or

pain of death was pronounced against all writers who should provoke insurrection; such who attacked the constitution and the form of monarchical government, should seek to spread reports which should bring the royal person or his family into contempt, were to be banished; writings against the Christian religion, or which should tend to bring into contempt other religious systems, subjected the authors, with great propriety, to the same punishment, since to attack religion is to cut off all the bonds which hold society together. Those who insulted foreign powers were to be confined in prisons. With these exceptions every person was to be at liberty to write whatever he pleased. Sweden was still more obedient, and, on the requisition of the emperor, acceded, in appearance at least to the coalition. The court of Spain was not so submissive; the king, in his answer to Paul's manifesto, declared that the alliance which he had formed with the French republic, and which had excited the jealousy of certain powers, he tried, and should always try, to maintain; that the object of the coalition newly formed was less the chimerica! and apparent desire of re-establishing order, than of introducing confusion by domineering over such nations as did not enter into its ambitious views; that Russia had been most forward in the exercise of this domination, its emperor having usurped titles that no way belonged to him; that the court of Spain would not stoop to notice the incoherent and inso lent language of the Russian manifesto; but that it would continua to repel every aggression which presumption, and a system of false combinations, might direct against it.

status quo before the French revolution appears to have been the object of its pursuit in the aid in gave to the general cause, not satisfied with carrying on hostilsties against every republican ally of the French, bad declared war against the court of Spain. The motive of this declaration, as set forth in the manifesto, was, the assistance given by Spain to the French republic, the lawless government of which the emperor was resolved, with the aid of his allies, to overthrow. He represented, that the Almighty having crowned all his undertakings hitherto with success, this government, the object of divine wrath, was now drawing near to its last moments; yet having been aided and encouraged by Spain more than by any other power, through fear of its vengeance, after having tried every means to open to this power the true road of honour and glory, by engaging it again to join its forces to those of the coalition, yet as it persisted obstinately in its errors, the only further mode which he found it expedient to make use of was that of war, which he consequently declared. The court of Denmark had also incurred the displeasure of the cabinet of Petersburgh, and an order was issued, that whatever Danish vessels were in the ports of Russia should im mediately quit them. It appears that the Danish government had 'given more encouragement to what are called French principles than Paul thought fitting for the re-establishment of order, religion, and civilised society in Europe,-but the anger of this imperial reformer was assuaged on the appearance of a royal ordonnance at Copenhagen, which limited the liberty of the press. By this ordonnance, all anony mous writings were forbidden; the

An

An event took place at this period, which, as it had a certain connexion with the affairs of the French republic, ought not to be passed by without notice. This was the death of Pius VIth, the history of whose pontificate has been cursorily related in the transactions of the last year. At the time when the allied forces entered Italy, and victory began to declare itself in their favour, the French directors, who had continued to exercise a sort of inspection over the person of the pope, and who had at that time lodged him in the Chartreuse, near Florence, gave orders for him to leave Tuscany. His illness, and the danger of removing him to Cagliari, in the island of Sardinia, at that moment, was substantiated by a consultation of the faculty. The French directory, however, fearing that his residence in Italy might be attended with danger, a fear, absurd, and chimerical, when almost the whole of Italy was in revolt at their own despotism, ordered him to be transferred across the Alps to Briançon, in which fortress he remained until the progress of the Russians threatened the invasion of the frontiers, when he was again transfer red to Valence, a town on the banks of the Rhine.

At Valence he was lodged in the citadel, where he occupied the apartments of the ancient governor, commanding a fine view across the river. Here it was that Pius the VIth terminated peaceably his career. His apartments were on the ground floor, with a very fine garden, in which he was often drawn about in a rolling chair; for the swelling of his legs and thighs did not permit him to walk. During the ten weeks that he dwelt in Valence, he did not above once

go out of the precincts of the castle. The Spanish commissary, who had remarked that the motion of a carriage was favourable to his health, obtained the consent of the municipality for him sometimes to take an airing; but through excess of prudence, and not to give occasion for public explosions of pious zeal, he made use of this permission only once. Few persons, therefore, had the means of seeing the pope during his abode at Valence, although several presented themselves, some to render homage to the head of the church, others to indulge their curiosity.

From abroad he received frequent marks of consolation, which he felt sensibly. The young Labrador scarcely suffered a single day to pass without visiting him during his dinner. His features, worn down by so many calamities, grew animated, when he saw this agent of the only power which could publicly discover any interest for him. To him he confided his little vexations, prayed him to obtain for him what he wanted, to prevent such and such little contradictions from taking place, and due respect was almost always paid to the intercession of the Spanish agent. The hard treatment which he had endured did not extend to that of stripping him of his pontifical garments. From the time of his departure from Rome till his death, he wore a long white, or purple tunic, bordered with er mine; a red calotte, and pastoral cross. Wherever he stopped, and even in France, he was suffed to celebrate divine service with ag much pomp as the little number of ecclesiastics who surrounded him, and the straitened place which served him for a church, would permit. His way of living, on the

whole,

whole, was uniform and tranquil; he divided his time as at the Chartreuse, between prayer, the reading of a few pious books, the table, and walking, some hours were consecrated to his correspondence, which was still extensive. He answered whatever consultations were continued to be addressed to him as head of the church. He slept little during the night; rose early, but immediately after dinner, according to the custom of Italy, he took a long nap.

