affright, when the river itself came rushing in upon them like a torrent, though against wind and tide. It rose at least fifteen feet above the highest spring tides, and then again subsided, drawing in or dashing to pieces every thing within its reach, while the very ships in the harbour were violently whirled around. Earth and water alike seemed let loose as scourges on this devoted city. "Indeed every element," says a person present, "seemed to conspire to our destruc"tion..... for in about two hours after the shock fires broke "out in three different parts of the city, occasioned from the "goods and the kitchen fires being all jumbled together."* At this time also the wind grew into a fresh gale, which made the fires spread in extent and rage with fury during three days, until there remained but little for them to devour. Many of the maimed and wounded are believed to have perished unseen and unheeded in the flames; some few were almost miraculously rescued after being for whole days buried where they fell, without light or food or hope. The total number of deaths was computed at the time as not less than 30,000, while the survivors no longer venturing to sleep in houses, even where houses still remained, encamped around the city in tents, or if tents were wanting, laid themselves down in the open air. Several of the greatest granaries (for Lisbon was then the storehouse of corn to all the country round) had been consumed by the flames, and the horrors of famine rose in dismal perspective to the view. Nor was even this the worst; some bands of wretches and outcasts rendered desperate by their misery, and freed from the control of laws, took advantage of the public confusion to rob and murder the few who had saved any property. The Royal Family had accidentally escaped the danger by being at the country palace of Belem; but the richest Sovereign in Europe beheld himself in a single day reduced to the poorest. He wrote to his sister, the Queen of Spain. "Here am I, a

* Mr. Wolfall to Mr. Parsons, Lisbon, November 18. 1755. So great was still the confusion on the 18th that Mr. Wolfall adds, “I procured this "paper by mere accident, and I write this on a garden wall."

1755.

THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE.

63

"King without a capital, without subjects, without rai"ment!"* The first step toward the restoration of order was the King's command to raise gallows all round the city, and after about one hundred executions of the murderers and robbers (amongst whom, it is said, were some English sailors) that evil at least was arrested. All then relapsed into smouldering flames and mournful silence; and human crimes were no longer left to mingle with and to aggravate still further these appalling tokens of the Almighty Power and Divine Dispensation.

I may be asked why I have related at such length an event that seems foreign to my allotted theme the History of England? I answer because the benevolence of England made it not foreign. On the first authentic intelligence of the disaster through our Minister at Madrid, the King sent a message to the House of Commons, desiring their concurrence and assistance towards speedily relieving the unhappy sufferers. In reply the House of Commons unanimously voted a free gift of 100,000 7. At that time the English themselves were in great want of grain; nevertheless a considerable part of this sum was sent over in corn and flour, besides a stock of beef from Ireland, and the rest in money. Such supplies came most seasonably for the poor Portuguese, many of whom were already pinched with famine. Their King expressed his gratitude in the warmest terms, and as a token of it ordered that in the distribution of the provisions a preference should be given to the British subjects who had suffered by the earthquake; accordingly about one thirtieth part was set aside for their use. Nor were the people less grateful than their monarch for such generosity; it created, or rather it confirmed, a cordial feeling between the two nations. "These things are not forgotten in Portugal," says one who long resided amongst the Portuguese, and whose genius has drawn no small share of its inspiration

* Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 430. "The palace in town," says Mr. Wolfall, "tumbled the first shock, but the natives insist that the Inquisition was the first building that fell." November 18. 1755.) A strong symptom how unpopular that tribunal had already grown in Portugal.

66

from their literature and language, "the face of its rudest "mountaineer brightens when he hears that it is an English"man who accosts him, and he tells the traveller that the "English and the Portuguese were always-always friends."*

Another effect of the Lisbon earthquake - more trifling yet not to be slighted by any close observer of national feelings and customs - - was the prohibition of the London masquerades.** It was feared that the continuance of these diversions might draw down the same calamity on England which Portugal had just sustained. On the other hand, a pamphlet was published at Madrid to prove that this calamity was allowed to befall the Portuguese solely on account of their connection with the heretic English. ***

