lines from Dublin, Clones and Omagh. The Bann, which is connected with the Newry Canal and falls into Lough Neagh 5 m. north of the town, is navigable for vessels of 90 tons burden. It is crossed at Portadown by a stone bridge of seven arches, originally built in 1764, but since then re-erected. The manufacture of linen and cotton is carried on, and there is a considerable trade in pork, grain and farm produce. In the reign of Charles I. the manor was bestowed on John Obyns, who erected a mansion and a few houses, which were the beginning of the town. A grain-market was established in 1780. The town is governed by an urban district council.
PORTAELS, JEAN FRANÇOIS (1818–1895), Belgian painter, was born at Vilvorde (Brabant), in Belgium, on the 30th of
April 1818. His father, a rich brewer, sent him to study in the
Brussels Academy, and the director, Francois Navez, ere long
received him as a pupil in his own studio. About 1841 Portaels
went to Paris, where he was kindly received by Paul Delaroche.
Having returned to Belgium, he carried off the Grand Prix de
Rome in 1842. He then travelled through Italy, Greece,
Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, the Lebanon, Judaea, Spain, Hungary
and Norway. On his return to Belgium in 1847 Portaels
succeeded H. Vanderhaert as director of the academy at Ghent.
In 1849 he married the daughter of his first master, Navez,
and in 1850 settled at Brussels; but as he failed in obtaining the
post of director of the academy there, and wished, nevertheless,
to carry on the educational work begun by his father-in-law,
he opened a private studio-school, which became of great
importance in the development of Belgian art. He again
made several journeys, spending some time in Morocco; he came
back to Brussels in 1874, and in 1878 obtained the directorship
of the academy which had so long been the object of his ambition.
Portaels executed a vast number of works. Decorative paintings
in the church of St Jacques-sur-Caudenberg; biblical
scenes, such as “The Daughter of Sion Reviled” (in the Brussels
Gallery), “ The Death of Judas,” “ The Magi travelling to
Bethlehem,” “ Judith's Prayer,” and “ The Drought in Judaea ”;
genre pictures, among' which are “ A Box in the Theatre at
Budapest ” (Brussels Gallery), portraits of officials and of the
fashionable world, Oriental scenes and, above all, pictures of
fancy female figures and of exotic life. “ His works are in general
full of a facile grace, of which he is perhaps too lavish,” wrote
Théophile Gautier. Yet his pleasing and abundant productions
as a painter do not constitute Portaels's crowning merit. The
high place his name will fill in the history of contemporary
Belgian art is due to his influence as a learned and clear-sighted
instructor, who formed, among many others, the painters E.
Wauters and E. Agneesens, the sculptor Ch. van der Stappen,
and the architect Licot. He died at Brussels on the 8th of
February 1895.
See E. L. de Taeye, Peintres belges contemporains; J. du Jardin, L’Art flamand. (F. K.*)
PORTAGE, a city and the county-seat of Columbia county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the Wisconsin river, about 85 m. N.W. of
Milwaukee. Pop. (1890) 5143; (1900) 5459, of whom 1184
were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 5440. It is served by
the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Minneapolis, St Paul
& Sault Ste Marie railways. The city is situated at the west
end of the government ship canal connecting the Fox and
Wisconsin rivers, and river steamboats ply during the open
season between Portage and Green Bay and intermediate points
in the Fox River Valley, Portage being the head of navigation
on the Fox. Portage is in the midst of a fertile farming region,
and has a trade in farm and dairy products and tobacco. Its
manufactures include brick, tile, lumber, flour, pickles, knit
goods, steel tanks and marine engines and launches, and there
are several tobacco warehouses and grain elevators. As the
Fox and Wisconsin rivers are here only 2 m. apart, these rivers
were the early means of communication between Lake Michigan
and the Mississippi river. The first Europeans known to have
visited the site of the city were Radisson and Groseilliers, who
crossed the portage in 1655. The portage was used by Marquette
and Joliet on their way to the Mississippi in 1673, and a
red granite monument commemorates their passage. About
1712 the Fox Indians disputed the passage of the portage,
precipitating hostilities which continued intermittently until
1743. The first settler was Lawrence Barth, who engaged in
the carrying trade here in 1793. Jacques Vieau established
a trading post here in 1797, and by 1820 it was a thriving depot
of the fur trade. During the Red Bird uprising (1827) a temporary
military post was established by Major William Whistler
of the U.S. army. Fort Winnebago was begun in the following
year, was remodelled and completed by Lieut. Jefferson Davis
in 1832, and was subsequently abandoned. It was from
there in the same year that the final and successful campaign
against Black Hawk was begun. After several failures
the Fox-Wisconsin canal was completed in 1856, and in June
of that year the “ Aquila,” a stern-wheeler, passed through
the canal on its way from Pittsburg to Green Bay. The
shifting channel of the Wisconsin has retarded navigation,
and the canal has never been as important commercially as
was expected.
