Ornelas de Vasconcelos (Agostinho de)

Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) Agostinho de Ornelas de Vasconcelos Esmeraldo Rolim de Moura was a true representative of the old and legitimate Portuguese nobility, polished and enriched by all the worthy qualities of modern civilisation. Although jealous of his titles of nobility and of the aristocratic traditions of his illustrious family, he remained an eminently liberal spirit, a mind open to every manifestation of progress and a passionate devotee of the sciences and letters.

Eloquent proof of these statements lies in the consistent disdain with which he always spurned titles and honours, content with the pedigree inherited from his forebears and with the distinctions attached to the high offices he held. It lies, too, in the tireless zeal with which, day after day, he enriched his profound intellectual culture, diligently following every discovery, innovation and advance made in the various branches of human knowledge.

The subject of our biography was born in the parish (freguesia) of the Sé in this city on 14 March 1836. He belonged to one of the most distinguished families of Madeira, whose ancestors included several notable figures who left an illustrious name in the history of our country. His parents were Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, holder of the entail (morgado), who served as civil governor here, and his wife Dona Augusta Correia Vasques de Olival.

Having completed his secondary education with notable distinction at the Funchal lyceum (state secondary school), he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Coimbra (Universidade de Coimbra) in 1852, graduating in 1857 after a brilliant academic career.

Drawn by the allure of diplomacy, he embarked on this glittering career as soon as he had completed his university studies. By decree of 18 November 1857 he was appointed second attaché to the legation in Washington, taking up the post in June of the following year and remaining there until February 1859. He made use of his leisure as a young diplomat to travel through a considerable part of the country, visiting its most notable establishments and institutions. A record of this survives in the important memoir he wrote on the Philadelphia penitentiary, which is included in the work Reforma das cadeias em Portugal, from the pen of Dr António Aires de Gouveia, Archbishop of Chalcedon.

Transferred to the court of Berlin, he remained there until 1862, on several occasions serving as chargé d’affaires in the absence of the ambassador.

In 1862 he was promoted to first attaché and posted to Rio de Janeiro and then to St Petersburg, but illness prevented him from taking up either post. On 26 April 1865 he was appointed secretary of legation in Vienna, and was then transferred to London, where he remained until December 1867.

Placed on the inactive list, he spent some years away from the diplomatic career. He returned to it by decree of 27 September 1886, which appointed him minister plenipotentiary to Madrid, a post he never actually held: by decree of the 30th of the same month and year he was transferred to the office of director of the political department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By decree of 17 November 1891 he was appointed director-general of political and diplomatic affairs in the same ministry. He later asked to be relieved of this post, and the decree granting his request stated that he had served with great zeal and great intelligence.

By decree of 6 September 1894 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to Russia, taking up the post on 10 November of the same year, and he remained there almost until his death.

As a diplomat he carried out several important and thorny missions, which earned him special praise and various honours. Particular mention should be made of his work on the convention concerning the Moura dispute, for which he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III of Spain. In 1900 he was one of our country’s representatives at the celebrated Hague Conference.

Throughout his long career as an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he gave constant and eloquent proof of the strength of his intellect, his great learning and the rare diplomatic qualities that distinguished him and made him a true statesman. For this reason he was regarded as one of the most highly esteemed members of the Portuguese diplomatic corps.

He also trod the winding paths of Portuguese politics. Yet he emerged unscathed and unblemished from that quagmire, in which so many sully the purity of their convictions and even their own dignity. He was elected deputy for Madeira for the legislatures of 1868–1869, 1869–1870, 1870–1871 and 1871–1874, and by royal letter (carta régia) of 16 May of that last year he was appointed a peer of the realm. In both chambers he stood out as a parliamentarian of great merit, always marked in his speeches by the most perfect courtesy, together with a remarkable correctness of form. He was certainly not a tribune who swept his listeners away in torrents of eloquence, but a fluent and correct speaker who knew the subjects he discussed, and his words were always heard with the closest attention by the whole chamber. Among the speeches he delivered in both houses of parliament, several are counted as notable, especially those he gave on the Padroado (Portuguese royal patronage over the Church in the East) of India and the overseas missions.

He was, as we have said, a passionate devotee of the sciences and letters, and indeed his most constant endeavour was to enrich his mind with new knowledge, drawn daily from extensive study and long hours of reading. Gifted with a brilliant intelligence, served by an astonishing memory, he possessed an uncommon erudition in every branch of human learning. His command of several languages, including Latin itself, contributed not a little to this. As a man of letters, he gave us incontestable proof of his worth in the writings he left, showing that he could have won an honourable name in the history of his country had he devoted himself entirely to a literary career.

Goethe’s masterpiece, the famous tragedy Faust, was all but unknown in Portugal. Councillor Agostinho de Ornelas ventured upon the hazardous enterprise of rendering the most admirable product of German literature into the vernacular. It was an arduous and difficult task for the illustrious subject of this biography, who, not being a poet, sought to translate into Portuguese verse the work of genius of Germany’s greatest poet. The version suffered from this circumstance, and it must be confessed that its poetic form was not always free of imperfections. These imperfections often arise from the desire, carried to the most exacting scruple, to render Goethe’s thought faithfully, even at the evident sacrifice of form. The translation by António Feliciano de Castilho, which appeared later, is undoubtedly most correct and adorned with true poetic splendour. However, it was made from an imperfect French version and with the boldness and liberties of the inspiration of a most exquisite poet, so it departs fairly often from the German original, and at times seems more a paraphrase than a true translation. There is no lack of critics who prefer Councillor Ornelas’s version to Castilho’s, because it was made from the German original and with unsurpassed scruple of fidelity. Despite its defects, it is without doubt a work of value, which speaks highly of his literary merits.

In 1884 a thick volume entitled Obras de D. Ayres de Ornelas de Vasconcellos was published in Porto, containing the various writings of the former and unforgettable bishop of this diocese, who was the brother of Councillor Agostinho de Ornelas. These fine writings are preceded by a long and exquisite biography of the illustrious prelate, which takes up nearly 200 pages of the book and which, in the words of a distinguished writer and eminent professor of the University, was written with a pen of gold. This biography, a true model of language with a marked classical flavour, was the work of Councillor Agostinho de Ornelas.

In 1892, on the occasion of the Columbus centenary, he published an interesting Memoria sobre a residência de Cristóvão Colombo na Ilha da Madeira, which was included in the volume Memorias that the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon (Academia Real das Ciências de Lisboa) published to celebrate that centenary.

On all these grounds he was elected a member of that Academy, and was one of the members it appointed to organise the publication of the said Memorias.

He was also a member of other scientific and literary societies, both Portuguese and foreign.

He carried out with distinction various public missions of great importance, such as representing Portugal at the Columbus centenary celebrations in Madrid, and serving as our country’s delegate at the celebrated Hague conference held in 1898.

Among other decorations, he held the following: the grand crosses of Charles III of Spain, of St Gregory the Great of Rome, and of the Crown and of St Stanislaus of Prussia; grand officer of the Legion of Honour; commander and knight of St James; commander of the Order of Albert the Valiant of Saxony, of the Red Eagle of Prussia, and of the Imperial Order of the Rose of Brazil, etc.

He died on 6 September 1901 at Niederwalluf, Germany, while holding the important post of minister plenipotentiary of Portugal in Russia.