them when they are melancholy, in difgrace, in their paftimes, when fortune fmiles, and when the frowns upon them; be attentive in all thefe fituations to their difcourfe, their manners, their fentiments, their projects, and to the various emotions excited by their passions, their rank, and their pursuits in life. Moreover endeavour perfectly to know yourfelf. Take care that in every different ftation wherein good or ill fortune may place you, that you are capable of executing the designs that you plan, and the bufinefs which you undertake. These various obfervations upon others, and on yourself, will infallibly make you acquainted with mankind, for this obvious reafon all men, philofophers included, are fubject to the fame paffions in a great or lefs degree, and think nearly alike up on those subjects with which they are acquainted. Amongst the most valuable and excellent qualities, that of knowing the world is the moft neceffary to guide our conduct, and to make our fortune. With regard to our conduct, as without this knowledge our pursuits in life would be conftantly traverfed, and produce nothing but difagreeable confequences. In refpect to our fortune, the knowledge of mankind is abfolutely neceffary in order to turn them to our advantage. It is therefore requifite to be acquainted with the world, that we may regulate our conduct towards men, according to their different characters and difpofitions. A prudent man, with refpect to others, is like the maker of a machine, who is acquainted with all its fecret fprings, and who can fet them in motion as he pleafes, either for his pleasure or his advantage. It appears to me, that our first movement fhould be to fufpect the world in general, and even to entertain a bad opinion of it. The world ought to be replete with virtue; but the world, as we find it, is filled with malignity, and it is the latter difpofition which we should make ourselves well acquainted with, because we live in the world, and it is very neceffary for us to avoid surprises. But why, you will fay, fhould we entertain fo bad an opinion of the world? Because men are naturally inclined to evil; even at their birth the feeds of vice come forth with them; they are foes to virtue, because it mortifies their fenfual appetites, and they are obliged to acquire it by ftudy and labour, which they are not prone to. I do not fay that men individually thould be pronounced wicked, but it is well to know them. When we see a fervant who has at tained riches and power, we may readily conclude he has studiously attended to his master's paffions. His mafter was proud, unjust, infincere, and irreligions, and much devoted to pleasure but his complaisant domeftic had the art of qua lifying thefe difpofitions: his pride was greatness of soul; his fury a noble refentment; his debauchery the effect of his nice fenfations, and the commonfrailty of mankind. He procured him ob. jects of pleasure, excited in them a fond. nefs for him, and preferved their fidelity to him; and he conducted his master's intrigues with fuch skill and address, that even the penetrating eye of curiofity could not pervade the fecret. — In this manner did he attain fuch uncommon riches: it is true, that his old age and decrepid state compel him sometimes to a solitary retreat, where he takes a difagreeable and mortifying retrospect of his paft conduct, and finds that gold itself can afford no balm to his excruciating confcience. - Whence is it that Clodio is fo attached to Lucellus, the capricious, choleric, punctilious Lucellus? how does he accommodate himself to all his whims, extravagancies, and impertinencies? Why, according to Clodio, is Lucellus a para. gon of excellence? becaufe Lucellus has a good fortune, and he expects to fucceed to it, notwithstanding he has many near relations, but they will not fubmit to the meannefs of cultivating his friendfhip at the price of truth, and the fatif faction of living to please themselves. With regard to the women, if you would fucceed with them in any respect, you must flatter their foibles, praise their defects, and discover even in their greateft follies the moft tranfcendent judgement, and the fineft addrefs. Every fez ture is angelic, every look divine, every fentiment replete with wit, every action animated by the graces-and the moves a goddefs fuperior to mortality. Such is the world, my friend Polonius, it is before you; you are now upon the point of immerging into it; and if these hints may prove of any fervice to you, I shall think myfelf happy in having penned them. AMICUS. The The Hiftory of 1777, concluded. [305.] py to himself, nor fortunate to his peoThe late King's reign was neither hap SPAIN and PORTUGAL. EUROPE has had the fortune to preferve her tranquillity during the year of which we are treating. The ftorm which was gathering fo heavily to the fouthward, if not entirely difpelled, has at leaft changed its direction. The death of the late King of Portugal has given a new colour to the politics of that quarter. That event of courfe removed a perfonal animofity, and a kind of peculiar malignity, which had been long fuppofed to fubfift between that monarch and his potent neighbour. Spain being thus difengaged from what the confidered as rather a fort of domeftic fquab. ble, is left at large to purfue a more extenfive policy, and to direct her ambition to objects which may at present appear of greater importance. The late King of Portugal, Don Jofeph I. was born at Lisbon on the 6th of June 1714; where he also died, after a long and grievous illness, on the 24th of February 1777, in the 63d year of his age, and 27th of his reign. He married, in the year 1732, Maria Anna Victoria, Infanta of Spain, who had then just completed her fourteenth year, and who had experienced the