noife or disturbance; the inhabitants of Madrid were in their beds, and knew nothing of what paffed till they heard it, to their great furprife, in the morning, when the affair was entirely over.

On the third day after, in the morning, the Jefuits' college at Barcelona was invefted by the civil and military power; the members were fent off guarded for tranfportation, as thofe at Madrid had been; and their effects were feized upon and fealed up. The fame measures were put in execution at the fame hour in every part of Spain. The packets which conveyed the orders upon this fubject to the governors, were inclofed in letters which gave directions, that they should not be opened till a certain hour; after which no perfon, to whom any part of the orders were communicated, was to quit the governor's fight till they were executed. In the mean time orders were fent to the fea-ports, to examine all perfons who fhould attempt to take their paffage to any part of the Spanish Indies, and to keep the ftricteft watch, that no Jefuit in any difguife fhould pafs that way. Ships were alfo provided, and the prifoners were, by different embarkations, conveyed to Italy.

The king then published his pragmatic fanction, or royal ordi. nance, for the expulfion of the Jefuits. By this ordinance, the temporalities of the company, in every part of the Spanish dominions, are feized to the king's ufe. In the temporalities are included all their goods, chattels, and eftates of every fort, but without prejudice to the real incumbrances affecting fuch eftates. The priests belong

ing to the fociety are to have fmall life annuities. The foreign brothers, which were pretty numerous, were entirely excluded from the benefit of thefe alimentary annuities, which were confined to native Spaniards.

It was declared by this ordinance, that if any of the expelled Jefuits fhould quit the ecclefiaftical ftate, into which they were to be tranfported, or fhould, by their actions or writings, give the court any juft caufe of refentment, fuch perfons fhould be immediately deprived of the penfions affigned them. But the feverest injunction of all, and which made their hopes of a livelihood entirely precarious, was, that if the company caused, or permitted any of its individuals to write any thing contrary to the refpect and fubmiffion due to the king's refolution, under title or pretext of apologies, or juftifications, tending to difturb the peace of his kingdoms, or should, in any other manner, by their private emiffaries, make attempts of that nature; in fuch cafe, which was however faid to be unexpected, the whole penfions are to ceafe and determine.

By the other articles, no part nor body of the company, nor no individual belonging to it, are ever to be re-admitted under any pretence, or for any cause whatfoever; nor is the council, or any other tribunal, ever to admit of any application upon that fubject. On the contrary, the magiftrates are to exert the most rigorous meafures, and to punish, as difturbers of the public peace, all the abettors of fuch an attempt. All cor. refpondence with Jefuis is forbidden under the feverett penalties.

Silence

Silence is ftrictly enjoined to all the king's fubjects upon this occafion; and any perfon who ventures to write, declaim, or make any ftir, for or against thefe meafures, is declared guilty of high treafon. This law is extended to all the king's dominions, as well in the Indies, as in Europe and elsewhere.

In the mean time, the news of this event was received at Rome with the greatest aftonishment; and before it could in any degree wear off, fourteen tranfports, under convoy of three Spanish men of war, arrived at Civita Vecchia, with 970 Jefuits on board. The governor refufed to let them land till he had received inftructions, and immediately difpatched an exprefs to Rome. The arrival of this exprefs threw the people into a great ferment, and the pope immediately fummoned a congregation of cardinals to confult upon the occafion. The refult of this council was abfolutely to. forbid the reception of the Jefuits in the ecclefiaftical dominions; and orders were given to the governor of Civita Vecchia, to take fuch methods, as fhould effectually prevent their being landed.

About this time the King of Spain was faid to have wrote the following laconic letter to the pope, as an explanation of the motives of his procedure against the Jefuits:

Holy father,

All my tribunals having judged that the fathers Jefuits are of no fervice to my kingdoms, I could do no less than conform to their representations. Of this, as a fon of

the holy church, I acquaint its fupreme head. I recommend your holinefs to the divine keeping."

