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body here, than to find him the fupreme head of your ecclefiaftical affairs. The reft is of course. Your Affembly addreffes a manifefto to France, in which they tell the people, with an infulting irony, that they have brought the church to its primitive condition. In one refpect their declaration is undoubtedly true; for they have brought it to a flate of poverty and perfecution. What can be hoped for after this? Have not men (if they deserve the name) under this new hope and head of the church, been made bifhops, for no other merit than having acted as inftruments of atheills; for no other merit than having thrown the children's bread to dogs; and in order to gorge the whole gang of ufurers, pedlars, and itinerant Jew-difcounters at the corners of Atreets, ftarved the poor of their chriftian flocks, and their own brother paftors? Have not fuch men been made bishops to adminifter in temples, in which (if the patriotic donations have not already ftripped them of their veffels) the churchwardens ought to take fecurity for the altar plate, and not fo much as to trust the chalice in their facrilegious hands, fo long as Jews have affignats on ecclefiaftic plunder, to exchange for the filver ftolen from churches?

I am told, that the very fons of fuch Jew-jobbers have been made bithops, perfons not to be fufpected of any fort of Chriftian fuperftition, fit colleagues to the holy prelate of Autun; and bred at the feet of that Gamaliel. We know who it was that drove the money-change:s out of the temple. We fee too who it is that brings them in again. We have in London very refpectable perfons of the Jewish nation, whom we will keep but we have of the fame tribe others of a very different defcription, -houfebreakers, and receivers of stolen goods, and forgers of paper currency, more than we can conve niently hang. Thefe we can fpare S VOL. XIV. No. 80.

to France, to fill the new epifcopal thrones; men well verfed in fwearing; and who will feruple no oath which the fertile genius of any of your reformers can devife.

In matters fo ridiculous, it is hard to be grave. On a view of their confequences it is almoft inhuman to treat them lightly. To what a ftate of favage, ftupid, fervile infenfibility muft your people be reduced, who can endure fuch proceedings in their church, their state, and their judicature, even for a moment! But the deluded people of France are like other madmen, who, to a miracle, bear hunger, and thirst, and cold, and confinement, and the chains and lafh of their keep, whilft all the while they fupport themselves by the imagination that they are generals of armies, prophets, kings, and emperors. As to a change of mind in thefe men, who confider infamy as honour, degradation as preferment, bondage to low tyrants as liberty, and the practical fcorn and contumely of their upitart mafters, as marks of refpect and homage, 1 look upon it as abfoluicly impracticable. These madmen, to be cured, must first, like other madmen, be fubdued. The found part of the community, which I take to be large, but by no means the largest part, has been taken by furprize, and is disjointed, terrified, and dif.rmed. That found part of the community must first be put into a better condition, before it can do any thing in the way of deliberation or perfuafion. This must be an act of power, as well as of wisdom; of power, in the hands of firm, determined patriots, who can diftinguish the mifled from traitors, who will regulate the ftate (if fuch fhould be their fortune) with a difcriminating, manly, and provident mercy; men who are purged of the furfeit and indigeftion of fyftems, if ever they have been admitted into the habit of their minds; men who will lay the founda

tion

tion of a real reform, in effacing every veftige of that philofophy which pretends to have made difcoveries in the terra auftralis of morality; men who will fix the ftate upon thefe bafcs of mo. rals and politics, which are our old, and immemorial, and, I hope, will be pur eternal paffion. This power, to fuch men, mut come from without. It may be given to you in pity; for furely no nation ever called fo pathetically on the compaffion of all its neighbours. It may be given by thofe neighbours on mo tives of fafety to themfelves. Never fhall I think any country in Europe to be fo fecure, whilt there is eftablished, in the very centre of it, a ftate (if fo it may be called) founded on principles of anarchy, and which is, in reality, a college of armed fanatics, for the propagation of the principles of affeffination, robbery, rebellion, fraud, faction, oppreffion, and impie. ty. Mahomet, hid, as for a time he was, in the bottom of the fands of Arabia, had his fpirit and charader been discovered, would have been an object of precaution to provident minds. What if he had erected his fanatic ftandard for the deftruction of the Chriftian religion in luce Afia in the midst of the then noon-daysplendour of the then civilized world? The, princes of Europe, in the beginning of this century, did well not to fuffer the monarchy of France to fwallow up the others. They ought not now, in my opinion, to fuffer all the monar chies and commonwealths to be fwal lowed up in the gulph of this polluted anarchy. They may be tolerably fafe at prefent, because the comparative power of France for the prefent is little. But times and occafions make dangers. Inteftine troubles may arife in other countries. There is a power always on the watch, qualified and difpofed to profit of every conjuncture, to establish its own principles and modes of mifchief, where eyes it can hope for fuccefs. What

mercy would thefe ufurpers have on other fovereigns, and on other nations, when they treat their own king with fuch unparalleled indignities, and fo cruelly opprefs their own countrymen ?