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE, a port of entry and the chief town of Portage la Prairie county, Manitoba, Canada, situated 50 m. W. of Winnipeg, on the Canadian Pacific and Canadian Northern railways, at an altitude of 854 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1901), 3901. It is in the midst of a fine agricultural district, into which several branch railways extend, and carries on a large export trade in grain and other farm produce.
PORTALEGRE, an episcopal city, capital of the district of Portalegre, Portugal; 8 m. N. of Portalegre station, on the Lisbon-Badajoz-Madrid railway. Pop. (1900), 11,820. Portalegre is the Roman Amaea or Ammaia, and numerous Roman and
prehistoric remains have been discovered in the neighbourhood.
The principal buildings are the cathedral, the ruined Moorish
citadel and two more modern forts. The administrative
district of Portalegre, in which the rearing of swine, the production
of grain, wine and oil, and the manufacture of woollen
and cotton goods and corks are the principal industries, coincides
with the northern part of the ancient province of Alemtejo
(q.v.). Pop. (1900), 124,443, area, 2405 sq. m.
PORTALIS, JEAN ETIENNE MARIE (1746–1807), French
jurist, came of a bourgeois family, and was born at Bausset in Provence on the 1st of April 1746. He was educated by the Oratorians at their schools in Toulon and Marseilles, and then went to the university of Aix; While a student there he published his first two works, 'Observations sm' Emile in 1763 and Des Préjugés in 1764. In 1765 he became an avacat at the parlement of Aix, and soon obtained so great a reputation that he was instructed by the duc de Choiseul in 1770 to draw up the decree authorizing the marriage of Protestants. From 1778 to 1781 he was one of the four assessors or administrators of Provence. In November 1793, after the republic had been proclaimed, he came to Paris and was thrown into prison, being the brother in-law of Joseph Jérome Siméon, the leader of the Federalists in Provence. He was soon removed through the influence of B. de V. Barére to a maison de santé, where he remained till the fall of Robespierre. On being released he practised as a lawyer in Paris; and in 1795 he was elected by the capital to the Conseil des Anciens, becoming a leader of the moderate party opposed to the directory. As a leader of the moderates he was proscribed at the coup d'état of Fructidor, but, unlike General Charles Pichegru and the marquis de Barbé-Marbois, he managed to escape to Switzerland, and did not return till Bonaparte became First Consul. Bonaparte made him a conseiller d'état in 1800, and then charged him, with F. D. Tronchet, Bigot de Préameneu, and Jacques de Maleville, to draw up the Code Civil. Of this commission he was the most industrious member, and many of the most important titles, notably those on marriage and heirship, are his work. In 1801 he was placed in charge of the department of cultes or public worship, and in that capacity had the chief share in drawing up the provisions of the Concordat. In 1803 he became a member of the Institute, in 1804 minister of public worship, and in 1805 a knight grand cross of the Legion of Honour. He soon after became totally
