filled the surrounding countries in 1848 seem to have taught them the blessings of peace and union. Of the condition of VENICE during the eighteenth century, much may be collected from what has been already said. She lost the Morea in 1718, but acquired, in exchange, some towns in Albania and Dalmatia, which, however, were a very inadequate compensation. Some ecclesiastical reforms took place in the middle of the last century, at which period many convents were suppressed and the Jesuits expelled. Venice endeavored to remain neuter during the first movements of the French Revolution, but was soon drawn into the vortex when Bonaparte assumed the command of the French army. By the Treaty of Campo Formio, 1797, her doom was sealed, and this celebrated republic entirely overthrown. As a portion of the Italian dominions of Austria, the Venetians were among those whose hopes of independence were disappointed in the contest of 1848.

In ROME, since the close of the eighteenth century, there has been a succession of many popes, though some have filled the papal chair longer than might be expected, in a sovereignty where the election is generally made from persons advanced in years. Little more than the "magni nominis umbra" remained to the popes at the beginning of the eighteenth century, of that temporal power, which, at one time or other, had shaken every throne in Europe. The clergy of France, in particular, had effectually asserted that the kings and princes, in temporal concerns, were independent of ecclesiastical authority. Clement XI., who was of the family of the Albani, and assumed the tiara in the year 1700, opposed the erection of Prussia into a kingdom; an extraordinary measure of interposition, which had so little weight as almost to expose his court to ridicule. He espoused the French interests in the contest concerning the Spanish succession, though in 1708 he was compelled, by the vigorous proceedings of the emperor, to acknowledge Charles III. king of Spain. From this pope the famous bull unigenitus was extorted by the Jesuits, to the great disturbance of France, and the whole Romish church; and the consequences of which, indeed, may be traced in all the following state and circumstances of Europe.

Pope Clement XI. died in 1721, and was succeeded by the cardinal Michael Angelo Conti, who

took the name of Innocent XIII., but being far advanced in years, lived a very short time, dying on the 3d of March, 1724; and on the 29th of May following, Cardinal Ursini, Benedict XIII., was chosen his successor. During his papacy, Commachio, which had been lost to the Roman see in the time of Clement XI., was recovered. Benedict was zealous for the honor of the bull unigenitus, and, in conjunction with Cardinal Fleury, succeeded in procuring the Cardinal de Noailles, one of the most respectable and zealous opposers of it in France, to subscribe it. He had a disposition to unite the Roman, Greek, Lutheran, and Reformed churches, but could not succeed. He died in 1730, more admired for his virtues and talents, than praised for his wisdom in the management of affairs.

Benedict XIII. was succeeded by Clement XII., Laurence Corsini, a Florentine, whose public acts. were of little importance. He had disputes with the king of Sardinia, the republic of Venice, with the Empire and Spain; but much of his pontificate was passed in tranquillity. He died on the 6th of February, 1740. He made considerable and valuable additions to the Vatican Library. On his death, a struggle arose between the Albani and Corsini families, and the conclave was much agitated. The former prevailed, and succeeded in elevating Cardinal Prosper Lambertini to the papal chair, who took the title of Benedict XIV. His government of the church was extremely mild, and he was regarded as no favorer of the Jesuits, who, during his pontificate, fell into disrepute in Portugal, the first symptom of their decline and fall. This pope was a man of most amiable manners, a great writer, and possessed of considerable learning; he appears, indeed, to have been one of the most universally beloved of all the popes. He corrected several abuses, particularly such as had arisen out of the privileges of asylum. He carefully endeavored to keep clear of disputes and contests, thinking the times unfavorable to the papal authority. He died in the year 1758.

The cardinal Rezzonico succeeeded Benedict XIV., and took the title of Clement XIII. His pontificate is memorable for being the era of the expulsion of the order of Jesuits (in some instances under circumstances of very unjustifiable precipitation) from Portugal, France, Spain, Naples, Sicily, Parma, Venice, and Corsica, notwithstand

ing the utmost efforts of the pope to uphold them. Many of them were actually landed from Spain, Portugal, Naples, and Sicily on the pope's territories, as though it belonged to him to maintain them when abandoned by the Catholic sovereigns. The pope remonstrated, but with little effect. The French seized upon Avignon, and the Neapolitans upon Benevento, to induce him to abandon the order, but he would not. Clement XIII. died suddenly, on February 2, 1769, and was succeeded by the celebrated Ganganelli, who, in compliment to his predecessor and patron, took the title of Clement XIV. This enlightened pontiff was sensible of the decline of the papal authority, and of the prudence of conciliating, if not of humoring, the sovereigns of Europe, against whom he was accustomed to observe, the Alps and the Pyrenees were not sufficient protection. It was in consequence of this leaning towards the temporal princes, that he secured their concurrence to his being made pope, his freedom of thought and manners being otherwise obnoxious to the court of Rome. The conclave by which he was elected was tumultuous; but at length the Cardinal de Bernis succeeded in procuring him to be chosen pope, May, 1769. It is well known that this accomplished pontiff, in the year 1773, after much deliberation, suppressed the order of Jesuits; and, dying in the next year, suspicions were raised that he had been poisoned. On opening his body, however, in the presence of the French and Spanish ministers, enemies to the Jesuits, it was pronounced otherwise. There is little doubt that he regretted, as head of the Church, the step he had been compelled to take; it procured for him, indeed, the restitution of Avignon and Benevento, which had been taken from his predecessor; but in consenting to the dissolution of an order so essential to the papal dominion, he must, in all probability, have yielded to the power of irresistible circumstances. He was of an amiable disposition, much given to literature, indefatigable in business, and highly respected by foreign nations, plain and simple in his manners, and very disinterested.

