ANECDOTES OF EMINENT PERSONS. REVOLUTIONARY ANECDOTES. [Interefting and Original Anecdotes of the French Revolution; to be continued in a regular feries from its commencement to the prefent period, and including its fecret bistory.] OF MIACZINSKY. F all thote who perished upon the fcaffold, in confequence of Dumou rier's treachery, the man, who appeared to excite the strongest intereft in the public mind, was Miaczinsky, ci devant Maréchal de Camp. He was a Pole by birth, and nephew to Prince Radzivil, well known by his long refidence at Paris. From his early youth he had ever fhewn himself ftrong attached to France. Ap. pointed Grand Marfhal of the confederacy formed in Poland against the Ruffians, and the King's party, he exhausted his whole fortune, which amounted to several millions of livres, in the fupport of that affociation to which Louis XV. and the intrigues of the Duke de Choifeul had given birth. He beat the Ruffians, whom he detefted, feveral times; but his party being weakly fupported by the Court of Verfailles, which contented itself with fending a few French gentlemen to join him, Miacziníky was at laft obliged to abandon his country. Taking refuge in France, he was foon reduced to the extreme of poverty, no part of the money he had advanced in the name of Louis XV. to fupport the confederacy being restored to him. At length, overwhelmed with debts, and perfecuted by his creditors, he retired to the Temple, at that time the facred afylum of infolvent debtors. After long folicitations, however, Vergennes, Minifter for Foreign Affairs, ob. tained for him a penfion of fix thoufand livres, which, owing to the distress of the times, was badly paid. From that moment every fentiment of honour and delicacy appeared to be banished from his breaft. He became a gamefter from defpair, and loft all thofe qualities which had distinguished him at the age of twenty-five. When the Revolution brought on a rupture with Ruflia, he folicited and obtained fervice from the new government, with the hope of being employed against the Ruffians, and of reeftablishing his fortune; his old connexions with Dumourier confirming this hope, when that general obtained the chief com mand. The latter had been the spy of the Cabinet of Verfailles at Warfaw. It was to his order, and in the name of Louis XV. that Miaczinsky had paid the money neceffary for the fupport of the 547 confederacy; and at the time of the first National Affembly, Dumourier had backed one of his memorials, claiming an indemnification, upon condition of their sharing between them whatever fums he might be allowed. This condition, impofed by the French General, rendered Miaczinsky fecretly his enemy. It appears, however, that notwithstanding his averfion to Dumourier, he was no ftranger to his treafonable plans; being, perhaps, either feduced by his ambition, or, in his quality of noble, an enemy to the popular party. Having undertaken to furprife Lille, he prefented himself at the gates of that city with five thousand men; but Dumourier's treachery was already known; and the commandant would only receive him attended by a small escort. As foon as he was within the place, he was taken into custody, fent a prifoner to Paris, tried and condemned to die, as an accomplice of Dumourier. Miaczinfky, during the whole course of his trial, conftantly denied that he had any knowledge of Dumourier's treachery, and perfitted in affirming that he had only prefented himself at the gates of Lille, in order to deliver a letter to the Commandant. So much intereft did he excite in the minds of the fpectators, and even of the judges who condemned him, that his execution was refpited. He perifhed at the age of forty-five, a victim at once of his unfortunate connexions, and of his own difpofition. He left two children, the miferable fruit of his marriage with a French daughter of a taylor. This woman, with whom he had become acquainted in Poland, and who had not always had reafon to be fatisfied with his conduct, laviflied on him every mark of the tendereft affection to the last moment of his life. The two children receive their education at the woman, the French Prytaneum, and, from their talents and behaviour, are already confidered as youths of the highest promife. G MEMOIRS OF FILANGIERI. AETAN FILANGIERI was born at Naples, in the year 1751. He was a lon of the Prince of Arianiello, defcended of an illuftrious family, coeval with the original establishment of the monarchy of the Two Sicilies. It appears that his ancestors