66 demeanour, a large hat, a long robe beneath a short one, and preach through the nose. All churches in which the ecclesiastics are so happy as to receive an annual income of fifty thousand livres, and to be addressed by the people as "my lord," " your grace," or 'your eminence," they denominate the whore of Babylon. These gentlemen have also several churches in England, where they maintain the same manners and gravity as in Scotland. It is to them chiefly that the English are indebted for the strict sanctification of Sunday throughout the three kingdoms. They are forbidden either to labour or to amuse themselves. No opera, no concert, no comedy, in London on a Sunday. Even cards are expressly forbidden; and there are only certain people of quality, who are deemed open souls, who play on that day. The rest of the nation attend sermons, taverns, and their small affairs of love. Although episcopacy and presbyterianism predominate in Great Britain, all other opinions are welcome and live tolerably well together, although the various preachers reciprocally detest each other with nearly the same cordiality as a Jansenist damns a Jesuit. to wait for the inspiration of the Lord with their hats on; and all are content. Was there in London but one religion, despotism might be apprehended; if two only, they would seek to cut each other's throats; but as there are at least thirty, they live together in peace and happiness. PRETENSIONS. THERE IS not a single prince in Europe who does not assume the title of sovereign of a country possessed by his neighbour. This political madness is unknown in the rest of the world. The King of Boutan never called himself Emperor of China; nor did the sovereign of Tartary ever assume the title of King of Egypt. The most splendid and comprehensive pretensions have always been those of the popes; two keys, saltier, gave them clear and decided possession of the kingdom of heaven. They bound and unbound everything on earth. This ligature made them masters of the continent; and St. Peter's nets gave them the dominion of the seas. Many learned theologians thought, that when these gods were assailed by the Titans, called Lutherans, Anglicans, and Euter into the Royal Exchange of Lon- Calvinists, &c., they themselves reduced don, a place more respectable than many some articles of their pretensions. It is courts, in which deputies from all nations certain that many of them became more assemble for the advantage of mankind. { modest, and that their celestial court There the Jew, the Mahometan, and the attended more to propriety and decency; Christian, bargain with one another as if but their pretensions were renewed on they were of the same religion, and be- every opportunity that offered. No other stow the name of infidel upon bankrupts proof is necessary than the conduct of only. There the Presbyterian gives credit Aldobrandini,Clement VIII., to the great to the Anabaptist, and the votary of the Henry IV., when it was deemed necesestablishment accepts the promise of thesary to give him an absolution that he Quaker. On the separation of these free and pacific assemblies, some visit the synagogue, others repair to the tavern. Here one proceeds to baptise his son in a great tub, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; there another deprives his boy of a small portion of his foreskin, and mutters over the child some Hebrew words which he cannot understand; a third kind hasten to their chapels VOL. II.-86. had no occasion for, on account of his being already absolved by the bishops of his own kingdom, and also on account of his being victorious. Aldobrandini at first resisted for a whole year, and refused to acknowledge the Duke of Nemours as the ambassador of France. At last he consented to open to Henry the gate of the kingdom of heaven, on the following conditions : 2 c 1. That Henry should ask pardon for having made the sub-porters-that is, the bishops-open the gate to him, instead of applying to the grand porter. 2. That he should acknowledge himself to have forfeited the throne of France till Aldobrandini, by the plentitude of his power, reinstated him on it. 3. That he should be a second time consecrated and crowned; the first coronation having been null and void, as they were performed without the express order of Aldobrandini. travagant conditions by that old and inveterate demon of the south, Philip II., who was more powerful at Rome than the pope himself. You compare Aldobrandini to a contemptible poltroon of a soldier whom his colonel forces forward to the trenches by caning him. To this I answer, that Clement VIII. was indeed afraid of Philip II., but that he was not less attached to the rights of the tiara; and that it was so exquisite a gratification for the grandson of a banker to scourge a king of France, that Aldobrandini would not altogether have conceded this point for the world. 4. That he should expel all the Protestants from his kingdom; which would have neither been honourable nor possi- You will reply, that should a pope at ble. It would not have been honourable, present renew such pretensions, should because the Protestants had profusely he now attempt to apply the scourge to shed their blood to establish him as kinga king of France, or Spain, or Naples, or of France; and it would not have been to a duke of Parma, for having driven possible, as the number of these dissi-the reverend fathers the Jesuits from dents amounted to two millions. 5. That he should immediately make war on the Grand Turk, which would not have been more honourable or possible than the last condition, as the Grand Turk had recognised him as King of France at a time when Rome refused to do so, and as Henry had neither troops, nor money, nor ships, to engage in such an insane war with his faithful ally. 6. That he should receive in an attitude of complete prostration the absolution of the pope's legate, according to the usual form in which it is administered; that is in fact, that he should be actually scourged by the legate. 