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Charater of the Marefchal Lefdiguieres, from the fame Author.

times raises the worthlefs and the weak to the higheft of, fices, yet it must have been fingular merit that, in times productive of great characters, could exalt a private gentleman of a very narrow fortune, to the first dignity of a great kingdom that can be enjoyed by a fubject. Francis de Bonne, with a patrimony of fifty crowns a year, rofe to the station of conftable of France, in oppofition to many rivals of noble birth and great power. He was of an agreeable afpect, a mild temper, and eafy manners; qualities which were not indeed very fhining in themselves, but which contributed not a little to raise the marefchal Lefdiguieres to fituations in which he had opportunities of difplaying the greatest talents and virtues. His understanding was manly and folid; he poffeffed in an eminent degree the virtues of political and martial courage; and, though he was fufceptible both of friendship and love, his ruling paffion was ambition. The Duke of Savoy cultivated the friendship of this man with uncommon attention, and practifed with unwearied diligence all his addrefs in order to gain fo important an acquifition. To the marefchal Lefdiguieres he fhewed all the refpect due to a crowned head. If he received him at Turin, it was with the utmost pomp and magnificence. If he addreffed him in writing, he bestowed on him the endearing and flattering

appellations of "good neighbour, and faithful friend." He consulted him on every occafion: and

dence and affiduities with the fincereft fidelity and affection. The attachment of Lefdiguieres to Charles Emanuel was well known to the court of Spain, and they

endeavoured to counteract its ef fects by operating on his natural ambition. The king and queen of France, at the inftigation of the Spanish ambaffador, attempted to feduce him from the interefts of Savoy, by calling him to court in order to be invefled with the privileges and rank of a duke and peer. And, that he might be enabled to fupport the magnifi cence of that character, the king of Spain offered him any fum of money he fhould be pleafed to demand, to be paid in any part of Europe. Thefe allurements failing of fuccefs, a fupply of money was offered fufficient to raise and maintain for a year, an army of forty thousand men, with a fuitable train of artillery, to be employed in making himself mafter of Savoy. Of this duchy the Duke of Monteleon, in name of the Spanish monarch, offered him the inveftiture, on condition of his affifting the Spaniards to conquer Piedmont. This temptation having been alfo refifted, Monteleon engaged Louis to tranfmit to the marefchal the moft peremptory orders to abstain from levying troops, and on no pretext whatever to move to the affittance of the Duke of Savoy. Thefe orders were in vain reiterated and enforced, at the deare of the feeble

* Amelot de la Houffaie.

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court of Paris, by the authority of the parliament of Grenoble. Lefdiguieres, in a letter to the king, reprefented to his majefty, in a firm though refpectful tone, that his duty called him to restore the dignity of France in Italy, by fulfilling the engagements of that kingdom to the Duke of Savoy, and chatifing the perfidy and infolence of Spain. And he added, that, however treacherous counfels might beguile the good intentions of his majefty for a time, he did not defpair of his prefent conduct meeting one day with the approbation of his fovereign.

Spanish nation. Before the ambitious and warlike reigns of Ferdinand, the emperor, and Philip II. the fagacity and vigilance of the Spaniards appeared formidable to the other nations of Europe †. Thefe reigns continued to call forth and exercife the fpirit of the nation, and to fupport, if not to heighten, that national character which had been formed by the wars with the Moors. And this national character ftill fhone forth with undiminished luftre after the imprudence of the court, and exhaufted resources, had undermined the foundations of the grandeur of the empire. As profperous war roufes the genius of a nation, the

Character of the Spaniards; from glory of letters would have corre

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the fame Author.

WAR with the Saracens, prolonged, with few intervals, for eight hundred years, nourished in the Spaniards a vigour of character, a love of their country, and a paffion for glory. The neceflity of continually engaging, formed as many heroes as there were men in each city military renown was the great object of their vows; and the tombs of the deceafed were adorned with a number of obeliks equal to that of the enemy they had flain in battle *. While they lived expofed to continual dangers they acquired that gravity of deportment, that deliberate valour, that perfeverance and vigilance which fill diftinguish the

fponded to that of the Spanish arms, had not the progrefs of tafle and knowledge been checked by the tyranny of the inquifition, and that defpotifm which was introduced into the government. But although thefe circumftances have prevented among the Spaniards the growth of found philofophy, in their poetry, hiftory, romances, and even their commentaries on the facred fcriptures, as well as on Ariftotle, whofe metaphyfical notions were deemed fo orthodox by the Catholic church, we recognize that boldness and invention, that fubtlety and refinement which were confpicuous for ages in the military and political conduct of Spain.

