May 25.

Act for guaranteeing the pay ment of the dividends on a loan of one million fix hundred and twenty thousand pounds to the emperor of Germany.

Act to amend the act on stamp duties of attorneys' indentures.

Act to revive and amend the act to fufpend, for a limited time, the operation of two acts of the 15th and 17th of his present majefty, for reftraining the negotiation of promiffory notes and inland bills of exchange.

Act to revive and continue the Scotch banking bill. See March 27. Act for granting to foreign fhips the privileges of prize fhips, under certain regulations.

June 6.

"A

FTER two weak and inactive reigns, and two regencies of no fuperior character, a monarch is to fucceed, whofe government is to be diftinguished for its novelty and vigour; and the houfe of Stuart is at laft to know a fovereign. James had now attain ed his thirtieth year; and his prime of life was yet further recommended by every advantage which na tural talents, and a complete edu cation, could bestow. In perfon he was rather under the middle fize, but endued with fuch firmnefs and agility as to excel in every manly exercise. In wrestling, in the management of the bow, or the fpear, in throwing the quoit, in running, in horfemanship, he yielded to none. But his mental abilities were yet more confpicuous. A man of fcience and learning, an excellent poet, a mafter of mufic, the fame of his accomplishments reflected glory even on the throne. Illuftrious in every perfonal virtue, free from any perfonal vice, his very amufements adorned

his character; his hours of leifure being frequently dedicated to elegant writing, and miniature painting, to mechanical arts, and to the cultivation of the garden and the orchard.

"The features of his government it is more difficult to difcriminate. If we believe fome writers, not less than three thousand men were put to death in the two first years of his reign; and after the inroad of Donald Balloch, three hundred highland banditti met with the fame fate. Happily thefe matters are quite unknown to contempo rary and authentic monuments of our hiftory: the juftice of James fell only on a few nobles, and fome chiefs of clans; but the numerous dependants of thofe victims of equitable feverity embraced every occafion to excite difcontents, and propagate falfehoods against the government, falfehoods which have even paft into the page of history, for one of the misfortunes of the houfe of Stuart has confifted in the prejudices of feveral Scotifh hifto. A 2

rians.

rians. If any blame must fall, let it fall where it ought, upon the mis-rule of the houfe of Albany. To a people who had lived for half a century under a loose and delegated government, and who had been accustomed to regard licence as liberty, it is no wonder that the punishment of crimes feemed quite a new and ftrange cruelty: that a falutary ftrength of government appeared defpotifm: that a neceffary and legal taxation affumed the fhape of tyrannic extortion. The commons, led by the nobles, abfurdly regarded the caufe of the

latter as their own, and faw not that the king in crushing the ariftocracy was doing the most effential fervice to his people. The plans of James were fagacious and profound, but fometimes incur the charge of temerity; and while they partake of the greatness of genius, they are limited by the want of a fufficient power in the Scotifh monarchy for their complete execution. In a word, James is fully entitled to the uncommon character of a great fovereign, in the arts of government and of peace,"

"GO

IOVANNI, a younger fon of Lorenzo the Magnificent, obtained by the care of his father a cardinal's hat, when only fourteen years of age, it having been conferred upon him by the favour of pope Innocent VIII. the friend of Lorenzo. From his high rank, and the youth of his brother Pietro's children, he was fet, by the Medici, at the head of his family, to whom they looked up for protection in the grievous misfortunes that overwhelmed them.

"The cardinal had been included in the profcription which his brother's ill conduct had drawn upon the Medici, and he had undergone a series of extraordinary adventures; but he found in the courts of Guido and Francefco, dukes of Urbino, a friendly aly lum

66 Florence, it must be remark ed, after the death of Pietro, was

at the lowest ebb, and feemed finking into ruin. The Pifans, hav. ing been joined by Genoa and Lucca, bid defiance to the Florentines; instead of acting only upon the defenfive, they attacked and took Arezzo. Cortona fell a victim to Lodovico Sforza, furnamed the Moor, duke of Milan, whofe fears of France only kept him from laying fiege to the capital; and when this perfidious monfter was, in 1500, expelled his dominions by Lewis XII. it gave no advantage to Florence; and to fill up the measure of her misfortunes, Balione, her general, deferted to her

enemies.

"From thefe misfortunes, and the unhappy divifions in the repub lic, Giovanni flattered himself be might be able to procure the return of himfelt and his family, efpecially as cardinal ofo za, as it united by fimilitude of fortunes, declared