During the winter, and until the close of the Session in May 1756, England was stirred with constantly recurring alarms of a French invasion. Scarce a French sail appeared in the Channel but it was expanded by popular rumour into a hostile flotilla. Our national confidence had dwindled under our pusillanimous rulers; a little longer and we might all have sunk to the level of Newcastle. "I want," exclaimed Pitt, in a tone becoming an Englishman, “to call this country "out of that enervate state that 20,000 men from France "could shake it!"+-Then, on the contrary, far from relying on our own spirit and resources, Addresses were moved in both Houses entreating or empowering the King to summon over for our defence some of his Hanoverian troops, and some also of the hired Hessians, an ignominious vote, but carried by large majorities. Throughout the Session, indeed, the majorities, supported by the plausible arguments of Murray, and the ready retorts of Fox, were firm and ample on the side of the Government. But the eloquence of Pitt shone with a higher lustre than it had ever yet attained; his voice found an echo in the public tongue; and the public eye was fixed upon him as the present champion restorer, — of a better system.

* Southey's Peninsular War, vol. iii. p. 388. 8vo. ed. ** Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 283. *** Clarke's Letters on the Spanish Nation, 353. ed. 1763. Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 440.

as the future

1756.

FRENCH DESIGN UPON MINORCA.

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CHAPTER XXXIII.

WHILE throughout the winter the French were boasting of their intended descent on England, — while, at least, apparent preparations were proceeding in all their harbours from Dunkirk to Brest,· they had secretly a far different object in view. They had set their hearts on the island of Minorca, - which in September 1708 had been conquered by General Stanhope at the head of 2,000 men, and which five years afterwards had been secured to England by the Peace of Utrecht. There seems strong reason to believe that at the period of Stanhope's conquest the French had designed the island for their own possession; it was supplied from their treasury and held by their troops, nominally for their ally, King Philip, but in truth for themselves; and their grief and indignation at its loss were manifested in the rigorous treatment of the Governor, La Jonquière, notwithstanding his resolute defence.*

That by far the best port in the Mediterranean should be in the hands of England was a thorn that long continued to rankle in the side of France. An expedition against the island was now planning and preparing from the coast of Provence, but in spite of every precaution this could not he done with perfect secrecy. Intelligence reached the English Ministers early in the year 1756 from several of the Envoys and Consuls both in Spain and Italy, that large bodies of French troops were gathering along the Rhone, that a French squadron of twelve or fourteen sail of the line was equipping at Toulon, that a great number of transports was likewise made ready, — and that these ships were sup

* "Le Roi l'a cassé et dégradé, lui a ôté la croix de St. Louis et ses "pensions. On l'envoie en prison en une place de Franche Comté." (Journal de Dangeau, le 21 Janvier 1709.)

Mahon, History. IV.

5

plied with provisions for so short a period that they could not be intended for America. * To all these repeated advices the Ministers in London were unwilling to give credit, and long insisted that this was but a feint to divert their attention from their own shores. "I say it with concern," writes Horace Walpole, "considering who was Newcastle's "associate," (he alludes to his friend Fox,) "but this was "the year of the worst administration that I have seen in "England; for now Newcastle's incapacity was left to its "full play." No pains were taken to reinforce the garrison, which was wholly inadequate to the defence of the place; the Governor, Lord Tyrawley, was allowed to remain in England; and the Deputy Governor on the spot, General Blakeney, though a gallant veteran, who had defended Stirling Castle in the last Rebellion, was disabled by old age and infirmities.

At length, such intelligence arriving as left no further room for doubts, the Ministers endeavoured to repair by precipitation the evils of their previous delay. They sent out ten ships of war, but these in ill condition and poorly manned, and they intrusted the command of them to Admiral John Byng. This was the second son of the late Admiral Byng, who had been created Viscount Torrington, and who, by a singular contrast, as it proved, had distinguished himself at the conquest of Minorca in 1708. Byng sailed from Spithead on the 7th of April; only three days afterwards the French armament issued from Toulon. This armament consisted of twelve ships of the line, and many transports, under M. de La Galissonière, and had on board 16,000 troops commanded by the Duke de Richelieu. They appeared off the port of Ciudadella in Minorca on the 18th. Some days before a fast-sailing sloop had brought General Blakeney the tidings of their approach, and he had been able to make his final dispositions to receive them. Minorca affords no

* The first of these advices came from Consul Birtles at Genoa; it distinctly mentions the French project of surprising Minorca, and is dated so early as January 17. 1756. See Commons' Journals, May 3. 1757.

** Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 54.