Early in the year 1775, Angiolo Braschi, a descendant of the noble family of Cesena, was chosen to fill the chair vacated by the death of Ganganelli. The new pope took the title of Pius VI. He is said to have been elected contrary to the wishes

and intentions of most of the members of the conclave, a circumstance not unlikely to happen amidst such a contrariety of interests and complicated forms of proceeding. As he had thus risen to supreme power, he acted afterwards more independently of the cardinals than any of his predecessors.

He had taken the name of Pius VI., in acknowledged defiance of a prevailing superstition, expressed in the following verses, and applied to Alexander VI., particularly, if not to others.

"Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero, sextus et iste,
Semper sub sextis, perdita Roma fuit."

He is known to have, in his troubles, reflected on this rather singular circumstance with sorrow and dismay. Certainly no pope had greater indignities to sustain, nor could any have greater cause to apply to themselves the ominous prestiges conveyed in the lines just cited; for in the year 1798 his government was overthrown, and Rome lost. The French took possession of it, and proclaimed the restoration of the Roman republic.

The pope's troubles began in 1796, when he was compelled to cede to Bonaparte the cities of Bologna, Urbino, Ferrara, and Ancona, to pay twentyone millions of francs, and deliver to the French commissioners, sent for the purpose, pictures, busts, statues, and vases to a large amount. He afterwards endeavored to raise an army to recover what he had lost; but he had formed a very wrong estimate of the power of his opponent. He was soon compelled, February 12, 1797, to sue for peace, and submit to further sacrifices at the will of Bonaparte, whom he had certainly very incautiously provoked. By the Peace of Tolentino, he renounced all right to Avignon and the Vanaissin, Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romagna. On the entrance of the French in 1798, the Vatican and Quirinal palaces, and private mansions of the obnoxious amongst the nobility, were stripped of all their ornaments and riches. The people who had invited the French fancied themselves free, but had very little cause to thank their deliverers. The pope was forcibly removed from Rome, at the age of eighty, and, by order of the French Directory, transferred from place to place, as the course of events dictated, from Rome to Florence, from Florence to Briançon, and from Briançon to Valence.

Another removal to Dijon is said to have been in contemplation, had not the decline of his health become too visible to render it necessary. He died at the latter place, August 29, 1799, in the eightysecond year of his age, and twenty-fourth of his pontificate.

Pius VI. was correct in his manners, and a patron of genius, particularly of the fine arts. He spent much money on buildings, notwithstanding the distressed state of the finances, and devoted large sums to the draining of the Pontine marshes, in which almost impracticable undertaking he partly succeeded. He endeavored to correct the abuses of sanctuary, which had been carried so far as to give impunity to hired assassins, much to the infamy of those who protected them. It deserves to be recorded of him, that he displayed great magnanimity, as well as pious resignation, when dragged from his dominions; and though he felt severely the wrongs that had been committed against him by the French and the infatuated Romans, he died tranquilly and serenely.

It is remarkable that he had scarcely been dead a month, when Rome was delivered from the hands of its oppressors, and given up to the British, whose fleet, under Commodore Trowbridge, had blocked up the port of Civita Vecchia. Those who had favored the republican cause were permitted to retire, and the French garrison marched out with the honors of war.

In the month of March, 1800, a conclave of cardinals, under the protection of the emperor and other Catholic powers, met at Venice to elect a successor to Pius VI., and was not long in fixing upon the cardinal Chiaremonte, bishop of Tivoli, Pope Pius VII. In a few weeks after his election, he set out for his new dominions, and arrived at Rome on July 9th. In the month of September, 1801, he had the satisfaction of concluding a concordatum with the French republic, by which, under the auspices of Bonaparte, then First Consul, the Roman Catholic religion was re-established there. Not only heresy, but infidelity and atheism, had been so openly encouraged and avowed by the French revolutionists, that Pius appears to have thought no concessions too great to accomplish this end; for the terms of the agreement undoubtedly subjected the Gallican church entirely to the civil government, canonical institution being almost the only privi

lege reserved to the pope, and every possible encouragement being, at the same time, given to the Protestant churches, Lutheran and Calvinistic.

