HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR of Pope Pius VII. NHE original name of Pope Pius VII. was Barnabas Chiaramonti. He was born at Cesena, in Romagna, on the 14th of Aug. 1740 (not 1742 as incorrectly stated in the almanacks). In April 1785 he was elected a Car dinal. This venerable personage was bishop of Įmola in 1796, when Buonaparte entered that town with his army. The reception which the French experienced from the prelate was so charitable and mild as to secure to the latter the favour of the Republican General, whose influence was supposed to have been afterwards employed in promoting him to the Popedom. Pius VI. died in captivity at Valence in 1798, at the advanced age of 82; but it was not till March 1800, that it was found possible to proceed to the election of his successor, when Cardinal Chiaramonti being chosen on the 14th, and his enthronization taking place on the 21st, he assumed the name of Pius VII. He did not take possession of Rome itself till November 1801, when a medal was struck there, with the inscription, Sol refulget. His occupation of the throne was marked by an act of liberality, in remitting to the distressed inhabitants of Pesaro their taxes. In the years 1800 and 1801 he caused no less than ten vacancies in the College of Cardinals to be filled up; among the new cardinals was his private secretary, Hercules Gonsalvi, whom he also appointed Secretary of State. In February 1802, he received at Rome with great pomp the body of his venerable predecessor, which Buonaparte, wishing to conciliate the good opinion of the Catholics, caused to be transported thither. Steps, indeed, had already been taken by the First Consul to reconcile France to the church of Rome, and with this view a concordat was signed on the 25th of July, 1801, and Pius VII., in September following, sent cardinal Caprara as his Legate à Latere to Paris; together with the bull of ratification of the concordat. A new circumscription of dioceses was agreed upon, and the Legate was authorised to institute the new Archbishops and Bishops. When Buonaparte assumed the Imperial title, he persuaded Pius VII. to come to Paris to crown him. The latter delivered an allocution on this subject on the 29th of October, 1804; left Rome on the 2nd of November, and reached Fontainbleau, where Buonaparte received him in great state, on the 25th of that month. On the 2nd of December the Coronation took place, and from this time Buonaparte, having obtained all that he wanted of the Pope, began to prepare for depriving him of all his power. "At one time," says he to Mr. O'Meara, "I had in contemplation to take away all his temporal power, and make him my Almoner." In the third volume of Las Casas' Journal, Buonaparte is described as speaking in most contemptuous terms of the discussions which took place on the part of the Pope with him at this period. On the 16th of May, 1805, the Pope reached Rome on his return, and was received with great joy by his subjects. In the course of 1807, Buonaparte having made many demands on Pius VII. with a threat of occupying his capital on non-compliance, the latter on the 2nd of February, 1808, published a solemn protest against such occupation. This was answered, on the 2nd of April following, by a decree, in which Buonaparte said, "considering that the Pope had constantly refused to make war on the English, the provinces of Ancona, Urbino, and Macerata should be annexed to the kingdom of Italy." His holiness sent a deputation to pray that the rigour of this decree might be softened, but Buonaparte replied to them,-"Your bishop is the spiritual chief of the church, but I am its emperor:" and on the 17th of May, 1809, he issued a decree, annexing the Pontifical States to the French Empire. Pius VII. opposed to all these violences nothing but Christian humility, combined with the most unbending firmness. He never would anathematize the English nation-he never would make war on them-he never would declare that they were the Buona enemies of the church. parte caused him to be seized by night, and dragged, at nearly 70 years of age, from Rome to Fontainbleau, where he was kept as a State prisoner until the downfall of the tyrant in 1814, when he was immediately restored to his dominions, proceeded to revisit them without delay, and once more reentered Rome, in the midst of a population enthusiastically delighted at his restoration. He immediately employed himself in re-organizing all the public institutions, and has ever since devoted himself unceasingly to the affairs of the church, leaving the direction of civil and temporal affairs almost wholly to his minister, cardinal Gonsalvi. Pius VII. was mild and amiable ; he abounded in real Christian cha rity; and, though so long subjected to the most unjust persecutions, never evinced the least symptom of a vindictive spirit towards his enemies; whilst to his friends or benefactors, and particularly to the English Nation and Government, he always testified the warmest gratitude. He was indeed greatly attached to the English, towards whom, on every presentation at his court, he Imanifested kindness. The Pope would never permit an Englishman, when he was presented to him, to indulge in the well-known ceremony of kissing the great toe. This old relic of Popish superstition was, on these occasions, converted by the good old man into a cordial and affectionate embrace. He died at Rome, on the 20th of August, after a most eventful life of 83 years and 6 days, of which he had governed the Roman Catholic Church for the long period of 23 years, 5 months, and 6 days. BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR of Lord ERSKINE. THOMAS ERSKINE was the third and youngest son of Henry David Erskine, tenth earl of Buchan, in Scotland, the representative of a family, which filled in the ancient times of the Scottish monarchy, the highest situations of public trust, as privy councillors and am-bassadors, as guardians during minority, and as lord high treasurers, and regents of the kingdom of Scotland. He was born about 1750, and educated partly at the high school, Edinburgh, and partly at the university of St. Andrew's. At the age of 14 Mr. Thomas Erskine embarked at Leith, board a king's ship, as midshipman, with the late sir John Lindsey, the nephew of the first earl of Mansfield; it is a singular circumstance, that he never re-visited his native country until a few years ago. on He never, it is believed, had the commission of lieutenant, but acted for some time in that capacity by the appointment of his captain. His reason for quitting the navy is said to have been the slender chance of obtaining promotion; and as he had only served as an acting lieutenant in consequence of the friendship of his commander, he was unwilling, after having been honoured with such a distinction, to return to sea in the inferior capacity of midshipman. On quitting the naval service he entered the army as an ensign in the royals, or first regiment of foot. This was in the year 1768, and happened not so much from inclination, it is said, as because his father, with a small and strictly