count Poniatowski was, by the influence of Russia, proclaimed king, A. D. 1764, by the title of STANISLAUSAUGUSTUS.

The reign of this monarch was one continued scene of confusion and distress; and, in the year 1792, the same power that elevated him to the throne was the cause of his overthrow. It was to no purpose that he had formerly been one of the paramours of the empress of Russia. Lust was a feebler passion than ambition, in the breast of Catherine. She had formed the design of subjugating Poland, and she was not to be turned from it, by either justice to the country, or tenderness for the favourite of her early years. The perfidy of the court of Berlin led it to become an associate of Russia; and the emperor of Germany soon joined in this disgraceful operation. The consequence was, that Poland is now no more; that unfortunate country has been partitioned amongst its rapacious neighbours. STANISLAUS died at Petersburg, on the 11th of February,

1798.

RELIGION.-The Poles were first converted from idolatry to the Christian religion about the year 964, by St. Aldebert, afterwards archbishop of Gnesna. The reformation began very early to make great progress in Poland, and the majority of the senators and nobility became members of either the Lutheran or Calvinisti. cal communion. To remove all the dangers arising from different religious persuasions, a law was passed in the Diet of Valna, in 1563, by which every subject professing the Christian religion was entitled equally to the rights, privileges and immunities, as well as the honors and digities of the kingdom. This law was confirmed five years after, at the Diet of Grodno, A. D.

1568.

The moderation which subsisted for a long time among the different persuasions was uninterrupted, and served as the strongest cement to the state; this close union was the more meritorious, as the most civilized and best regulated governments in Europe were at that period deeply embroiled in religious contentions.

In

1586, Sigismund, began his reign. He was a weak and bigotted man, educated by the Jesuits, and through his influence the Roman Catholics gained the ascendancy: During the whole of his long and inglorious reign he persecuted his Protestant subjects with unrelenting severity. By the new constitution of Poland in 1768, the Catholic faith was declared to be the established religion of the country, with a toleration to all religious persuasions.

CHAPTER XVI.

ITALY.

THE ancient inhabitants of Italy were the triumphant conquerors and rulers of the world. The softer arts have now taken place, and seem the chief employment of the modern Italians. Painting was indeed introduced at Rome by Caius Fabius, and was brought to considerable perfection before the time of Augustus; but a corrupt taste soon after prevailing, the politer arts were obliterated, and by degrees sunk into oblivion. Since the decay of the Roman empire, painting paid Italy a second visit, and the masters that excelled in it for a long time preserved an unrivalled reputation.

Italy has produced great men in all sciences, and formerly gave birth to those generals, orators, poets, and historians, whose actions and writings will be revered as long as manly fortitude, polite learning, and elegant composition, are considered as the ornaments of human nature. Yet its state of literature cannot now be deemed considerable, though encouraged not only by several universities, but by a multiplicity of academies or literary societies, which are to be found in almost every city.

The Italian language was originally derived from the Latin, with which the many nations of Goths, Huns, Vandals, &c. that overran Italy, so mingled their dia.

lect as to give birth to a new language, at first very harsh, but gradually polished, and softened into its present agreeable smoothness. Its genius seems particularly adapted to poetry and music; for which the Italians are also famous; and hence the Italian singers are more admired and more liberally paid than those of any other nation.

The Popish is the only religion generally tolerated in Italy, and here the pope has his seat, in quality of head of the church of Rome. The Jews indeed are indulged with a kind of toleration; but it is in most places under great restrictions; except that they enjoy an entire liberty respecting religion in the city of Leghorn.

The pope is chosen from among the cardinals; and before we describe the manner of his election, it will be proper to take some notice of those dignitaries. The word cardinal was a name common, in ancient times, to the presbyters and deacons of great churches; but in the eleventh century the presbyters and deacons of the church of Rome restricted the appellation to themselves, and their power increased in proportion to that of the pope. The first dawn of their grandeur appeared under pope Nicholas II. who began his pontificate in the year 1058. Innocent IV. at the council of Lyons, in 1243, gave them the red hat; Boniface VIII. the red vestments, about 1294; and Urban VIII. in 1631, the title of Eminentissimi, but before they were only styled Illustrissimi. Sixtus V. at the council of Basil, fixed their number at seventy, in allusion to the number of Christ's disciples; but this number is seldom complete.

