thronged with crowds of people, drawn by the fincereft grief of condolence, to behold the mournful obfequies of their royal benefactress pafs along. It was a fcene the most affecting and awful to be imagined; and when the funeral-fermon was preached over her remains, the numerous audience melted into tears, and were impreffed with emotions of forrow and lamentation only to be compared with thofe which the famous Bourdaloue excited by his cration on a very fimilar occafion, the death of Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, in the last century. But the most ftriking proof of the love and attachment borne to her Majefty's memory after death, and the impreffion which her virtues had made among all ranks of people in the country where he died, is the refolution which the states of Lunenburg framed at Hanover on the 10th of laft month. It was as follows: fternation were fpread through her whole court, which idolized her; but when he expired, no language can exprefs the horror and grief visible in every apartment of the palace. Leyfer, the phyfician, who attended her Majesty through the courfe of her illnefs, dreaded the event from the firit moment. She faw it, and, impreffed with a prefentiment of her approaching death, which proved but too true, "You have twice (faid fhe to him) extricated me from very dangerous indifpofitions fince the month of October, but this exceeds your kill: I know I am not within the help of medicine." Leyfer defired that the celebrated Zimmermann might be called in to his aid from Hanover: he was fo: but her Majefty's illness, which was a moft malignant fpotted fever, baffled every endeavour. Its violence even in the beginning was fuch, that her pulfe beat an hundred and thirtyone ftrokes in a minute; but during "The Nobility and the States the last two days, it became impof- of the duchy of Lunenburg affemfible to count them. She bore the bled, have refolved on the 10th of pains of her diftemper with exqui- June, in their laft feffion, to prefent fite patience, and even thewed the a most generous and delicate atten. tion to the ladies who waited by her. She preferved her fenfes, fpeech, and underflanding to the lat moment, and only a fhort time before her death (the roth of May, 1775) expreffed the molt perfect forgiveness of all thofe enemies who had perfecuted and calumniated her during her life. Monf. de Lichtenftein, Grand Marefchal of the court of Hanover, prefided at the funeral rites, which were conducted with a pomp fuited to her royal dignity. Her Majefty's body was interred with her maternal ancestors, the Dukes of Zell. The ftreets and the great church were request to the King of GreatBritain, to obtain the permiffion of erecting at Zell a monument, in memory of the qualities of mind and heart of the late Queen of Denmark, as well as of the devotion and veneration which they have borne to that Princefs. They intend chufing the most exquifite artilts for the execution of it; and they hope, by this avowed proof of their zeal, to tranfmit, to the most remote pofterity, both the profound grief, which the premature death of that young Queen has fpread through a whole province which adored her, and the homage which they rendered to that true greatnefs, which catastrophies and ad versities verfities the most cruel only render ing of him, ufed to fay, Magnus in more refpectable." The author of this addrefs to the public does not wish to be known: he has no interest in offering a tribute of adulation to a departed Queen. He was only induced, by the most lively conviction of her virtues and undeferved calamities, to attempt to difplay the image of their Princess to the English people. The eulogium is due to her memory; it is an atonement to her injured fhade. folio, parvus in folio. Corfini (Clement XII.) was ten years blind out of the twelve that he reigned; and it may be judged from thence, whe ther the treasurers or receivers had not then good eyes. Orfini (Benedict XIII.) of the order of the brother preachers, too fanctified to fufpect any ill, was inceffantly impofed upon by the unfortunate cardinal Coicia, who, though only the fon of a barber in the kingdom of Naples, enriched himself at the coft of the holy fee, became a prifoner in the castle of St. Ange, and died Memoirs of the late Pope Clement in 1755, loaded with riches and the public indignation. I XIV. Tis commonly faid in Italy, that a pope never fees the truth but when he reads the gospel. Clement, without employing fpies, the refource of low and little minds, caft his eyes about him, and faw himself what it was neceffary for him to know; whereby as a prince who knew how to reign, he rewarded and punished; he declared himfelf, or he diffembled. Providence (faid he) has placed me as a centinel, only carefully to watch over Ifrael, It is true, his extraordinary vigilance created murmurs; but he was convinced that a people is happy only in proportion as their fovereign pays attention to every minutia that relates to their welfare; and thofe who filled offices and employments were obliged to be very care ful in conducting themselves properly, which was not the cafe in the former reign, when malverfation was practifed with impunity. Lambertini (Benedict XIV.) attained the reputation of a great doctor, and was