The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-19
The Earthquake and the Marquis
Of Pom bal.
ITalnrla Bar
TTelnple Bari

Every one has read of the great earth
quake at Lisbon; how, on the clear brisk
morning of All Saints Day, when the
brightly illuminated churches were
crowded with worshipers, without any
warning, in the twinkling of an eye,
churches, palaces, and houses were torn
from their foundations, and thousands of
human beings were involved in their de-
struction. Immense numbers were swept
off from the quays by the rising of the
Tagus, and the fire which followed the
earthquake caused greater destruction
than the earthquake itself. But the earth
quake was important not only as phys
ical but as an intellectual CONFUSION, for
the immensity and suddenness of the
calamity shook mems faith, if not in a
Providence altogether, at least in a be-
nevolent one, and gave emphasis to the
theory of blind cosmical mechanism.
Goethe, then Only boy of six, speaks
thus of its effect upon him: "God, the
Creator and Preserver Of Heaven and
earth, whom the first article of our creed
declared to be SO wise and good, had not
shown paternal care in consigning both
Just and unjust to the same destruction"
He strove in vain to resist these impress
sions, for even the wise and religious
could not agree in their explanation of
the phenomenon. Yet the earthquake
at Lisbon was only one among other
countless proofs, such as the destruction
of Pompeii, the cyclones in India, the
ravages of the tiger or the pestilence, that
the Power whom we conceive to have ap-
pointed the course Of nature never al
lows her to deviate one jot from the eter-
nal laws assigned to her from the crea-
ton of the world. There was, however,
another interpretation Gan Interpretation
such as Christ himself had deprecated in
the case of the fall of the Tower of ST.
loam), namely, that the event came as a
Judgment from Heaven for the sins of
the sufferers. 1t was in vain for Voltaire
to ask what had been the crimes of chill
dren crushed upon their mothers breast,
or why Paris and London had been spared
the fate of Lisbon.
A special cause was assignable for the
destruction of Lisbon, and that was the
war against the Jesuits in Paraguay, and
the liberation that had been then lately
shown to Jews and heretics. From pull
pit and from printing-press the Jesuits
thundered this explanation. seeking to
incite disaffection against a Minister who
had, practically, been the author of so
signal q visitation. From the clergy OF
the University of Coimbra came the rec
ommendation of an auto da fe as the
only means to avert its repetition, while,
so positive had been the predictions OF
the Jesuits Of a second visitation on the
next anniversary, that Pombal had to
place cavalry all round the city to re-
strain the thousands who, with bag and
baggage, were anxious to depart. Prob
ably, indeed, Pombal only owed the con-
tinuance of his Ministry to the adroit-
ness with which he availed himself of
the remarkable coincidence, that while
the Palace Of the Patriarch, the
Royal palace, and nearly every con-
vent and church in the city had been
overthrow, his own house had remained
untouched, and in the universal bereave-
ment not single member Of his family
had met with an injury. The King saw
in this fact mark of the Divine favor
vouchsafed to his Minister, notwithstand-
ing the observation of court wit that
the same favor had been shown to the
vilest quarter Of the town. Thus, Pombal
was enabled to imprison or to exile sew
eral nobiemen who secretly petitioned the
King for his dismissal as being the evil
dent cause Of all the recent evils. Nor
was this all, for the following year the
Minister was intrusted with the Ministry