Villa da, a town of Brazil, in the province of Minas Geraes, on the River Pomba, an affluent of the Paraibah, 60 miles E.S.E. of Ouro Preto. It has a church and town-hall; and most of the inhabitants are employed in the cultivation of the sugar-cane. Some trade is carried on in sugar, rum, &c. Pop. of the district, 12,000.

a town of Portugal, in the province of Estremadura, stands on a hill near the Sora, 20 miles N.E. of Leiria. It contains the ruins of a castle, and of a church of the Templars, and three modern churches. Hats are manufactured here; and large markets are held weekly. Pop. 5000.

Marquise de, Dom Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho, a celebrated Portuguese statesman, was born in 1699 at Soura in Coimbra. As he advanced towards manhood he appeared in the character of an accomplished votary of fashion. His tall, handsome, and animated figure fascinated every eye; and his easy, agreeable, and intelligent address captivated every heart. No dissipation impaired his robust constitution, and no pleasure palled upon his strong and healthy appetite. Life, in fact, seemed to him to be a gay pageant, where a man was required to play his part not from a sense of duty, but merely for his own amusement. He attempted to study law at Coimbra, but his highly pampered tastes revolted at the dry and heavy nutriment of jurisprudence. He then entered the royal guards, but his mettlesome spirit could not brook the restraint of military discipline. His last resource was to elope with a wealthy widow, and to live in indolent privacy upon her fortune until circumstances occurred to draw him into active life. In 1739 Carvalho, through the influence of his uncle, a canon of the royal chapel at Lisbon, commenced the preparatory steps of his political career by being appointed ambassador extraordinary to Great Britain. The ability which he displayed recommended him in 1745 to the office of plenipotentiary at the court of Vienna. He returned from that post to find that he had improved his prospects by contracting a second marriage with the young Countess of Dama. The queen-dowager of John V., conceiving an attachment for his wife, recommended him to the notice of her son Joseph I. Accordingly, in 1750, the year of that prince's accession, he was raised to the congenial office of secretary for foreign affairs. The determined efforts which he put forth to rouse the country from its lethargy began to make a favourable impression upon the king. His promptitude, activity, and address in allaying the universal distraction caused by the earthquake of 1755 completed the impression; and in the following year he was created prime minister of the kingdom. Carvalho, thus raised to the very summit of his political ambition, ably engrossed the virtual sovereignty, and commenced to rule the Portuguese with a rod of iron. His first acts were directed to the utter and merciless extermination of all those abuses that clogged or obstructed the national prosperity. No grievance, however highly connected and time-honoured, met with any quarter. His edicts went through the land smiting and crushing their victims with blows as summary and remorseless as those of Destiny herself. The desperadoes who plundered and murdered on the midnight streets of the capital were shot down on the spot. The proprietors who refused to raise corn on their lands had their vineyards torn up by the roots. The Jesuit confessors who abused the ear of the sovereign with their wily and selfish schemes were turned out of court. The self-seeking magnates who mismanaged the affairs of the state were removed from their snug sinecures to prisons prepared expressly for them. It was to no purpose that the parties smarting under these stripes sent forth a murmur of indignation and discontent. A decree was forthwith issued daring any one to speak against the measures of the government on pain of capital punishment. It was to no purpose that an attempt was made to assassinate the king on the night of the 3rd September 1758. The minister's policy only assumed greater rapidity, force, and decision. No compunctions deterred him from pouncing upon some of the principal nobility as accomplices in the treasonous crime. The Duke of Aveiro was broken on the wheel; his sons and his servants were strangled; and all the dead bodies were consigned to the flames. Suspicion then fell upon the Jesuits; and they were commanded as rebels and traitors, to quit the country in a body. On refusing, they were seized by the military, shipped to the number of 1854, and landed in the States of the Church. After this thorough-going manner were the impediments to advancement destroyed or removed out of the way. Nor while Carvalho was eradicating old abuses did he fail to introduce improvements. It was his great aim to draw out the torpid energies of Portugal into a full and healthy development. Accordingly, he set on foot a system of universal education. The Portuguese, both at home and in the co- Pomerania, lones, were instructed in the cultivation of new kinds of crops. Englishmen and Frenchmen were employed to teach the people navigation and ship-building. Special schools were established to train the young for the pursuits of industry and commerce. At the same time, the discipline of the university was investigated; the physical and mathematical sciences were introduced into the course of study; and every facility was furnished to the students for acquiring information, both practical and theoretical. For so many public benefits it was natural that Carvalho should be bountifully rewarded. Accordingly pensions and estates were lavished upon him; the title of Marquis of Pombal was added to his name; and the government of the country was more and more completely entrusted to his charge. He was still continuing to hold undisputed possession of the royal favour when the death of Joseph I., in 1777, left him exposed to the malice of his many enemies. Pombal, however, maintained his heroic bearing to the last. His foes, indeed, closed in around him, clamouring for his head; but he entrenched himself behind the prerogative of the deceased sovereign, and dared them to punish him for simply executing the commands of his royal master. Leaving court unharmed, with all his titles and wealth, he lived in dignified retirement till his death in May 1782.