pailed over to Italy from France with the Norman conquerors, being in all probability natives of Angers; for the corrupt Latin name of the founder of the family was Angerias, and his children were called, in the feudal registers of the kingdom of Naples, Filii Angerii, from which the Italian name Filangieri was afterwards compounded. This family is not at prefent very opulent, a circumstance, which fuch as are acquainted with the hiftory of Naples can eafily account for; it being well known that about the year 1430, Jane, the fecond queen of Naples, to gra anni Caraciolo, High Chanceller of the kingdom, procured him a large inheritance, by enacting a law which altered the priftine mode of feudal fucceffion, and confequently deprived of their rights the family of Filangieri, which indifputably was the legal fucceffor. When Lyons, after rebelling against the Convention, was fubdued, he eagerly availed himself of the opportunity to fatiate his defire of vengeance; and appeared in that infortunate city, rather in the character of an irritated comedian, than in that of reprefentative of the people. A new Gengis-Khan, he revenged the injuries done to Temugin; but he furpaffed the Tartar in cruelty. His atrocious fenti-tify the ambition of her favourite, Ser Giments are apparent in his letters: they are written in characters of blood: "Republican justice,” faid he, in one addreffed to Duplay, fen."ought to ftrike traitors like Lightning, and to leave nothing but afbes. While destroying one infamous and rebellious city, we confolidate all the rest. We are demolishing by cannon fhot, and the explosion of gun powder, as much as pof Jible." In a paffage of one of his letters to Robespierre, he complains of the tardinels of the guillotine: "Several times, (lays he), twenty criminals have fuffered the punishment due to their crimes on the fime day; and that is ftill too flow for the juftice of a nation, which ought to thunder deftruction upon all its enemies at once. We will employ ourselves in forging the thunderbolts." In writing to Couthen, he favs, "Take measures with Robespierre, for finishing the decree, concerning this Commune, which cannot fubfift without danger. "When once its population is ordered to "he dif borged, it will be easy to make "them dijappear, and to fay with truth, "Lyons is no more." The barbarian confeffed in a letter to Robespierre that this diharge would include a hundred thousand individuals, working at the manufactories, and interefting to humanity, because poor and opprefted. Errata in thefe Anecdotes in our last. Pare 467, col. 2, 1. 25, for authority read authenticity. Page 468, col. 2, 1. 21, for Roberfpierre, blind jealoufy read Robetpierre's blind jealousy. Page 468, col. 2, 1. 33, for which read while. Page 468, col. 2, 1. 55, for this read his. Young Filangieri foon became fenfible that it was neceffary for him to acquire the useful attainments of fome learned profeffions, to fupport the dignity of his birth, and to compenfate for the want of a large patrimony. Accordingly he was bred to the law; the employment of an advocate being in the higheft repute at Naples, and paving the way to fuch confiderable emoluments, that even individuals of the firft nobility do not difdain to follow it. He perceived, however, very foon, that the philofophical turn of his mind was not adapted to the bustle of bufinets, and leaft of all for the chicaneries of the bar; he accordingly turned his mind to fome other means of acquiring property, and allo of fatisfying his paffion for literary fame which had now become very predominant. His prefent Sicilian majefty was, in his youth, greatly delighted with military parade, and from the year 1771 to 1774 he railed two new regiments, in which only the nobility and gentry were admitted'; the rank and commiffion of officer was also, by the standing etiquette of the regiments, to be granted to no individual who did not belong to the privileged caft of peers, Whatever might have been the merit of thefe military gentlemen in the dangers and laborious exertions of their profeffion in time of war, they were cer 1799-1 Memoirs of Gaetan Filangieri. tainly well calculated to reflect the greatest fplendour on the majefty of a court, in public ceremonies, in time of peace. Two numerous regiments, compofed of young perfons from the age of fixteen to twenty, of a tall ftature, richly and elegantly dreffed, diftinguished by the luftre of their birth, and commanded by officers of the firft nobility, difplaying in martial pomp