before his conversation, lively, insinuating, and profound, had completed the conquest. He was a statesman of the old school, supple, imperturbable, well practised in the finest fencing of diplomacy; his visit to England he had turned to the best account, and secured the personal favour of the Prince Regent, by whom the interests of the Holy See were powerfully supported at the Congress. The Popedom was restored with nearly undiminished possessions, but severly taxed with subsidies demanded by Austria; and Pius VII. returned to Rome. He passed along a road once trodden by more bloody victors, and, traversing the Milvian bridge, he entered the Vatican palace beneath a triumphal arch, and took possession of the stronghold of his predecessors amidst the deafening gratulations of his people. The Rome he found was unlike the Rome of his youth. The French had stripped it of its ancient ornaments. Deprived of its court, of its illustrious pilgrims-without commerce and without activity, it was shrinking still farther from its distant walls. The task of Consalvi was a hard one. The Pope, abstracted from temporal affairs, devout and humble, abandoned the reins of government to the powerful secretary, and he, by disinterestedness, at least, and zeal, deserved his confidence.

The first measures of the restored Pontiff, and the lofty language he at once assumed, had surprised rather than awed his neighbours. The restoration of the Order of Jesuits was unpopular with the Catholic world, and, except perhaps in Piedmont, the Pope found few supporters. Consalvi had dreaded Austria; he had been too well versed in the ancient maxims of the court of Rome not to be fully aware how much the papal authority has to fear from the persevering ambition of that power; but he soon discovered that Austria alone was the protecting barrier that stood between all Italian princes and their disaffected subjects. When the Emperor Francis visited Rome, he was received with all the elegant and refined attention that love and gratitude, and it may be fear, could suggest. Nor was his great minister forgotten. Prince Metternich, lodged by the side of his imperial master in the Quirinal palace, found an apartment so elegant and commodious, that he could hardly persuade himself that some fair form would not appear beneath the silken draperies to claim and receive his thanks. Amongst his numerous qualifications Consalvi was not an able financier, nor was he by inclination an economist. The contributions to Austria, which, notwithstanding the reciprocal blandishments of this visit, had not been remitted-the rewards which services demanded, the bribes which might not be withheld-the disorganised state of the provinces, the disbanded soldiers who threatened to seek their subsistence

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on the highways-these were all calls that would have exhausted the amplest exchequer, and this was empty. The revolutions of the last century had swept away all the resources of the Vatican -the indulgences, dispensations, and bulls that had formerly supported it in more than royal splendour were now no longer issued for the benefit of the Pope. If the obedient Catholic of the old and new world refused to eat meat in Lent, or to marry within the prohibited degrees, without a sanction from Rome, it was now the coffers of the local government only that his scruples filled. The estates of the Church, too long neglected, were totally insufficient to supply even the ordinary expenses of government. The people, unaccustomed to taxation (till the French occupation), grew discontented and impatient. The Cardinal, so admired in the drawing-room, so popular abroad, became odious at home. He was equally censured for the abuses he left and for those he reformed.

On the restoration, every act of the usurping government had been at once annulled. An edict from the Pope abolished the French code, and in restoring the rights of primogeniture, he reestablished feudality also. This error after a time he amended, and the noble was invited to resign his feudal supremacy, the government offering to relieve him from the expenses of administration-a proposal that was in most cases gladly accepted; the trouble and cost far outbalancing the pleasure of feudal pageantry. There does not exist a country in Europe in which the picturesque has less influence than in Italy-nay, our transatlantic kinsmen themselves cannot be more material and prosaic in their notions and habits than her natives. Family pride, as we understand the word, has no existence. Power, wealth, and influence are adored, as in the rest of the world, but the mysterious veneration that hangs about a great name is unfelt. The baronia hall, the emblematic canopy, the household coat'—the spacious cloister, its venerable inhabitants, with its precious library, and its profuse hospitality-all these, with their romantic associations, which would address themselves so powerfully to the fancy of an Englishman, and plead so effectually in favour of antiquity, are without power for the mind of modern Italy. The indolent proprietor, wasting his existence in the joyless dissipation of the capital, neither felt nor regretted the influence he parted with. A cunning steward and a pettifogging notary had long abused his delegated authority. The canopy hung in tatters in the hall-the portraits mouldered in their frames his gardens were filled with weeds, or perhaps a slovenly crop of the bailiff's cabbages. His peasantry, dirty, ignorant, and neglected, were abandoned to the insolence of the Vice-Prince,' or

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the tyranny of the bailiff, against whom the Arch-priest' (the principal ecclesiastical authority) would prove a feeble protector. Something of these numerous ills was remedied by the sweeping reform of Consalvi; but the real object of the measure failed, at least for the present, and the finances of the country were irretrievably involved, when the death of Pius afforded an opportunity for a change of system.

The death-bed of a Pope is too often a mournful example of human ingratitude. The prince who abroad is revered as a deity, and at home is secluded like an Eastern Sultan, is then abandoned to the mercy of menials, whose only care is to secure the pillage which they have shamelessly seized. The illness of Pius was sudden and short. It is said that Consalvi, hearing a rumour of his danger, went in haste to the palace, passed the guard and ascended the staircase, hurried through empty ante-chambers, and penetrated to the bed-room of his sovereign without having met a living creature. The chamber even was deserted; it was with his own hands that the State Secretary performed the humblest offices; and he alone witnessed the last struggle, and received the dying benediction. It was this pious task that had detained him from urgent business. To recover the time thus lost, he was closeted for two hours with his secretaries, and the necessary orders were then issued, though in fact with the life of the Pope his office ceased.