Thus, that power of genius and valour among his fubjects, which

* Johannes Genefius Sepulveda de Rebus Geftis, Caroli V. lib. 1.

Machiavel fays, in his Account of the State of France, that the French were afraid of the Spaniards on account of their fagacity and vigilance. It is true, that this account was written after Ferdinand had begun to reign: but it was before the exertions of that prince could have ftamped on the minds of his fubjects, a national chara&er.

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at once adorned and difgraced the feeble reign of Philip III. feems deducible from a train of moral caufes, as obvious in their exiftence as powerful in their nature. But when the reader revolves what is left on record concerning ancient Spain, he will be inclined perhaps to fubfcribe to the opinion of an ingenious writer, that the characters of nations as well as families, are influenced by accidents antecedent to birth *, * and particularly by climate, acting either immediately with powerful energy on the fabric of their being, or as a local circumftance leading to a variety of action in the economy of civil life.

At all times, valour and genius have ennobled the character of the Spaniards. Not the robuft German, impelled by the fury of a favage religion, difplayed fuch enthufiafm in arms and contempt of death, as fhone forth in the invincible resolution of the inhabitants of Numantia, Aftapa, and Saguntum. A greater hero than Viriatus is not to be found in the history of ancient Rome t. Between the times of the Scipios and thofe of Auguftus, there intervened a period of two hundred years. During this long space, Spain maintained a conteft with the policy and difciplined valour of Rome and it feemed uncertain which mafters the world was to obey, the Spaniards or the Romans. The deftiny of Rome to give law to the nations finally fubdued all refiftance, and Spain

had the glory of being the laft that yielded to the Roman yoke. But it was the fortune of the vanquifhed to receive literature and refinement from the conquerors of the world: and in return, Trajan added luftre to the Roman purple; and the names of Quintilian, Martial, Mela, Seneca, Lucan, and Florus, appeared in the lift of Latin authors.

Character of King James the Second, from Mrs. M. Graham's Hiftory of England.

T was faid by the witty Duke

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of Buckingham, that "Charles the Second might do well if he would," and that " James would do well if he could:" an obfervation which fays little for the underftanding of James, but a great deal for his heart; and with all the blemishes with which his public character is ftained, he was not deficient in feveral qualities neceffry to compofe a good fovereign. His induftry in bufinefs was exemplary, he was frugal of the public money, he cherifhed and extended the maritime power of the empire, and his encouragement of trade was attended with fuch fuccefs, that, according to the obfervation of the impartial historian Ralph, as the frugality of his adminiftration helped to increafe the number of malecontents, fo his extreme attention to trade was not lefs alarming to the whole body of the Dutch than his

*Effay on the Hiftory of Mankind, &c. by Dr. Dunbar.

This man, who had refifted the Roman arms for twenty years, and who was deemed invincible, was at last infidiously cut off by the Romans, who bribed his body guards.

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refolution not to rush into a war with France was mortifying to their stadtholder.

In domestic life, the character of James, though not irreproachable, was comparatively good it is true, he was in a great meafure tainted with that licentioufnefs of manners, which, at this time, pervaded the whole fociety, and which reigned triumphant within the circle of the court; but he was never carried into any exceffes which trenched deeply on the duties of focial life; and if the qualities of his heart were only to be judged by his conduct in the dif. ferent characters of hufband, father, mafter, and friend, he might be pronounced a man of a very amiable difpofition. But thofe who know not how to forgive injuries, and can never pardon the errors, the infirmities, the vices, or even the virtues of their fellow-creatures, when in any refpect they affect perfonal intereft or inclination, will arm against them the fenfibility of every humane mind, and can never expect from others that justice and commiferation which themfelves have never exercised. But whilft we execrate that rancorous cruelty with which James, in the fhort hour of triumph, perfecuted all thofe who endeavoured to thwart his ambitious hopes, it is but juftice to obferve, that the rank vices of pride, malice, and revenge, which fo deeply blacken his conduct, whilt he figured in the ftation of prefumptive heir to the crown, and afterwards in the character of fovereign on the fuccefsful quelling the Monmouth rebellion, were thoroughly corrected by the chaftening hand of affliction; that