The king of Pruffia, in concurFence with us, nobly interfered to fave Holland from confufion. The fame power, joined with the rescued Holland and with Great Britain, has put the emperor in the poffethion of the Netherlands; and fecured, under that prince, from all arbitrary innovation, the ancient,hereditary conftitution of thofe provinces. The chamber of Wetzler has reftored the bishop of Liege, unjustly difpoffeffed by the rebellion of his fabjects. The king of Pruffia was bound by no treaty, nor alliance of blood, nor had ary particular reafons for thinking the emiperor's government would be more mifchievous or more oppreffive to human nature than that of the Turk yet on mere motives of policy, that prince has interpofed with the threst of all his force, to fnatch even the Turk from the pounces of the imperial eagle. If this is done in favour of a barbarous nation, with a barba rous neglect of police, fatal to the bu man race, in favour of a nation, by principle in eternal enmity with the Chriftian name; a nation which will not fo much as give the falutation of peace (Salam) to any of us, nor make any pact with any chriftian nation beyond a truce if this be done in favour of the Turk, fhall it be thought either impolitic, or unjuft, or uncharitable, to employ the fame power, to refcue from captivity a virtuous monarch (by the courtesy of Europe confidered as Moft Chriftian) who, after an intermiffion of 175 years, had called together the states of his kingdom, to reform abufes, to establish a free, government, and to firengthen his throne; a monarch, who at the very outfet, without force, even without folicitation, had given to his people,

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fuch a Magna Charta of privileges, as never was given by any king to any fubjects Is it to be tamely borne by kings who love their fubjects, or by fubjects who love their kings, that this monarch, in the midft of thefe gracious acts, was infolently and cruelly torn from his palace, by a gang of traitors and affiffins, and kept in close prifon to this very hour, whilft his royal name and facred character were used for the total ruin of thefe whom the laws had appointed him to protect?

The only offence of this unhappy monarch towards his people, was his

attempt, under a monarchy, to give them a free conftitution. For this, by an example hitherto unheard of in the world, he has been depofed. It might well difgrace fovereigns to take part with a depofed tyrant. It would fuppofe in them a vicious fympathy. But not to make a common caufe with a juft prince, dethroned by traitors and rebels, who proferibe, plunder, confifcate, and in every way cruelly opprefs their fellow citizens, in my opinion is to forget what is due to the honour, and to the rights of all virtuous and legal government.

An Hiftorical Account of the Dignity of Emperor: With Memoirs of Leopold II. the prefent Emperor of Germany.

THE 'HE word Emperor (in Latin Imperator) figaified among the ancient Romans, the general of an ar my, who, for fome extraordinary fuccefs, had been complimented with this appellation. Thus Auguftus, having obtained no less than twenty famous victories, was as often faluted with the title of emperor; and Titus was denominated emperor by his army, after the reduction of Jerufalem.

It came, afterward, to denominate an abfolute monarch, or a fuprente commander of an empire. In this fenfe, Julius Cæfar was called emperor; the title descended with the dig. nity, to Auguftus, Tiberius, and Ca ligula; and, afterward, it became lelective.

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tion of fuch prerogative does not ap pear. It is certain, that the greatelt, moft ancient, and abfolute, monarchs, as thofe of Babylon, Perfia, Affyria, Egypt, Macedonia, &c. were called by the name of Kings, in all languages, both ancient and modern.

It is difputed, whether emperors have the power of conferring the regal title. It is true, they have fometimes taken upon them to erect kingdoms; and thus it is that Bohemia and Poland are faid to have been raifed to the dignity; thus, alfo, the emperor Charles the Bald, in the year 877, gave Provence to Pofon, pu ting the diadem on his head, and decrecis S him ro be called king. The emperor, Leopold I. moreover, erected the ducal Prulha into a kingdom, in favour of the e&or of Brandenburg; and. though feveral of the kings of Europe, refuted, for fome time, to acknow. ledge him in that capacity, yet, at lalt,. by the treaty of Unecht, in 1712, they all acquiefced in it.

In the eft, the title and quality of emperor are more frequent than they are among us; thus, the fovereign

princes

princes of China, Japan, Hindoftan, Perfia, &c. are all emperors of China, Japan, &c.

In the year 1723, the czar of Mufcovy affumed the title of Emperor of all the Ruffias, and procure himself to be recognized as fuch by most of the princes and flates of Europe.