6.

From the time of his leaving the Chartreuse his health had visibly declined, the swelling of his legs and thighs made rapid progress, and all the lower parts of his body grew successively paralytic. Such was his state, when a question arose about changing the place of his exile. Valence appeared too near the comtat of Avignon, which was then in some agitation. The directory decreed that he should be transferred to Dijon. Pius was extremely affected at this news, and uttered some complaints, the first which had escaped him since his departure from Rome:-" Alas!" cried he, in a mournful tone, why will they not let me die in peace?" It was inhuman, indeed, that they should have taken this decision, from vain terrors, to make this dying old man begin another journey, to tear him away from this uniform and tranquil regimen, which alone prolonged his days. The decree of the directory was the real sentence of death to this unfortunate pontiff: his situation, which grew worse every day, suspended the execution, and spared the French government the odium of a gratuitous cruelty. The palsy spread from his thighs to his intestines, when the physicians began to despair of his life; a diarrhoea, which

took place, seemed, however, to give him some relief. For a long time past his head had not been so sound as it was at that time; but every other symptom betokened a speedy dissolution. The Spanish commissary saw him on the eve of his death, and found him calm and resigned. Religion, after having encircled him with all its pomp, was become his only support in his last moments. Surrounded by a small number of friends who had remained faithful to him, he slept away life on the 29th of August, 1799, in the 82d year of his age and the 24th of his pontificate.

His pious followers had administered to him the last succours of devotion, and rendered to his remains the last duties of friendship: they were embalmed and deposited in a lead coffin, and in the presence and with the concurrence of the municipality of Valence inclosed in a coffin of, wood, which was sealed, at the same time, with the arins of Spain and the emblems of liberty-a singular union, which crowned the destiny of the unfortunate Pius VI !

On this occasion various singular circumstances, which chance had brought around him, ruh upon the memory: The French officer commanding the escort which conducted him without the walls of Rome was named Calvin: Hell (Inferno) was the name of the country-house to which he withdrew after the earthquake at Sienna; the French minister, under whose inspection he remained at Florence, was a protestant; and, lastly, the seal of the catholic king, and the insignia of that liberty, in the name of which he had been dethroned, had paraded across Italy, and exiled into France, was placed together on his tomb. Of this for

mer

but a modest wardrobe; a little linen and some clothes was all his property, all of which he could dispose these he bequeathed to the companions of his misfortune; but the constituted authorities of Valence pretended-paltry and sacrilegious barbarians! that this slender legacy belonged to the French nation.

The archbishop of Corinth alone remained at Valence, waiting the success of the repeated reclamations which he had made to the French government. He request ed that he might be permitted to earry back to Italy the body of Pius, a few jewels of little value, a few pieces of plate, and, particularly, the sacred vases of which he had made use. But the directors of the French republic did not enter into his feelings, and showed no great dispositions to comply with this pious demand. The archbishop was still waiting with anxiety the decision these unfeeling depositaries of authority, when a powerful advocate appeared, whose presence was necessary for the redress of many other wrongs than those which were the object of the archbishop's reclamation.

A month had scarcely elapsed from the death of the pontiff ere his late seat of government fell once more into the hands of his allies. The defeat of the French had produced the same effects in the Roman republic as in other parts of Italy. Macdonald, in his retreat from Naples, had left at Rome about 3,500 French, including those employed in the different administrations. The defeat of the republican army at Piacenza was the signal of general insurreciton against the French in the Roman state, as it had been at Naples and

insurgents and their numbers instructed the French what had been the state of the armies in the northern part of Italy. All communication was cut off from without, where the inhabitants of the country, who had been the objects of the exactions and depredations of French commissaries and agents, were but too well disposed to yield to the suggestions of the priests, who were incessant in their provocations to every act of hostility against every thing which bore any relation to the French or the existing Roman government. In Rome also every part of the government itself was disorganised;-the army was without bread, without shoes, and without pay,- the magazines without arms or provision for a siege. The evil became so great, that the embassador, Bertholio, consented, at length, to lay aside his dictatorial power. The consulate was suspended, A committee was chosen of men of character and ability, composed partly of Romans and partly of French. The city was put under military law. The garrison was under the orders of general Garnier.

Rome, invested thus on every side, was left to its own resources. The insurgents of Tuscany had reinforced those of the Roman republic, and blockaded the city on one side; those of Naples, aided by troops of that country on the other, having possession of all the posts and places around Rome.The garrison made an incursion into the country as far as Viterbo, but were repulsed. The number of insurgents and of Neapolitans increased daily on the right, and menaced Rome on the side of Frescati. General Garnier resolved, at length (8th August), to attack them; but

against