Our tranflator gives us no annotation upon this paffage, though we think it amounts almost to a confirmation of the fact. If the cardinal had a natural daughter, whom he wanted to place in a convent, without being known for her father, could he have acted more cunningly, or more like a knowing one, than he did by Beccatelli's account? We cannot think that Pole's being perfuaded God had transformed him to an afs, during the time of the conclave, merits the reprehenfion Dr. Pye has bestowed upon it. He ought to make the same or greater allowance for the good cardinal that critics make for Homer, who compares one of his chief heroes to the fame patient animal. The doctor ought likewife to have confidered, that the creature mentioned by Pole, was the afs that carried Jefus Christ. Charles, fays Dr. Pye, in a note, although he was fo much courted by the fee of Rome, and flattered with the title of the Great Conftantine of the council of Trent, had too much of the fagacity and fpirit of a prince, not to difcern and defpife the artful fal hood of that church and court; the firft he ever treated with difregard, and the latter with contempt: neither did he fpare cardinals or popes, if they croffed his humour too abruptly. He had a very strong temptation to have carried Clement VII. prifoner to Madrid, for not being more fupple under his confinement at St. Angelo-He threatened to throw C. Cervini into the Adice, for prefuming to adjourn the council from Trent to Bologna-And he fnubbed C. Pole fo forely for coming down into Flanders contrary to his orders, that he complains to C. Morone, "He was afraid he would cudgel "him with his batoon, and drive him to his monastery at Maguzano. Here again we are afraid that our author argues too narrowly, and finks the hiftorian in the divine. Charles, in his behaviour towards Pole, was actuated neither by difregard nor contempt, but by that univerfal principle fo well known in the world under the name of self; and in a subsequent note, which the doctor feems to have taken from our former Reviews *, he adopts this opinion. We have already observed, that Raphael (Urbin) could not be the painter of the picture from which the head prefixed to Phillips's book is takent. Dr. Pye seems to admit that Raphael Borghefe poffibly might be the artift. This is fuch an excufe as a pedlar might make, after being paid the full price for one of Graham's watches, and it was discovered that the Graham mentioned on the plate was not Graham of Fleet-ftreet, and Fellow of the Royal Society, but a watch * See vol. xx. p. 300. + See vol. xvii. p. 416. maker maker who lived in Wapping, a very honest man, and a good tradesman. Dr. Pye gives us the following note upon one of the most important tranfactions of Pole's life, with regard to England. T. Philips leaves the final decifion of this affair between the pope and his legate, as a point undetermined in hiftory, and thinks it fufficient to conclude his account, with faying, from Dutithius, "That the pope diffembled his refentment;"but his diffembling his refentinent in 1557, juft after the battle of St. Quintin, proves nothing, fince it appears from Pole's letter to Paul IV. 30th March, 1558, "That his "legatine office continued ftill fufpended, neither could the queen or her parliament prevail to have it restored." Our English hiftorians must therefore be in the wrong, when they fay The restoration of Pole's legatine character was a secret • article of the treaty with Philip,' (Rapin, vol. ii. p. 47.) Gratiani's account feems moft probable, that the further hearing was poftponed by the intereft of the queen,' and, as Pole died in the fame year, it was never intirely cleared up in his favour, as the candid writer laft-mentioned profeffedly ac knowleges.' 66 This note proves the very great inconveniency of treating hiftorical matters with confined views. Had the doctor, instead of quoting fo uninformed a writer as Rapin, examined the State Papers of the time, he would have found, that the revocation of Pole's legatine powers was at firft very indefinite; for he was recalled, as being one of the legates and nuncios refiding in the dominions of Philip, of which the pope fuppofed England to be a part; and that Cairn, who was Mary's resident at Rome, prevailed with the pope, that his revocation should not be intimated to Pole, to leave a door open for the queen's application in his favour. In the mean time a breach happened between the pope and the French king; and it appears by a dispatch of Cairn's in the Paper Office, addreffed to Philip and Mary, dated May 15, 1558, that if the pope could have brought their majefties to have joined him heartily against France, his holiness (to make use of Cairn's own expreffion) would have turned the leaf.' Pole dreaded this, being apprehensive of lofing his interest with France, with whom his holiness was obliged again to compromise affairs. The pope easily faw through Pole's management, and refented it fo highly, as to threaten his utter deftruction. The cardinal applied to the queen, and the ordered her Latin fecretary to draw up a very ftrong letter to the pope in his favour; the nobility wrote a fecond, and the council a third epiftle on the fane fubject, which was approved of by T 2 Philip, Philip, in a letter he wrote from Flanders on the 7th of Auguft. Instead of mollifying, thofe applications rather exasperated his holiness, as it fhewed Pole's uncontroulable power in England. He named Peyto, an English friar, who had opposed Henry VIII. to be legate in his room, and acted with fuch firmnefs, that the cardinal was daunted, and fent over Ormanet with a fecret, as well as a public, commiffion to his holiness. The import of this private commiffion was foon known to the public, by the lofs of Calais, which Pole facrificed to the Guifes, against the voice of all the people of England, by detaining the fuccours which were raised for its relief. It is well known, that upon that event Thirleby, bishop of Ely, Pole's great confident, "drank caroufe to it (to ufe old Fox's words) "and called it a Fisher town,"As to Peyto, he died