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The western Roman empire, which had terminated in the year 475, in the perfon of Auguftulus, the last Koman Emperor, and which was fuccceded by the reign of the Huns, the Oftrogoths, and the Lombards, was revived by Charlemagne, king of France, on Chriftinas day, in the year 800. This prince being then at Rome, Pope Leo III. crowned him emperor in St Peter's church, amid' the acclamations of the clergy and the people. Nicephorus, who was, at that time, emperor of the east, confented to this coronation. After the death of Charlemagne, and of Louis Je Debonnaire, his fon and fucceffor, the empire was divided between the four fons of the latter. Lothario the firft, was emperor; Pepin, was king of Aquitaine; Louis, king of Germany; and Charles le Chauve (the Bald) king of France. This partis tion was the fource of inceffant fouds. The French kept the empire under eight emperors, till the year 912, when Louis III. the laff prince of the Fine of Charlemagne, died, without iffue male. Conrad, count of Franconia, the fon-in-law of Louis, gwas then elected emperor. Thus, the em pire went to the Germans, and became elective; for it had been hereditary under the French emperors, its founders. The emperor was chofen by the princes, the lords, and the deputies of cities till toward the end of the thirteenth century, when the num ber of the electors was fixed. Rodolphus, count of Hapfbourg, was elected emperor in the year 1273. He is the

* Xerxes.

head of the illuftrious house of Au ftria, which is defcended from the fame ftock as the house of Lorraine, reunited to it in the perfon of Francis, father of the prefent emperor. Charles VI. who died in 1740, was the laft emperor of the house of Auftria. He was fucceeded by the elector of Bavaria, Charles VII. It was this unfortanate prince, whom Dr Johnfon, in his Vanity of Human Wishes,' mentions as one of the many examples of fplendid mifery.

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The baffled prince in honour's flattering bloom

Of hafty greatness finds the fatal doom, His foes derifion, and his fubjects blame, And steals to death from anguifh and from fhame.

On the death of Charles VII. in 1745, Francis, grand duke of Tufcany, of the houfe of Lorraine, was elected emperor. He died in 1765, and was fucceeded by his fon Jofeph II. the late emperor. The greatness of the houfe of Auftria, one of the most powerful in the world, has been augmented, to an uncommon degree,

Maria Therefa, daughter of Charles VI.

by

by the fplendor of its alliances. Leopold II. the prefent emperor, is not only chief of the empire, but fovereign of Hungary, Bohemia, Auftria, the Low Countries, &c. His fecond fon is grand duke of Tuscany; and his fifters are the queens of France and Naples, and the duchefs of Parma.

The imperial prerogatives were formerly much more extenfive than they are at prefent. At the close of the Saxon race, in the year 1024, they exercifed the right of conferring all the ecclefiaftical benefices in Germany; of receiving the revenues of them during a vacancy; of fucceeding to the effects of inteftate ecclefiaftics; of confirming or annulling the elections of the popes; of affembling councils, and of appointing them to decide concerning the affairs of the church; of conferring the title of king on their vaffals; of granting vacant fiefs; of receiving the revenues of the empire; of governing Italy as its proper foveTeigns; of erecting free cities, and eftablishing fairs in them; of affembling the diets of the empire, and fixing the time of their duration of coining money, and conferring the fame privilege on the ftates of the empire; and of adminiftering both high and low juftice within the territories of the different states: es: but, in the year 1437, they were reduced to the right of conferring all dignities and titles, except the privilege of being a ftate of the

princes and states of the empire, when united together. 3d, That they receive a kind of tribute from all the princes and states of the empire, for carrying on a war which concerns the whole empire, which is called the Roman month-But, after all, there is not a foot of land, or territory, annexed to this title: for, ever fince the reign of Charles IV. the emperors have depended entirely on their hereditary dominions as the only fource of their power, and even of their fubfiftence.

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The Kings of France, alfo, were anciently called emperors, at the time when they reigned with their fons, whom they affociated to the crown. Thus, Hugh Capet, having affociated his fon Robert, took the title of emperor, and Robert that of king. King Robert is aifo called emperor of the French, by Helgau of Fleury. Louis le Gros, upon affociating his fon, did the fame. The kings of England had likewifes anciently the title of emperors, as appears from a charter of king Edgar; and the crown of England has been long ago declared in parliament to be an imperial crown.

The prefent head of the German empire is Leopold II. who was born on the fifth of May 1747, being the fecond fon of the emperor Francis II, and of Maria Therefa, queen of Hun-› gary and Bohemia, the celebrated Charles VI..

empire; of preces bat, or, of ap- daughter of the e

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pointing once during their reign a dig. nitary in each chapter, or religious houfe; of granting difpenfations with refpect to the age of majority; of erecting cities, and conferring the privilege of coining money; of calling the meetings of the diet, and prefiding

in them.

To this fome have added, 1ft, That all the princes and tates of Germany are obliged to do them homage, and swear fidelity to them. zd, That they or their generals have a right to command the forces of all the

He fucceeded the emporor, his father, as grand duke of Tuscany in 1765, and was married, the next year, to Maria Louifa, daughter of Philip V. king of Spain. On the 20th of February 1790, on the death of his brother, the late emperor Jofeph II. he fucceeded to the hereditary dominions of the house of Auftria, and relinquifhed the grand duchy of Tuscany to Ferdinand, his fecond fon. On the 30th of September he was elected king of the Romans: he made his public entry into Frankfort on the 4th of

October;

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