Thefe reafons not appearing fatisfactory, two couriers were fent to Madrid, who it is faid made the following reprefentations: That if the Jefuits are guilty, they are not fufficiently punished; but too much fo if they are innocent. That the laws seem to require, that citizens fhall not be driven from their country, till they have undergone a trial, to make evident the proofs of their crimes. That as to the rest, though it is in the power of his Catholic majefty to treat his fubjects in fuch a manner as may feem fit and convenient to him; yet he cannot oblige any other fovereign to give them an afylum in his dominions. That if the Catholic powers fhould all think proper to fupprefs the different religious orders in the countries under their dominion, and confign them to the difpofal of his holiness, not only the ecclefiaftical state, but the whole country of Italy, would. be too fmall to contain fuch a number of new inhabitants.

No notice was taken of thefe reprefentations. In the mean time, the convoy at Civita Vecchia, after lying fome time in the harbour, received orders to proceed to Bastia; and the French court made ufe of its influence with the republic of Genoa, to receive the Jefuits in the towns that remained in its hands in the island of Corfica. At length the embarkation from Civita May 22d. Vecchia arrived at Baftia; here they were as unfortunate

fortunate as before; matters were not yet brought to a conclufion between the French and Genoefe, and they were obliged to remain on board, in the harbour. Three other embarkations took at different times the fame rout as the first to Civita Vecchia; where meeting with the fame fate, they afterwards proceeded to Corfica, where they lay in the harbours of Baftia and San Fiorenza, but were not admitted to land. The conditions being at laft fettled with the republic, the different embarkations received orJuly 8th. ders to fail to Calvi, Algaiola, and Ajaccio: at which ports the tranfports were difburthened of their unhappy freight; and the furviving Jefuits, to the number, it is faid, of two thoufand three hundred, were Janded.

Without confidering the re. ligious or political tenets of this fociety, (which appear to have been dangerous, from the general perfecution raifed againit them in fo many countries of their own perfuafion,) we are obliged, as men, to fympathize with them in the miferies which they underwent in their exile. The lying crowded for three months aboard tranfports, in the hottest feafon of a hot climate, would be reckoned a fevere trial to land- men of the moft robuft conftitutions. In this cafe, we fee a number of men of all ages, and in every ftate of health, not inured to hardships, bred up to letters and a fedentary life; the conftitutions that naturally at tend that courfe of life farther impaired by the grief, anxiety, and horror which must be the

confequence of banishment from their native country, from friends, relations, and thofe ties fo dear to mankind, and in that fituation, obliged to undergo hardships, which prove fo fatal to the hardieft and beft-feafoned troops. The confequences were what might have been naturally expected; they died in great numbers; and the general calamity was increased upon individuals by fome of the fhips being feparated in ftorms, and toffed about the islands of the Archipelago for feveral weeks.

As if all this had been only a prelude to the misfortunes of the Jefuits, the parlia ment of Paris pub- May 13th. lifhed an arret against them, wherein they were declared enemies to fovereigns and the public tranquillity of kingdoms; and all thofe who had been indulged with the liberty of ftaying in the kingdom by the edict of Nov. 1764, were ordered to quit it in 15 days, under pain of criminal profecution. By this arret, they are forbid ever to return, under any pretence whatfoever; and the king is to be fupplicated to apply to the pope, and to all otherCatholic fovereigns, and engage them to abolish a fociety, fo dangerous to chriftianity and government. The other articles of this arret feemed to be a tranfcript of thofe published in the ordinance at Madrid.

The King of Spain's orders relative to the Jefuits were as well executed in the Spanish colonies as they had been at home. In the month of July the Jefuits of Mexico, to the number of 700, were fuddenly arrested, without the

leaft

leaft previous notice, and ftrongly fecured till fhips could be provided to convey them home. The fame measures were as effectually purfued in other parts of the Spanish foreign dominions; and fhips have fince continually arrived in the ports of Old Spain, with cargoes of prifoners on board.