unusual fortune of being fent a child to France, received as Queen, bred up as the deftinad bride of the late King of that country, and of being afterwards returned, upon a change in the political fyftem of that court, under the pretence of nonage. ple. It was early marked by one of thofe awful calamities, thofe tremendous ftrokes of providence, or convulfions of nature, which bring man to a fenfe of his condition, and lay his proudeft works in the duft. The fatal earthquake in 1755 overwhelmed his capital, and shook his kingdom to the centre. His fucceeding adminiftration was not much distinguifhed by the affection it acquired at home, or the reputation which it fuftained abroad. It was deeply ftained with domettic blood; and rendered odious by an exceffive and horrible cruelty. The firft families of the kingdom were ruined, tortured, and nearly cut off from the face of the earth, without that clearness of evidence to the establishment of their guilt, or even that attention to the ufual forms of juftice and modes of inquiry, which fo dreadful and exemplary an execution undoubtedly demanded. From that time, fufpicion, or the will of a favourite, fupplied the place of all evidence, until the numerous dungeons of the kingdom feemed at length scarcely capable of affording room to the wretched bodies of thofe who had been its principal citizens. The King himself had nearly perifhed difgacefully by the hands of affaffins in fome idle nocturnal excurfion [20. 544.]; and if it had not been for the powerful intervention of a great and faithful ally, he would probably have feen his kingdom over run, if not finally fubverted, by a foreign enemy. The late King fucceeded his father, Don John of Braganza, in the throne, on the 31ft of July 1750. As he had no male iffue, in order to preferve the crown in the full blood of the family on both fides, or perhaps to guard against the danger of a difputed fucceffion, his eldeft daughter, the Princess of Brazil, was, in the year 1760, married to her uncle Don Pedro, her father's brother, fhe being then in her twenty-fixth year, and he about forty-three. Their fon, the Prince of Beira, in purfuance of the mode of marriage which feems in a manner established in that court, and which already approaches clofely to that anciently practifed in the Royal houfe of the Ptolemies, was married, just before the King's death, to his mother's young. eft fifter, the princefs Maria Benedicta, fhe being then in her thirty-first year, and the Prince in his fixteenth, VOL. XLI. It muft, however, in juftice to the memory of the late King, be acknowledged, that he gave aftriking inftance both of firms nefs and virtue, in the conftancy with which he fupported his engagements and faith with Great Britain, during the trying circumstances and furrounding dangers of the late war. Without withing to detract in any degree from the merit of fuch a conduct, it must also with equal truth be acknowledged, that he could not, confiftently with the character of a statefman and politician, have acted otherwife: That he had no other alternative than the part which he took, or to adopt that weak, defperate, and at all times to be confidered most fatal measure, of refigning the keys, the ftrength, and the arms of his kingdom, into the hands, and laying even his own perfon at the mercy, of an envious and inveterate enemy, who had an old, and never-forgotten, claim upon the whole. The expulfion of the Jefuits from Portugal, which firft opened the way to the diffolution and ruin of that celebrated and extraordinary order of men in every other part of the world, will for ever render the late reign distinguished. A great deal was alfo done, to diminish the exceffive numbers and overgrown wealth and influence of all orders of the clergy, as well as to abate the rigours of the inquifition. In derogation however from the latter merit, that tribunal was ftill kept up as an engine of ftate-tyranny, when it was enfeebled as an inftrument of religious perfecution. Upon the death of the King, the Princefs of Brazil was immediately acknowledged as fovereign, and entered into the adminiftration of public affairs. It was reported, but we cannot fay with what foundation, that a confiderable party, who were fuppofed to be fecretly fupported by the prime minifter, had fome in tention of placing the crown directly upon the head of the prefumptive heir, the Prince of Beira. If any fuch fcheme was in agitation, it was not avowed; nor have any of thofe refentments appeared which might have been expected from the knowledge of fuch a defign. One of the first acts of the new government was the removal from power of the Marquis of Pombal (March 6. 1777.), who had for many years governed the kingdom with a most unbounded authority, and which, his numerous enemies fay, was directed to the most cruel and arbitrary purpofes. This minifter was let down from his high authority with great gentleness, for that country, and that fpecies of government. He was informed by a note from the Queen, that, in confideration of the great regard and efteem which the late King her father had for him, as well as of his own age and infirmities, he was permitted, at his own defire, to retire from the Royal service to his eftate in the country. In the fame note, the Queen granted him a continuance of the appointments of his office as fecretary of flate, and beftowed on him a vacant commandery of St James. No public bleffing or advantage, neither the deliverance from a foreign enemy, nor a domestic tyranny, could have excited a greater or more univerfal joy than the removal of this nobleman from power, and his fubfequent difgrace, which became every day more apparent. Whether it proceeded from the boldness, wifdom, and rectitude of his measures, his oppofing national