Voltaire to be taken into custody, till he should restore this book; at the same time he was deprived of the cross of merit, the chamberlain's key, and the w rrant of his pension." After this, friendship was out of the question, between these great personages; notwithstanding, a sense of propriety induced them mutually to compliment each other, by a kind of habitual flattery, equally unmeaning and insincere. This is part of the portrait of Voltaire, as given by our author: that of the Abbé Ray nal is not more flattering: his weaknesses and his wants are so glaring, that M. T. is under the necessity of exculpating him self from personal motives in describing them.

The court of Frederic was the residence of many other eminent professors of infidelity; the imbecility of whose minds, will not easily be exceeded among the most illiterate and superstitious of mankind. As an instance, we refer to the Marquis d'Argens, whose vanity furnishes an amusing anecdote.

'When he was in the service of a German Princess, he received from the King of Prussia an invitation to Berlin. The princess being desirous of seeing Frederic and Berlin, thought this a favourable opportunity of gratifying her inclination, and they accordingly set out together. When they arrived, the Marquis discovered, or imagined, that the princess had fallen in love with him; and one evening, when he believed his innocence to be in great danger, he made his escape by jumping out of the window.' Vol. ii. p. 490.

This Marquis was a partisan of Rousseau, the enemy of Voltaire. To detach him from that party, Voltaire had the meanness to compose an epigram against the Marquis; and then, in confidence, to communicate it to the subject of it, as if he had "lately procured it from the person who received it from Rousseau himself," under the injunction of profound secrecy. The Marquis thanked Voltaire; broke out into invectives against Rousseau; and, for a time, was completely duped. After a while, his reflections, as to the causes of such a conduct in a man whom he had never offended, induced him to demand an explanation of Rousseau, who fully convinced him that the writer of the epigram was the villain who had deluded him.

p. 496.

Yet, on one occasion, this courtier exceeded his master in fortitude. Frederic was resolved to commit suicide; "finding himself but feebly assisted by his allies; his armies nearly annihilated, no less through his victories than his defeats; himself without money or resources." He wrote his farewell letter to the Marquis d'Argens; who, on the reception of it, locked himself in his cabinet, and passed the night in framing a reply, which the next morning changed the king's mind, as a victory shortly after changed his circumstances. p. 498. This

This resolution of Frederic, agrees with the report, that at one of his defeats he exposed himself for a considerable time to a Russian battery, in hope of being killed by a cannon ball; from which dangerous situation he was with difficulty withdrawn by his attendants.

The Marquis entertained such horror of death, that the bare idea of its approach made him commit the greatest absurdities. Nor could he, for any consideration, have been prevailed on to sit at table where the number of guests was thirteen. He could not suffer a knife and fork to remain across; but placed them parallel. He threw a whole day's work of his happiest conceptions, into the fire, because it was composed on the the first Friday in the month. Nevertheless, in the course of a short expedition he made in company with Maupertuis, they had but one apartment in common to sleep in; and the latter falling on his knees, the last thing at night, to say his prayers, his companion in great surprize cried out " Why, what are you about, Maupertuis? you seem to have forgot, my friend, that we are alone." Vol. ii. P. 506.

Nor was Maupertuis the only philosopher, professing principles adverse to religion, yet bigoted to practices fully as absurd as those of the weakest christian. In p. 388, Vol. i., we read of others, who are thus grouped together by M. T.

⚫ On the same canvass with this philosophical king, Frederic, we view a Le Metherie, the apostle of universal materialism, making the sign of the cross, if it does but thunder! Maupertuis, who does not believe in God, says his prayers every evening on his knees! D'Argens, a still firmer infidel, shudders if he counts the number thirteen around a table! The Princess Amelia, the favourite sister of Frederic, almost as much a philosopher, and endowed with almost as strong an intellect as himself, is the dupe of fortune tellers!" (whose predictions are regularly communicated to Frederic himself.) "And full half the court are believers in the story of the woman all in white, who appeared in one of the apartments of the palace, holding in her hand a large broom, with which she swept the apartment, when any member of the royal family was to die in the course of the year!"