7. That he should recal the Jesuits, who had been expelled from his kingdom by the parliament for the attempt made to assassinate him by Jean Chatel, their scholar. I omit many other minor pretensions, Henry obtained a mitigation of a number of them. In particular, he obtained the concession, although with a great deal of difficulty, that the scourging should be inflicted only by proxy, and by the hand of Aldobrandini himself. You will perhaps tell me, that his holiness was obliged to require those ex their dominions, he would be in imminent danger of incurring the same treatment as Clement VII. did from Charles V., and even of experiencing still greater humiliations ;-that it is necessary to sacrifice pretensions to interests; that men must yield to times and circumstances; and that the sheriff of Mecca must proclaim Ali Beg king of Egypt, if he is successful and firm upon the throne. To this I answer, that you are perfectly right. Pretensions of the Empire; extracted from Glafey and Schwedar. Upon Rome (none). Even Charles V., after he had taken Rome, claimed no right of actual domain. Upon the patrimony of St. Peter, from Viterbo to Civita Castellana, the estates of the Countess Matilda, but solemnly ceded by Rodolph of Hapsburg. Upon Parma and Placentia, the supreme dominion as part of Lombardy, invaded by Julius II., granted by Paul III. to his bastard Farnese: homage always paid for them to the pope from that time; the sovereignty always claimed by the seigneurs of Lombardy; the right of sovereignty completely ceded to the emperor by the treaties of Cambray and of London, at the peace of 1737. Upon Tuscany, right of sovereignty exercised by Charles V.; an estate of the empire, belonging now to the emperor's brother. Upon the republic of Lucca, erected into a duchy by Louis of Bavaria, in 1328; the senators declared afterwards vicars of the empire by Charles IV. The Emperor Charles VI. however, in the war of 1701, exercised in it his right of sovereignty by levying upon it a large contribution. Upon the duchy of Milan, ceded by the Emperor Wincenslaus to Galeas Visconti, but considered as a fief of the empire. Upon the duchy of Mirandola, reunited to the house of Austria in 1711 by Joseph I. Upon the duchy of Mantua, erected into a duchy by Charles V.; reunited in like manner in 1708. Upon Guastalla, Novellaria, Bozzolo, and Castiglione, elso fiefs of the empire, detached from the duchy of Mantua. Upon the whole of Montserrat, of which the Duke of Savoy received the investiture at Vienna in 1708. Upon Naples and Sicily, rights still more fallen into neglect. Almost all the states of Italy are or have been in vassalage to the empire. Upon Pomerania and Mecklenburg, the fiefs of which were granted by Frederick Barbarossa. Upon Denmark, formerly a fief of the empire; Otho I. granted the investiture of it. Upon Poland, for the territory on the banks of the Vistula. Upon Bohemia and Silesia, united to the empire by Charles IV. in 1355. Upon Prussia, from the time of Henry VII.; the grand master of Prussia acknowledged a member of the empire in 1500. Upon Livonia, from the time of the knights of the sword. Upon Hungary, from the time of Henry II. Upon Lorraine, by the treaty of 1542; acknowledged an estate of the empire, paying taxes to support the war against the Turks. Upon the duchy of Bar down to the year 1311, when Philip the Fair, who conquered it, did homage for it. Upon the duchy of Burgundy, by virtue of the rights of Mary of Burgundy. Upon the kingdom of Arles and Bur Upon Piedmont, the investiture of which was bestowed by the Emperor Sigismund on the Duke of Savoy, Ama-gundy on the other side of the Jura, deus VIII. which Conrad the Salian, possessed in chief by his wife. Upon Dauphiny, as part of the kingdom of Arles. The Emperor Charles Upon the county of Asti, bestowed by Charles V. on the house of Savoy; the dukes of Savoy always vicars in Italy from the time of the Emperor Sigis-IV. having caused himself to be crowned mund. at Arles in 1465, and created the dauphin of France his viceroy. Upon Genoa, formerly part of the domain of the Lombard kings. Frederick Barbarossa granted to it in fief the coast from Monaco to Porta-Venere ; it is free under Charles V. in 1529; but the words of the instrument are "In civitate nostra Genoa, et salvis romani imperii juribus." Upon the fiefs of Langues, of which the dukes of Savoy have the direct do main. Upon Padua, Vicenza, and Verona, rights fallen into neglect. Upon Provence, as a member of the kingdom of Arles, for which Charles of Anjou did homage to the empire. Upon the principality of Orange, as an arriere fief of the empire. Upon Avignon, for the same reason. Upon Sardinia, which Frederick II. erected into a kingdom. Upon Switzerland, as a member of the kingdoms of Arles and Burgundy. Upon Dalmatia, a great part of which belongs at present wholly to the Venetians, and the rest to Hungary. PRIDE. CICERO, in one of his letters, says familiarly to his friend-"Send to me the persons to whom you wish me to give the Gauls." In another, he complains of being fatigued with letters from I know not what princes, who thank him for causing their provinces to be erected into kingdoms; and he adds that he does not even know where these kingdoms are situated. It is probable, that Cicero, who often saw the Roman people, the sovereign people, applaud and obey him, and who was thanked by kings whom he knew not, had some emotions of pride and vanity. at once against God and man, and a continual sin against the Holy Ghost. From the time of Calchas, who assassinated the daughter of Agamemnon,unto Gregory XII. and Sixtus V., two bishops who would have deprived Henry IV. of the kingdom of France, sacerdotal power has been injurious to the world. Prayer is not dominion, nor exhortation despotism. A good priest ought to be a physician to the soul. If Hippocrates had ordered his patients to take hellebore under pain of being hanged, he would have been more insane and barbarous than Phalaris, and would have had little practice. When a priest says-Worship God; be just, indulgent, and