entailed estate, had not the means of assisting him, with convenience, to pursue one of the learned professions. He went with his regiment to Minorca, in which island he spent three years, and continued in the service about six. During the period Mr. Erskine served in the army, he acquired considerable reputation for the acuteness and versatility of his talents in conversation. Mr. Boswell, who met him about this time in a mixed company in London, mentions, in his Memoirs of Dr. Johnson, the delight which the doctor had himself felt from the ability of a gentleman, who was no other than the subject of this memoir, while discoursing on some temporary topic which, at that time, happened to be an interesting question of dispute in the circles of the metropolis. Whether the consciousness of these powers, or the suggestions of his friends, or the embarrassments of a scanty income, first invited him to make preparations for the study of the law, it is of no importance to inquire. It has, however, been said, that Mr. Erskine had no merit whatever in embarking in so new and arduous a pursuit; but that it was literally and most unwillingly forced upon him by the importunities of his mother, the countess of Buchan, after the death of his father and that the hopes of succeeding in it were fortified and kept alive, against his own prepossessions, by her counsel and persuasions. Mr. Erskine was about twentysix when he commenced his course of legal study. He entered as a fellow-commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the year 1777; and, at the same time, inserted his name as a student on the books of Lincoln's-inn. One of his college declamations is still extant, as it was delivered in Trinity college chapel. The thesis was, the Revolution of 1688. It gained the first prize, and was an earnest of his future eminence. Mr. Erskine did not enter the University for any academical purpose, except merely to obtain a degree, to which he was entitled as the son of a nobleman, and by which he saved two years in his passage to the bar. His education had been previously completed in Scotland. His father, one of the most accomplished men of his time, had uniformly felt an extraordinary solicitude as to the education of his children, and actually removed from his family estate in Scotland for the purpose of residing at St. Andrew's, where he continued for many years. Mr. Erskine always pursued the study of the Belles Lettres with unremitting ardour, and had the advantage of imbibing from the most eminent persons of the day that various and extended knowledge which can never be derived from books or solitary application. In order to acquire a necessary idea to the practical parts of his future profession, he entered, as a pupil, into the office of Mr. Buller, then an eminent special pleader at the bar. During this period of his life, Mr. Erskine experienced all the difficulties arising out of a very limited income. He had been already married about four years, and was obliged to adhere to a most rigid frugality. The part sustained by the late Mrs. Erskine, before the cloud He Mr. Erskine had now completed the probationary period allotted to the attendance in the Inns of Court; and he was called to the Bar in Trinity Term, 1778. is a singular exception to the tardy advancement of professional merit at the English bar. An opportunity was almost immediately afforded him of distinguishing himself in Westminster Hall. Capt. Baillie, who had been removed from the superintendence of Greenwich Hospital by the late earl of Sandwich, then First Lord of the Admiralty, and one of the governors of Greenwich Hospital, was charged with having published a libel on that nobleman, and the Attorney General was instructed to move for leave to file a criminal information against him; this was the occasion of Mr. Erskine's first speech in Court. In opposing the motion of Mr. Attorney General, an opportunity presented itself of entering into the merits of the case in behalf of captain Baillie. He accordingly expatiated upon the services which had been rendered by his client, and on the firmness with which he resisted the intrigue and artifice to which he attributed the prosecution set on foot against him. In the course of this speech, he also attacked the noble earl in a tone of sarcastic and indignant invective. Lord Mansfield interrupted him more than once; but the advocate did not abate the severity of his animadversions. It was at that time no common spectacle to observe a man so little known to the Court and the Bar, commenting with asperity of remark on the conduct of a powerful statesman, who held an elevated post in the administration, and distinguishing himself by a species of confidence not usually felt in early efforts of public speaking, under circumstances that rendered it prudent to abstain from personal severity, and conciliate the Bench he was addressing. This was the first trial of his talents at the bar, having been called only in Trinity Term, and having been employed for captain Baillie in the Michaelmas Term following. He is said to have been indebted for this opportunity to no interference, recommendation, or connexion. His acquaintance with captain Baillie originated in his having accidentally met him at the table of a common friend. Almost immediately after, Mr. Erskine appeared at the bar of the House of Commons as counsel for Mr. Carnan, the bookseller, against a bill introduced by lord North, then prime minister, to re-vest in the Universities, the monopoly in Almanacks, which Mr. Carnan had succeeded in abolishing by legal judgments, and he had the good fortune to place the noble lord in a considerable minority upon a division. To the reputation which these speeches conferred upon him, it has been said that he attributed the subsequent success he experienced in his profession; and that, as he left the court upon one of these occasions, nearly thirty briefs were offered to him by the attorneys who happened to be present. He was surrounded by clients, and occu pied by business. The public feelings were altogether occupied by the interesting trial of admiral Keppel. Mr. Erskine was retained as counsel for the admiral-a circumstance owing to the ignorance which the counsel (Mr. Dunning and Mr. Lee) who were originally engaged, displayed relative to the sea-phrases, without some knowledge of which the case was, in a great measure, unintelligible. The former, afterwards created lord Ashburton, recommended Mr. Erskine as completely qualified for the task, in consequence of the manner in which he had passed the former part of his life. Having drawn up his defence, he personally examined all the admirals and captains of the fleet, and satisfied himself that he could substantiate the innocence of his client, before the speech which he had written for him was read. For his exertions on this memorable occasion, Mr. Erskine received a thousand guineas. He was now in possession of the best second business in the King's Bench. By the phrase second business, is meant that sort of business in which the lead is not given to the counsel who are not yet |