Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

and the effects of it were aggravated in proportion to his former fecurity.

Next follows the history of Themistocles, the Athenian. who after rifing to great eminence by his military atchievements, was banifhed from his country, and ended his days by poifon, in the city of Magnefia.

The tenth inftance adduced is Cais Marius, in whom the mutability of fortune was fingular and extreme. The author, had he pleased, might have concluded his account of this extraordinary perfonage with the following beautiful lines from the poet Lucan:

Ille fuit vitæ Mario modus, omnia paffo

Quæ pejor fortuna habet, atque omnibus ufo

Que melior, menfoque homini quid fata pararent.

Belifarius affords the author the next inftance; though there is reafon for thinking that the fate of this diftinguished character has been mifrepresented by historians; and to this Mr. Bicknell has attended.

Afterwards follow Mahomet, Alfred, cardinal Wolfey, and pope Sixtus the Fifth. For the amusement of our readers, and, at the fame time, as a fpecimen of the work, we shall infert an extract from the hiftory of this extraordinary person, who had been originally a ragged boy, attending hogs in the

field.

66

The method by which the heads of the Romish church is chofen, is either by fcrutiny, by accefs, or by adoration. The first is done, by every cardinal's writing upon a long narrow flip of paper, I give my vote to his eminence cardinal A. B. ;" and after this paper is folded in a particular form, he further infcribes on one of the folds, a motto of his own chufing; as faith, hope, charity, peace, religion, juftice, or fuch other word or words as he pleafes. Thefe tickets are put into a golden chalice that stands upon the altar in the chapel, where the fcrutiny is made, and being afterwards poured out upon a table, if it happens that twothirds of the votes fall upon one perfon, he is immediately declared pope. But this very rarely comes to pafs.

If the election cannot be decided by a fcrutiny, they proceed to accefs, or approach; in which, a perfon being proposed by one of the cardinals, the reft accede, by faying, "I accede to cardinal D. and have a right to do fo, as appears from my ticket, fubfcribed peace, justice, religion," or whatever the word might be.

The third is by adoration, and is thus performed: that cardinal who is the candidate's chief friend, goes up to him, and

making a low reverence, cries out, A Pope! A Pope! When it happens that two thirds of the electors do the fame, the adored cardinal is then acknowledged as pope; but if there wants only one of that number, the election is void. Both accefs and ado ration are usually confirmed, for form's fake, by a fcrutiny, which is feldom unfavourable to the election which has taken place.

Through the affiduity and intereft of his friends, cardinal Alexandrino and D'Efte, after much cavilling and oppofition, Montalto was chofen pope by adoration. While the cardinals were crowding towards him to congratulate him, he fat coughing, and weeping as if fome great misfortune had befallen him. But when the cardinal Dean commanded them to retire to their refpective places, in order to proceed to a regular fcrutiny, he drew near to one of his friends, and whispered in his ear, "Pray take care that the fcrutiny is no prejudice to the adoration," which was the firft difcovery he made of his ambition.

It was obferved, that while the fcrutiny was carrying on, he walked backwards and forwards, and feemed to be in great agitation; but the moment he perceived there was a fufficient number of votes to fecure his election, he threw the staff, with which he ufed to fupport himself, into the middle of the chapel, ftretched himself up, and appeared taller by almoft a foot than he had done for feveral years.

• The cardinals, aftonished at fo fudden an alteration, looked at him with amazement; and one of them cried out, Stay a Little! foftly!— there is a mistake in the fcrutiny." But Montalto, with a ftern look, boldly answered, "There is no miftake; the fcrutiny is good, and in due form;" and immedi ately thundered out the Te Deum himself, in a voice that made the chapel shake.

What will not fortitude and prefence of mind do! Had Mon. talto not acted with this firmness, there is not the least doubt but that fo fudden a change of behaviour, and the cry of "there being a mistake in the fcrutiny," would have put a stop to the election, had the cardinals feconded the affertion. But they all stood dumb and motionless, looking at each other, and biting the r lips. Or, had the dean, whofe office it was to fing the Te Deum, commanded Montalto to defift, the other cardinals would have fupported him in it, and he had been for ever excluded. They were, however, as before observed, fo fafcinated by the fingula rity of the circumftance, that they were unable to take the neceffary steps for retrieving the error they had committed.'

The remaining inftances exhibited are Oliver Cromwell, Richard Cromwell, and Mafaniello. The following anecdote,

of

of Richard, is fcarcely lefs memorable than the reverse of fortune which he experienced.

[ocr errors]

By the death of his only fon, who was called, after his grandfather, Oliver, and who died in the year 1705, without iffue, Richard became entitled to a life estate in the manor of Hurley. It being neceffary that he fhould take poffeffion of it, he fent his youngest daughter into Hampshire for that purpose. But instead of taking poffeffion of it in the name of her father, fhe and her fifters, notwithstanding he had been the fondest of parents to them, forgetting their duty, and even humanity, refufed to deliver it up to him. The reafon they gave for doing this was, that they confidered him as fuperannuated, and therefore propofed only to allow him a small fum yearly. This, Richard refused to accept, and commenced a fuit against them, to obtain poffeffion. As the venerable old man was obliged upon this occafion to appear perfonally in court, his fifter, lady Fauconberg, fent her coach and equipage to conduct him thither.

