From these struggles of party we must now turn to contemplate-and how little do they seem by its side! a tremendous convulsion of nature. On the morning of the 1st of November in this year, at the same period, though in less or greater degree, a far-spreading earthquake ran through great part both of Europe and Barbary. In the north its effects, as usual with earthquakes in that region, were happily slight and few. Some gentle vibrations were felt as far as Dantzick. At the hot wells of Töplitz in Bohemia the chief spring having first grown turbid and muddy, and having stopped altogether for one minute, suddenly threw up so great a quantity of water that within half an hour all the baths in the town ran over; and for some months afterwards it was observed that this spring supplied more water than usual, and that water hotter and more impregnated with its medicinal qualities. In many parts of England the water of ponds and rivers was observed violently to swell, and then, after some minutes, to subside without any apparent cause, or else to rise in ridges like uneven land, although no wind was blowing, and the air continued still and calm. Thus, for example, near Guildford, an old man led a horse to water at a small pond which is fed by springs, and "while the horse was drinking, the water 66 ran away from the horse and moved towards the south "with swiftness, and in such quantity as left the bottom "of the pond bare, then returned with that impetuosity "which made the man leap backwards to secure him"self." In Madrid a violent shock was felt, but no buildings, and only two human beings, perished. In Fez and in Morocco, on the contrary, great numbers of houses fell down, and great multitudes of people were buried beneath the ruins. But the widest and most fearful destruction was reserved for Lisbon. Already, in the year 1531, that city had been laid half in ruins by an earth *Letter from Father Joseph Steplin to Dr. Short, Jan. 30. 1756. † Dr. Swithin Adee to Mr. Webb, Nov. 25. 1755. This and the other testimonies I have quoted on this subject will be found collected and printed in the Fhilosophical Transactions for 1755, p. 351444. 1755. * THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE. 59. quake. The 1st of November 1755 was All Saints' Day, a festival of great solemnity; and at nine in the morning all the churches of Lisbon were crowded with kneeling worshippers of each sex, all classes, and all ages, when a sudden and most violent shock made every church reel to its foundations. Within the intervals of a few minutes two other shocks no less violent ensued, and every church in Lisbon-tall column and towering spire-was hurled to the ground. Thousands and thousands of people were crushed to death, and thousands more grievously maimed, unable to crawl away, and left to expire in lingering agony. The more stately and magnificent had been the fabric the wider and more grievous was the havoc made by its ruin. About one fourth, as was vaguely computed, of all the houses in the city toppled down. The encumbered streets could scarce afford an outlet to the fugitives; "friends," says an eye-witness, running from their "friends, fathers from their children, husbands from "their wives, because every one fled away from their "habitations full of terror, confusion, and distraction."† The earth seemed to heave and quiver like an animated being. The sun was darkened with the clouds of lurid dust that arose. Frantic with fear a headlong multitude rushed for refuge to a large and newly built stone pier which jutted out into the Tagus, when a sudden convulsion of the stream turned this pier bottom uppermost, like a ship on its keel in the tempest, and then engulphed it. And of all the living creatures who had lately thronged it, full three thousand, it is said, — not one, even as a corpse, ever rose again. From the banks of the river other crowds were looking on in speechless 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 66 * Paulus Jovius, Hist., lib. xxix. He adds, "Nemoque jam totâ prope Lusitaniâ tectis suis confideret, subsultante scilicet solo." † Dr. Sacheti to Dr. De Castro, Fields of Lisbon, Dec. 1. 1755. Mr. J. Latham to his uncle in London, Zusqueira, Dec. 11. 1755. 66 alike seemed let loose as scourges on this devoted city. "Indeed every element," says a person present, "seemed "to conspire to our destruction..... 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 oper. 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 King without a capital, with"out subjects, without raiment!" The first step toward the restoration of order was the King's command to *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." 66 † 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. 1755. THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE. 61 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 100,000l. 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 from their literature and language, 66 "the face of its rudest mountaineer brightens when he "hears that it is an Englishman who accosts him, and he "tells the traveller that the English and the Portuguese were always-always friends." * 66 Another effect of the Lisbon earthquake-more trifling yet not to be slighted by any close observer of national * Southey's Peninsular War, vol. iii. p. 388. 8vo. ed. 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.† 66 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-as the future restorer,- of a better system. *Lord Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 283. † Clarke's Letters on the Spanish Nation, 353. ed. 1763. |