It was firft established in 1300, by Boniface VIII. who, wishing to fanctify the profane inftitution of the fecular games of ancient Rome, conceived the idea of indicating the first year of each century as that in which heaven, more particularly propitious, would in future fhower down upon the faithful a larger portion of those bleffings, of which the popes called themselves the difpenfers. Clement VI. was of opinion, that thefe periods, fo favourable to the faithful, and fo glorious to the holy fee, were too diftant; and ordered that they fhould recur every fifty years. The second jubilee was therefore celebrated in 1350. Sextus V. improved ftill farther upon the liberality of his predeceffors; and ordained that the jubilee should take place every five-and-twenty years, which has been the practice ever fince. It will foon be forgotten in France; with a degree of magnificence, furbut, perhaps, it is yet remembered, paffing that of all the preceding that there were jubilees of two ones. It was on this occafion, that kinds; the one which recurred pePius VI. gave. the first proof of his riodically was properly called the tafte for pompous ceremonies. One Holy Year; the other was the Jubi- of the principal circumftances of lee of Exaltation, and was celebrated the feftival, that indeed which may at the acceffion of a new pope to be called the first act of it, is the the pontifical throne. The firft as opening of the famous porta fanta, being the most uncommon, was be- or facred door. This door, which yond comparifon the most folemn. is one of thofe of St. Peter's church, remained conftantly fhut except during the holy year. It was then opened with a parade of which Pius VI. took care not to diminish the effect. It was his office to prefide over the demolition of a brick wall, that clofed the entrance of the facred door. Advancing with majeftic gravity, he ftruck the first ftroke, and inftantly the wall fell to the ground under the redoubled blows of the workmen, to whom the fignal had been given. The pious fpectators eagerly feized upon the materials; each ftone being an object of high veneration. By their contact with that which was laid four-and-twenty years before by the facred hands of the fovereign pontiff, they had acquired the virtue of curing all forts of diseases. According to cuftom, the porta fanta remained open during all the holy year, and was the fcene of the most ridiculous mummery. The pope himself did not pass through it without exhibiting marks of the most profound respect; while the pilgrims, difdaining the numerous paffages which lead into the church of St. Peter, entered it only by crawling under the facred door upon their hands and knees. It was fhut with great folemnity at the end of the year. The pope approached, fitting upon a kind of throne, and furrounded by the car Clement XIV. already attacked by the lingering difeafe of which he died, had, in the month of April, announced the opening of the holy year, in full confiftory. It was referved for another to celebrate it. Pius VI. had that happiness in the following year; and, but for the cataftrophe which precipitated him from his throne, would probably have enjoyed it a fecond time. The jubilee of 1775, in all probability the laft, was celebrated Z 3 dinals; dinals; and an anthem was fung, accompanied by loud mufic: it was the lyre of Amphion about to rebuild the walls of Thebes. The pontiff then defcended with a gold trowel in his hand; laid the firft ftone of the wall, which was to laft twenty-five years; put a little mortar upon it, and re-afcended his throne. Real mafons took his place, and completed the blocking up of the facred door, the ceremony closing with a folemn mafs. Thus did the Roman catholics lavish the auguft mysteries of their religion, fometimes upon the baptifm of a bell, and fometimes upon the rebuilding of a wall. The following day the feftival was continued, Pius VI. difplaying in it all his great talents for acting, which were hitherto but little known. He was already near fixty years of agé; but his complexion ftill retained fomewhat of the brilliant colouring of youth. The Romans, accustomed to fee their pontiffs bending under the weight of years, and labouring in the performance of their public functions, which were often long and fatiguing, admired the address and grace with which the new pope acquitted himself of his talk. The church feemed to grow young again, and to have a right, as well as Pius VI. to expect profperous days. It was fhortly afterwards that the beauty of his perfon received a homage to which the vicars of Jefus Christ were not accustomed. While Pius VI. was paffing through a ftreet of Rome, carried along with a fplendor fuitable to his dignity, a voice was heard from one of the windows, which were crowded with curious fpectators. It was that of 2 young woman: Quarto, è bello! quanto è bello! cried fhe, in a moment of enthufiafm. An old woman, in hafte to correct any thing that might appear too profane in this exclamation, replied, with her hands joined, and her eyes lifted up to heaven, Tanto è bello, quanto è fanto! It is faid, that fuch a compliment gave Pius VI. more fecret fatisfaction than all the incenfe lavished upon him by the prelates at the altar, and all the genuflexions of the facred college. We do not mean, however, that