the whole period of his life, from his return from Ireland to the day of his death, was fpent in the exercife of the firft chriftian virtues, viz. patience, fortitude, humility, and refignation. Brettonneau, his biographer, records, that he always fpoke with an extreme moderation of the individuals who had acted the moft fuccessfully in his disfavour; that he reproved those who mentioned their conduct with feverity; that he read, even with a ftoical apathy, the bittereft writings which were publifhed against him; that he regarded the lofs of empire as a neceffary correction for the mifdemeanors of his life, and even rebuked thofe who expreffed any concern for the iffue of events which he refpected as ordinations of the divine will. According to the fame biographer, James was exact in his devotion, moderate even to abftinence; in his life, full of fentiments of the highest contrition for pat offences; and, according to the difcipline of the Romish church, was very fevere in the austerities which he inflicted on his perfon. As this prince juftly regarded himself as a martyr to the Catholic faith, as his warmest friends were all of this perfuafion, as his converfation in his retirement at St. Germains, was entirely in a great measure confined to priefts and devotees, it is natural that his fuperftition fhould increafe with the increase of religious fentiment; and as he had made ufe of his power and authority, whilst in England, to enlarge the number of profelytes to popery, fo in a private station he laboured inceffantly by prayer, exhortation, and example, to con

firm the piety of his popish adherents, and to effect a reformation in those who ftill continued firm to the doctrines of the church of England. He vifited the monks of la Trappe once a year, the fevereft order of religionists in France; and his conformity to the difcipline of the convent was fo ftrict and exact, that he impreffed those devotees with fentiments of admiration at his piety, humility, and conftancy. Thus having spent twelve years with a higher degree of peace and tranquillity than he had ever experienced in the moft triumphant part of his life, he was feized with a palfy in September, 1701, and after languishing fifteen days, died in the fixty-eighth year of his age, having filled up the interval, between his firft feizure and final exit, with the whole train of religious exercises enjoined on fimilar occafions by the church of Rome, with folemn and repeated profeffions of his faith, and earneft exhortations to his two chil dren, the youngest of whom was born in the fecond year of his exile, to keep fted fast to the religion in which they had been educated. These precepts and commands have acted with a force fuperior to all the temptations of a crown, and have been adhered to with a firmness which obliges an hiftorian to acknowledge the fuperiority which James's defcendants, in the nice points of honour and confcience, have gained over the character of Henry the Fourth, who, at the period when he was looked up to as the great hero of the proteftant caufe, made no fcruple to accept a crown on the

difgraceful terms of abjuring the principles of the reformation, and embracing the principles of a religion, which, from his early infancy, he had been taught to re. gard as idolatrous and prophane.

The dominion of error over the minds of the generality of mankind is irrefiftible. James, to the laft hour of his life, continued as great a bigot to his political as his religious errors: he could not help confidering the ftrength and power of the crown as a circamftance neceffary to the prefervation and happiness of the people; and, in a letter of advice, which he wrote to his fon, whilft he conjures him to pay a religious obfervance to all the duties of a good fovereign, he cautions him against fuffering any entrenchment on royal prerogative. Among feveral heads, containing excellent inftructions on the art of reigning happily and justly, he warns the young prince never to attempt to difquiet his fubjects in their property or their religion; and, what is very remarkable, to his last breath he perfifted in afferting, that he never intended to fubvert the laws, or procure more than a toleration and an equality of privilege to his catholic fubjects. As there is great reason to believe this affertion to be true, it fhews, that the delufion was incurable under which the king laboured, by the truft he had put in the knavish doctrines of lawyers and priefts; and that neither himself, nor his protestant abetters, could fathom the confequences of that enlarged fyftem of toleration which he endeavoured to establish,

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