compassionate; he is then a good physician; when he says-Believe me, or you shall be burnt, he is an assassin. The magistrate ought to support and Though the sentiment is not at all con- restrain the priest in the same manner as sistent in so pitiful an animal as man, yet the father of a family ensures respect to we can pardon it in a Cicero, a Cæsar, the preceptor, and prevents him from or a Scipio; but when in the extremity abusing it. The agreement of church of one of our half barbarous provinces, a and state is of all systems the most monman who may have bought a small situ-strous, for it necessarily implies division, ation, and printed poor verses, takes it into his head to be proud, it is very laughable. PRIESTS. PRIESTS in a state approach nearly to what preceptors are in private families. it is their province to teach, pray, and supply example. They ought to have no authority over the masters of the house; at least until it can be proved that he who gives the wages ought to obey him who receives them. Of all religions the one which most positively excludes the priesthood from civil authority, is that of Jesus. "Give unto Cæsar the things which are Caesar's."-"Among you there is neither first nor last."-"My kingdom is not of this world." The quarrels between the empires and the priesthood, which have bedewed Europe with blood for more than six centuries, have therefore been, on the part of the priests, nothing but rebellion and the existence of two contracting parties. We ought to say the protection given by government to the priesthood or church. But what is to be said and done in respect to countries in which the priesthood have obtained dominion, as in Sa lem, where Melchisedech was priest and king; in Japan, where the dairo has been for a long time emperor? I answer, that the successors of Melchisedech and the dairos have been set aside. The Turks are wise in this; they religiously make a pilgrimage to Mecca; but they will not permit the xerif of Mecca to excommunicate the sultan. Neither will they purchase from Mecca permission not to observe the ramadan, or the liberty of espousing their cousins or their nieces. They are not judged by imans, whom the xerif delegates; nor do they pay the first year's revenue to the xerif. What is to be said of all that? Reader, speak for yourself. PRIESTS OF THE PAGANS. FATHER NAVARETTE, in one of his letters to Don John of Austria, relates the following speech of the delai-lama to { his privy council: "My venerable brothers, you and I know very well that I am not immortal; but it is proper that the people should think so. The Tartars of great and little Thibet are people with stiff necks and little information, who require a heavy yoke and gross inventions. Convince them of my immortality, and the glory will reflect on you, and you will procure honours and riches. they will remain ignorant and devout; you may therefore boldly take their money, intrigue with their wives and their daughters, and threaten them with the anger of the god Fo if they complain. "When the time of correct reasoning shall arrive, (for it will arrive some day or other,) you will then take a totally opposite course, and say directly the contrary of what your predecessors have said, for you ought to change the nature of your curb in proportion as the horses become more difficult to govern. Your exterior must be more grave, your intrigues more mysterious, your secrets better guarded, your sophistry more dazzling, and your policy more refined. You will then be the pilots of a vessel which "When the time shall come in which the Tartars will be more enlightened, we may then confess that the grand lamasis leaky on all sides. Have under you are not now immortal, but that their predecessors were so; and that what is necessary for the erection of a grand edifice, is no longer so when it is established on an immoveable foundation. "I hesitated at first to distribute the agremens of my water-closet, properly inclosed in crystals ornamented with gilded copper, to the vassals of my empire; but these relics have been received with so much respect, that the usage must be continued, which after all exhibits nothing repugnant to sound morals, and brings much money into our sacred treasury. "If any impious reasoner should ever endeavour to persuade the people that one end of our sacred person is not so divine as the other, should they protest against our relics, you will maintain their value and importance to the utmost of your power. subalterns contiuually employed at the pumps, and as caulkers to stop all the holes. You will navigate with difficulty, but you will still proceed, and be enabled to cast into the fire or the water, as may be most convenient, all those who would examine whether you have properly refitted the vessel. "If among the unbelievers is a prince of Calkas, a chief of the Calmucks, a prince of Casan, or any other powerful prince, who has unhappily too much wit, take great care not to quarrel with him. Respect him, and continually observe that you hope he will return to the holy path. As to simple citizens, spare them not, and the better men they are, the more you ought to labour to exterminate them; for being men of honour they are the most dangerous of all to you. "You will exhibit the simplicity of the dove, the prudence of the serpent, and the paw of the lion, according to circumstances." The dalai-lama had scarcely pronounced these words when the earth trembled; lightnings sparkled in the firmament from one pole to the other; "And if you are finally obliged to give up the sanctity of our nether end, you must take care to preserve in the minds of the reasoners the most profund respect for our understanding, just as in a treaty with the Moguls, we have ceeded a poor province, in order to secure our peace-thunders rolled, and a celestial voice was able possession of the remainder." heard to exclaim, "Adore God and not "So long as our Tartars of great and { the grand lama.” little Thibet are unable to read and write, All the inferior lamas insisted that the |