an inclination, common to many of the cardinals, was ever included in the charges brought against him during the courfe of his long pontificate. His very enemies, if not altogether unjuft, muft confefs that he has always been irreproachable as to purity of morals. In the early days which he palled at Rome, ambition made him feek the fociety of a lady of high rank, and of a very intriguing difpofition, who was fuppofed to poffefs confiderable influence. This was madame Falconieri, mother of the young lady, afterwards duchefs of Brafchi. He was indebted to her for his first succefs in his ecclefiaftical career. But madame Falconieri, though worthy of attention as a patronefs, had no thing that could make her defirable as a miftrefs. Braschi vifited her for a fhort time; kept away as foon as he had obtained the only favour he expected from her; and was folely indebted for the reputation, which he acquired in thefe latter. times, of being mademoiselle Falconieri's father, to the ill-humour of his fubjects, and to his blind partiality for her after he became his niece. During the time that he was treafurer of the Apoftolical Chamber, that two years; that, is to fay, from 1766 to 1773, he was remarkable for his constant application to bufinefs, for his contempt of worldly pleafures, and for the regularity of his conduct, which procured him general esteem. He did not forfeit this character during his cardinalate, which lafted only and when he was feated in St. Peter's chair, excepting indeed the duplicity of which he was fufpected, and which the embarraffment of circumftances feemed to render excufable, he was free from all ferious reproach. Since his ele. vation to the papacy, his defects, which he had either concealed, or had no opportunity of developing, have excited a great deal of hatred; but calumny, which has not fpared him, has scarcely ever attacked him upon the fcore of his morals. Gorani, is, perhaps, the only one who treats him as ill in that refpect as in every other. He throws fufpicions upon the motives of the affection which cardinal Ruffo manifefted for him in his youth; he pretends that it was not ambition alone which led to his connection with madame Falconieri: and he even infinuates, that gallantry was one of the principal means of his elevation to the papal throne. It is in fact of no great confequence whether thefe charges be founded or not. The falvation of Pius VI. may be much concerned; but his glory is very little interested in his having faithfully practifed one of the firft Chritian virtues. It is a duty, however, that we owe to truth, to affirm, that thofe who have known him long, and well, never perceived any thing that could give rife to the fmallest doubt as to the pof his morals, at leaft from theme in which he was appointed treafurer, to the end of his pontificate. If the amorous connections of a temporal fovereign cannot escape the vigi lance of his numerous attendants, how can a pope, all whofe fteps and movements are counted, conceal himfelf from the nice observation of the confcientious, or from the keen eye of malignity, and cover his fecret intrigues with an impenetrable veil? Pius VI. divided all his time between his religious duties, his clofet, and the library of the Vatican. He went out very feldom, and never without company. He had no tafte for a country refidence, nor even for thofe innocent amufements which the graveft men allow themfelves as a relaxation after their labours. He palled the fummer feafon at the Quirinal palace, and the reft of the year at the Vatican. His only recreation was the vifit which he paid almost every year to the Pontine marshes. Conftantly taken up with ferious occupations, or the duties of his of fice, he avoided, inftead of fecking, the fociety of women. As pope, he could not then lead a more examplary life; but as a man, and as a fovereign, he no doubt exposed himself to many and ferious reproaches. An erroneous opinion had been formed of him in many refpects. When rendered more confpicuous by his. eminent station, he foon difcovered a great ignorance of worldly affairs, particularly of politics; an obftinacy which never yielded to a direct attack; and an invincible attachment to certain, prejudices, infeparable perhaps from his profeffion, but of which he neither fulpected the-inconvenience nor the danger. This we fhall have frequent opportunities of obferving in the courfe of thefe .Z 4 memoirs. memoirs. He entertained the most favourable idea of his own capacity. Rather headstrong than firm, he was conftantly undoing what he had done; and this mixture of vanity and weakness, was attended with ferious inconveniences. What was no more than inconfiftency, and want of refolution, was taken for duplicity. Coldly affable, he never felt a real affection for any one; nor ever knew what it was completely to unbofom himfelf, unlefs when fear rendered him communicative. Out of the five cardinals, who were fucceffively his fecretaries of ftate, there was not one who could flatter himself with having enjoyed his entire confidence. He granted it, but ftill under certain reftrictions, to Gerdyl and Antonelli, two other cardinals; confulting them folely about matters in which he thought he could derive advantage from their talents. Hafty, impetuous, and fometimes even paffionate, he required