Sweden ~and of~ Rome, which he has since publish'd._ _This small History he has extracted from the[A] Writings of several ~French~, ~Spanish~, ~Portuguese~, and ~Italian~ Authors, as well as from the Testimony of many Persons, who were in ~Lisbon~ at the time of the Revolution. And I believe that it will be no difficult matter to persuade the Reader, that this little Volume is written with much more Politeness and Fidelity than any which has been publish'd on this Subject._ _And indeed there could be no Man fitter to undertake the Work than Monsieur ~de Vertot~; not only as he was Master of an excellent Style, and had all the Opportunities imaginable of informing himself of the Truth, but also as he could have no Interest in speaking partially of either the one or the other Party; and therefore might say much more justly than ~Salust, de Conjuratione, Quam verissime potero, paucis absolvam; eoque magis, quod mihi a Spe, Metu, Partibus Reipublicæ Animus liber est~._ _Would I undertake to prove the Impartiality of my Author, I could easily do it from several little Circumstances of his History. Does he not tell us, that the Inquisition is oftner a Terror to honest Men than to Rogues? Does he not paint the Archbishop of ~Braga~ in all the Colours of a Traitor? And I am fully persuaded, that if a Churchman will own and discover the Frailties, or rather the Enormities of those of his own Cloth, he will tell them in any thing else, and is worthy of being believed._ _There are several Passages in the following Sheets, which really deserve our Attention; we shall see a Nation involv'd in Woe and Ruin, and all their Miseries proceeding from the Bigotry and Superstition of their Monarch, whose Zeal hurries him to inevitable Destruction, and whose Piety makes him sacrifice the Lives of ~13000~ Christians, without so much as having the Satisfaction of converting one obstinate Infidel._