refpected abroad, without abilities to govern his dominions. The Romans, in speak The duties of a prince and paftor are very difficult to reconcile; policy often exacts what religion does not allow if the character of a pope infpires clemency, that of a fovereign enjoins feverity. Thus we read that Sixtus V. was a great monarch without being a bigot; and that S. Pius was a good pope and a poor prince. This made an hiftorian fay, that fuch pontiffs as had been taken from the order of the Cordeliers, and were fix in number, were all poffeffed of the talent of governing well; and those who had been of the order of the Dominicans, were more capable of edifying. Ganganelli, the late pope, whofe Chriftian names were Francis Laurence, was born at Saint Angelo, in the duchy of Urbino, the 31st of October, 1705; and chofen pope, though not yet a bishop, the 19th of May, 1769: at which time, as the reader may recollect, the fee of Rome was involved in a moft difagreeable and dangerous conteft with the houfe of Bourbon. He was the pope who most united the above qualities, as a manly piety is B 3 more more analogous with fovereignty, than an effeminate and pufillanimous devotion. His religion bore the impreffion of his character and his genius it was ftrong and elevated, otherwife he would often have been stopped in his opera tions; but feeing all things as a great man, and rifing fuperior to public rumours, prejudices, and even events, he knew how to be a prince and a pontiff. The little artifices practifed by narrow minds, to obtain their ends, he was a franger to. Though pecuJiarly calculated for a court which is accused of being the very vortex of intrigue and chicane, he never deceived the politicians, but by remaining filent; for when he spoke, he uttered the truth. He was too upright a man to act by finifter means, and was, indeed, too great a genius to ftand in need of them.. No one knew better when to feize the proper moment, when he neither was flow nor precipitate. The hour is not come, he would fay, when he was folicited to haften fone operation. He wrote to Cardinal Stoppani, miftruft my vivacity, and therefore I fhall not anfwer till the end of a week, concerning what your eminence requires of me. Our imagination is often our greatest enemy; I am friving to weary it before I act, Matters of bufinefs, like fruits, have their maturity, and it is only when they are haftings that we fhould think of accomplishing them." His manner of reading refembled his other operations; he abftained from books, if he found himself difpofed to refect; and as fovereigns are led by circumstances, from whence we may conclude that all men are born dependent, he of ten kept vigils great part of the night, and flept in the day-time. Their rule, he used to fay, is the compafs of monks and friars; but the wants of their people is the clock of fovereigns: let it be what hour it may, if they want us, we must attend them: La bufòla di frati é la loro regola, ma il bifogno del popolo é l'orologio dei f vrani. This maxim, when he was pope, often took him from his books. He then read only to edify, or to relax from bufinefs. He was of opinion, that all the books in the world might be reduced to fix thoufand volumes in folio, and that thofe of the prefent age were nothing but pictures, which daubers had found the art of cleaning, in order to prefent them in the propereft light to public view. It is to be lamented that he produced nothing in the literary way, though fome have afcribed to him part of the works of Benedict XIV. We fhould have found in his the phlegm of the Germans, blended with the vivacity of the Italians: but he was fo thoroughly perfuaded that there were too many writers, that he was always fearful of increafing the namber. He faid one day, fmiling, "Who knows whether brother Francis may not one day take it into his head to write ? I should not be in the least aftonished to fee fome work in his manner; but furely it would not be a hiftory of my ragouts, or the book must be very concife." When any one mentioned to him the fashionable productions that appcared against Chriftianity, he would fay, "the more there are, the more the world will be convinced of the neceffity of it." He obferved, "that all the writers who oppofed Chriftianity, knew only how how to dig a ditch, and that was all they could fupply its place with." He faid, "that Mr. Voltaire, whofe poetry he admired, attacked religion so often, only because it was troublesome to him; and that J. J. Rouffeau was a painter, who always forgot the heads, and who excelled only in the drapery." He explained himself one day upon a work, called the Syftem of Nature, and added, "what hurts me is, that the more it is founded upon falfe principles, the more, in an age like ours, it will gain reputation and readers; and it will receive an additional value by its being seriously refuted." He afterwards obferved, that "the author of this bad book is a madman, who imagines that by changing the master of the houfe, he can difpofe of it just as he pleases, without reflecting that no creatures can breathe but by exifting in God, in ipfo vivimus, movemur fumus. But every age is diftinguifhed by a new-fangled mode of thinking. After the times of fuperftition, are come the days of incredulity, and