When he arrived at Westminster-hall, the judge, who is fupposed to have been fir John Holt, (ftruck with the fad reverse of his fortune, and the ungrateful behaviour of his daughters), in a manner that did honour to him both as a magistrate and a gentleman, not only had him conducted into an apartment, where his lordship had provided refreshments for him, and where he remained until the cause came on, but ordered a chair to be brought into court for him, and infifted, upon account of his very advanced age, that he should fit covered. One of the counfel on the other fide being about to object to the indulgence of the chair, the judge immediately replied, "I will allow of no reflections to be made, but that you go to the merits of the caufe:" and when the arguments on both fides bad been heard, after speaking with a becoming feverity of the fhameful treatment of his daughters, he made an order in Richard's favour, obferving, that they might have permitted an agent parent to enjoy his rights in peace for the fmall remains of life. When this conduct of the judge was reported to queen Anne, the bestowed fome handfome commendations on him for the proper attention fhewn to one who had been a fovereign.'

The inftances of the mutability of fortune, which this author has felected, are doubtlefs correfpondent to his defign; but the work might have afforded much greater variety, had he related the feveral hiftories with more concifenefs, and admitted a larger number of examples.

OCCA

OCCASIONAL RETROSPECT

FOREIGN

O F

LITERATURE.

FRANCE.

HE eleventh and twelfth volumes of the Bibliotheque de l'Homme public have appeared at Paris. The works analifed in thefe volumes are chiefly general Lloyd's Memoirs; a Dif courfe on the State of Europe, pronounced at the affembly of the friends of the conflitution, by M. de Peyfonnel, on the 10th of March 1790, being the laft produ&ion of that useful writer; Wicquefort on the Office of an Ambaffador; an hifiorical Analyfis concerning the Cern Laws of France. In the Memoirs of general Lloyd there are fome important difquifitions concerning the extent and nature of the French frontiers.

[ocr errors]

Thele volumes have been followed by volumes I. and II. of the fecond year of this publication. A memoir of M. Condorcet, one of the editors, on public education, appears in the first volume. M. de C. obferves, that fociety owes to the people a public edu cation, 1. As a mean of rendering the equality of rights real; this obl gation confifts in allowing no inequality to fubfift which may occafion dependence, and inequality of inftruction is one of the principal fources of tyranny. 2. To diminish the inequality which arifes-from the difference of incral fentiments. 3. To increafe the fund of ulcful knowledge in fociety. The following opinion, applicable to the Sorbonne, we fhall tranflate. The government ought above all to fhun the error of confiding inftruction to public bodies which recruit themselves. Their hiftory is that of the efforts they have made to perpetuate vain opinions, which enlightened men have long before arranged in the class of errors: it is that of their attempts to impofe on the mind a yoke, by the aid of which they hope to prolong their credit, or enlarge their wealth. Whether thefe bodies be orders of monks, congregations of demi-moines, univerfities, fimple corporations, the danger is equal. The inftruction which they will give will always tend, not to increase the progrefs of knowledge, but to extend their power; not to teach the truth, but to perpetuate prejudices useful to their ambition, and opinions which ferve their vanity,' &c. The remainder of this volume is occupied with extracts from the work of

2

Paftores

Paftoret on penal laws, and from Xenophon's work on the finances of Attica; after which is fubjoined an account of new political works. The fecond volume of the fecond year contains another memoir by M. de Condorcet, on public education, an analyfis of Bielfeld's Political Institutions, and an account of new political works.

[ocr errors]

The Memoires de la Vie privée de Benjamin Franklin,' Paris, 1791, 8vo. are a translation from the English; but the French tranflator is of very different political principles from the English editor. In vindicating Franklin from the charges of the editor, he obferves, that the greatest part of the reproaches against Franklin, in the work of the English writer, originate in the abfurd idea that the American revolution is the work of one man, or of a few men termed factious, a mistake common in all countries to the agents of a government which has fallen. Accustomed often to fee the influence of one man in the former government, they perfuade themselves that the fucceeding changes are alfo the work of a few men, and not developing the multitude of causes which prepare and occafion a revolution, they fix their eyes and hatred on a small number of perfons whom talents, place, or reputation, or even a chance of circumftances, expose to the chief notice. It is not confidered that these men have no frength, no power, except as the mere organs of a common intereft, and of a general need.'

Baudin's La France Regenerée, a civic poem, is more remarkable for its patriotism than for any other merit

The Effais fur l'Art de l'Indigotier, or Effays on the Management of Indigo, by M. le Blond, may be interefting at a period when this culture attracts much notice in the Eaft Indies.

M. de Liancour's Plan du Travail du Comité pour l'Extinction de la Mendicité; or design of the means to be followed by the committee for the extinction of beggary, deferves the applause of every benevolent mind. It is eft.blished as a fundamental principle, that every person in a ftate has a right to fubfiftence. In confequence, fociety ought to provide for that of all the members who are in want: and labour is the proper mean of fubfiftence for those poor who are in a condition to work. The healthy poor, whom vice prevents from working, have only a right to mere fubfiftence, that the fociety may not reproach itself with their destruction: the infirm have a claim to complete affiftance. If it be an indifpenfable duty for perfons in a fociety to contribute to the fubfiftence of those who cannot gain their bread, yet every contribution exacted for that end, above the amount abfolutely neceffary, is a violation of property and an injuftice. Upon fuch principles does the committee proceed. The caufes of beggary in France are then examined, and chiefly imputed to the flow progress of agriC. R. N. AR. (IV). March, 1792,

A a

cul

« AnteriorContinua »