vices, and popular prejudices, the defpotifm of his adminiftration, or more probably from the mixed operation of all these causes, he had the fortune to incur the abhorrence and dread of every order of men in the state and kingdom. The ancient nobility confidered him equally the deftroyer of their order, and the exterminator of their race; the clergy anathematised him as the enemy of religion in general, as well as the fubvertor of their particular inftitutions, and the deftroyer of their general and perfonal rights; the common people execrated him as the scourge and curfe of their country. To add to the weight of domeftic enmity aud clamour, he had continual difputes with the English merchants and factory, (who form a great body in that country), upon matters relative to trade, and to their real or fuppofed rights and immunities. In such a state of public diflike and violent prejudice, it would not be an ea fy matter to obtain the real character of a minifter, at a much nearer distance, and in a country where inquiry was much more open, and difquifitions of that nature better understood and more liberally conducted, than Portugal. His friends reprefent him as a minifter of great abilities, and as a bold reformer, who endeavoured by the moft vigorousS exertions to restore to its ancient power, reputation, and fplendour, a country which had been long fallen into the mot humiliating state of weakness, and the people funk in the most degrading barba rifm. The country, they fay, was little and badly cultivated, the arts were loft, industry extinct, and every fort of bufinefs was conducted by ftrangers. Thus the people depended entirely on foreigners for corn and cloathing, the crown was without treasure, and the ftate without finances. The military glory of the kingdom was extinct, and its fafety depending upon the precarious caprice or negligence of its neighbours, whilft it maintained a nominal army, without foldiers or arms. Under all thefe diftreffing circumftances, the nation was devoured by an idle, vicious, and abandoned nobility, with a moft ignorant and luxuriant clergy, both of whom were poffeffed of exorbitant riches. It was impoffible, fay they, to remove evils of fuch a ftrength and magnitude, but but by the boldeft ftrokes of policy, and a purfait of the most decifive meafures. The Herculean task could only be undertaken with a full determination to encounter all the power and violence of the nobility and clergy, and to endure all the obloquy of an extremely ignorant, and exceedingly fuperftitious populace. It was not to be expected that the court of Rome would behold with approbation a reduction of the exorbitant power and wealth of the clergy, attended with an equal reftraint of their numbers. It was as little to be fuppofed that the avarice of foreigners would not be alarmed at the internal improvement of the country, who knew that their former gains arofe from its uncultivation and anarchy, as that its dangerous neighbours could behold with fatisfaction their ambitious views fruftrated, by the growing strength of the kingdom, and the increafing reputation of its government. This is a very fhort and flight sketch, but as much as we have room for, of the various ground taken by the numerous foes, and few, indeed, friends, in the condemnation or defence of this fallen and once all-powerful minifter. It would feem, upon the whole, that he poffeffed no inconfiderable fhare of ability; that a ftrong spirit of interprife, and turn for innovation, were among the leading features of his character; and that his natural bolduefs of difpofition, and an exceffive confidence of fuccefs in his defigns, led him into fome extremes, which the prudent attention of a more cautious ftatesman to times, circumftances, and the character of the people, would have avoided. Few princes have had an opportunity of acquiring popularity at an easier rate than the Queen of Portugal. After the degradation of the favourite, it was only to open the prifon-doors, and to acquire at once the univerfal love and applaufe of her fubjects. This measure was faid to have been recommended by the late King in his last moments. The appearance of eight hundred wretches, riting from their dungeons where they had been o long buried, and in their fqualid condition, afforded no faint reprefentation of a refurrection of the dead. Many of thefe were of family and condition, whofe friends having no fufpicion of their fate, had long fuppofed that they had perifhed by the hands of affaffins, or by fome untoward accident, of which they could frame no idea. Near 4000 more it was faid had perished in thofe prifons during the defpotifm of the favourite. Of the living, it may well be supposed, that even the most criminal declared and protefted their innocence. Each had his tale of woe, and each the particular hiftory of the cruelties he had experienced, and the fufferings he had undergone, to recite. The emotions of the hearers may poffibly be conceived: Their exe. cration and abhorrence of the late minifter will be easily fuppofed. Among thofe of high rank who were now restored to the light of heaven, was said to be a fon of the Marquis of Tavo ra; who was committed to prifon at five years of age; and having feen no perfon fince that time but a keeper, and that only at the ftated and fhort feafons atlotted for the administration of his feanty provifion, exhibited the fhocking fpectacle of a human being almost deititute of language and ideas, and without the fmalleft memory or knowledge of his family or former condition. [21. 