The first act of the Sacred College was to pass a vote of censure on this infringement of the letter of the law,—a vote which would have been carried without a dissentient, but for the generous protest of two personal enemies of the fallen secretary, Fesch, Archbishop of Lyons, and Pacca, Dean of the Sacred College, and his predecessor in office. This sufficiently explains the feeling of the Cardinals his brothers towards the fallen

minister.

The Conclave assembled. In spite of the spirit of intrigue and of reckless ambition-passions that survive all others in the bosom of aged churchmen-it was felt that the choice must fall on one accustomed to business, frugal, prudent, and moderate. The Austrian influence, always unpopular at Rome, was detested now, because identified with the cause of Consalvi; a Cardinal inimical to that power must therefore be chosen. The result of a scrutiny was one morning found favourable to San Severino. It is believed that the vote was insincere, as the College were well aware that Albani, who possessed the secret' of Austria,* would put

* Austria, France, Spain, and Portugal, each possess the right of putting their veto on one nomination of the Conclave. A cardinal, employed by these courts, is trusted with the 'Secret,'-i. e. name of the obnoxious cardinal.

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her veto on the nomination: the fact proved so. Cardinal di Gregorio, the organ of the Spanish court, and acting also for Naples, visited Pacca in his cell. It is said that these two influential persons recognised the necessity of coming to an immediate decision. Neither could entertain hopes for himself. It was assumed that the future Pope should neither be a monk, nor a partisan of Austria, nor a man of lofty birth with a troop of relations; above all, that he should forswear the system of Consalvi, and introduce some reform into the financial department. · Cardinal della Genga has a scheme for restoring the finances: let him be our choice.'

After some preliminary intrigue and numerous ballotings, without which an election would hardly seem canonical, the vote fell on the last-named cardinal; and Austria, having already used her veto, had the mortification of seeing the very man elected whom of all others she would have wished to exclude. He had acquired the purple by having held the offices which usually lead to that eminence. He possessed, however, neither fortune nor high connexions. He had been employed in diplomacy; he was not in priest's orders; nor had he at any time been distinguished for the ascetic virtues of his predecessor. He possessed, however, some excellent qualities, and also some showy ones, by no means unimportant in this conspicuous station. His person was tall and graceful; his face, if not handsome, was remarkable for its earnest expression, and for the ashy paleness that overspread it. His manner and address were pleasing and dignified; and he had, notwithstanding his habits of life, methodical habits which enabled him to transact business with accuracy and despatch. He was crowned with the usual solemnities; and his inauguration is remarkable as being the last in which the Pontiff, mounted on a milk-white mule, and attended by the Sacred College on horseback, proceeded in stately array to take possession of the temporalities of his see in the ancient basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of Rome, which boasts the lofty distinction of being ecclesiarum urbis et orbis mater et caput.' The selection of his style in the roll of Popes was supposed to indicate his plan of government; he chose rather to identify himself with those of haughty pretensions, than with the Clements and the. Benedicts, whose administration had endeared them to the people. Pasquin did not neglect so fair an opportunity :

'Non è Pio, non è Clemente,

Ma vecchio Leone senza dente!'

Leo XII. soon made it evident, by the choice of his secretary, that he intended to be his own first minister. Austria, in moody discontent, long refused an ambassador, and the choice of his

VOL. LXXXII. NO. CLXIII.

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agents was made in avowed disregard to the wishes of that court. As a sovereign, he was arbitrary, he has even been called tyrannical; as a Pope, his government was exemplary. Anxious for reform, and zealous for the honour of his order, he stimulated the zeal of the parochial clergy; the regulars he visited with his dreaded presence, and with the rod of his displeasure. But his health sank under the accumulated difficulties and anxieties of his high place; and his corpse was conducted to St. Peter's amidst the hisses and execrations of the populace. His financial scheme had wholly failed. It is surmised that he assisted the Apostolic cause in the Spanish peninsula with large sums. It is certain that taxation had not been diminished, that the public debt was increased, and the treasury empty; while a greater spirit of disaffection and ill-humour prevailed among the people than had yet appeared since the re-establishment of the рарасу.

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The College again assembled, and, after another period of doubt, hesitation, and intrigue, the choice fell on Castiglione, a Cardinal-bishop, holding the suburban see of Frascati: man of moderate opinions, of irreproachable character, and moreover somewhat sickly and well stricken in years.

If this pontiff, who assumed the popular title of Pius VIII., did little to merit the gratitude of posterity, he did nothing to deserve the censure of his contemporaries. He was bewildered and perplexed. He found courts of law into which he could not infuse a love of justice; he found lawyers and judges who sold their clients and their judgments. He deplored the evils which he could not abolish. All he could do was to cut off one of the prime sources of abuse. The pernicious system of arbitrary interference with the courts of justice, pursued by all popes, practised by Consalvi, and abused by Leo, he steadily avoided. The Uditore Santissimo,' whose office much resembles that of our Chancellor at its first institution-the minister who issues the papal rescripts, stopping causes he does not choose should advance, and not unfrequently reversing legal decisions-during this reign had a sinecure. Pius VIII. was never prevailed on to grant one of these odious rescripts. We remember to have seen a lady, a relation and friend of the Pope, who, having an important cause pending, had posted to Rome

*The College is divided into three classes the cardinal-bishops, who hold the six suburban sees, Ostia and Velletri, Santa Ruffina and Porto, La Sabina, Frascati, Albano, and Palestrina; the cardinal-priests, which class includes the high ecclesiastical dignities; and the cardinal-deacons, composed of those in deacons' orders, or not in holy orders at all-from whom are most commonly selected the state officersthose holding high ecclesiastical preferment seldom being employed in secular matters.

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