all the magnificence characteristic of the South of Italy, afforded a fuperb view, fuperior, in the judgment of many tra vellers, to any thing of the kind known in other countries. Filangieri was appointed an officer in one of thefe regiments, which was called of the Liparets; and if he yielded to his comrades in the paraphernalia of drefs, he certainly excelled moft of them in comeline's and elegance of perfon: Much about the fame time, in November 1774, he had an opportunity of difplaying his attainments in civil and political jurifprudence. By an edict from the king it was ordered, that, in order to provide fome remedy for the evergrown abuses of the tribunals, and to the intolerable defpotifm of the fupreme courts of juftice, every definitive fentence fhould be juftified, by quoting fome text from the Roman, canonical, or common law, on which it was grounded. Filangieri hereupon pubIfhed a pamphlet entitled-Reflections on the King's Edict, &c. In the year 1775, his uncle, Seraphim Filangieri, archbishop of Palermo, who had occafionally been alfo viceroy of Sicily, being promoted to the archbishopric of Naples, and to the dignity of prior of the Conftantinian Order, inherent to the archbishopric; young Filangieri obtained, without difficulty, by the favour of his uncle, a rich commandery in that Order, and thus was enabled to devote the whole of his time to literary purfuits. In 1781, he published the two first voJumes of his learned work-The Science of Legiflation, &c. It gained him a great reputation in Italy, and his name foon paffed beyond the Alps. The third volume, however, which appeared in 1783, exalted his literary and legal character to the highest pitch. It contained for the most part a review of criminal jurifprudence, with frictures on the numberleis abufes to which perfonal liberty was expofed, by fuch a motley tiffue of incoherent and abfurd proceedings. Much about the fame time, Filangieri Became enamoured of a young lady, of German extraction, maid of honour to her majefty. She was a fenfible and virtuous perfon, and worthy the affections of a man MONTHLY MAG. No. XLVIII. 549 of honour. But, unfortunately for her, fhe had no fortune, and wholly depended upon a pension from the court When the match was on the point of being concluded, the queen, who has always been very tenacious of the decorum of noble families, and who was confequently fenfible that a marriage between two perfons in high ftation, without fortune, might be productive of difagreeable or inconvenient refuits, interpofed all her influence to fruftrate their union. What do you mean to do with your children? said he to the lady; Are they aljo to become authors to earn their fubfiftence? Notwithstanding, however, the difapprobation of her majefty, the match was actually concluded. Truth obliges us to acknowledge, that his prefent Sicilian majelly, though no adept himself, and never initiated in the fciences, has always fhewn himlelf duly confcious of their importance, being the admirer and protector of learned men, and never expreffing difpleature at the ftri&tures of a rational philofophy directed against court intrigues or the abufe of defpotic power. In this refpect, he may lay claim to as large a fhare of native good fenfe and liberality of thinking, as any contempotary European fovereign. This was actually experienced by Filangieri. In the year 1786, he was appointed counsellor of the finances, an employment only intended as a step to more eminent dignities. Filangieri did not long enjoy his dignity, and the profpect of farther preferments. While his official duties required him to beftow the greatest part of his time in ftate affairs and public audiences, he appropriated the remainder to the continuation of his works, and to the fketching out of new literary avocations and pursuits. This confiderably impaired his health. As he kept a country feat in Caftellammare, on the eaftern fide of the Crater, in the courfe of his paling to and from Naples by water, he caught a violent cold, which being followed by a fever and other maladies, terminated his life in June 1788, in the 37th year of his age. Filangieri was in perfon very handfome, tall in ftature, with an oblong countenance. His eyes were uncommonly beautiful, and evinced a fweetnefs which cor retponded with the gentleness and candour of his heart. He was an accomplished moral character; religious, ho pitable, beneficent, and artlefs, and not feldom expofed to the feifith defigns of cratty perfons who procured access to