20.] The ancient bishop of Coimbra, who had been committed to prifon about the time of the fuppreffion of the Jefuits, for fome enthufiaftical writings he had publifhed, in which, along with a direct charge of herefy against the minifter, he faid it was approaching faft to the throne, and would foon overfpread the nation, now prefented a piteous fpectacie to the people, appearing before them almost naked, as he came out of prifon, and relating to them, among his other fufferings, that he had lain upon nothing but bare boards during the whole time of his confinement; whilft his age, venerable appearance, and the fanctity attributed to his character, excited all the mixed emotions of pity and horror in his hearers. The remains of the unfortunate family of Tavora, confifting of the Marquis de Alorna, and his three brothers, who had been obliged to adopt their mother's name of Lorena, that of Tavora having been for ever abolished, were, in fome time after their releafe, restored to all their ancient honours and rights by a public decree, in which the Queen declared, that the important affair in which they were concerned had been ferupuloufly enquired into, by the folicitorgeneral, and minifters of ability appointed for that puspofe, who had unanimously declared them entirely innocent, Two of the Marquis's brothers were ap. Y y z ponted pointed to honourable commands in the army. M. de Andrada, formerly minifter from that court to the United Provinces, who had been thrown into prifon immediately after his recal, and who now refused to quit it until he obtained a promife of a full inquiry into his conduct, received the fatisfaction of having his innocence publicly acknowledged by a fimilar decree, and was appointed High Chancellor of the kingdom. Several who had fuffered the lofs of their offices, and endured all the miseries of a prifon, without any charge being laid or pre tended against them, were now restored to their places in the court or army, without any formal exculpation. On the other hand, thofe who had been particularly attached to the late minifter, generally loft their places, or were other wife difgraced. In fome time his eftates were fequeftered, under the claim or pretence of his being indebted to the crown in the course of his adminiftration. Upon the approach of the day of the Queen's public acclamation, as it is termed, a ceremonial fimilar to that of a coronation, and attended with the fame renewal of conditions between the fovereign and the people, either to pleafe the populace, or under the apprehenfion of fome outrage on the enfuing feftival, the buft of the late minifter, which had been fixed on the pedestal of the King's equeftrian ftatue, was ordered for the prefent to be covered with plaifter, and that it should afterwards be replaced by the city arms. Of fo little permanency and value are ftatues, bufts, or the favour of kings, to those who have the misfortune of incurring the odium of their country. The death of the late King immediate ly changed the politics of the court of Madrid with respect to the intended war againit Portugal, and put as fpeedy an end to the preparations which had been carried on with induftry for the invafion of that kingdom. A perfect good understanding immediately took place between the two courts, and orders were difpatched from each, as foon almost as it could be done, for a ceffation of hosti. lities in South America. Spain, it is true, has fince continued, and ftill does, her military preparations both by fea and land; and her naval armament in particular has been attended to with fuch vigour, and fupported with fuch expence, as have rendered it very formidable, and undoubtedly alarming, to fuch as may not know its deftination, and are liable to its impreffion. Whatever the design of this extraordinary preparation may be, it has certainly changed its object, if Portugal ever was really fuch. The expreffes that were dispatched to South America, were much too late to prevent all the effect of the great force which had failed from Cadiz for that part of the world about the middle of the preceding month of November. The fleet upon this expedition amounted to no less than 116 fail of all forts, including fix ships of the line, with ten frigates and bombs, being under the conduct of the Marquis of Cafa Tilly. The land-forces exceeded 9000, and were under the command of Don Pedro de Cevallos. The whole number of men on board the fleet fell little short of 20,000, and the tonnage run to about the fame number. When the fleet arrived (Feb. 21.) at the Isle of St Catharine's, on the coaft of Brazil, they found that island in a state of preparation and defence, which, if placed, with equal advantages of climate and fitu. ation, in other hands, might have foiled a greater force than theirs, formidable as that was. Befides the difficulties of landing incident to thofe feas and latis. tudes, they had a well-fortified caftle, fupported at a moderate distance by two ftrong forts, to encounter; and thefe, besides being well provided with artillery, and all other provifion for war, were defended by about 4000 Portuguete, exclufive of the Indian natives of the island, and a body of Indian auxiliaries from the main. If the fortreffes were rendered untenible, the island abounded with fortified works and ftrong pofts, which might have been fucceffively defended, until the reduction of the whole became a work of much labour and difficulty. But the defence was not equal to these advantages. The Spaniards not only landed without oppofition, but the Governor of the ifland abandoned his caftle, and all it contained, with the greatest precipitation, and without firing a fingle gun at their approach. This example was immediately followed, in all its circumftances, by the governors of the forts, and in three days time the whole island, with all its works and defences, were entirely evacuated. The garrifon paffed over to the main, where, being at a great diftance from their fettlements, without any |