POMBAL, SebastiIto Jose de Carvelho e Mello, sa-bas-te-an'oo da kar-varyoo a mieloo poii-balc or p6m-bar, MARQUIS OF, Portuguese statesman: b. Soura, near Coimbra, 13 May 1699; d. Pombal, 2 May 1782. He suc cessively entered the law and the army, but soon relinquished each because of :ncompatibility. In 1739 he was appointed Ambassador to Lon don, but was recalled in 1745. He was then sent to Vienna to act as mediator between the Pope and the Empress Maria Theresa. Car valho here gained general esteem and married the youthful Countess of Daun. In 1750 Car valho obtained fromJoseph I the post of Sec retary of State for Foreign Affairs and soon rendered the feeble and sensual king en tirely subject to his influence. Joseph I fell in with the most daring projects of his minister; and the latter now proceeded to the accomplishment of his four favorite objects — the expulsion of the Jesuits, the humiliation of the greater nobles, the restora tion. of the prosperity of Portugal and the absolute command of the state in the name of the monarch. After the earthquake of 1 Nov. 1755, which destroyed Lisbon, Carvalho displayed great vigor and resolution. He was now created Count of Oeyras and in 1756 First Minister. He then removed every one who ven tured to obstruct his plans. The discontented vinedressers committed excesses in Oporto, but Pombal vigorously suppressed the riots and passed most comprehensive laws against treason. He also expelled the Jesuits from their flourish ing missions in Paraguay. Carvalho finally determined to remove the Jesuits entirely from the person of the king and they were ordered (16 Sept. 1757) to retire to their colleges. A conspiracy against the life of the king, who was wounded on the night of 3 Sept. 1758, by assassins, he -falsely laid to the charge of the Jesuits. Pombal denounced the Jesuits to the Pope as the contrivers of the scheme and caused some of them to be exe cuted in prison. Pombal had already banished
the whole order from the kingdom by a royal decree of 3 Sept. 1759 and those who did not comply with the mandate were seized and trans ported to the states of the Church. A pro tracted dispute with the Pope followed; in 1760 Pombal transported the papal nuncio be yond the frontiers and was on the point of dis solving all connection with Rome when Clement XIII died and Clement XIV, his successor, abolished the order in 1773. Through Pombal the Portuguese army received an entirely new organization and the fortifications on the frod tiers were restored. He paid particular attention to the schools; he also rendered the censorship less strict. Joseph I died 24 Feb. 1777 and was succeeded by his daughter, Maria I, who imme diately deposed Pombal and deprived him of all his offices. The state-prisoners •whom be had incarcerated, 9,800 in number, were released, and all his regulations abolished. All those who had been attainted with treason under Pombal's charges were rehabilitated and he himself or dered to retire to his estate, where he died. His record is one of the bloodiest in Por tuguese history, yet it is said to his credit that he favored the establishment of various manu factures ; encouraged the art • of printing and agriculture; furnished the University of Coim bra with a chemical laboratory, a botanic garden and an observatory; and introduced into Brazil the cultivation of coffee, sugar, rice, cocoa and indigo. Consult Moore, 'Life of Pombal' (1819) • Opperman, 'Pombal and die Jesuiten' (1845) ; Weld, The Suppression of the Society of Jesus in the Portuguese Do minions' (1877) ; Feval, The Jesuits' (1878).