in the April following, after being made bishop of Salisbury; and Ormanet returned from Rome with the reftitution of Pole's legantine powers, We have been the more diffufe on this very capital point, to prove that neither Beccatelli, Dudithius, Quirini, or any author mentioned by Dr. Pye, knew a single fyllable of Pole's true hiftory. They took up matters as they came to their hands, they wrote from the flight information they received, and with a true Italian spirit were fatisfied with exteriors. They were, in fhort, employed to blazon his virtues and attachment to the papacy, without being fuffered to inveftigate the real truth of any one tranfaction. The fhort remainder of Mary's reign leaves us no room to doubt of the cardinal's treachery; for he even oppofed a very fpirited and practicable proposal of Philip for retaking Calais, and which was laid afide. So execrable a character as Pole's demanded the varnish of priestly brushes; and it was administered with fuch profufion, that the truth of his character never was thoroughly known, but through the falfhood employed to recommend it. Pole was flattered not only in profe but in verfe, and both Beccatelli and Dr. Pye have particularly mentioned Flaminio (the younger, we fuppofe) as a companion and dependent of the cardinal. This Flaminio's catella, or bitch, prefents a copy of hendecafyllables to his eminence, which have been reprinted by Dr. Pye, with whom we agree, that they "feem to breathe the ease "and indolence of that agreeable folitude which inspired them." The doctor is by no means fatisfied, that Pole ever made a true convert of Flaminio from herefy, and we are inclined to the fame opinion; though we are apt to believe his herefy was of a deeper kind than any of the points debated between the Roman Catholics and the Reformers. An epigram which he infcribes to Contarini, begins with the two following lines: 2 Contarene, Contarene, tuo docuifli magnæ libello, You fay, however death may end our lives, We have discovered another of the cardinal's poetical friends, during his agreeable fequeftration, in a most delightful ode, composed by Fafitelli, addreffed to his villa, where he is introduced in the following manner : Hic diù mihi vivere, & All Pole's poetical friends, however, were not of the fame delicate turn. He is unmercifully bedawbed by Bonamici; and Palladio, in a copy of verfes he addreffes to his eminence, fays neither more nor lefs than that God Almighty fent Pole down from heaven to earth, to atone for the fins of mankind. Upon the whole, we cannot agree with Dr. Pye, that Beccatelli's Life of Cardinal Polé, is an elegant piece of hiftory, or that it is even splendidè mendax. On the contrary, we think it a flat, dull compofition, from beginning to end, equally void of genius as of truth; and we lament that the Roman Catholics, both at home and abroad, boast that fuch a writer as T. Phillips has obliged feveral eminent English divines to draw their pens to anfwer him; which is a fact that cannot be refuted. The Left anfwer to that contemptible writer, would have been a Proteftant history of his hero, upon enlarged principles, where it would have appeared that confcience and religion were no more than the cant of the moft fevere Roman Catholics; that not one of them, except Mary herself, had a grain of fincerity; and that the great motions of state were ́ directed by principles very different from thofe that have been fuggefted by any of the reverend anfwerers to Mr. Phillips' performance, IX. Travels through Italy. Containing new and curious Obfervations on that Country; particularly the Grand Duchy of Tuscany; the Ecclefiaftical State, or the Dominions of the Pope; the Kingdom of Naples; the Republics of Venice and Genoa; and other Italian States, &c. &c. &c. By John Northall, Efq; Captain in his Britannic Majefty's Royal Regiment of Artillery. 8vo. Pr. 6s. Hooper. WITHOUT or HOUT enquiring whether captain Northall is or is not a travelling name, we fhall very readily admit that fuch a gentleman did actually make the tour defcribed in the work before us; and for the fatisfaction of our reader we shall transcribe from the editor's preface the following character of the author and his work. The author of the following travels was an English gentleman, who undertook this tour of Italy, which he rightly confidered as the finishing part of a polite education. He was accompanied by fome other gentlemen, who had all the advantages of procuring access to the most valuable curiofities in public places and private palaces. Our author had a curiofity equal to these advantages: he was not only a gentleman, but a scholar; a gallant officer, and an experienced engineer; a good draughtfman, and a fine judge of paintings, sculpture, and architecture, which chiefly attracted his attention wherever he went. 1 'He found many new fubjects to employ himself upon; and he has handled them in a delicate manner. His remarks upon the best paintings and fculptures are judicious and animated, far above the common narratives and defcriptions of other travellers: what he fays is purely his own, the object of his taste, and the refult of his judgment: he depends upon no former authorities; he curioufly fees whatever he defcribes, and hap-, pily defcribes whatever he fees. When he mentions things taken notice of by others, it is with concifenefs and precision, avoiding ftale informations and impertinent digreffions. He has confidered things in a new light, and is particularly remarkable for the difference of his tour from that of any other traveller, which is evident from the map annexed to this book, He failed, on the 24th of January, 1752, O. S. from Port St. Phillips, in the island of Minorca, on board a fhip bound for Leghorn, distant from thence near 130 leagues. On the 26th, they were off the island of Corfica; and the next day made the continent between St. Remo and Oneglia; but, as the wind was contrary, they bore away for Toulon, on the 29th paffed through the ifles of Hieres, and entered the bay of Toulon on the 30th. Here they performed a quarantine of ten days, |