It is faid that the confifcated eftates and effects of the Jefuits, in the provinces of Mexico only, were computed to amount to the immenfe value of 77 millions of piafters, or 385 millions of French livres. It is alfo faid that the effects which were found in their warehouses, in the different ports of Old Spain, were valued at a prodigious fum; and that the Jefuits of Peru, and the fouthern provinces of the Spanish Weft-Indies, were richer than thofe of Mexico. If these facts are truly ftated, we may, perhaps, be able from them to form a more juft conclufion of the caufes that brought on the deftruction of this fociety, than those that have been already affigned. Immenfe property in private hands, whether communities or fingle perfons, has even in free countries been always attended with imminent danger to the poffeffors. In arbritary governments, the only fecurity that can attend fuch property, depends upon the wants, the difpofition, or the caprice of a king or a minifter; a tenure of all others the most precarious and dangerous.

Moft of the Catholic powers in Europe had published edicts, during thefe tranfactions, to forbid, under fevere penalties, the reception of the expulfed Jefuits in any part of their dominious; fo that VOL. X.

there is fcarcely an inftance in hiftory of any body of men fo entirely cut off and feparated from the reft of mankind. When affairs were entirely fettled in Spain, and the novelty of the tranfactions began to wear off, the ftorm, which had been for fome time expected, fell at laft upon the Jefuits in Naples., The different houfes belonging to the fociety in that capital were fuddenly invefted by the civil and military power, their effects feized, and the members made prifon- Nov. 20th. ers. The garrifon

in the mean time patrolled the city under arms, and prevented all disturbances.

The fame meafures were taken in every part of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, where the Jefuits had poffeffions; and the prifoners were, without ceremony or leave being afked, all convoyed into the Pope's dominions; the vicinity of whofe territories made everyfcheme of oppofition fruitlefs. The court of Rome complained loudly at this outrage, and prefented memorials to all the foreign minifters in that city. In thefe memorials the Pope complains, that the King of Naples has violated, in the first place, the divine right, by the manner in which his foldiers entered into holy places, and by the fequeftration of the ecclefiaftical revenues, without confulting the bishops; fecondly, the right of mankind, by forcibly depofiting fome of his fubjects in the dominions of his holinefs, and by marching his troops into a country that was not his own; and laitly, the right of good neigh[C]

bourhood,

bourhood, in not communicating his defign to the Pope, both as the head of the church, and as a tenporal prince, who has the fupreme fovereignty over Naples.

Thefe memorials produced the fame effect, which the remonftrances of weak princes to their powerful neighbours generally do; they were carelessly anfwered, and no farther notice taken of them. The cardinal Orfini, the Neapolitan minifter at Rome, made a verbal declaration to the following purport; "That every fovereign having a right to drive from his dominions perfons convicted of being enemies thereof," no other means could be found of getting rid of those fathers, than caufing them to be escorted to the ecclefi

aftical ftate, fince the kingdom of Naples had no other frontiers; and that, as to the confifcation and management of the effects of the fociety, it no lefs belonged, by the fame right of fovereignty, to the royal treafury.

It is faid, that the number of Jefuits tranfported from the kingdom of Naples, exclufive of thofe from Sicily, to the papal dominions, amounted to fifteen hundred. This inundation offtrangers was the more fenfibly felt, as there had been fo great a fcarcity of corn for some years in the ecclefiaftical ftate, that it was with the greatest care and difficulty that they could guard againft a famine, befides that eight hundred of the Portugal Jefuits were fill alive, and unprovided for there.

feem difpofed to establish a regular and permanent form of government; a measure which the Genoefe, without foreign affiftance, are in no degree capable of preventing.

Republics, though fond of boasting of the great advantages of freedom, yet feem to think it too great a bleffing to be communi. cated to others, fo they are looked upon to be the worft mafters in the world. The Italian republics