to be curbed by fear, or foothed by affectionate language, which indicated an attachment to his intereft, without hurting his pride. Cardinal de Bernis faid of him, towards the end of the year 1777, I watch over him inceflantly, as over a child of an excellent difpofition; but too full of fpirits, and capable of throw ing itself out of the window if left a moment alone.' That excellent difpofition was af erwards, in a great meafure, fpoiled by adulation, the poffeffion of power, and the want of fomebody bold enough to tell him the truth, or inclined to take the trouble. Faults gradually manifefted themfelves that the moft clear-fighted had not even fufpected. His long pontificate was, befides, a grievance which neither the cardinals uor the people of Rome, could pardon him. In hort, a concurrence of unlucky circumstances, to which he knew not how to accommodate himfelf, added to his improvidence and to his vanity, the principal fource of his prodiga lity, and of his tafte for brilliant, but expenfive enterprizes, rendered him, in the end, more odious than many princes, who have been really wicked.* Character and Manner of Life of N the day I faw gen. Wafh 64th year; but though not an unhealthy man, he feemed confiderably older. The innumerable vexations he has met with, in his different public capacities, have very fenfibly impaired the vigour of his conftitution, and given him an aged appearance. There is a very material difference, however, in his looks when feen in private, and when he appears in public, full drefled; in the latter cafe the hand of art makes up for the ravages of time, and he feems many years younger. Few perfons find themselves for the first time in the prefence of general Washington, a man fo renowned, in the prefent day, for his wifdom and moderation, and whofe name will be tranfmitted with fuch honour to pofterity, without being impreffed with a certain degree of ver em in and awe; nor do thefe fubfide on a clofer ac For a notice of the death of Pius VI. fee before, p. 31, of this volume. quaintance; quaintance; on the contrary, his perfon and deportment are fuch, as rather tend to augment them. There is fomething very auftere in his countenance, and in his manners he is uncommonly reserved. I have heard fome officers, that ferved immediately under his command, during the American war, fay, that they never faw him fmile during all the time that they were with him. No man has ever yet been connected with him by the reciprocal and unconstrained ties of friendship; and but a few can boaft even of having been on an eafy and familiar footing with him. The height of his perfon is about five feet eleven; his cheft is full; and his limbs, though rather flender, well fhaped and mufcular. His head is fmall, in which refpect he resembles the make of a great number of his countrymen. His eyes are of a light grey colour; and, in proportion to the length of his face, his nofe is long. Mr. Stewart, the eminent portrait painter, told me, that there are features in his face totally different from what he ever oblerved in that of any other human being; the fockets for the eyes, for inftance, are larger than what he ever met with before, and the upper part of the nofe broader. All his features, he obferved, were indicative of the ftrongest and most ungovernable paffions, and had he been born in the forefts, it was his opinion, that he would have been the fierceft man amongst the favage tribes. In this Mr. Stewart has given a proof of his great difcernment and intimate knowledge of the human countenance; for, although general Washington has been extolled for his great moderation and calmness; during the very try ing fituations in which he has fo often been placed, yet those who have been acquainted with him the longest and most intimately fay, that he is, by nature, a man of a fierce and irritable difpofition, but that, like Socrates, his judgement and great felf-command have always made him appear a man of a different caft, in the eyes of the world. He fpeaks with great diffidence, and fometimes hesitates for a word; but it is always to find one particularly well adapted to his meaning. His language is manly and expreflive. At levec, his difcourfe with ftrangers turns principally upon the fubject of America; and if they have been through any remarkable places, his converfation is free, and particularly interefting, as he is intimately acquainted with every part of the country. He is much more open and free in his behaviour at levee than in private, and in the company of ladies still more fo than when folely with men. General Washington gives no public dinners, or other entertainments, except to thofe who are in diplomatic capacities, and to a few families on terms of intimacy with Mrs. Washington. Strangers, with whom he wishes to have fome converfation, about agriculture, or any fuch fubject, are fometimes invited to tea. This, by many, is attributed to his faving difpofition; but it is more juft to afcribe it to his prudence and forefight; for as the falary of the prefident, is very fmall, and totally inadequate, by itfelf, to fupport an expenfive ftyle of life, were he to give numerous and fplen did entertainments the fame might poffibly be expected from fubfequent prefidents, who, if their priyate fortunes were not confiderable, would |