We are next presented with the character of Baron Muller, a gamester, who wanted to borrow money of the author: first 1,500 livres; then a few louis d'ors; and at length came down so low as to beg a shilling, to pay his coach-hire. Yet the Baron had a place at court; but the queen caused the profits of it to be paid to his tradesmen; and trusted him with the surplus only. "The Baron Muller was so well known, that one day, as he was taking an airing in his carriage, with M. Toussaint, some one said to me, I will lay any wager your colleague will not come off so easily as with only the loss of the hire of the carriage.' I happened to repeat this jocosely to. M. Toussaint, who acknowledged that he had paid for the carriage, and lent the baron twenty-five rix dollars. (Vol. i. p. 194.) To what degradation

will not this most miserable vice of gaming reduce those deluded mortals who practise it!

We are happy to contrast a character so unworthy; and it gives us peculiar pleasure that the subject of this contrast is a Briton. Those who think the acquisition of card-table knowledge indispensable in polite life, may here see a practical refutation of their opinion. Who would not wish that his children and his friends might resemble this truly noble ambassador, in a mind stored with useful knowledge, rather than the most fortunate gamester that ever existed, who studies the tricks and shuffles, inseparable from cards and dice!

Sir Andrew Mitchell, the ambassador from England, when he first arrived at Berlin, caused the greatest perplexity to those persons who necessarily invited him to their houses; for he played at no game of cards, so that his hosts constantly said to each other, "What shall we do with this Englishman who never plays at cards?" In a few days, however, the contest was, who should withhold himself from the card-table, and have the advantage of conversing with a man, in whom they had discovered every requisite to afford the highest pleasure in colloquial intercourse. In reality, his understanding was no less admirable than his virtues.

Vol. ii p. 27.

We might refer those who desire acquaintance with the interior of courts, to various articles in the work before us. Among others, the account of the means employed to effect the liberation of Baron Trenck, will be deemed interesting, by such as have perused the memoirs which were published by the Baron himself. We close with an occurrence in another court; not dissimilar in its nature from one of a more recent date.

The history of the death of Peter III. of Russia, is thus related by M. Thiebault, who appears to have received his information. from authority every way entitled to credit on this subject.

'A council was held, to which the Princes D'Achkoff, Gregory Orlow, who was afterwards made a prince, and some other persons of confidence were admitted; among others, Alexis Orlow the scarred, Count Panin, and Prince Repnin. In this council, it was decided that the regiments of guards should be gained-which they 'were, at the expence of a single ruble to each soldier, to buy brandy. Peter, suspecting some plot, endeavoured to negociate, but in vain: the Orlows persuaded Catherine, that nothing, in matters like these, should be done by halves : he who takes the first step, should never yield to obstacles or fears. She began to weep, and her coadjutors advanced in their proceedings, without even asking her consent. She was in no other way an accomplice in the death of Peter, than by observing the silence to which she found herself reduced. *

Three men, the most robust that had been known at Petersburg; Orlow the scarred; a major, who by some was said to be Prince Baratinski, or his brother; and a grenadier; set out together, and surrounded

* Compare the situation of Mary Queen of Scots. E. R. Vol. i,

p. 829.

the

the

person of Peter, under the pretext of being the bearers of the answer of the empress. The two first advanced with Peter toward the window, to deliver, as they said, their message to his privacy; while the grenadier, who was posted at the door, as if to guard it from intrusion, followed quickly behind them. When he was near enough, Orlow and the Major suddenly seized Peter by the arms the grenadier instantly threw his sash round his neck, and gave him the hemorroidal cholic, of which he died. The emperor struggled more violently than was expected; but he was much too weak to disengage himself from three men of so much strength.' Vol. ii. p. 72.

