CAMPOMANES (D. PEDRO ROD RIGULti, COMTE os), a Spanish Statesman, and Writer of great cele brity, particularly on subjects of Political Philosophy, was born in the Asturias towards the year 1710. We hoe sought in vain for biographical materials in re prd to this eminent penion, of whose life we can find no paeticulars but the scanty notices contained le the Thvgraphk Universelle, and the 13upplernexit to the Iasi .edition of the Dictionnaire .Universel. from these wrndts we learn that, in 1.766 he was appointed by Charles III. Fiscal of the Royal and Supreme Council of Castille ; that on the accession of Charles 1V. in 1788 he was appointed President of this Council, and afterwards Minister of State; and that he was expelled from the Council, and deprived of all his employments, when Count Flo rida Blanca came into power. He was Director of the Royal Academy of History, and an honorary member of most of the other similar establishments in Europe. He supported his expulsion from office and power with firmness and dignity ; and died at Madrid, according to the Dictionnaire Universe', in 1729, but according to the Biographie Universelle, not till after the of the present cen4 tury.
The number of his works, and the variety of sub. jects which they embrace, show him to have been a man of uncommon activityeas well as versatility of talent, while some of them display such adepth of political knowledge, and superiority to the preju dices of his country and lige, as have ranked him in the filet clue of modemwriters on Political Eco nomy and Legislation. The following list .contains abridged titles of his principal works, all of which, we believe, were published in the Spanish language, and none of them, so far as we know, has ever ap peared in an English dress.
1. Historical Dissertations on the Order of the Knight, Temars. Madrid, 1747. 2. A Translation of the Per'r of Hawso, with Notes. 1756. This translation was made from Hudson's edition of the Periphis, and the Notes contain a refutation of the objections Urged by Dodwell acid" the authenticity of this celebrated Journal, which is now universally admitted to be mie of the most curious relics of an.
course On the education Artisans. 8vo, 1774. In 1777 he gave to the world an Appendix to this work, containing a view of the• causes which have led to the decline of arts and manufactures in Spain, in 4 vols. Svc). Of these two great works, the Dijcurso sobre elfinnento de la industria popular, and Discurso sobre la education Popular de los Artesanos, Dr Ro. bertson speaks as follows: " Almost every point of importance with respect to interior police, taxation, agriculture, manufactures, and trade,. domestic as well as foreign, is cxamined in the course of them ; and there are not many authors, even in the nations most eminent for commercial knowiedge,• who have carried on their inquiries with more'shismugh know ledge of those various subjects, and amore perfect freedom from vulgar and national prejudicee, or who have united more happily the calm researches of phi.
losophy, with the ardent zeal of a public-spirited ci tizen." (history of America.) The above seem to be •the chief productions of the pen of Campomanes ; but, besides these, he was author of several other pieces on historical and literary subjects ; and he published a complete edi. tion of the voluminous works of Feyjoo, to which he prefixed an account of the life bf that learned Benedictine.