the man who formerly adored a multitude of gods, now affects not to acknowledge any one. Virtue, vice, immortality, annihilation, all appear to him fynonymous, provided fome infignificant pamphlet ferves him as a rampart against heaven; and it is in the very bofom of religion that thefe fcandalous opinions originate and multiply. Whilft religion was perfecuted by the Pagans, a pope had at least the glory and the good fortune to defend it at the price of his blood; but now that he cannot fly to martrydom, he is unfortu. nately compelled to be the miferable witnefs of error and impiety." Thefe excellent reflections he made in the prefence of a commander of Malta, from whom the author had them, and who affured him that the pope was ever ready to facrifice himself for the benefit of religion, and the intereft of the church, confidering his life as no object when thefe were called in queftion. It was folely for the glory of the 'church that he from time to time created feveral cardinals, without paying any attention to their private connections. Their inftitution, which commenced in the ninth century, had no other object than the benefit and honour of religion. They conftitute the council of the fovereign pontiffs, when they have occafion for advice; and there were at all times amongst them perfons of eminence, whofe zeal, added to their knowledge, proved of infinite use to the church and ftate. Some carried their courage and their faith to the extremities of the world; others, with the approbation of princes, governed with wisdom the most flourishing empires. The most remote ages will remember, with admiration, the Amboises, Ximenes, Richlieus, and Fleurvs, and confider them as the bulwarks of thofe kingdoms where they acted as minifters. If Clement XIV. did not make any complete promotion of cardinals during his pontificate, it is to be fuppofed that he was confined by other powers, or that he was puzzled to chufe proper fubjects. He may have preferred not chufing, rather than create mifunderftandings among ancient friends, who flattered themfelves with obtaining the purple, and nevertheB 4 lefs lefs might not be worthy of it. The good qualities neceffary in friendfhip are not fufficient for a cardinal. It is a dignity that has too much influence upon the church, to let chance difpofe of it. To judge properly of the genius of Clement, we fhould view him with fome friends, and particularly the cardinal de Bernis, (whofe different ages feemed appropriated to the moft flattering periods, and the most delicate works) conferring upon the fubject of the times, and the means of reconciling the interefts of religion with thofe of princes. When the greatest lights had been thrown by thefe his counfellors upon the fubject in debate, Ganganelli, as the primum mobile of their deliberations, decided with manly refolution. The lightest error would have been of the most dangerous confequence. The chief point in queftion was to weigh the rights of the fovereign pontiff, the motives upon which he acted, and to keep within the bounds that fupport the equilibrium between the holy father and the other po tentates. The more arduous and difficult the functions of a pope, the more he flands in need of repofe to enable him to go through his labours. Caftlegandolfe, a cafile built by the Chevalier Bernini, four leagues from Rome, near the lake Albano, which commands the most agreeable profpects, is the ufual fummer refidence of the fovereign pontiffs. Clement failed not to repair thither in the months of May and October, the most proper seasons in Italy to enjoy the pleafures of the country; and it was here, to be intimately acquainted with Clement, we should view him anato mizing an infect, analyzing a flower, purfuing the phænomena of nature, and by degrees rifing up to her Author; and at length taking a general view of earth and heaven; or collecting himself within himfelf, confidering man; or, at other times, familiarly converfing with his friends and intimates. His imagination was gratified at the fight of thofe beauties that prefent themselves in the neighbourhood of Rome; at the recollection of the ancient Romans, who had fo boldly trampled upon the foil, he recalled to his memory the most fublime and ingenious paffages of the ancient poets upon the occafion. There are few Italians, however little read, who are unacquainted with the works of Ariofto, Dante, Taffo, Petrarch, and Metaftafio; even the women amuse themselves with the perufal of these poets, and can quote them occafionally. His philofophy ferved his imagination as an excellent fecond; it recalled to his memory the different fituations of his life; at one time in a ftate of obfcure tranquillity, then forcibly agitated in the glare of dignity, like a pilot, who, after a calm ferene morning, in the evening finds himself in a violent hurricane, accompanied with thunder, hail, and rain. Sometimes, weary of meditation, he would retire with an old convent friend of his, Father Francis, into a bower fequestered from the eye of curiofity: here the cloyster anecdotes amufed them, and they feemed in a perfect state of equality. One day, Clement viewing him, repeated twice these words: "He has kept his garb, and is happier than me who wear the tiara. It was decreed I fhould be |