Art. VII. Roscoe's Life and Pontificate of Leo X. continued from page 29. AT the close of the first vol. Mr. Roscoe has given us a "Dissertation on the Character of Lucretia Borgia," and endeavoured to rescue her memory from that detestation in which it has ever been held, by all who have any regard for common decency. Whether she really were that monster of impurity, which contemporary historians have uniformly depicted her, is not for us to determine: we must, however, confess that Mr. R. does not seem to us, to have materially invalidated the concurring testimony of those, who were most competent to delineate her character. We should not think it of any importance, to take particular notice of this part of the work; if it were not for the sake of putting Mr. R. into the way of solving a problem, which to him appears inexplicable. It should seem, that the latter days of this infamous woman were spent with decency, and that at the close of life she enjoyed a considerable portion of respect: now, this Mr. R. thinks is wholly unaccountable, on supposition of her former criminal conduct. "If the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots, how, (asks M. R.) are we to conceive it possible that the person who had, during so many years of her life, been sunk into the lowest depths of guilt and of infamy, could at once emerge to respectability and virtue? The history of mankind affords no such instances of such rapid change; and we are therefore naturally led to enquire upon what evidences such charges have been made." Dissertation, page 4. We cannot ascertain that degree of virtue to which Lucretia arrived; nor can we assert that the history of any age, records a similar example of the most infamous of characters becoming virtuous; because it may be doubted, whether guilt, so atrocious as hers, be any where on record. But, deep as may have been her infamy, sudden as the change, and exalted as her succeeding virtue, we think that we could assign a cause, more than equal to the effect; and changes as rapid as Mr. R. supposes Lucretia's must have been, have taken place in ten thousand instances,

many

1

many of which are on the most authentic record. Acts ii. 36, 41, 42. and ix. 1, 4, &c. Mr. R. seems not to be aware that it is God's prerogative to change the heart; and that he often has created it anew, as instantaneously as he first created light. Now, the least sinner cannot become really virtuous, without this " new heart," and the greatest needs no more. On the supposition therefore, that Lucretia was "born again," (a phrase which we must be bold to use, so long as it stands in our Bible) there is nothing out of the common course of the operation of the Spirit of God on the heart of sinners, in the case of this infamous woman; and what Mr. R. thinks is unexampled in the history of the world, is to be found in every place where Christ has a church.

66 to

We shall dismiss this "Dissertation on the character of *Lucretia Borgia," with observing, that whatever Mr. R. may think of the unaccountable change which apparently took place in her, it must have been effected, if she ever did emerge virtue and respectability". If Lucretia were really present at the scene, which Mr. R. describes at the foot of his page, with too minute a particularity; incest of the blackest nature cannot surprise us-and in order to emerge to respectability, and virtue, "the Ethiopian must indeed have changed his skin, and the Leopard its spots."

The animosities and contests between the different nations on the Continent, towards the commencement of the 16th century, are continued and detailed with great minuteness, in the second volume. But, as these afford little interest, we pass over the greater part of them in silence. As we perused this part, we put down some of the epithets by which Mr. R. characterizes popes and cardinals. If they were placed one after another, they would present the reader with such an assemblage of "duplicity, intrigue, falsehood, ferocity, cruelty, malice, revenge, avarice, rapacity, lust, &c." as perhaps, never met his eye before. It is impossible for the Christian reader to peruse this portion of the work, without frequently lifting up his heart in

Many of the Popes were fond of adopting Pagan names; and there seems to have been some wisdom in this, as it might serve the double purpose of placing their conduct in comparison with that of heathens, rather than of Christians; and of keeping the religion of Christ in the back ground. They were not, however, always fortunate in their choice of names. Who, for instance, would have expected to find the incontinent Alexander VI. giving to an illegitimate daughter the name of the chaste LUCRETIA? Every mention of this name, was the severest reproach to the Father, and a satire on his abominable daughter,-who is said, in addition to her other crimes, to have been guilty of incest with her father and two brothers!

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