The conclave is the theatre on which the cardinals principally display their genius and address. The decease of the pope is made known to the people of Rome by tolling the great bell of the capitol, firing the cannon of the castle of St. Angelo, and opening the prisons; and, soon after, circular letters are sent to foreign cardinals by the cardinal cammerlingo to invite them to the approaching conclave. Mean while the cammerlingo acts as regent, is attended by the pope's life-guard, and orders every thing necessary for opening

the conclave, which is held in the galleries and some of the an i-chambers of the Vatican, and consists of anumber of small rooms, separated by wooden partitions, and distributed by lot both among the cardinals then in Rome, and those that are absent. Each has usually two, one for himself, and one for two attendants called conclavists.

On the eleventh day after the pope's demise, all the cardinals in the city meet in the morning, at St. Peter's church, where the mass Sancti Spiritus is celebrated; and after a sermon on the duties to be observed in the election of a pope, they proceed two by two into the conclave, which is then shut up by the governor and marshal of the conclave, none being let out, unless in case of illness, till a new pope is elected, and the person so let out is not allowed to return. The governor of the conclave is always previously chosen by the cardinals, and, together with the marshal, resides at the entrance of the Vatican, and without their express licence no person is suffered to go in or out.

While the cardinals sit in conclave, refreshments are brought them in baskets, or boxes, which are searched, though not with much strictness. Each cardinal orders his conclavist to write down on a slip of paper the name of the person to whom he gives his suffrage.This is thrown into a chalice, on the altar of the chapel of the conclave, and two cardinals, appointed for that purpose, successively read aloud the notes, making the number of votes for every cardinal. He who has twothirds is declared pope; otherwise the scrutiny is repeated till this number is complete. If this mode of election does not prove effectual, recourse is had to another, called Accessus, whereby the notes of the former scrutiny being set aside, every cardinal must give in writing his vote to another; and if by this way two-thirds do not appear, there is still another resource called Inspiratio, in virtue of which those of the cardinals who are unanimous come out of their cells and call aloud to each other, "Such a one shall be pope, such a one shall be pope;" upon which, others, to avoid incurring the

R

displeasure of the newly elected pope, frequently join in the cry, and thus the election is sometimes carried; but if this also fails, the scrutiny begins again, and a conclave in this manner sometimes proves a tedious and perplexed business.

The emperor, with the kings of France and Spain, are allowed to put a negative upon the person thus chosen to the popedom; but this protest must be made before the complete declaration of the votes for such a person. It is required that the pope be an Italian, and at least fifty years of age, though the age most commonly insisted upon is between sixty and seventy. When the

election is over, and the pope elect has declared what name he will bear in future, the chief of the cardinaldeacons proclaim him to the people. His coronation with a triple crown is generally performed eight days after.

The revenues of the pope are very large, the countries of which he is sovereign as a temporal prince being considerable. No person in Rome must sell any wine or fruit till the pope and his nephews, as they are called, with their dependants, have disposed of what is consigned to them from their domains and estates. The annates, or first fruits and masses of the great consistorial benefices, the pallia, and investitures of archbishops and bishops, the jubilee year indulgences, dispensations, canonizations, promotions of cardinals, subsidies of the clergy, convent collections, &c. continually bring vast sums into the papal treasury from all Roman catholic countries. The annual income of the pope is generally computed at eight millions seven hundred thousand scudi; (or, 1,848,750/. sterling.)

In 1791, Pope Pius excommunicated those bishops, who admitted the ecclesiastical constitution established by the national assembly of France. This measure was treated with contempt by the French; it exposed the vanity of the pretensions of the pontiffs, and shewed how low their power was fallen. The effigy of Pius, clad in his pontifical robes, and holding in his hand the