To analyse the internal reforms and general measures of improvement introduced into Portugal by Pombal is almost impossible in a single paragraph, so far-reaching were his endeavours, so unlimited his energy. He has often been compared with Richelieu, chiefly, it seems, because of his rigorous suppression of the Tavora plot; but the men whom he really resembled were the benevolent despots and their ministers who abounded in Europe before the outbreak of the French Revolution. He firmly believed that the greatest happiness of a people depended upon the maintenance of an absolutist monarchy, which could do more good than representative institutions, and his struggle with the Jesuits was mainly due to the fact that they were so wealthy and independent, especially in Brazil, as to hamper the power of the Crown. The class of statesmen and politicians to which he belonged included such monarchs as Frederick the Great of Prussia, the Emperor Joseph II., Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Charles III. of Spain, and such great reforming ministers as Aranda in Spain and Tannucci in Naples; and like them he believed that real good could only be done by an absolute monarch, who had the interests of his people at heart. The greatest evidence Pombal gave of this royal concern for the people was in the famous decree of May 25, 1773, by which slavery was abolished in Portugal, or rather by which grandsons of slaves, and all children of slaves born after that date, were declared free, and which at the same time abolished all distinctions between “old” and “new” Christians, by which latter term the descendants of the converted Jews and Mohammedans were still called, and made all Portuguese subjects alike eligible for civil, military, and ecclesiastical offices. In Brazil, however, he made no attempt to put down slavery, believing, like all his contemporaries, that negroes were made on purpose to be slaves; but even there he repeated and enforced the edicts against making slaves of the natives of the country. In matters of internal administration he advocated and maintained efficiency and economy, and at one blow in 1761 he swept away more than three-quarters of the petty offices which hampered the administration of justice. The law courts were made accessible, and lawsuits cheap; and in 1769 he robbed the Inquisition of its power by making it an open and public court, subject to the rules which regulated other courts. In matters of police he showed the same vigour, and by stern repression prevented the machinery of the law from being used to further private revenge. He recognized the importance of education, and reorganized the University of Coimbra in 1772 by abolishing the teaching of the dark ages which still continued there and introducing the modern element; and though he expelled the great teaching order of the Church, he maintained the educational establishments of the Jesuits, and turned