It was very soon discovered that the new head of the Roman Church was to be made to bow as low to the authority of Bonaparte as his predecessor. In 1804, Pius VII. was summoned to Paris to officiate at the coronation of the French emperor; and though in the year following he declined attending a similar ceremony at Milan, as has been already shown, it seems only to have exposed him to greater sacrifices. In 1808, he was deprived of Urbino, Ancona, Macerata, and Camerino, and soon after, his temporal sovereignty being formally dissolved, the papal territories were annexed to France. Rome was declared to be a free and impartial city; the court of Inquisition, the temporal jurisdiction of the clergy, the right of asylum, and other privileges, were abolished, and the title of King of Rome was appropriated to the heir of the French empire. Pius was conveyed first to Grenoble, afterwards to Savona, and, finally, in 1812, to Fontainebleau, where, for reasons unknown, he was once more acknowledged as a sovereign, till the advance of the Allies upon Paris, at last, procured him his liberty; and in 1814 he was reinstated. He made his solemn entrance into Rome on the 24th of May; and in 1815, by the arrangements of the Congress of Vienna, his forfeited estates were reannexed to the papal dominions. His restoration of the order of Jesuits and of the court of Inquisition, on his return, occasioned some concern to the greater part of Europe; but his holiness had generally the credit of being a man of sense, prudence, and moderation.

For upwards of thirty years after the Treaty of Vienna no event of importance affected the government and court of Rome. In 1823, Annibale della Genga became pope, as Leo XII. He was succeeded in 1829 by Castiglione, as Pius VIII., and Capellari was chosen in 1831, as Gregory XVI. On his death in 1846, he was succeeded by one doomed to have a more eventful existence, John Maria, of Mastai Ferretti, well known as Pio Nono or Pius IX. He surprised Europe by the phenomenon of a reforming pope, giving liberty to the press, improving the administration of justice, affording a liberal municipality to the city, and projecting a confederation of the Italian states. Instead, how

ever, of deriving favorable hopes of permanent amelioration from such a ruler, the restless Italians seemed to feel the removal of tyranny and restraint as the opportunity for turbulence; and during the revolutionary storm of 1848, tumults arose in Rome, in which the minister Rossi was assassinated. The pope fled to Gaëta, leaving the city to those who could command it. It was in the meantime kept in

discipline by a triumvirate, at the head of whom was Mazzini, the leader of the revolutionary party in Italy. They held rule for several months, and when, in 1849, a French army marched to reinstate the pope, they vigorously defended the city. The French took it after a siege terminating in July, 1849, and, restoring the pope, established a French garrison in his capital.

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HE acquiescence of the Catholics to the measure of Union had been gained by promises of emancipation, and the assurance that on this subject the ministers were unanimous; but the more powerful adherence of the Protestants was bought with something more substantial than words, and the passing of the Union added an enormous sum to the national debt of Ireland. The borough owners received £15,000 ($75,000) compensation for each borough, and this alone cost £1,275,000 ($6,375,000) of which Lord Shannon and the Marquess of Ely received each £45,000 ($225,000), and Lord Clanmorres £23,000 ($115,000). The price of an Union vote was £8,000 ($40,000) down, or in instances where ready money would not be accepted, an honorable or profitable office. Indeed, the list of supporters of the Union shows us that, of the one hundred and forty members who voted for the measure, only eleven were neither place-holders nor received rewards for their votes.

The Rebellion and the Union had cost Ireland dear, for her national debt, which in '97 had amounted only to £4,000,000 ($20,000,000) had during four years increased more than seven-fold, and at the beginning of 1801 stood at £28,545,134, or close on $143,000,000; nearly one-sixteenth of that of England, which then amounted to £450,504,984. Ireland sought to protect herself from the charge of the English pre-union debt by the seventh article of the Union, which prescribes that the sinking fund for the reduction of the principal of the debt incurred in either kingdom shall be defrayed by separate taxation; but this article has not been complied with, and the two kingdoms now

bear conjointly the charges of the pre-union expenses. It was arranged that for the ensuing twenty years the expenditure of the United Kingdom should be defrayed in the proportions of fifteen parts to Great Britain to two of Ireland, and that after that time a fresh arrangement should be made, and the proportions from time to time revised until such time as the national debt of Ireland should bear the proportions of two to fifteen parts of the debt of Great Britain. This consummation was arrived at in 1817, for whereas during the sixteen years of union the British debt had not doubled, the Irish had increased fourfold, and already exceeded the proportion of two to fifteen. Nor was this all that Ireland had to complain of, for in defiance of the seventh article of the Union, which provided that the surplus revenue should be expended for the benefit of each country in the proportion of their contributions, the surplus due to Ireland, and amounting in some years to three or four millions, was not so expended.

The sixth article places the two kingdoms on equal commercial footing, and prescribes that neither shall impose a duty on the imports or exports of the other; but this commercial equality was no benefit to Ireland; the English industries were in possession of the market, the commercial current flowed in her direction, and want of capital and the complicated system of rings, exclusive and reciprocal trading, placed insuperable barriers in the way of Irish commerce. That the Union did not improve Irish trade is easily seen by a glance at the returns of her imports and exports, which, though they increased with her increasing population, rose much less rapidly than they had done in the years