him. His literary abilities deferve a farther notice. He was, without doubt, a learned 4 B and and well-informed man, and much addicted to ftudy. But his natural genius has probably been over-rated. From an accurate analyfis of his works, it may easily be gathered, that his predominant intellec tual power was memory; that his powers of imagination were not vigorous; that his want of strict method betrays a defect of analytical inveftigation; that he was rather a judicious ftudent and compiler of the obfervations of others, than an original writer; that he made no extenfive refearches beyond the common knowledge of his contemporaries; and that his ftyle is phlegmatical, and the arrangement of his ideas immethodical. The uncommon fuccefs of his works among the bulk of the people in Italy, was perhaps not a little owing to perfonal and local circumftances. A young man, fcarcely of the age of thirty, a nobleman, a lord of the court, a religious knight, and yet capable of philofophical investigations, was, at that time, deemed a prodigy. And if his writings met with equal approbation in England, France, Germany, and America, it might be partly attributed to the prevailing difpofition of men's minds, which, previously to the convulfions of the French Revolution, were wholly engroffed with fubjects of political economy; and partly to the interested precautions of bookfellers and librarians, who very frequently, in their line of trade, vamp the merit of foreign publications; or (what is no less probable) to the ignorance of the language, which prevented them from afcertaining faults, the difcovery of which would have lead to a correct judgement of the author's merit. In this laft cafe, it might ferve to prove how far the feience of words is or is not connected with the fcience of ideas. Certain it is, that many Neapolitans differed much from the popular opinion, and thought they could appreciate Filangieri in his just value. When Dr. Franklin wrote Filangieri a letter of invitation, requefting him to make a voyage to America, and become the digeftor of the civil code of the United States; Father Marone, a Dominican friar, accounted the most learned man in Naples, exclaimed: It would have been better for Dr. Franklin to attend to his electric machines! And the laughing philofopher, D. Francefco d'Aftore (whofe name is mentioned with refpect in another part of this Magazine) humorously ob ferved, that, previously to the analysis of Filangieri's works, a preliminary problem required a folution, viz. Whether it was possible for a nobleman, a lord of the court, an officer in the army, a Conftantinian knight, and a nephew to the archbishop of Naples, to render any effential fervice to philofophy? This farcaftic fally, however, of Mr. D'Aftore was rather outré, yet very fuitable perhaps to the fate of the buman mind, ESPECIALLY IN ITALY, fifteen years ago! Omnia firt tempus, animum quoque. London, June 1, 1799. F. DAMIANI. Extracts from the Port-Folio of a Man of Letters, &c. &c. UNDERSTANDING AND MEMORY. THE HE understanding may be fo perfe&t and mechanical, as to furvive even the lofs of memory itself. I fhall give two inftances. De Lagny, the mathematician, for two days had lain in a deep lethargy, and had not known even his own children. Maupertuis abruptly, and with a very loud voice, afked him, what was the fquare of twelve?-144, replied a feeble lingering remain of the expiring intellect. The celebrated physician Chirac was much in the fame ftate, and with out any power of recollecting those near his death-bed. His right hand mechanically laid hold of his left, and, feeling his puife, he exclaimed, "They have called me too late. The patient has been bled, and he fhould have been evacuated. He is a dead man!" The prediction and the prognoftic were foon after verified. NATURAL PAINTINGS. It is well known that nature, in her playful humour, has fketched many extra. ordinary pictures. We frequently find admirable figures, naturally formed on all forts of marble and other maffes. Pliny notices an agate, where, without the pencil of art, were feen Apollo with his lyre, feated in the midst of the Mufes. At Venice, in the church of St. George, they keep a marble, on which was feen a crucifixion piece, with the nails and all other attributes of the paffion, almoft as finifhed as that of a kiltul artift. hermit in a defert, feated on the bank of a river, holding a hand bell, in the manner in which St. Anthony is painted, is preferved at Pifa. It is on a piece of jafper. In the