. . .
My Obliging Friends Showed Me All Over Their "Poor House," It
Certainly Did Not Appear A Very Rich One; It Was Spacious, And
Rather Dilapidated.
The library was small, and possessed nothing
remarkable; the view, however, from the roof, over the greater part
of
Lisbon and the Tagus, was very grand and noble; but I did not
visit this place in the hope of seeing busts, or books, or fine
prospects, - I visited this strange old house to converse with its
inmates, for my favourite, I might say, my only study, is man. I
found these gentlemen much what I had anticipated, for this was not
the first time that I had visited an English - establishment in a
foreign land. They were full of amiability and courtesy to their
heretic countryman, and though the advancement of their religion
was with them an object of paramount importance, I soon found that,
with ludicrous inconsistency, they cherished, to a wonderful
degree, national prejudices almost extinct in the mother land, even
to the disparagement of those of their own darling faith. I spoke
of the English -, of their high respectability, and of the loyalty
which they had uniformly displayed to their sovereign, though of a
different religion, and by whom they had been not unfrequently
subjected to much oppression and injustice.
Rector. - My dear Sir, I am rejoiced to hear you; I see that you are
well acquainted with the great body of those of our faith in
England. They are as you have well described them, a most
respectable and loyal body; from loyalty, indeed, they never
swerved, and though they have been accused of plots and
conspiracies, it is now well known that such had no real existence,
but were merely calumnies invented by their religious enemies.
During the civil wars the English - cheerfully shed their blood and
squandered their fortunes in the cause of the unfortunate martyr,
notwithstanding that he never favoured them, and invariably looked
upon them with suspicion. At present the English - are the most
devoted subjects to our gracious sovereign. I should be happy if I
could say as much for our Irish brethren; but their conduct has
been - oh! detestable. Yet what can you expect? The true - blush
for them. A certain person is a disgrace to the church of which he
pretends to be a servant. Where does he find in our canons
sanction for his proceedings, his undutiful expressions towards one
who is his sovereign by divine right, and who can do no wrong? And
above all, where does he find authority for inflaming the passions
of a vile mob against a nation intended by nature and by position
to command them?
Myself. - I believe there is an Irish college in this city?
Rector. - I believe there is; but it does not flourish, there are
few or no pupils. Oh!
I looked through a window, at a great height, and saw about twenty
or thirty fine lads sporting in a court below. "This is as it
should be," said I; "those boys will not make worse priests from a
little early devotion to trap-ball and cudgel playing. I dislike a
staid, serious, puritanic education, as I firmly believe that it
encourages vice and hypocrisy."
We then went into the Rector's room, where, above a crucifix, was
hanging a small portrait.
Myself. - That was a great and portentous man, honest withal. I
believe the body of which he was the founder, and which has been so
much decried, has effected infinitely more good than it has caused
harm.
Rector. - What do I hear? You an Englishman, and a Protestant, and
yet an admirer of Ignatius Loyola?
Myself. - I will say nothing with respect to the doctrine of the
Jesuits, for, as you have observed, I am a Protestant: but I am
ready to assert that there are no people in the world better
qualified, upon the whole, to be intrusted with the education of
youth. Their moral system and discipline are truly admirable.
Their pupils, in after life, are seldom vicious and licentious
characters, and are in general men of learning, science, and
possessed of every elegant accomplishment. I execrate the conduct
of the liberals of Madrid in murdering last year the helpless
fathers, by whose care and instruction two of the finest minds of
Spain have been evolved - the two ornaments of the liberal cause and
modern literature of Spain, for such are Toreno and Martinez de la
Rosa. . . .
Gathered in small clusters about the pillars at the lower
extremities of the gold and silver streets in Lisbon, may be
observed, about noon in every day, certain strange looking men,
whose appearance is neither Portuguese nor European. Their dress
generally consists of a red cap, with a blue silken tassel at the
top of it, a blue tunic girded at the waist with a red sash, and
wide linen pantaloons or trousers. He who passes by these groups
generally hears them conversing in broken Spanish or Portuguese,
and occasionally in a harsh guttural language, which the oriental
traveller knows to be the Arabic, or a dialect thereof. These
people are the Jews of Lisbon. Into the midst of one of these
groups I one day introduced myself, and pronounced a beraka, or
blessing. I have lived in different parts of the world, much
amongst the Hebrew race, and am well acquainted with their ways and
phraseology. I was rather anxious to become acquainted with the
state of the Portuguese Jews, and I had now an opportunity. "The
man is a powerful rabbi," said a voice in Arabic; "it behoves us to
treat him kindly." They welcomed me. I favoured their mistake,
and in a few days I knew all that related to them and their traffic
in Lisbon.
I found them a vile, infamous rabble, about two hundred in number.
With a few exceptions, they consist of escapados from the Barbary
shore, from Tetuan, from Tangier, but principally from Mogadore;
fellows who have fled to a foreign land from the punishment due to
their misdeeds.
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