neighbourhood of Florence, are ftones, which, when fawed through the middle, exhibit ruins, landscapes, trees, 2 A &c. 1 *799.] Extracts from the Port-Folio of a Man of Letters. &c. At Naples, in the church of the Minims, an agate on the altar-piece perfectly fhews a St. Francis, with his beard, his capuchin, &c. with their proper coJours; but Mr. De la Lande, fuppofes, as it is fo very perfect, that it must have been affifted by art. It is probable too, that many others of thefe lufus nature have undergone the fame operation. If we may rely on one Dinet, he tells s, that he has feen three ftones at Rome, in acollection, in which nature has been her own geographer, and has by these new kind of maps given an idea, in one stone, of France, its most remarkable rivers, towns, and provinces.; iu another, of Italy with its mountains, &c.; and in the third, of Spain. It is evident that the imagination must greatly affift thefe fingular productions. In fome of these a herald has difcovered armorial bearings, coloured and blazoned; and perhaps there is no one, endowed with much fancy, who could not in this manner perceive an analogy to his own favourite object. There are, however, fome fingularities of this kind which are very pleafing. Some of thofe are, a piece of porphyry in the city of Aleppo, in which appears an ox browzing, and before him, a tree loaded with fruit like fmall quinces. At Snelberg in Germany, in a copper mine was found a piece of this metal, on which was the figure of a man carrying a child, as St. Chriftopher is ufually reprefented. The vet faw in the church at Bethlem feveral columns of à transparent jafper, where he perceived the figures of a number of birds, fihes, fruits, and other objects. But the moft pleafing one I recollect, is that fine and tranfparent Indian ftone of various colours, which he defcribes; in oppofing it to the light, or rather to the beams of the fun, he obferved clearly a man mounted on an elephant; the man wore a blue turban, a Morefco drefs, as red as fcarlet. The figures were fo correct, that it might have been mistaken for a picture. THEOLOGICAL STYLE. I collect for the reader's amusement fome examples of the theological style, which till very lately disgraced the writ ings of our divines, and which is not yet banished from fome of a certain ftamp.Matthew Henry, whofe Commentaries are well known, writes in this manner on Judges ix. We are here told by what acts Abimelech got into the faddle-none would have dreamed of making fuch a fellow as he king.-See how he has wheedked them into the choice.-He hired into 551 his fervice the fcum and Scoundrels of the country.-Jotham was really a fine gentleman.-The Sechemites that fet Abimelech up, were the first to kick him off.— The Sechemites faid all the ill they could of him in their table-talk; they drank healths to his confufion.-Well, Gaal's intereft in Shechem is foon at an end.— Exit Gaal." L. Addifon, the father of the admirable and refined writer, was one of the coarfeft, in point of diction, I have met with, even in his own day. He tells us in his voyage to Baibary, that "a Rabbin once told him, among other beinous fluff, that he did not expect the felicity of the next world on the account of any merits but his own; whoever kept the law would arrive at the blifs by coming upon his own legs." It must be confeffed, that the Rabbin (confidering he could not confcientiously have the fame creed as Addifon) did not deliver any very irrational fentiments, in that one of believing that other people's merits have nothing to do with our own; and that we should walk on our own legs. LARGE HORSES. Our ftatute-book contains a number of laws for promoting the breed of large horfes. An A&t of Henry the Eighth (fince repealed) contains fome very curious regulations on this fubject. Every archbishop and duke is obliged under penalties to have feven trotting stone-horles for the faddle, each of which, at the age of three years, was to be fourteen hands high. Similar directions follow with regard to the number of the fame kind of horses to be kept by perfons of other ranks and degrees; the lowest class mentioned is that of a spiritual perfon, having benefices to the amount of 100l. per annum, or a layman whofe wife fhall wear any French hood, or bonnet of velvet: fuch were obliged to have one trotting ftonehorfe for the faddle. In the reign of queen Elizabeth a bill was brought into the Houte of Lords, but rejected on the fecond reading, for reftraining the fuperfluous use of coaches. |